How the news show has grown in 50 years
Original presenter Mary Marquis returns to the Reporting Scotland set alongside Jackie to share her memories of the early editions.
When the “Beast from the East” hit a few weeks ago, a million viewers tuned in and saw a live Skype interview with a motorist stranded on the snowbound M80.
When Reporting Scotland started, though, film footage had to be returned to the processing department by 3pm to be dipped in an acid bath to make that night’s bulletin.
Douglas Kynoch, Renton Laidlaw, Kenneth Roy, John Milne, Alan Douglas, Viv Lumsden, Eddie Mair, Sally McNair, Allan Robb and Sally Magnusson are among those who have been regular presenters.
Alan Douglas recalls being thrust in front of the cameras as a last-minute replacement as the only reporter in the newsroom when there was a mix-up with the presenting rota.
“It was a bit like being thrown in at the deep end,” recalled Alan. “I never looked back.” And Sally Magnusson says the political landscape in the run-up to devolution made Scotland a much more interesting place than London where she’d been pursuing her career.
But the fledgling Reporting Scotland wasn’t without its critics.
A viewer in a 1968 feedback programme complained that having a female presenter was quite wrong.
“You’ve got Mary Marquis reading a bit of news and you are just taking that in against a slightly squint George Square.”