NORTH news readers from past and present came faceto- face yesterday, to mark 50 years since the launch of BBC bulletins in the region.

George House was the first face to be seen by viewers of a ten-minute black-and-white bulletin, known in those days as News From The North, when it launched, on January 5, 1959.

Mr House, now 81, was yesterday joined by present day presenter Carol Malia, at his home in Brompton, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

The pair spent the morning chatting, comparing notes on their respective eras.

Mr House worked on News From The North, which changed its name to Look North in the early Seventies, between 1959 and 1974.

He recorded an interview with Look North, which was due to be broadcast last night, as part of a special edition of the show to celebrate its golden jubilee.

Mr House told The Northern Echo: “Nothing like this had been done in the North-East before, so it was pretty pioneering stuff, although it did not feel like it at the time.

“Back then, it just felt like any other job, reading the news. It is only when you look back, and reflect on it, that you realise it was perhaps something a little more significant.

“I had worked in radio previously, so knew a bit about broadcasting, and I had been a reporter, so I knew something about news, as well.”

Newcastle-born Mr House worked in public relations with British Gas and Northumbrian Water after leaving Look North, returning to the corporation in 1980, for a four-year stint as presenter of the breakfast show on Radio Newcastle.

Now retired, he keeps himself busy by delivering Meals on Wheels in his area, and still keeps in touch with his former colleague, Mike Neville.

The pair spent ten years together on screen, between 1964 and 1974, developing a close friendship.

One of their show’s most popular items, Larn Yersel’ Geordie, spawned the stage show Geordierama, which drew audiences from the banks of the Tyne and beyond.

Mr House said: “We started at the City Hall, in Newcastle, and even took the show to places like Sunderland and Alnwick “If we were in Sunderland, say, we would make changes to the show. Instead of referring to Grey Street, we would take about Fawcett Street, for example. I still speak to Mike fairly regularly.”

Mr House describes a world of difference between the technology at his disposal and that available to Carol Malia and her colleagues.

He said: “There were no autocues in those days, we read from a script. We had no earpieces, either.

“The only contact you had with the control gallery was through the floor manager, who would walk around with a big display board.

“If anything went wrong, the first indication was seeing it on the floor manager’s board.

“I think the technology they have got nowadays is something you have really got to work at to be able to operate professionally.”