Reflections on The World Tonight - Douglas Stuart

On 10th July 1969, the BBC published a short report ‘Broadcasting in the 70s’, “to enable BBC radio to play a full part in the broadcasting pattern of the seventies”. The report, carried out by an internal study group, assisted by McKinsey & Co, acknowledged that ‘radio is very far from dead’, with the inference some thought it might be, once TV took hold.

The thinking was utterly sound. Just as, in other countries, radio had long become more targeted rather than trying to be all things to all people, here the BBC was seeking to make some sense of its networks and place the right programmes on the right channel - so that each could have a more definite identity.

Whilst the rationale appears obvious, it contrasted with the previous reality where programmes were almost scattered across the BBC’s outlets. The report accepts that whilst the BBC had responded to change over the years, with the creation of local radio and Radio 1 etc, such changes had ‘been grafted piecemeal on to a tree planted in an earlier age of broadcasting’.

Under the report, Radio 4, which had retained  much of the DNA of its predecessor, the BBC Home Service, would be focused primarily on ‘detailed news and current affairs’ and a development of ‘the four main news and magazine periods - breakfast time, lunch time, early evening, and late evening’.

The late evening change saw ‘The Ten O’ Clock’ become ‘The World Tonight. The BBC’s Year Book of 1971 reflected on the changes, suggesting that ‘The World Tonight’, alongside ‘Today’, offered ‘a first -class service of hard news. But each of them has developed its own style and its own range of subject- matter, which derives not only from the personality of the people presenting and producing the programme, but also from their estimate of the varying needs of the listeners. Thus, 'Today' has especially in mind the mood and pace of the going -to -work audience. 'The World at One' aims at the housewife and at the worker switching on at lunchtime. 'The World Tonight' caters for the relaxed listener who is prepared for a fuller, more leisurely survey of what has been in the day's news’.

The first edition of ‘The World Tonight’ was broadcast on Monday 6th April 1970, hosted by respected foreign correspondent, Douglas Stuart. The Radio Times billed: ‘Douglas Stuart reporting, with voices and opinions from around the world’.

Here, Douglas is interviewed by current host, Ritula Shah.