[Kojak]

Oh god of course. What happened to him? Soooo good! 

John Terrett is now at CGTN (the Chinese equivalent, if you can call it that, to BBC World), where he is their New York correspondent. His old BBC colleague Stephen Cole worked there as well until last year.

[DTV]

In a special program for his 60th birthday on S4C, Huw Edwards credited his early appearances on News 24 as a political correspondent in 1997-99 with his promotion to the 6 O'clock News in 1999.

He was Chief Political Correspondent (i.e., what later became Norman Smith's role) and it was certainly his most senior role at that point, though I'm not sure if that alone would have got him the role. From the mid-90s he was already a semi-regular presenter on the PM programme, One O'Clock News and Weekend News, as well as occasionally presenting Breakfast News and the Six O'Clock News. I believe that he was also (along with George Alagiah) a regular presenter of the early afternoon shift after Krishnan Guru-Murthy quit after only a few months. So I'd say that his decently sized newsreading CV probably helped him too!

[itsrobert]

Some other less well remembered News 24 presenters of yesteryear:

Peter Coe
Brenda Paterson
Susan Osman
Rageh Omaar
Clarence Mitchell
Heather McCarthy
Deborah MacKenzie
Liz Pike
Sarah Montague
John Andrew
Gwenan Edwards
Ben Geoghegan
Stefanie Callister
Jon Kay
Mike Embley
George Eykyn
Adrian Finighan
Lucy Hockings
David Shukman
Fergus Nicoll
Geeta Guru-Murthy

Most of those names appeared as relief presenters or overnight. Some are more associated with BBC World but, nevertheless, did appear on regular News 24 shifts over the years.

Speaking of overnights, does anyone remember the period in about 2001 when they used that crazy headline vamp at the top of the hour that was the wrong pitch? It clashed terribly going into the title music! I can't believe they lived with that scenario for over a year and no-one bothered to correct it!

[Robinho02]

I’ve not seen this before - Jane Hill and Matthew Amroliwala presenting and Matthew venturing out into the newsroom, soon after the move to NBH. A shame this didn’t happen more often. The move to NBH was so exciting - it really got the buzz back in the channel having the live newsroom backdrop. youtu.be 

Talking of Matthew and Jane, here they are presenting in 2000, I wonder if this was one of the first times the channel was simulcast on BBC One for breaking news: youtu.be 

[Kojak]

In a special program for his 60th birthday on S4C, Huw Edwards credited his early appearances on News 24 as a political correspondent in 1997-99 with his promotion to the 6 O'clock News in 1999.

He was Chief Political Correspondent (i.e., what later became Norman Smith's role) and it was certainly his most senior role at that point, though I'm not sure if that alone would have got him the role. From the mid-90s he was already a semi-regular presenter on the PM programme, One O'Clock News and Weekend News, as well as occasionally presenting Breakfast News and the Six O'Clock News. I believe that he was also (along with George Alagiah) a regular presenter of the early afternoon shift after Krishnan Guru-Murthy quit after only a few months. So I'd say that his decently sized newsreading CV probably helped him too!

He presented Newsnight, too - he and Gavin Esler started at the same time (summer 1997) and between them covered for Paxman and co for pretty much the whole of that summer. I believe this was to get their presenting skills up to standard as they were both set to be regular presenters on the upcoming News 24 channel (gee, wonder what happened to that?!).

www.youtube.com 

[DTV]

He presented Newsnight, too - he and Gavin Esler started at the same time (summer 1997) and between them covered for Paxman and co for pretty much the whole of that summer. I believe this was to get their presenting skills up to standard as they were both set to be regular presenters on the upcoming News 24 channel (gee, wonder what happened to that?!).

I forgot about that! Looking back at Genome, the regular presenters largely disappeared for two-and-a-half months. BBC World's Nisha Pillai also seems to have been tried out, presenting six editions at the same time. Given it was just after Peter Snow's depature, I do wonder if there was also an element of testing them out for Newsnight, as well as giving them practice for News 24?

At first, it seems a bit weird for Newsnight to give over the presenting job to relative unknowns, but Newsnight in summer has always been a bit of a free-for-all - there was one summer a few years ago when a load of summer editions were presented by LBC loudmouths like Ferrari and O'Brien.

[itsrobert]

When did Nisha Pillai start presenting on BBC World? I wonder if Newsnight was a try out before she joined World, or whether she'd already been on World and they were genuinely testing her out for a role on Newsnight? In any case, she stayed on World for years. She was a fairly regular presenter of Hard Talk and BBC4 News, though.

[DTV]

When did Nisha Pillai start presenting on BBC World? I wonder if Newsnight was a try out before she joined World, or whether she'd already been on World and they were genuinely testing her out for a role on Newsnight? In any case, she stayed on World for years. She was a fairly regular presenter of Hard Talk and BBC4 News, though.

This old BBC profile says she joined BBC World in October 1995, but does point out that she was an award-winning Panorama reporter before then - so maybe not such an odd choice. Perhaps interestingly, her editions of Newsnight would have been some of the last few weeks of Newsnight being broadcast (on tape-delay) on BBC World.

About BBC News | Profiles | Nisha Pillai
Nisha Pillai is a news presenter for BBC World television.
  Source: news.bbc.co.uk

[Omnipresent]

Worth adding that Laura Keunssberg and Nick Robinson both cut their teeth on News 24 before becoming BBC Political Editor (though both with a detour via ITN).

[Ste]

Since we're talking memories, I'm going to take a minute to remember the great Komla Dumor.

In the same way that every Doctor Who fan has "their" doctor,  Komla will always be my face of to 5-6am hour on overnights.

I found his presenting style and voice suited that hour perfectly, and I remember the tribute to him lead by Sally Bundock.  I'm sure he is missed by many.

I remember Komla in a different way - on Network Africa, a radio show broadcast to Africa East and Africa West streams of the World Service. 5 half hour shows every morning aimed at different countries/timezones which I was regularly Studio Manager for. He was so warm, friendly and forgiving to newbies like me who made the odd mistake at 4:16am. And those jingles.......

I used to listen on shortwave and will always remember the Network Africa cockerel!