One of the biggest national stories we had to deal with was the Moors Murders, I remember. I think it must’ve been 1965. I was manning the newsroom one lunch hour and the others were having lunch in the canteen, and I got a phone call from our freelance cameraman who said he’d got a tip-off that the police were out searching on the Moors and did we want him to go out there and see what he could film. Of course, I told him to go ahead and then dashed over to the canteen. I can’t remember who it was but he quickly came back to be in the newsroom to be there when any news came through. It’s funny, but I can’t actually remember typing news script on that story. I think it was because it was such a big national thing, but most of it was covered by ITN and their national bulletins. And I do remember there were lots of whisperings about some dreadful tapes. I mean, so dreadful that they just didn’t discuss them.
When I first went to Granada in 1959, the only building that had been built was the two-storey building on Quay Street, where the newsroom was. And some of the offices were in Portakabins in the car park, others in a large warehouse over the road. So, over the next couple of years or so this tall office block was built. And the beginning of 1963, Granada started its daily news magazine that was Scene at 6.30. It started working from this fifth floor of this new building. And the newsroom went up there with them. We had our own newsroom, but we were able to easily contribute any news items, that might be needed for Scene at 6.30. By this time, we had also started to transmit a late evening bulletin at about 11 o’clock with a small team; the editor, a copy-taker typist and sometimes a researcher.
So, it was on one of these evenings, of course, November 22nd, that we got the big story of President Kennedy’s assassination. I believe the full details of it is on the Granadaland website as a piece by Joan Riley.
Yes.
Well, annoyingly, I’d just arrived home when the story broke. I worked in the newsroom from half past nine to six o’clock so I missed the drama. I suppose, under the tragic circumstances, I hesitate to say excitement, but I heard all about their first hand reports on the Monday morning.
