Acknowledgements from First Edition

I am particularly grateful to all those who have provided illustrations or helped with picture research in the preparation of this book.

Special thanks therefore to James Feltham and Graham Milloy of BBC Central Stills; Anthony Painter, Picture Editor, Sky; Chris Lambert, Broadcast Developments Ltd, Autoscript; Autocue; Brian Barker, EDS Portaprompt; Hans Rietveld, Key West, Holland; Quantel; Tim Orchard, for trusting me with souvenirs from his US assignments; the International Press Institute for permission to quote from Journalists on Dangerous Assignments; Colin Shaw, Director of the Broadcasting Standards Council, for permission to reproduce parts of their draft code; Phil Ashworth and Sarah Finley for acting as models for some of the illustrations.

Thanks too, to those who kindly read through all or part of the manuscript and offered me the benefit of their professional advice: Bernard Hesketh, Mike Scarlett, Tom Wragg, and finally Rob Kirk, Editor of Thames News, who reminded me that while reporting is a serious, responsible and (according to some) a glamorous business, it’s also more often than not, a lot of fun.

Ivor Yorke

Ivor Yorke was a journalist on local newspapers and in Fleet Street before joining BBC Television News as a sub-editor in 1964. He went on to become a reporter, producer and editor on a wide range of BBC news programmes. After six years as Head of Journalist Training, he left the BBC in 1992 to establish his own training consultancy.

Sadly, Ivor died before he had time to complete this new edition of his book and we are indebted to Ray Alexander — the current manager and Senior Instructor, Television at BBC News Training — for finalising the task and so allowing the book to remain in print as a memorial to Ivor’s significant contribution to the field of broadcast journalism training.