BBC set to pull the plug on Dateline London after 25 years of news debate show

theguardian.com:

One of the BBC’s longest-running and most internationally respected news programmes, Dateline London, is to be ditched at the end of the summer. The move, confirmed to the show’s producer this weekend, is the first in a series of billed “radical changes” planned by the broadcaster.

To the surprise of the programme’s production team and panel of high-profile contributors, the show will end in September, just as it marks its 25th continuous year on air on the BBC’s News and World channels.

“It’s pretty clear the BBC has decided it wants to make substantial changes to the news channels,” said Nick Guthrie, who has edited the programme since its beginning and who still hopes for a reprieve.

“It’s an iconic brand that offers a unique perspective,” he added. “The show was recently described by [former Democratic presidential candidate] Hillary Clinton as an ‘oasis of sanity in a very troubled world’. And [former BBC Trust chairman] Chris Patten once called it ‘the jewel in the BBC’s crown’. I may be biased, but it would be a tragedy to cancel it now, as audiences cry out for clarity. The contributors have been told it is doomed and are not happy either.”

In response the BBC is promising that Dateline London’s particular mix of comment and expertise, often drawn from outside the corporation’s own staff, will be on offer elsewhere in its television schedules.

The programme, with a global audience of 10-15 million, was initially presented by Charles Wheeler, the late revered foreign correspondent, and was broadcast for 50 minutes on Sunday mornings.

It now fields a range of political and foreign affairs panellists with varying perspectives, including Janet Daley, of the Sunday Telegraph, Bronwen Maddox, of the Institute for Government,