When the new franchises were advertised at the end of 1966 the general assessment was that the new company, Yorkshire, was being introduced to dilute the power and profitability of the four major companies, and perhaps to make life more difficult for them; thereafter, change for the sake of change would bring in two or perhaps three new regional contractors.

The real problem facing us at ABC Television was how to find a new area to replace our ‘lost week-end’ as Peter Black of the Daily Mail called it. The company’s reputation stood high with the Authority, but it would now be homeless. London was our objective. Like the other companies, we thought that the Authority would be content with simply weakening Rediffusion by lopping off the Friday evening. We at ABC therefore decided to apply for the London two-and-a-half day week-end contract, and, as second choice, the seven-day Midlands contract. The boards of directors of all the companies had studied their potential revenue and costs figures before reaching decisions. There was little difficulty in convincing our own Board that although the extra evening’s programme in London would be costly, the resulting revenue for the week-end would provide a profit at least equalling ABC’s current £3,000,000 [£55,000,000 today, allowing for inflation] and perhaps more if we worked hard enough at it.

The Authority had been doing its own arithmetic. It was on the assessments of their canny Director of Finance, Tony Curbishley, that the Authority had divided the five contracts as evenly and as fairly as they could. Curbishley, who had access to all the details of every company’s finances, had worked out the potential revenue of each area, deducted the running costs, and he calculated that the net profit on each of the four major companies would be £3,000,000, with smaller Yorkshire below this level. It was Curbishley who had been responsible for re-dividing London’s revenue and he calculated that the total income would be evenly split if the London week-end contract began at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. on Fridays. According to his figures both of the London companies should show a profit of £3,000,000. This confirmed the figures we had worked out and presented to our own Board. The fact that London Weekend failed to achieve such profits in the early years reflected their early difficulties and miscalculations.

And perhaps now was the opportunity for new blood to be infused? It soon began to leak out that certain BBC executives were being nominated by would-be new contractors and were, in fact, appearing at the Authority’s Brompton Road hearings alongside the new applicants. Then, ominously, Michael Peacock resigned from his job as Controller of BBC1 to join Aidan Crawley’s London Weekend Television consortium. Whilst other BBC executives were known to have allowed their names to go forward, to be revealed only to the Authority, we decided that some sort of assurance must have been given to Peacock before he would venture from security into the unknown. It was discovered that he had been nominated as Managing Director of the proposed company, and other BBC names began to emerge: Humphrey Burton (music and opera), Doreen Stephens (head of BBC children’s programmes), Frank Muir (supervisor of comedy shows) and also John Freeman and David Frost. Such expertise and renown would be almost irresistible to Lord Hill.

By this time there was confusion and suspicion in the ITV boardrooms and on the third floor at the BBC. For everyone concerned, the final pronouncement by Lord Hill could not come too soon. The Authority reached its final decisions on the new contractors at their meeting towards the end of May and it was decided that the Chairman would make the announcement two days later, on a Sunday, to avoid Stock Exchange reactions.

On the fateful Sunday morning the Chairmen of the three London contenders returned with their cohorts to Brompton Road for their final interviews with Lord Hill and Sir Robert Fraser. Thus it was that London Weekend was awarded the programme contract it had sought, while John Spencer Wills, Chairman of Rediffusion Television, was told by Lord Hill of the Authority’s decision – which was to merge Rediffusion with ABC Television and to award the London weekday contract to the new joint company. There would be an equal sharing of profits but fifty-one per cent of the voting shares and the control of the new company would go to ABC, who would provide the managing director and the controller of programmes. Lord Hill described John Spencer Wills’ reaction as ‘deeply shocked, if not flabbergasted, but courteous throughout’.

Next it was ABC Television’s turn and I went with my Chairman, Sir Philip Warter and the deputy-chairman Robert Clark. We were given the same formula, with the addition that Lord Hill and Sir Robert Fraser congratulated me on my appointment as Managing Director of the new London company. It was only on the day after the meeting with Lord Hill and Bob Fraser that I began to realise fully the enormity of the task upon which I had been so suddenly embarked. My first thought was for the staff; nearly three thousand men and women employed by both companies were now reading in their newspapers that something had happened to their jobs. To operate the new company (and what should we call it?) for four-and-a-half days in London would need fewer staff than Rediffusion employed and more than had worked for ABC. There would be jobs for little more than half of the total payroll of the merged companies. Lord Hill had already tried to quell rising apprehension among the ITV workers by a promise that there would be a job for everyone – somewhere.

