News At Ten returned. With no com­mer­cial break. Delib­er­ate? Per­man­ent? Odd feel­ing in what was oth­er­wise a very famil­iar pro­gramme pack­age (well, I did work on it years ago). But down to busi­ness. You want an old-fashioned cri­tique of an old-fashioned show? Start with the Bongs (the head­lines).

• Hasnat Khan exclusive/Diana
• Geor­gina Edmonds murder
• Ant­arc­tic spe­cial report
• Fabio Capello

Edmonds after Diana felt like too much crime at the top, and going through the show you have a lot of crime in the faux part one.

1. Hasnat Khan speaks — Neil Con­nery VT
2. Diana inquest — James Mates VT
3. North­ern Rock — Tom Bradby VT + live

4. Wrap: Ipswich murder/Peter Hain/Weddell reax

5. Edmonds murder — Penny Mar­shall VT

Still to come: Capello/Lifeboat rescue

[Place where the break should have been…]

6. Spe­cial Assign­ment — Bill Neely VT + live
Promo: Neely vlog

7. Capello — Geraint Vin­cent VT

Recap

8. Life­boat Res­cue — Tim Rogers VT

So seven pack­ages, two lives and a wrap — two of the pack­ages themed, “Spe­cial Assign­ment” plus “And finally.”

The style was spare and unin­trus­ive. Khan was a good get, but needed some con­text to shake the dust off his rather dull pro­nounce­ments. Diana going to live in Pakistan! Tell me more…

The story bal­ance made it feel a little too crime-time for prime time. The Neely vlog promo (which looked inter­est­ing) was given a lacklustre promo. But a very simple, clean, deliv­er­able programme.

The Life­boat Res­cue felt awk­ward as an “And finally.” Not exactly life-affirming — more an RTA on an inter­na­tional sea lane.

The only thing it lacked was a little of wit. Doubt­less that will come with time. The big audi­ence test will come on day two. For ITN’s sake, I hope it works.

There’s not much not to like here — which isn’t to damn with faint praise, but simply to point out that with news view­ers the less you can do to drive them away, the more will stay. But like bat­tery chick­ens, the odd sur­prise is good for them.

You can watch the Beeb altern­at­ive here. The set piece is John Simpson in Zim­b­abwe. Big old name plus big inter­na­tional story lead­ing equals state­ment of intent, and a con­ser­vat­ive reply to a con­ser­vat­ive challenge.

P.S. Re-read John Hockenberry’s cry of pain — You Don’t Under­stand Our Audi­ence — in case you think any of this really will shore up the crum­bling edifice.