For 50 years it has covered every aspect of news from politics and pop music to climate change and conflicts around the world, all in a way accessible to children.
Launched in 1972 with John Craven at the helm, kids’ bulletin Newsround has spent decades breaking new ground as well as huge global stories.
From an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981 to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster five years later, and Windsor Castle fire during the Queen’s famous annus horriblis in 1992, it has packed a powerful punch in the world of current affairs.
It has also launched the careers of some of the biggest names in British broadcasting, including journalists Julie Etchingham and Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
“I was 21 and in my third year at university when I started at Newsround,” says Krishnan, its presenter for three years. “It was a big part of my life as a kid. I watched it pretty much every day after school. When I got there I understood immediately why it was such a brilliant thing – here was a programme trying to explain the world and the most complex stories to kids.
“Its approach of not assuming knowledge while not assuming there were stories that were too complicated for children was really brilliant.
“I joined in the early 1990s, a time of great international change – the break-up of the Soviet Union, wars, famine. We also had the kids’ agenda of space, the environment, animals, pandas. We crammed an awful lot in an eight-minute programme.”
At the peak of its popularly Newsround, known as John Craven’s Newsround until his departure in 1989, drew an audience of 5.5 million as children across Britain, and their parents, tuned in.
Bringing politics to its young audience was a focus in 1992 when it organised Britain’s biggest-ever mock election – also introducing the generation to their future Prime Minister.
“We got kids all over Britain to vote and did a half-hour election special,” recalls Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan, 51, who spent his first day at Newsround in the sea with co-host Juliet Morris hunting for basking sharks.
“Peter Snow did the election graphics and I did the Dimbleby role round the table. We got the parties to send representatives, and Labour sent Tony Blair. It was massive.”
A stand-out report for Julie, now anchor for ITV News at 10, came when she and her team hid footage from a criminal gang in the Amazon rainforest after finding a “truckload of illegally chopped mahogany”.
“They chased us out,” she recalls. “It was dangerous. There were guns involved. We had to hide the tapes.” Despite some hairy moments, they got their report on air. “Newsround was at the forefront of environmental coverage,” she says. “It was covering stories that really weren’t getting the traction on the main bulletins.”
Julie also fronted coverage of the Dunblane massacre when former shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pupils and a teacher at a primary school in Scotland in 1996.
“I’m not sure there was a bulletin with a greater pressure,” says Julie, 52. “It would have been utterly terrifying for a young audience. We had to do layers of reassurance that it was OK to go to school the next day, that it was OK to be frightened. At News at 10 we have 30 minutes, it was quite extraordinary what we did in eight.”
Krishnan recalls: “The one I took most away from was the Bosnian war when I went to Sarajevo. I made a programme about a girl called Zlata Filipovi. I spent time with her family to find out how the war was affecting children. One of her best friends had been killed. It’s very resonant now.”
Both presenters also had plenty of fun in a golden age for kids’ TV, pre-internet and with the BBC ’s famous Broom Cupboard in full swing.
“There was the battle between Oasis and Blur,” says Julie, who met TV producer husband Nick Gardner during her first week at Newsround.
“We had the Spice Girls, Take That breaking up. The mix of stories was fantastic.” Krishnan says: “We piggybacked off the main news so we weren’t in the newsroom but we were nearby. We were like the kids in the office. We’d jump around in our kids’ clothes while everyone else was being very grown-up and BBC. We were part of kids’ TV. Andi Peters, Philip Schofield, Ed the Duck, they were big stars – and Gordon the Gopher.”
Krishnan gave entertainment a go himself after Newsround but it didn’t last. “I split my time between Newsnight and the National Lottery show,” he recalls. “News called me in and said you’ve got to make a decision – do you want to be Bruce Forsyth or Jeremy Paxman? I couldn’t be both.”
Julie, too, who at 24 pipped 1,000 others to the Newsround job in 1994, also dabbled in other fields, but says: “My passion was always news.”
While Newsround’s teatime slot was axed in 2020, it still reaches millions of kids a week online and on CBBC, and still tackles challenging subjects – including a half-hour special on sexism next week Views of its online bulletin have risen 25% since the war in Ukraine with over 850,000 website visits a week.
Krishnan, along with presenters past and present, including Craven, 81. will appear on a special 50th anniversary special bulletin on Monday.
Krishnan says: “It still does a really important job. You only have to see the war in Ukraine. Kids are asking, will there be a nuclear war? Will it affect us? The best place to deal with those questions is Newsround.” Julie adds: “It’s worth the licence fee alone for the service it provides to children.
“It’s needed more than ever.”
To commemorate half a century of Newsround, there will be a special extended bulletin on Monday, on CBBC and BBC iPlayer at 7.45am.
