Editing World in Action (section)

==Origins==
''World in Action'' was the pre-eminent current-affairs programme produced by Britain's ITV Network in its first 50 years. Along with ''[[This Week (1956 TV programme)|This Week]]'', ''[[Weekend World]]'', ''TV Eye'', ''[[First Tuesday (TV programme)|First Tuesday]]'', ''The Big Story'', and ''[[The Cook Report]]'' – and the news-gathering of [[ITN]] – ''World in Action'' gave ITV a reputation for quality broadcast journalism to rival the [[BBC]]'s output.

For the first 35 years of its existence, ITV had a near-monopoly of television advertising revenue. [[Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet|Roy Thomson]], who ran [[Scottish Television]], famously described ITV as a "licence to print money".<ref>{{cite web|date=5 July 2006|title=Kenneth Roy Thomson|url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/kenneth-roy-thomson/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625093153/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/34783|archive-date=25 June 2013|access-date=29 March 2013|work=[[Press Gazette]]|df=dmy-all}}</ref> In return for this income, the broadcasting regulator insisted that the ITV companies broadcast a proportion of their programmes as [[public service broadcasting|public-service TV]]. Out of this was born the network's reputation for serious current affairs, eagerly grabbed by programme makers under Granada's founder, Lord [[Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein|Sidney Bernstein]].

Some of the most prominent figures in 20th-century British broadcasting helped to create ''World in Action'', in particular, [[Tim Hewat]], "the maverick genius of Granada's current affairs in its formative years",<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Purser|first=Philip|date=2004-12-04|title=Obituary: Tim Hewat|url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/dec/04/guardianobituaries.media|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816052440/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/dec/04/guardianobituaries.media|archive-date=2019-08-16|access-date=2020-10-04|website=[[The Guardian]]|language=en}}</ref> and [[David Plowright]], but also [[Jeremy Isaacs]], [[Michael Parkinson]], John Birt, and [[Gus Macdonald, Baron Macdonald of Tradeston|Gus Macdonald]] and its most long-serving executive producer, Ray Fitzwalter. The series developed the skills of generations of journalists, and in particular, filmmakers. [[Michael Apted]] worked on the original ''[[Up Series|Seven Up!]]''. [[Paul Greengrass]], who spent 10 years on ''World in Action'', told the BBC: "My first dream was to work on ''World In Action'', to be honest. It was that wonderful eclectic mixture of filmmaking and reportage. That was my training ground. It showed me the world and made me see many things."<ref>{{cite web|last=Carnevale|first=Rob|year=2006|title=Getting Direct With Directors... No 40: Paul Greengrass|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/callingtheshots/paul_greengrass.shtml|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222154302/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/callingtheshots/paul_greengrass.shtml|archive-date=2020-02-22|access-date=29 March 2013|publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref> He later told ''[[The Guardian]]'': "If there's a thread running through my career it's ''World in Action'' – the phrase as well as the programme."<ref name="GreengrassGuardian">{{cite news|last=Armstrong|first=Stephen|date=9 June 2008|title=A whirlwind in action|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jun/09/itv.television|url-status=live|access-date=29 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618033134/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jun/09/itv.television|archive-date=2020-06-18}}</ref>

Although its rivals produced many memorable programmes, ''World in Action'''s "slamming into the subject of each edition without wordy prefaces from a reassuring host-figure"<ref name=":1" /> consistently gained a reputation for the kind of original journalism and filmmaking that made headlines and won major awards. In its time, the series was honoured by all of the major broadcasting awards, including many [[BAFTA]], the [[Royal Television Society]], and [[Emmy]] awards.

''World in Action's'' style was the opposite to its urbane BBC rivals, especially to the London BBC. By repute, especially in its early days, ''World in Action'' would never employ anybody who was on first-name terms with any politician. Gus Macdonald, an executive producer of the programme, said it had been "born brash".<ref>{{cite web|title=World in Action|url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/worldinacti/worldinacti.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017123908/http://www.museum.tv:80/archives/etv/W/htmlW/worldinacti/worldinacti.htm|archive-date=2008-10-17|access-date=29 March 2013|publisher=[[Museum of Broadcast Communications]]}}</ref> Steve Boulton, one of its last editors, wrote in ''[[The Independent]]'' that the programme's ethos was to "comfort the afflicted – and afflict the comfortable." Paul Greengrass told ''The Guardian'' in June 2008 that the chairman of Granada TV once told him: "Don't forget, your job's to make trouble."<ref name="GreengrassGuardian" />

The series outlasted all of its contemporaries in ITV current affairs, killed off as the commercial pressures on the network grew with the arrival of multichannel TV in the UK. Eventually, ''World In Action'', too, was removed from the schedules by its own creator, Granada TV. On 7 December 1998, ''World in Action ''ceased operations for good after 35 years on air. It was replaced in the schedules by ''[[Tonight (television programme)|Tonight]]''.