BBC News at Five
The BBC News at Five is an hour-long daily news programme broadcast at 5:00pm on BBC News. The programme is fronted by Huw Edwards, the BBC's lead presenter for major breaking news, and Jane Hill on Friday. The show includes a detailed look at the news, as well as analysis with guests and sport and weather updates.
| BBC News at Five | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | BBC News |
| Presented by | Huw Edwards Jane Hill Ben Brown |
| Theme music composer | David Lowe |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Studio C, Broadcasting House, London |
| Running time | 60 minute |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC News |
| Picture format | 576i (16:9 SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release | 3 April 2006 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | BBC News |
| Related shows | BBC Breakfast BBC News at One BBC News at Six BBC News at Ten BBC Weekend News Outside Source World News Today |
Unlike most other BBC News Channel bulletins, the BBC News at Five is presented from Studio C, which is usually the main studio for BBC World News.
Weekends and Bank Holidays
During weekends and bank holidays, BBC News at Five resembles an unbranded BBC News channel bulletin, usually lasting for 30 minutes. As the main evening news on Saturday is normally at 17:30, when the main news isn't the back half hour is filled with a sports bulletin and The Film Review. It presented from the News Channel's main studio, studio E.
History
The programme started on 3 April 2006 as part of the BBC's relaunch of BBC News presenters, which saw the introduction of the new flagship programme to compete against Jeremy Thompson's Live at Five programme on rival channel Sky News, and to improve BBC News ratings for the hour.
As part of the 2008 revamp of the entire news output, the show moved studios within BBC Television Centre along with BBC News and the BBC News at One and BBC News at Ten bulletins. The show originally broadcast from Studio N8 but moved to Studio N6.
On 18 March 2013, the programme moved to Broadcasting House along with BBC News and the BBC One bulletins.[1] On 4 November 2013, the BBC News at Five received new opening titles featuring the hour of broadcast.
On 13 March 2020, the last BBC News at Five was broadcast until further notice in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK governments daily press conference on the pandemic was broadcast in place of BBC News at Five on BBC One and the BBC News Channel.
Outside broadcasts
As well as presenting from the studio, the main presenters are called upon to present on location when major stories break. For example, Huw Edwards presented live from the BBC's Washington Studio for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 US Presidential Elections and has presented live from Basra from the withdrawal ceremony. George Alagiah presented from L'Aquila in April 2009 and Haiti in January 2010 when earthquakes struck the countries. During the 2015 Election campaign Edwards presented from across the UK, while Gavin Esler was based in Edinburgh and Clive Myrie served as the London presenter.
Presenters
| Years | Presenter | Current role |
|---|---|---|
| 2006–present | Huw Edwards | Main presenter |
| 2013–present | Jane Hill | Main presenter (Friday) |
| 2006–present | Ben Brown | Regular relief presenter |
| 2010–present | Clive Myrie | |
| 2006–present | Julian Worricker | Occasional relief presenter |
| 2016–present | Christian Fraser | |
| 2017–present | Reeta Chakrabarti | |
| 2017–present | Shaun Ley | |
| 2018–present | Carole Walker | |
| 2018–present | Martine Croxall | |
| 2018–present | Rebecca Jones | |
Former presenters
If there is no position before the years of being a presenter, then this newsreader was either a relief presenter or occasional guest stand-in presenter.
- Gavin Esler (Deputy presenter, 2006–2017)
- Peter Sissons (2006–2009)
- Emily Maitlis (2007–2016)
- Louise Minchin (2007–2011)
- Nicholas Owen (2008–2017)
- Tim Willcox (2008–2015)
- Joanna Gosling (2009–2010)
- Jon Sopel (2009–2012)
- Zeinab Badawi (2011)
- Sophie Long (2011–2012)
- Annita McVeigh (2013–2017)
- Matthew Price (2015)
- Maxine Mawhinney (2015–2016)
- Simon McCoy (2015–2017)
- Carrie Gracie (2018-2020)
Format
Generally the program follows a standard format as follows -
- 5:00pm – Headlines
- 5:00pm to 5:15pm – Stories
- 5:15pm – Headlines
- 5:15pm to 5:25pm – Interview, in-depth analysis
- 5:25pm to 5:30pm – Weather
- 5:30pm – Headlines
- 5:30pm to 5:45pm – Stories with sports round-up (except on Friday)
- 5:45pm – Headlines (except on Friday for a look ahead to Sportsday)
- 5:45pm to 5:55pm – Interview, in-depth analysis (except on Friday for The Film Review)
- 5:55pm to 6:00pm – Weather
The weather updates are generally presented from the screen away from the main desk. Sports updates are presented from the BBC Sport Centre at MediaCityUK, Salford. The Film Review appears during the program on Fridays between 5:45pm and 6:00pm, and is presented by the anchor and a film critic, usually Mark Kermode, from the main desk, however the background and lighting changes to resemble a cinema effect. It features reviews of all the week's main releases.
References
- "BBC News' television output moves to new studios at Broadcasting House". BBC. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
