Thames Television is London’s major ITV station, with headquarters and studios in the heart of the city on the Euston Road, with the main multi-studio complex sited fifteen miles away, on a bend of the river Thames at Teddington.

Our programmes cover the whole range of modern television, from Botanic Man to Edward and Mrs Simpson, Hazell and the Kenny Everett Video Show.

Our success as a medium for advertising is directly linked to the quality of our programmes. Thames’ plans for the future include a four-part film series of Quatermass, starring Sir John Mills as the famous professor; Love in a Cold Climate, a dramatisation of Nancy Mitford’s best-selling novel; Hollywood our celebration of the silent film; and new programmes from top-class entertainers like Max Bygraves and Morecambe and Wise.

Filming entirely on location, our subsidiary Euston Films produces taut drama series like The Sweeney and the six-part serial Out, starring Tom Bell.

Thames has an unrivalled reputation for documentary films like Palestine, our three-part history of the birth of Israel, while each week TV Eye brings back film of a major news story from all over the world. We’re proud to say that our programmes equal the best in the world, having won all the major international prizes, including America’s coveted Emmy award. Thames is the only company to have won the Prix Italia four times, including victories in all three categories.

As London’s weekday station, Thames has a special responsibility to viewers in the London area. Since September 1978 we have seen the establishment of a comprehensive local news service for London. Andrew Gardner, Rita Carter and Robert Southgate introduce the main daily local news programme at six o’clock, which is supported by bulletins at lunch-time and late in the evening. In addition, the weekly half-hour Thames Report, looks in depth at the most important story of the week in London. A considerable investment in personnel and equipment has made it possible to cover stories as they happen, right up until transmission – if necessary, through a live outside broadcast.

Sports coverage is also expanding with Thames Sport Roger Allison’s Friday round-up. And we’ll be providing exclusive coverage of major events in international gymnastics, while Thames will be powerfully represented in the hundred-strong ITV team for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

As well as being shown across the country through the ITV network, Thames programmes made for the London viewer have conquered the world.

Thames is the largest exporter of programmes to Australia, where Benny Hill, The World at War and George and Mildred have topped the ratings. In the USA, Three’s Company, which was derived from Thames’ Man about the House, was the most successful new programme in 1977/78. In Europe The Naked Civil Servant has been shown in sixteen countries and Father, Dear Father topped the ratings in Italy. Thames is making an impact with quality programmes, in more than a hundred countries all over the world.

Our chief source of revenue is the screen-time we sell to advertisers. We take no cash from the government television licence fee. Instead we provide the most influential platform for advertising in the London area.

The Thames area covers London and most of South East England, stretching from Brighton to Buckingham and Braintree, from Thanet to Oxfordshire. That area contains more than a quarter of the British people in eleven counties around London.

Thames Television Limited
306 Euston Road – London – NW1 3BB – 01-387 9494

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The Prix Italia Presented by RAI, Italy’s public broadcasting organization, the Prix Italia has been described by The Times as ‘the most honoured prize a programme can receive. Awarded in three categories, drama, documentary and music, the Prix Italia generates fierce competition among the world’s programme producers. Thames is the only ITV company to have won the Prix Italia in all three categories.

• 1972 We Was All One Best Documentary
• 1976 The Naked Civil Servant Best Drama
• 1976 Beauty, Bonnie, Daisy, Violet, Grace and Geoffrey Morton Best Documentary
• 1977 St. Nicolas Cantata Best Music Programme
• 1980 Creggan Best Documentary

The Prix Jeunesse Equal in stature to the Prix Italia, the Prix Jeunesse is awarded solely to children’s programmes.

• 1972 Magpie – My Brother David UNICEF Prize
• 1974 Magpie – Like Ordinary Children
• 1982 The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Emmy Award The Emmy is America’s top television award. It is given in two categories: the national Emmy (for programmes transmitted in that year on American television); and the international Emmy, awarded to programmes made outside the United States of America.

• 1974 The World at War National Emmy for ‘outstanding documentary achievements in programmes dealing with artistic, historic or cultural subjects.’
• 1976 Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill National Emmy for ‘outstanding achievement in costume design for a drama series.’
• 1976 The Naked Civil Servant International Emmy for ‘outstanding achievement in entertainment programming.’
• 1979 Palestine National Emmy for ‘outstanding programme achievement.’
• 1980 Edward and Mrs. Simpson National Emmy for ‘outstanding limited series’

BAFTA Awards The British Association of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) are Britain’s answer to the American Oscars for outstanding achievements in film and television production.

