The pioneering television director Diana Edwards-Jones, who has died aged 91, helped ITN establish its reputation for producing a popular, authoritative news service on ITV – and was renowned among colleagues for her colourful language in the gallery. She directed News at Ten, Britain’s first half-hour daily news programme, from its launch in 1967 until her retirement 22 years later – and was instrumental in making the “bongs” a part of its opening headlines. The broadcast also featured two newscasters presenting alongside one another for the first time in the UK.
During rehearsals for the title sequence, Andrew Gardner, partnering Alastair Burnet, was delivering the headlines when a sound mixer inadvertently brought up the tones of Big Ben striking the hour. When Edwards-Jones realised that a short headline could be fitted between the bongs to great effect, before Johnny Pearson’s stirring title music, The Awakening, the technique became an indelible News at Ten trademark.
