Alastair Burnet

Alastair Burnet joined ITN in 1963, becoming Political Editor. In 1967, he switched to newscasting full-time, persuading ITV and ITN bosses to make Britian's first regular daily 30-minute news bulletin, News At Ten. [Before 1967 news bulletins lasted roughly 15 minutes.] He presented the first bulletin on 3rd July 1967 with the late Andrew Gardner. Alastair became the main anchor out of a regular rota of anchors News At Ten had for 25 years [1967-1992]. He fast became ITV's voice of politics. He became the best of friends with the-then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. During his stay at ITN, he reported on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the 1969 moon landing, the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher, the rise of the IRA, the Falkands War, the Vietnam war amongst others. Also in the 1980s, he became a member of ITN's Executive Board, and controversially, made the decision that ITV does not own ITN outright and so other companies could own ITN at one time. Examples of this is Reuters [20%], ITV [40%] and United Business Media [40%]. He announced his resignation as ITN Executive in February 1990, after a disagreement over the future of ITN and continued on until 27 August 1991, when he presented his last bulletin, after announcing his retirement at the age of 63.