BBC News and Newsreel - titles (1954-1955)

Concept and creative process

BBC Newsreel began broadcasting on Monday 5 January 1947 four times a week. In 1954 it was renamed ‘BBC News and Newsreel’, the version of the opening sequence seen here. This was the BBC flagship news programme until 1955. The origin of the title sequence is not recorded, but with its background image of the sharply pointed Alexandra Palace transmitter and the superimposed radiating broadcasting waves, the sequence bore more than a passing resemblance to the classic RKO Radio Picture logo of 1928.