‘Dateline’ Falls Off Calendar: BBC Set To Axe Respected News Programme After 25 Years

Caroline Frost
·1 min read
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Amid a catalogue of changing faces and evolving content at the BBC, one of its longest-running and internationally respected news programmes, Dateline London, is set to finish at the end of the summer

The show, built around foreign correspondents based in London providing their outsider’s view of events in the UK, has been running for 25 years on both the BBC News and World channels.

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Its first presenter was the late Charles Wheeler, highly respected foreign correspondent and once UK PM Boris Johnson’s father-in-law, and is estimated to reach a global audience of between 10 and 15million viewers.

Dateline London’s producer, Nick Guthrie, whose company makes the show for the BBC and has been editing it from the start, has told the Guardian he has been informed of the decision, which is all part of the organisation’s wider plans to make “substantial changes to the news channels.” The BBC published its annual report several weeks ago, revealing it is required to make £285m in annual savings before 2027.

The BBC has not confirmed the end of the long-running show, but pointed out that the kind of commentary and expertise provided by Dateline London is now available to viewers elsewhere in its schedules.

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