Granada Reports
Granada Reports said goodbye to one of its own on the 1st of August 2024. Lucy Meacock presented her final edition that day, closing out 36 years working for ITV Granada. She had anchored a regional news service broadcasting across the North West of England from studios in the Orange Tower at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. Long before that studio existed, the programme had already worn half a dozen different names. It shifted its main base between three different cities. And it stumbled into some of the most talked-about moments in British broadcasting. How did a local news bulletin end up rebranding itself so many times? Why did its newsroom keep changing address? And what turned an ordinary regional broadcast into a stage for cultural and political history?
Before Salford Quays, the news operation worked out of Granada's Quay Street studios in Manchester city centre. Reporters also work from newsrooms in the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool, in Lancaster, and on the Isle of Man. District offices in Blackburn and Chester supported the service too, until both closed in 2005.
Most of Cumbria now falls to a different service, ITV News Lookaround, which broadcasts from Gateshead. The southern town of Barrow-in-Furness is the exception, still served by Granada Reports.
The Winter Hill transmitter carries Granada Reports into Settle in western North Yorkshire. It also reaches Biddulph and Kidsgrove in northern Staffordshire, and Buxton, Glossop, New Mills and Chapel-en-le-Frith in northwest Derbyshire. Those towns receive Granada Reports rather than the neighbouring ITV News Calendar or ITV News Central regions they might expect.
That geographic patchwork has outlived every rebrand the programme has gone through, a reminder that names change more easily than transmitter maps.
In May 1956, when Granada began broadcasting, regional news and sport featured regularly in its schedule, including its Travelling Eye outside broadcasts. Within a year, Granada had launched its first regular bulletin, called Northern Newscast. A topical magazine programme followed, called People and Places.
People and Places was succeeded in January 1963 by a nightly programme called Scene at 6.30. Granada kept experimenting, adding late night editions of Scene and, from 1964, a new strand called Granada in the North, later renamed On Air. This strand replaced continuity junctions with national and local news summaries, feature pieces, and previews of upcoming programming.
Franchise changes in 1968 gave the station a new brief, to cover only the North West. Scene was axed and replaced by six self-contained regional programmes, each preceded by a short Granada News bulletin. The format then reverted to a nightly magazine programme, first named Six-O-One and then Newsday, before the Granada Reports brand was adopted in 1973. Its early years spun off two related series, the social action programme Reports Action and the political programme Reports Politics.
Granada Tonight replaced Granada Reports as the flagship evening programme in January 1990, leaning heavily on non-news features and entertainment. Its studio set consisted of sofas and armchairs, matching that softer editorial approach. On the 1st of October 2001, the main evening programme reverted to the Granada Reports brand, while short bulletins kept airing as Granada News. Today, most bulletins carry the joint branding of ITV News and Granada Reports, with breakfast updates known as Good Morning Granada.
Renaming the programme, though, never touched what actually got broadcast under each of those banners.
People and Places, the topical magazine from Granada's early years, showcased some of the first television appearances by The Beatles. In 1958, Granada sent three Travelling Eye broadcasts to cover the Rochdale by-election, an early example of the station chasing a live political story.
Up until 1962, Granada produced programming in the Welsh language for viewers in North Wales. That output included daily news bulletins and a magazine show called Dewch i Mewn, which translates as Do Come In.
Scene at 6.30 became the first British television programme to report the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A tip-off from CBS News to the Granada newsroom gave the programme that scoop.
On the 20th of September 1978, Joy Division made its television debut on the programme, performing a song called Shadowplay. The performance aired during a segment called What's On.
It would not be long before that newsroom packed up and moved altogether.
In April 1986, most of Granada's news operation left Manchester for a computerised news centre in the former Traffic Office building at Liverpool's Albert Dock. The move came eight years after the company had first set up a news base in the city, at Exchange Flags.
By 1992, the operation had shifted back to Granada's Manchester headquarters. The Albert Dock centre kept producing and broadcasting bulletins until 1998, though its studios did not close for good until July 2006.
Early 2009 brought cutbacks across ITV's regional news, but the programme itself was unaffected. The only major change came on the 16th of July 2009, when ITV Granada took Isle of Man coverage from ITV Tyne Tees & Border.
On the 27th of September 2012, Granada announced that technical staff could volunteer for redundancy, part of national job losses across ITV News services. The timing lined up with production moving to MediaCityUK. The first bulletin from Salford Quays, presented by Tony Morris, aired on Sunday the 24th of March 2013.
New presenters would take that Salford Quays bulletin forward, and awards would start following them too.
Mel Barham, Gamal Fahnbulleh, Mike Hall, Tori Lacey, Elaine Willcox and Katie Walderman make up the programme's current on-air team.
Granada Reports has won BAFTA Television Awards for Best News Coverage twice, in 2007 and 2013. The Royal Television Society has recognised it too, with Best News Coverage in the Nations and Regions in 2007 and 2008. It has taken Best Regional News Programme for the North West in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011-2012 and 2013. Best Regional Story for the North West went to the programme in 2010, 2011-2012 and 2013.
Individual talent has been honoured: Best Regional on Screen Talent for the North West went to Rob Smith in 2011 and Clare Fallon in 2012. Adam McClean picked up Best Innovation in Multimedia for the North West in 2012.
That innovation award in 2012 hinted at a programme already adapting to a multimedia future beyond the nightly bulletin.
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Common questions
Where does Granada Reports broadcast from and who produces it?
Granada Reports is produced by ITV Granada and broadcasts from studios in the Orange Tower at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. It serves the North West of England, with additional reporters based in Liverpool, Lancaster and on the Isle of Man.
When did Granada Reports first go on air?
Granada Reports traces back to when Granada began broadcasting in May 1956, though the current name was not adopted until 1973. Before that, the news service ran under names including Northern Newscast, Scene at 6.30, Six-O-One and Newsday.
Why was Granada Reports the first to report John F. Kennedy's assassination?
Its programme at the time, Scene at 6.30, received a tip-off from CBS News, which allowed it to become the first British television programme to break the story.
Who was the long-serving anchor of Granada Reports and when did she leave?
Lucy Meacock was the programme's long-serving main anchor, presenting her final edition on the 1st of August 2024 after 36 years working for ITV Granada.
Which band made its television debut on Granada Reports?
Joy Division made its television debut on Granada Reports on the 20th of September 1978, performing Shadowplay during the programme's What's On segment.
What awards has Granada Reports won?
Granada Reports has won BAFTA Television Awards for Best News Coverage in 2007 and 2013. It has also won Royal Television Society awards, including Best Regional News Programme for the North West in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011-2012 and 2013.
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10 references cited across the entry
- 740 Years ago Today Joy Division Made Their TV Debut on Granada Reports20 September 2018
- 8Seventeen regions into nine: How the updated ITV local news services will runCaitlin Fitzsimmons — 17 February 2009
- 10Lucy Meacock to leave ITV Granada Reports after 36 years15 July 2024