• 1972 The Benny Hill Show Best light entertainment programme
• 1975 Beauty, Bonnie, Daisy, Violet, Grace and Geoffrey Morton Best factual programme
• 1977 Rock Follies Best drama series/serial
• 1979 Edward & Mrs. Simpson Best drama series/serial
• 1979 The Kenny Everett Video Show Best light entertainment programme
• 1982 The Pied Piper of Hamelin Best children’s programme

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But even before the Eighties arrive, the next couple of years are crucial to our future. We are faced by the need to secure a new contract from the Independent Broadcasting Authority and to justify its award, before and after the event. We are faced by the prospect that the Government may provide ITV with a second channel, and we must be ready to take the opportunities it would offer. But we recognise equally that this long overdue move might be even further postponed. If it is, we shall have to find other ways to ensure that our talents and energies can range more widely, and improve our service to the public even further.

PROGRAMMES ARE THE KEY to realising these aims. Conceiving programmes, creating programmes, transmitting them, selling them, making them better, bolder and sometimes bigger. So my priority as Managing Director, now and in the future, will be to work with my colleagues to ensure the excellence, invention and effectiveness of our complete range of programme production and scheduling. That process has already begun with a new annual Programme Plan developed with Jeremy Isaacs and his Controllers. The operation of this plan will be the basis of all the company’s future activities. As a result of that plan and its varied programme aspirations, we have a busy and rewarding year in prospect.

OUR NEW STRATEGY includes the development of a stronger, more comprehensive local journalism for our region with the creation of a fully-staffed Regional News Unit. This unit will also, I hope, see the introduction of lightweight electronic newsgatherjng techniques (ENG) which are such an important part of our future broadcasting technology. It will be responsible not only for the daily Thames at 6 but also for lunchtime regional news bulletins and other programmes. We shall also be developing our weekly network current affairs programme into new areas.

We intend to enlarge and improve our range of sports programmes and look afresh at what the viewing public want from sport on television. And we plan to introduce a complete new programme for the afternoon, designed by Thames, which will encompass the current variety of programmes seen during that period on ITV.

IN ADDITION to these extensive new developments we shall continue to concentrate on those areas where we have shown such outstanding success. In light entertainment we shall be producing no less than 70 situation comedies in the year, together with the variety and spectacular shows which have given the department such an unparalleled record. And it is our aim to continue to attract the finest talents in this field, as in others. The main newcomers in light entertainment are already household names: Morecambe & Wise, the record-breaking entertainers who have joined Thames to make television programmes and a feature film; and top DJ Kenny Everett, who will have his own pop music and entertainment show starting in the summer.

THE DRAMA DEPARTMENT will be producing Edward and Mrs Simpson, the story of Edward VIIIs abdication starring Edward Fox and scripted by Simon Raven, together with John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey, ten new plays for peaktime and, I hope, a new run of daytime dramas from Teddington. Euston Films will have a new series of The Sweeney and will begin to work on the first dramatic episodes of Danger UXB, featuring the heroic work of army bomb disposal.

We will have two highly popular and informative series in Botanic Man, David Bellamy’s study of ecology shot on location around the world, and Hollywood, a riveting documentary series about the silent era that gave birth to the world film industry.

I HAVE BEEN QUOTED as saying that the primary aim of a television company is to make fine programmes and that ‘the rest is housekeeping’. I do not underestimate the importance of everything that goes to make up ‘housekeeping’. In addition to Jeremy Isaacs I count myself fortunate to have alongside me controlling these activities Ian Scott, Director of Administration and Finance, whose wide-ranging experience is proving invaluable; a Sales Department under Jim Shaw which is the most effective of its kind in the country; an extremely successful international sales operation led by Muir Sutherland which has trebled Thames’ income from overseas sales in three years; and under Bob Godfrey’s direction a Technical and Engineering Department of high accomplishment and many varied and impressive skills.

Our plans for this coming year will require the cooperation and enthusiasm of staff in all areas and the gradual expansion of our facilities together with the maximum utilisation of existing resources. I know that all will be forthcoming.

I regard it as a privilege, as well as a challenge, to lead the 1750 men and women of Thames in maintaining our standards of excellence in the interest of the public we serve.

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