Панорама: История британской тележурналистики

BBC Television current affairs documentary programme

Panorama is a British current affairs documentary programme broadcast on the BBC. First broadcast in 1953, it is the world's longest running television news magazine programme. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby and Jeremy Vine. as of 2022, it broadcasts in peak time on BBC One, without a regular presenter. The programme also airs worldwide through the international feed of the BBC News channel in many countries, and domestically via the UK feed.

Panorama was launched on 11 November 1953 by the BBC; it emphasises investigative journalism. Daily Mail reporter Pat Murphy was the original presenter, who only lasted one episode after accidentally broadcasting a technical mishap. Max Robertson then took over for a year. The programme originally had a magazine format and included art features. In September 1955, when Richard Dimbleby took over as presenter, it got the subtitle Window on the World. He presented the show until his death in 1965. His son, David Dimbleby, later presented the programme on 11 November 1974—the 21st anniversary of the show. Other past presenters include: Sir Robin Day, Sir Ludovic Kennedy, Sir Charles Wheeler and Jeremy Vine. On 13 December 2010, it was announced that the programme would be relaunched during the new year with no regular presenter.

Panorama set an example for the German magazine series of the same name, which is produced by Norddeutscher Rundfunk, and broadcast by Das Erste. Panorama started there in 1961 and is one of the leading political magazine shows.

The original theme music was an excerpt from Pelléas et Mélisande by Sibelius, which was followed a few years later by a composition by Robert Farnon entitled "Openings & Endings". From 1968, an extract from Rachmaninov's Symphony No.1 in D Minor, 4th Movement was used, followed in 1971 by an adaptation of Francis Lai's Aujourd'hui C'est Toi ("Today It's You"). The latest version was arranged in 2023 by Bojan Andic.

In 1955, Panorama filmed Christopher Mayhew taking mescaline under medical supervision. The resulting programme was never broadcast, though the footage and transcripts were later released.

Panorama broadcast a famous hoax film about the harvesting of the spaghetti crop on April Fool's Day, 1957.

Broadcast on 4 May 1955, Malcolm Muggeridge talked with Salvador Dalí, the Spanish surrealist artist.

In January 1984, Panorama broadcast an episode which claimed that three Conservative MPs (Neil Hamilton, Harvey Proctor and Gerald Howarth) had links to far right organisations both in Britain and on the Continent. The programme was based on an internal Conservative Party report compiled by Phil Pedley, Chairman of the Young Conservatives. Panorama confirmed its status with a senior Conservative Party vice chairman. The report was formally presented to the Party in the week before the programme was aired. During the making of the programme, attempts to contact some of the named MPs for comment were unsuccessful. (Hamilton's wife Christine later described how "Neil and I had devised a method for making sure that Panorama personnel would not be in a position to say that Neil had refused to speak".) The programme was vetted prior to transmission by the BBC's lawyers, by the Head of Currents Affairs Television, and by the Chief Assistant to the Director General, Margaret Douglas. Two of the MPs named in the programme (Hamilton and Howarth) sued the BBC and the programme makers. The Director General, Alasdair Milne, reviewed the BBC's own legal advice, and that of his Chief Assistant, and declared the programme to be "rock solid". The Board of Governors (Chairman Stuart Young) also gave their backing for the programme to be defended in court. Stuart Young died in August 1986, two months before the libel case against Panorama came to trial. A new chairman, Marmaduke Hussey, had been appointed but had not formally arrived at the BBC when the trial opened on 13 October 1986. Hussey nevertheless spoke with the BBC's barrister, Charles Grey. Hussey says in his memoirs that "Grey thought it unlikely the BBC would win". Sir Charles Grey disputes this statement, saying that "my junior and I both thought the case was winnable". Hamilton and Howarth were each awarded £25,000 in damages. Costs amounted to £240,000. They dropped their case against Phil Pedley. There was controversy over the editing of the programme: it juxtaposed shots of Howarth wearing a train driver's uniform at a steam railway enthusiasts' rally with the claim that he had attended a fascist meeting in Italy, suggesting that the uniform he was wearing was a fascist one.

Arguably the best known Panorama programme of all was the 1995 interview of Diana, Princess of Wales by Martin Bashir, which occurred after her separation from Charles, Prince of Wales, when she openly discussed the rumours about her personal life. The programme's filming and planning was subject to extreme secrecy, with Richard James Ayre, the Controller of Editorial Policy, authorising a series of clandestine meetings between Bashir and Diana. It became known a quarter century later that Bashir had used journalistically unethical practices in gaining the interview. In late 2020, the BBC director general Tim Davie apologised to Earl Spencer, brother of the princess, for the use of highly dubious methods. The Earl, who introduced Bashir to his sister, rejected the apology and demanded an inquiry. Former Justice of the Supreme Court John Dyson, Lord Dyson conducted an independent inquiry into the issue. Dyson's inquiry found Bashir guilty of deceit and breaching BBC editorial conduct to obtain the interview.

One of the most controversial broadcasts of recent time was the "Who bombed Omagh?" programme, which named those suspected of involvement in the Omagh bombing. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry of Scotland Yard's anti terrorist unit SO13 said that the Real IRA attack on the BBC Television Centre could have been a revenge attack for the broadcast.