History Newsroom South East BBC London News page 1 BBC London News page 2 South East Today South Today A slightly new look was introduced to BBC London News on 1st March 2004 - cynics will note that date coincided with the relaunch of ITV1's London Today/Tonight.  
It was at last good riddance to 'LDN', although the rest of the title sequence remained unchanged.    
The view of the newsroom was now largely obscured by a massive new screen and some frosted glass. Meanwhile interviewees (bottom right) are at last allowed to sit down!  
Left: Peter Cockroft on the first day of the new BBC weather graphics, 16th May 2005. On the same day the regional ident disappeared altogether - the Six O'Clock News now links directly into BBC London News. Right: if it's Peter's day off then the national forecaster on duty takes over - here, Dan Corbett does the honours. Note the unchanging placenames, including Maidstone which surely is in South East Today's area?         
New, and visibly inferior, opening titles debuted on 10th December 2005, created by Red Bee Media (formerly BBC Broadcast); the music is also a damp squib compared to the original (which can still be heard in many other English regions). The clips shown in the opening sequence change daily - see an early example in this video clip  . Note that one of the images above shows Guildford's Guildhall Clock, a rare acknowledgement from the programme that life does exist beyond the M25. 
The set, such as it is, remained unchanged from the 2004 revamp...  
...until March 2007 when the red panels were put up and the screen was moved. But the big news was that the presenter now actually has a chair! Seen here is Riz Lateef, who took over as the main presenter of BBC London Olympics News in 2006.  
Above: a breakfast bulletin in a dark morning in January 2008. On 21st April 2008 BBC London was to find its own tri-media branding (TV/radio/online) overruled by the bigger beast of BBC News and its own all-encompassing revamp. This did have the advantage, however, of spelling the end of the nasty naff opening titles introduced in 2005. The new title sequence follows a standardised look now used across the whole of BBC News's television output in the UK:        
The music, meanwhile, sounds decidedly familiar - it's none other than a remix of the 1999 Newsroom South East theme!
Watch a clip After two days the music was changed to the same version used in the other English regions.  
No changes to the set, though - even the red box remains to serve as a reminder of the previous graphics style. History Newsroom South East BBC London News page 1 BBC London News page 2 South East Today South Today | 
