The daily, child-friendly news reports kept me up to date with all the most important happenings from around the globe and explained them to me in a way that was simple to understand without being patronising. Newsround was the first British television programme to report the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 and was the first to report the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981. But as well as reporting on the tragedies, famines, wars and terrorism, Newsround showed us that good things were happening, too, and making the world a better place. Newsround told us about the fall of the Berlin Wall, the royal wedding between Prince Charles and Lady Diana, the World Land Speed Record attempt by Richard Noble and, for some reason, told us a disproportionately large amount about pandas. Taking my cue from John Craven and the Newsround team, I have put together a selection of both the good news and the bad news that I remember from the eighties. The Great Storm of 1987 Poor old Michael Fish – he’s never going to live this one down, is he?
