1970s

John Craven

Newsround started on 4 April 1972, with just three people and two typewriters, based in the corner of the BBC's foreign news room.

• John Craven was the first presenter
• The first series only lasted for six weeks, and went out twice a week. But it was such a success that it came back in September for six months.
• John made sure Newsround looked a bit different to adult news programmes by sitting ON the desk rather than behind it
• John claims he invented the "And Finally" - a fun story at the end of the programme But ITN don't agree and say they invented it. Newsround also got bigger in 1974 - it started going out 4 days a week.



• Newsround Extra was launched in 1975. These are longer, documentary-style programmes which go out a few times a year.
• Newsround was being watched by about 5.5m children in 1975 - which was just over half of all 5 to 7-year-olds.
• Newsround didn't have many people working for it in the 70s, so it was still using other BBC News reporters to tell kids about different news stories. One well-known journalist called Keith Graves, who reported on The Middle East, once said that he felt he had arrived when he came home from a warzone and his children - who'd previously not realised he worked on TV - said to him, "Daddy, daddy, I saw you on Newsround!"
• Newsround was broadcast all year round from September 1979 - previously it had gone off air during the summer.