Prior to the start of
Look North, the BBC television region for the North East and Cumbria launched at 6.10pm on Monday 5 January 1959 from studios at 54 New Bridge Street in Newcastle City Centre. The region began receiving its own nightly news bulletins, originally presented by George House and Tom Kilgour. Previously, the area was served by a pan-regional bulletin from Manchester entitled
News from the North, broadcast across the whole of Northern England from 30 September 1957 onwards. The new local bulletins from Newcastle were launched ten days before the opening of rival
ITV station
Tyne Tees Television in the North East (
Border Television, serving Cumbria, opened in September 1961). Three years after the launch of the television service, the bulletins were expanded to 20 minutes and relaunched as a daily magazine programme,
Home at Six, presented by
Frank Bough. After Bough left to join
BBC Sport in 1964,
Home at Six was relaunched with a new name and a new presenter -
Mike Neville, an actor and continuity announcer for
Tyne Tees Television who had been anchor of
North East Newsview, a nightly regional news programme, for only a few months. Neville soon became a household name and spent the next thirty-two years at the BBC in Newcastle, presenting
Look North as well as making regular appearances on
Nationwide. For a short period in the late 1980s, Cumbria was switched to the
BBC North West region and began receiving
North West Tonight instead of
Look North, along with a short lunchtime news opt-out. Look North returned to Cumbria on 27 September 1992. The North East and Cumbria region was reformed after campaigning by viewers in Cumbria that they were being overlooked in favour of news from the more populous areas of the
north west, such as
Greater Manchester and
Merseyside. It was during this time that on 16 January 1988, BBC North East moved to brand new purpose built studios nicknamed 'The Pink Palace' on Barrack Road in
Spital Tongues, along with
Radio Newcastle. In 1996, Mike Neville left the BBC after 32 years to re-join
Tyne Tees Television to present their flagship evening news programme
North East Tonight.
Look North underwent major changes with new presenters Carol Malia and John Lawrence (both former reporters for Tyne Tees) introduced to the programme. Malia is now the main presenter, alongside co-presenters Jeff Brown (retired 2024) and
Dawn Thewlis. ==Broadcast times==