24 Apr 2009

24 April 1989: big hair, shabby tie, posh

Today I shall have completed 20 years presenting Channel 4 News – there’s one crazy thought for you.

It’s amazing to think: Thatcher was still on the throne, the Berlin Wall was tottering but still standing, Mandela was still in jail, and Britain wasn’t bankrupt.

What’s more, Brighton & Hove Albion weren’t quite as perilously poised in the Football League as they are today (thank goodness they beat Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night).

So in thinking about key moments thus far, I’ve come up with four.

The first is a harrowing revisitation of my first ever programme, on 24 April 1989. Big hair, mouse brown, shabby tie, and extraordinarily clipped upper-class intonation – jolly hockey sticks isn’t in it!

But surprisingly confident. I suppose 15 years reporting on News at Ten must have given me that. But very dull.

More highlights from the last 20 years to follow later today.

See the whole of Jon’s first 1989 show here.

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