Television Newsreel

Produced by the BBC and screened on the BBC Television Service from 1948 to 1954 at 7.30 pm, it adapted the traditional cinema newsreel form for the television audience, covering news and current affairs stories as well as quirkier 'human interest' items, sports and cultural events.

The theme tune was "Girls in Grey" by Charles Williams and played by the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra.

It was published by Chappell on one of its mood music records – it was not specifically written for the newsreel but composed during World War Two for the Women's Junior Air Corps.

This contrasted with the vast majority of the BBC's output of the time, which was transmitted live via the electronic cameras of the Alexandra Palace studios.

It consisted of a number of different items, tending to be fewer and longer in length than in cinema newsreels, most of which ran for only ten minutes in total.

From April 1950 a special Children's Newsreel edition would be shown on Saturday afternoons, for the benefit of the younger audience.

Due to the pre-prepared nature of the Newsreel, topicality and coverage of breaking news stories was impossible.

This newsreader was initially unseen and unnamed, because it was felt that identifying the news with one personality would detract from its seriousness.

Children's Newsreel, unlike the later Newsround, made no pretence at being a serious news report.