It was important too to retain the most valuable programme executives and I had to make rapid decisions as to who should be in control of the six programme departments, bearing in mind the equal division between the two original companies and the knowledge that some people had committed themselves already to new contractors.

The post Shotgun marriage appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Lord Mountbatten was born in the first year of the century and had taken part in the pageant of history, with a seat in the Royal Box. Always attracted by the visual arts and a pioneer in the use of the motion picture for the training and entertainment of the Royal Navy, he had turned down all the offers to publish his written autobiography. It was typical of Mountbatten to choose the most up-to-date of all media, television, as his means of personal communication. His agreement with Rediffusion was that he would make himself available, together with his rare collection of diaries, letters, photographs, films and memories, to record his life on camera. In return he would possess the overseas rights of the resulting programmes, for the benefit of his Broadlands estate. Rediffusion assigned to him their distinguished documentary producer, Peter Morley, and for three years these two men worked together, with increasing understanding. Lord Mountbatten has admitted the early attempts to interview him on film were disappointing, but inexorably he mastered the technique and became an accomplished professional broadcaster.

I believe the original concept was a series of twenty-six half-hour programmes, although no networking arrangement with the other companies had been negotiated. During lengthy screening sessions Brian Tesler and I reviewed the results with Peter Morley; in ‘rough cut’ we looked at hours of library material, mostly in black and white, with new material filmed in colour of Lord Mountbatten returning to his scenes of glory.

Our decision was to make this the show piece for Thames. We took the bold course and decided to make twelve one-hour episodes, transmitted at the peak time of nine o’clock, though we had no illusion that any of the other stations would be likely to follow our example.

All this we explained to Lord Mountbatten and his film producer son-in-law Lord Brabourne, a joint ally valuable to both of us. I remember how Lord Mountbatten came down to our riverside Teddington studios to get to know us better. After luncheon aboard our ‘retired’ boat, the m.v. Iris, a survivor of Dunkirk, we went on a tour of the premises. On the nearby car park the Drama Department were recording a section of Frontier, where a firing squad in British Army uniforms was lined up to execute an Indian spy. As we were walking towards them the production halted and out of habit Lord Mountbatten ‘inspected’ the shooting squad. They must have looked a motley lot, actors in uniforms hired from Berman’s. There was only one real soldier around, a regimental sergeant major seconded from Aldershot to act as military adviser and obviously enjoying a few leisurely days at Teddington supervising an Equity squad and drilling them for the sequence. His embarrassment can be imagined when the raggle-taggle of actors suddenly found themselves being inspected by the Supremo himself! The RSM’s face was red as Lord Mountbatten gave him a curt nod. Inside, a prison play was in production. Lord Mountbatten was impressed with the dress rehearsal of a scene where the prisoner was taken from the condemned cell to face the Governor in his office. The reproduction was accurate, as Lord Mountbatten knew from his recent survey of prisons and subsequent report to the Government on the subject. He smilingly congratulated me afterwards on the excellent organisation of having troops on parade and a prison play laid on for him!

This was a pleasant interlude away from the attrition which had broken out in the ITCA headquarters where the new “Big Five’ were now meeting to plan the first season’s programmes of the new phase of ITV. Interesting new characters had arrived upon the familiar scene, as the principals turned up with their adherents. The infiltration of the new had begun.

One familiar face was missing. Rediffusion’s former protagonist, John McMillan, had been submerged in the blending of ABC and Rediffusion. Cecil Bernstein, Lew Grade and I had agreed that John McMillan’s knowledge and experience should not disappear from ITV, and we lost no time in creating for him a new job in the industry, as Director of Sport. Such an appointment was not welcomed by the incoming London Weekend Television who were now to be responsible for Saturday sport and wanted to take over ABC’s World of Sport.

At the programme planning meetings the old guard was much in evidence; Cecil Bernstein, with another Granada pioneer, Denis Forman; Lew Grade, with his latest number two, Robin Gill, a pressurising young man with ambitions to succeed even Lew Grade himself; Brian Tesler and I, who had now moved up the ladder from the week-ends and provinces to London. The new companies were represented by Yorkshire’s Ward Thomas and Donald Baverstock, and London Weekend’s buoyant team of Michael Peacock and Tom Margerison, both eager to teach new tricks to old masters.

