The World Tonight was first broadcast on 6 April 1970, starting on the same day as
PM. It was introduced following the changes at
Broadcasting House which ushered in
Radio 1, to create "the serious current affairs programme of the day" on the new
Radio 4, as one survivor recalls. Broadcast live at 10 pm, initially for only thirty minutes, its tone was set by presenter Douglas Stuart, a former
Washington and
Bonn correspondent for the BBC. The first edition contained interviews on
Northern Ireland and relations between
West Germany and the
United States. Later that week, ideas for better government in
Scotland and peace in the
Middle East were featured. Its focus on international news was set early on by events in Washington surrounding
Watergate. The US time zone (five hours behind the UK) meant that the programme could bring up to the minute developments at 10 pm. Its first reporters came from within the ranks of the programme's own producers, which meant that packages or features were cut from a different cloth than standard news reports. Presenters with strong journalistic credentials, including
John Tusa,
Anthony Howard,
Richard Kershaw,
Isabel Hilton and
Robin Lustig, have secured and maintained the programme's reputation for authoritative coverage. Other notable former staffers include
Dominic Lawson, former editor of
The Sunday Telegraph, Jim Gray, former editor of
Channel 4 News,
Jonathan Freedland of
The Guardian, and
Henry Kelly. Veterans recall the traditionally "relaxed" figure of the editor. The
laissez faire approach of the boss over the years created a culture in which Output Editors, responsible for daily editions, were able to take risks, some of which have led to notable scoops, such as the predicted arrest on war crimes charges of
General Augusto Pinochet in 1998. A staple of the Radio 4 schedule for over four decades, 2013 figures showed
The World Tonight has retained 1.75 million listeners, representing 17.8% of the national radio audience at 10 pm. ==In popular culture==