Still current after all these years
We take a look back at Panorama as the world’s longest-running current affairs programme turns 65
PANORAMA began life as a fortnightly magazine-style programme looking at everything from art and new books to theatre reviews.
It is now the oldest current affairs programme in the world and celebrating 65 years on air.
However, the first episode nearly proved to be its last. It launched on the BBC at 8.15pm on November 11, 1953, but was plagued by a number of technical hitches and a shaky performance by host Patrick Murphy.
It was promptly taken off air for a month before returning with presenter Max Robertson at the helm.
Panorama was the brainchild of Dennis Bardens and Andrew Miller Jones and was originally intended as “a fortnightly reflection of the contemporary scene”.
Despite its uncertain debut, Panorama gained new ground and in 1955 it was revamped as a “window on the world”.
The flagship current affairs programme was given an hour-long slot with Richard Dimbleby as the anchorman heading the show’s 1950s team. The father of presenters David and Jonathan Dimbleby, he had been the first broadcaster to report from the scene of the Allied liberation of Belsen concentration camp during the Second World War and also provided the commentary during the BBC’s coverage of Winston Churchill’s funeral.
Bow-tie loving Robin Day and Michael Barrett also became programme regulars in the 1960s.
Panorama has been responsible for a number of television firsts, including broadcasting the birth of a baby in 1957 and interviewing a member of the royal family – the Duke of Edinburgh – in 1961.
There has also been groundbreaking frontline reporting such as the 1970 interview with King Hussein of Jordan as civil war broke out and Princess Diana’s interview with Martin Bashir in 1995.
Panorama also fooled viewers on April 1, 1957, with their infamous April Fools’ Day spoof that had the BBC Director General of the time reaching for his reference books.
Supposedly there had been a bumper spaghetti harvest in the Swiss valley of Ticino, near Locarno, in Switzerland due to the mild winter and the near elimination of the spaghetti weevil.
The report fooled many viewers as Panorama played it straight and showed locals merrily picking the strands of spaghetti growing on trees.