The situation was clearly defined. In the assessment of the Authority, four companies had equal strength and opportunity, with practically the same potential advertisement revenue and the same potential profit, £3,000,000. Yorkshire came fifth in size and revenue, but with their fair share of networked programming guaranteed by the Authority.

Lew Grade had been swayed by Robin Gill’s financial calculations to concentrate on the Midlands contract, but now he was without his foothold in London and was one more regional contractor. As a former tenant of the London Weekend preserve he was also smarting under the deprecatory comments Michael Peacock continued to make to the press about ATV’s shortcomings, and his promises of more uplifting programmes at week-ends. Surrounded by his shining knights from the BBC, he believed implicitly in what London Weekend’s colourful application for the franchise had set forth. Now he was determined to prove his words and to revitalise the week-end’s television.

Granada had been little disturbed by the changes, except that they now faced the problem of contributing from Lancashire their quota of Saturday and Sunday programmes on a reduced income. Yorkshire had its own task of starting off with new staff and without any programmes in reserve. They would have to originate fewer programmes than the other four, but correspondingly they had to network more than anyone else and therefore their ratings depended upon whatever new programmes were available for them. The programme output of Granada, ATV and Thames was predictable, but after the shouting had died down would LWT be capable of supplying an effective Saturday-Sunday output?

Even when the interchange of programmes was agreed payments would still have to be arranged between the five companies; a new system had to be devised. An immediate issue was that if LWT were to be given absolute control of Saturday afternoon sport why was the budget for World of Sport so suddenly inflated? What percentage of Midland, Lancashire and Yorkshire sports contributions would be included in the reconstructed programme?

Peacock and Tom Margerison faced up to this with apparent equanimity but when they returned to their office in Burlington Street there must have been some puzzled consultations with their colleagues. BBC-trained executives were used to competing in a gentlemanly way for allocations of the overall budget and once the figures were settled they simply ordered programmes from the appropriate departments. They had merely to ask for fifty hours of drama, sixty hours from Light Entertainment, and so on, then await the detailed proposals. ITV programme controllers had to go back to their studios and then make their own programmes. At LWT there was little understanding of the intricacies of ITV programme finance and the proper division of costs. Nor was the scheduling, planned with the other four major companies, the final stage; there still remained the ten regional companies to be convinced of the workability of the schedules.

The final judgement, though, would come from the public, and there was a wide difference between the time-honoured BBC policy of giving the public what was good for them, and the ITV attitude of trying to offer the public what they would like to view. If the public did not respond to whatever was new and revolutionary in the LWT week-end schedule then the advertisers, an ultra-conservative group, would probably sit back and wait until the required audience was assembled, just as they had done in the early and desperate days of ITV.

It was in this uneasy and uncertain mood that ITV was relaunched in its new career in August 1967. Many tried and favourite programmes had been thrown out of the new schedule. Unknown and unresearched programmes were being tendered by three new companies; a percentage of failure was inevitable. Unfortunately, too, a new method of audience research was being introduced. TAM Rating (Television Audience Measurement) was another of the casualties of the era of change, to be replaced by Audits of Great Britain’s new system (“son of Tam’ some called it). The new means of audience appraisal had the backing of the Joint Industry Committee for Television Advertising Research (JICTAR) and therefore was financed collectively by advertisers, agencies and the programme companies. It was an improved system but two years would go by before its new standards of measurement would be understood and accepted.

Meanwhile, according to the first JICTAR figures the audience for ITV had shrunk alarmingly, almost overnight.

The post Mountbatten’s ratings appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

The press in the week before had taken delight in authoritatively speculating that certain companies were doomed. STV in Glasgow was going. One of the regionals would be restructured. A merger between Southern and someone was on hand.

The reality was very different but just as shocking. TWW, the dual broadcaster to Wales and western England, was out, replaced by a dazzling array of names headed by Richard Burton.

London weekends went to the London Television Consortium, made up of some of the senior management of the BBC plus other big names. ATV was therefore stripped of its London foothold.

