'' News at Ten '' developed a solid reputation for its extensive coverage of international news stories . Foreign correspondent Sandy Gall , the first ITN journalist to cover the start of the Vietnam War in 1965 , returned there on several occasions to produce reports for '' News at Ten '' until he was forcibly removed from the country following the Fall of Saigon in 1975 . Michael Nicholson reported in-depth on the 1976 Soweto uprising for '' News at Ten '' , and later went on to cover the Falklands War in 1982 , after which he was awarded the South Atlantic Medal for his work . '' News at Ten '' , by now the UK 's most popular news programme , ultimately forced the BBC to follow ITN 's lead and extend its own programming to match , although Lord Annan declared in his 1977 '' Committee into the Future of Broadcasting '' , " We subscribe to the generally held view that ITN has the edge over BBC News . " < ! -- Deleted image removed : In the absence of Alastair Burnet ( who left ITN in 1972 to pursue a career in print journalism ) , '' News at Ten '' paired Andrew Gardner and Reginald Bosanquet to create one of the programme 's most well liked newscasting duos . In 1978 , Anna Ford became the bulletin 's first female newscaster , and Alastair Burnet rejoined the programme in the same year . For more than a decade onwards , Burnet was the newscaster most associated with '' News at Ten '' , his " serious persona " , " sepulchral tones " and " deferential interviewing style " becoming respected hallmarks of the programme . By the late 1980s , Burnet - now a member of the ITN board of directors and '' News at Ten '' 's associate editor - began to draw criticism that he was losing the personal touch with his audience , allowing '' News at Ten '' to settle into a " stodgy " and " old-fashioned " complacency . Nonetheless , the programme continued to maintain a solid high audience during the 1980s and well into the next decade
Soweto uprising
Soweto uprising
ITV News at Ten