Tom Bradby's chummy style may mark the start of a recovery for News at Ten

​As the charms of anchor Tom Bradby help the revamped ITV News lure viewers from the BBC, Sean O'Grady welcomes a return to personality on the nightly bulletin

Tom Bradby (ITV)

So here is the News at Ten…BONG! New handsome presenter for jaded news show pulls in half a million new viewers… BONG! BBC bosses left wondering where they went wrong… BONG! And why Tom Bradby is the suddenly best thing that Independent Television News has done since Sammy the skateboarding duck turned up in 1978.

Actually, that is not too extreme an exaggeration of the sorry state of ITN, or ITV News as we must now learn to call it, and the Bradby rebrand has arrived bang on time. Which is more than could be said for News at Ten a few years ago, when ITV, visibly bored with its public service remit, started shoving it round the late-night schedule so it could run more rubbish films – and in the hope that, as with an inconvenient grandparent packed off to a “care” home, eventually everyone would forget that it ever existed.

But now look. News at Ten is still some way behind the BBC Ten O'Clock News, anchored by Huw Edwards (not, maybe to his relief, routinely compared to George Clooney any more). “Huw's News” still pulls in some four million winning viewers. But Bradby's more conversational style has injected into the show a bit of personality, which has been lacking for some years, and moved the viewing figures back up to a (relatively) respectable two million.

Don't get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Julie Etchingham or Alastair Stewart, but they lack a little warmth maybe. I yearn for some of the past presenters, personalities in their own right – Sir Trevor McDonald, for example, a playground target for every impressionist since Lenny Henry was a kid (which he was, when he won New Faces with his impression). Or the even scrummier housewives' choice who some of us are old enough to remember: Reginald Bosanquet, or Reggie Beaujolais as he was sometimes known. His slightly slurry delivery, could on occasion be mistaken for the effects of a too intensive pre-show research session in nearby El Vinos, just as the bulbous red hooter of Sir Alastair Burnett could trace its pathology back to a single malt usually available in the dressing room.

But Sir Alastair, too, was a “personality”, albeit one with barely disguised deference towards the establishment. (Just the way he pronounced the words “members of the royal family were at Balmoral today…” gave 1980s Britain all the reassurance of stability they needed in troubled times). Like Tom, Sir Alastair appeared to be at home with the Windsors.

Then there was Anna Ford. And I confess that I was one of those many who developed a crush on, as Private Eye described her, the “doe-eyed, talented autocue reader”. She was, though, a talented journalist in her own right and, with Angela Rippon “on the other side”, did much to tear down the glass ceiling then covering the TV news studios. And she was a hit with the viewers, bringing in many men who suddenly discovered an interest in the latest doings of Menachem Begin, Joshua Nkomo and Red Robbo (try Wikipedia).

So I am delighted that Bradby has revived a rather old lesson about telly news, and thus – perhaps – begun to re-establish ITN as a serious force. Personality does matter. But of course, there's more to it than that. News at Ten was a very good news show once. Thirty or 40 years ago, it was spanking a complacent BBC, especially in its coverage of foreign wars. It used to have a 24-hour news channel just like Sky and the BBC, but this was scrapped in favour of the Jeremy Kyle Show on continuous loop.

This tells us all we need to know about the malign neglect ITV has displayed to its news and current affairs output. (The website isn't up to much, either). It will take more than even the personable Mr Bradby to rebuild ITN.