It is not often – well, never before – that ITV1's News at Ten had cause to be grateful to Reading Football Club, but Reading's last-minute goal in their FA Cup match against Liverpool last night saved the bulletin from utter disaster. News At Ten was hit by a power cut 20 minutes before the programme's scheduled 10pm start time. When the back-up generator also failed at the studios on Gray's Inn Road, the team realised that they had no time to get to the emergency studio at Millbank. But Reading's equaliser, and subsequent extra-time winner, handed victory to the club in its match against Liverpool and gave production staff enough time to scramble down to Millbank, including seven people in senior correspondent James Mates's car. After a lot of filling from ITV's FA Cup team, the bulletin eventually went out at about 10.50pm, with the unflappable Julie Etchingham reading without an autocue and making do with notes on her desk.
