大象传媒

After an eleven year gap in broadcasting 大象传媒 news to children and young people, John Craven's News Round, as it was originally known on-air, was broadcast live on a spring Tuesday evening on 大象传媒 One Colour at 17.20.

Its predecessor, Children's Newsreel (April 1950 - Sept 1961), had come to be seen as old fashioned, stuffy and inaccessible. Its style was very much like the serious Television Newsreel for adults, albeit with a simpler script, and different selection of stories. Regular 大象传媒 announcers took turns in speaking the commentary. In short that approach didn't work for the swinging 60s. So, there were to be big changes. Television Newsreel turned into the news bulletins we recognise today, but news aimed at children slipped off the agenda almost entirely.

The provision of proper, regular news, aimed at younger viewers, had climbed up the pecking order in the 大象传媒 Television Centre newsroom by the early 70s, but resources for a dedicated programme were few, and money was tight. In fact News Round went on air with only a handful of staff and two typewriters, relegated to a corner of the newsroom.

The programme's debut could not have been more terrifying for those involved. In the transmission gallery, the director was in a terrible panic according to John Craven (now 72). "Right," he said, "two minutes left and I've only got three scripts, so everybody repeat after me: Our Father, which art in Heaven..." Perhaps the Divine did intervene, as the programme survived its first hurdle - just. Curiously, no recording of that first edition exists.