How TV times have changed as ITV Anglia hits 60

Anglia Television first came on air 60 years ago on 27 October 1959 and has been covering the local news ever since.

Roving reporters and camera crews cover a vast area in the East of England taking in nine counties with a team of journalists and technicians putting the ITV News Anglia programme together at headquarters in Norwich.

That news-gathering operation has changed considerably over the years as television technology moves on.

  • Video report by ITV News Anglia presenter Jonathan Wills

Before Anglia Television went on air in 1959, viewers in the Eastern Counties could only watch the BBC.

ITV began in London in 1955 before spreading to the Midlands and the North of England in 1956 and to central Scotland in 1957.

Like all the regional ITV stations, Anglia Television started as an independent company making its own programmes for the ITV network.

The wildlife documentaries from Survival, dramas like Tales of the Unexpected and The Chief along with the Sale of the Century game show all became household names.

In the 1990s and 2000s, individual ITV companies began merging into larger groupings before forming ITV plc in 2004.

Anglia Television went on air for the first time at 4.15pm on Tuesday 27 October 1959. Credit: Anglia Television
A silver knight was the Anglia Television station logo from 1959 until 1988. Credit: Anglia Television