Panorama Article to be accompanied by a fact box of about 200 -300 words:
- Name coined from the fantastic view out of the office window at the BBC headquarters at Alexandra Palace. The first episode was broadcast on 11th of November 1953 and was a disaster as the audio tape of a brainwashed spy was played backwards.
- Longest running current affairs program worldwide. Its founder was Dennis Barton. Some of the most famous presenters were Richard and David Dimbleby . Jeremy Paxman was a Panorama reporter, Michael Buerk, Peter Snow, Gavin Hewitt, Robert Harris and the boss of Channel 4, Mark Thompson worked there as well.
- Highest viewing rates were 22.8 million in November 1995 when an interview with Princess Diana was broadcast.
- Known for breaking taboos. In June 1956 a drunken interviewee spurted out the f*** word in a live interview. In February 1957 Panorama showed the first birth on television.
- It has won numerous awards. One acclaimed episode include John Simpson’s “In the line of fireâ€? showing the bomb attack by US air forces on the BBC TV crew in Iraq 2003.
- On April’s Fools Day in 1957, viewers taken in by hoax spaghetti trees; 10 kilogram of cooked pasta on laurel bushes in Switzerland. Inquiring viewers were told to bury tins with ready-made pasta to grow the plants.
- ‘A window on the world’ has been Panorama’s slogan and concept. Its Its aim is to report Britain and the World, and to hold the powerful to account by means of investigative journalism.
- Began as a 45min magazine style program with about 5 issues, and changed to a single-issue documentary in the seventies, with the hydrogen bomb being the first in depth single topic featured in 1954.