BBC Weekend News is the BBC's national news programme on BBC One at the weekend and bank holidays, although it is often referred to on guides simply as BBC News. It is called BBC Weekend News on all bulletins and carries generic BBC News bulletin titles, apart from the late bulletin on Sunday where it is named BBC News at Ten and carries the BBC News at Ten titles.
| BBC Weekend News | |
|---|---|
Title card used since April 2023
| |
| Created by | BBC News |
| Presented by | Ben Brown Jane Hill Clive Myrie Reeta Chakrabarti |
| Theme music composer | David Lowe |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Production locations | BBC Television Centre, London (1969-2013) Broadcasting House, London (2013-present) |
| Editor | Paul Royall |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 10-20 minutes |
| Production company | BBC News |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One |
| Release | 5 July 1954 (1954-07-05) – present |
| Related | |
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BBC Weekend News airs three times on both Saturday and Sunday. The main three bulletins are presented from Studio B in Broadcasting House; they follow a similar format to the weekday bulletins on BBC One, but are shorter in length.
The lunchtime bulletin normally airs at 1:00pm. The programme runs for approximately 10 minutes, and is immediately followed by a weather forecast.
The evening bulletin is usually broadcast at some point between 5 and 7pm. It runs for 15 minutes and includes an update from BBC Sport in Salford; the programme is followed by a five-minute regional news bulletin, then a weather forecast.
The late edition airs at varying times on Saturdays, and 10:00pm on Sundays. It also contains an update from BBC Sport. Despite being billed as BBC Weekend News in TV listings, the late Sunday bulletin is usually branded on air as BBC News at Ten. The Sunday late news is followed by a regional bulletin.
Until early 2023, the weekend bulletins were also broadcast on the BBC News channel; this practice ended shortly before the merger of said channel and BBC World News. On occasions of major news relating to the UK, the bulletin may be simulcast on the UK feed of the news channel.
For many years, the lunchtime bulletin was hosted by a presenter from the BBC News Channel; from 2006 to 2015, this was usually Maxine Mawhinney. Following a reshuffle, BBC News 24 launch presenter Gavin Esler became the main presenter until his departure from the BBC in early 2017. Mawhinney briefly returned to the role until her departure in April 2017[1] and Shaun Ley took over afterwards.
Since the merger of the BBC News Channel and BBC World News in April 2023, there have been no specific presenters for this bulletin; instead, it is generally presented by whomever hosted the early morning shift on the news channel.
Unlike the lunchtime bulletin, the presenter of the two evening bulletins is usually one of the regular faces from weekday bulletins on BBC One. Senior presenter Sophie Raworth appears in the event of a Major news story or as relief cover
| Years | Presenter | Current role |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-present | Ben Brown | Regular presenter |
| 2014–present | Reeta Chakrabarti | |
| 2021-present | Jane Hill | |
| 2015–present | Clive Myrie | |
| 2023–present | Katya Adler | Relief presenter |
| 2018–present | Tina Daheley | |
| 2023–present | Maryam Moshiri |
If there is no position before the years of being a presenter, then this newsreader was either a relief presenter or occasional guest stand-in presenter.
During the late programme on each day a round up of the days sports news is presented from the BBC Sport Centre at MediaCityUK, Salford. This is usually presented by one of the BBC News channel sports presenters: Olly Foster, Karthi Gnanasegaram, Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes and Katherine Downes.
