The mononuclear tungsten pentacarbonyl complexes with 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane and 4,4'-bipyridine were synthesised by the irradiation, with a UV source, of solutions of tungsten hexacarbonyl and the relevant N-containing ligand. Both complexes were characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and in both structures, the coordination geometry of the tungsten atom is slightly distorted from octahedral.