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Timeline: 2025 Week 39


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A round-up of the week’s stories and observations.

Tuesday 23rd September

5.40pm ITV News at Ten closes with old theme tune

Last night’s ITV News at Ten ended with an acknowledgement of the 70th anniversary of ITV and ITN.

There was a short package showing behind-the-scenes footage from the early days of ITN. We also see a short snippet of a news bulletin presented by Chris Chataway.

The programme closed to the sound of ITN’s original bulletin theme tune – which was used until 1982.

Seems very out of place by today’s standards, doesn’t it.

VIDEO: short ITV 70 package at the end of ITV News at Ten. Presenter: Tom Bradby. TX DATE: 22nd September 2025. COPYRIGHT: ITN/ITV plc.

Thursday 25th September

1am Presentation curiosities in new ITV drama

A couple of small presentation-related items in tonight’s ITV drama, Hack.

The programme started with an ITV logo on a black background. Will this become a thing on new programmes/dramas?

And the closing credits were white text on a red background, rather than ITV’s standard white text on black.

VIDEO: ITV logo appears at the start of the first episode of Hack. TX DATE: 24th September 2025. COPYRIGHT: ITV plc.
VIDEO: closing credits from the first episode of Hack. TX DATE: 24th September 2025. COPYRIGHT: ITV plc.

1.10am Rare footage of early ORACLE trials

Tonight’s airing of ITV News at 70 on ITV 1 included a brief segment containing rare footage of early ORACLE trials.

Points of note:

  • Use of the term “displays” rather than “pages”.
  • Page numbers were 2-digits rather than 3.
  • The system is capable of providing a maximum of 50 displays.
  • Pages appear to be monochrome.
  • There’s no graphics, just basic text (all in capitals).
  • This early demonstration service seems to date back to 1973 (thanks to Andrew Wiseman for confirming).

The short piece initially shows a teletext page being edited – but this followed the more familiar world teletext standard, agreed in 1976.

Jon Snow’s voiceover misleadingly implies teletext is an ITN invention.

VIDEO: early ORACLE pages (or “displays” as they’re called here). Narrator: Jon Snow. TX DATE: 24th September 2025. COPYRIGHT: ITN.

RELATED ARTICLE: Timeline: 2025 Week 40.

Acknowledgements

FEATURE IMAGE:
PICTURED: an ORACLE keypad from an early trial of teletext technology. COPYRIGHT: ITN.

Acknowledgements

FEATURE IMAGE:

PICTURED: x. COPYRIGHT: x.