The new Yorkshire region went to the Telefusion rentals and pipe-TV company, on condition that they took up the talent and management of the rival Yorkshire Independent Television consortium.

With all that and the headlines for Monday’s newspapers practically writing themselves (Richard Burton top, David Frost second, Telefusion on the inside pages), the announcement about the London weekdays contract must have seemed dry and technical.

It certainly didn’t seem to be a revolution. After all, neither the incumbent, Rediffusion, nor the displaced ABC had lost out.

Instead there would be a technical change as the two combined to provide programmes from Monday morning till Friday afternoon.

That ABC was given a slim majority of the company was barely noticed. That the ITA had specified the Howard Thomas of ABC was to be the MD and that he was to have a free hand in choosing the staff and management also slipped past.

Most journalists saw nothing to write up about – just a boardroom manoeuvre here and name change (possibly) there. Richard Burton and David Frost seemed much more important.

The journalists probably missed a trick. Far from being a simple merger between two companies to run an existing service, this was a revolution.

Rediffusion were completely humiliated. From being the premier ITV company, they switched to having a large investment in someone else’s premier ITV company.

ABC, that minnow in the Midlands and North, frequently confused with ATV and always fighting its London weekend rival for access to the peak London audience, suddenly came into possession of the commanding heights of ITV.

What no-one asked, because no-one realised exactly what this meant, was if ABC was up to the job. And would Rediffusion go quietly?

The journalists went back to their desks and wrote about Richard Burton’s private life and David Frost’s public life and produced profiles on little Telefusion.

Meanwhile, Howard Thomas sat down and started to consider the really important issues.

The post The shotgun marriage appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Here is Thames, a vigorous young company, producing programmes which continue to win worldwide acclaim, able to carry proudly back to Britain for a second year the most coveted award in the whole of international broadcasting. Here is Thames earning £3m annually in foreign currency for Britain, by exporting its programmes to more than a hundred countries overseas. Yet simultaneously and paradoxically here is Thames, in common with the rest of Independent Television and the BBC, under yet another scrutiny and with yet more uncertainty about its future. It is a situation which puzzles our broadcasting colleagues throughout the world. When I go to countries like Australia, where British programmes are regarded as the excellence to which their own productions must aspire, the idea of these continuing enquiries into television is regarded as a British eccentricity. Unfortunately, it is not so amusing for the people who work in broadcasting.

What is especially difficult for us in ITV is the double standard which is so often applied by those who write about, talk about, or take part in committees about us. For our part we are prepared to admit frankly that when ITV began 22 years ago, commercial necessity produced a service that was engrossed with ratings and seeking to maintain its existence. But that was very long ago. ITV has now achieved a public service of high quality, rivalling anything that broadcasting can offer in Britain or elsewhere in the world – and limited only by expansion into an additional channel. It is no accident that ITV companies have become increasingly attractive to some of the finest talents in the BBC: men and women who would not join an inferior service however rich the rewards.

Nevertheless there are still people reluctant to acknowledge how ITV has developed, from its beginnings as the brash newcomer of 1956. The BBC, for example, still refers to its monopoly of public service broadcasting’. A respected critic, writing in the Sunday Times, suggested that a BBC play about welfare state bureaucracy ‘would have had no chance’ of being screened ‘on the commercial networks’. There remains a kind of snobbism behind such blinkered attitudes.

THE ANNAN COMMITTEE mostly managed to avoid this trap, but then made some surprising conclusions. Having recognised that ITV now offers programmes quite as good as, and in some cases superior to, the BBC; having acknowledged that ‘it is difficult to make comparisons when the BBC has two channels’ and that ‘ITV output cannot be expected to have the range which BBC can provide on two channels’; and having argued for the inauguration of a fourth channel as ‘a challenge to broadcasters’ and ‘a nursery for new forms and new methods of presenting ideas’ the Committee then promptly rejected the proposal that it should be run by the ITV companies. They claimed there would then be a risk of giving the public more of what they already had, and intensified competition between ITV and BBC.

This is out of touch with reality. The best way to make a fourth channel thrive, in a world where the viewer increasingly expects free choice of what he watches, is to dovetail it with ITV’s current service. A fourth channel having to compete against BBC’s two and ITV’s one would be fighting a losing battle, which all the taxpayer subsidy in the world could not win. The result would be an elitist service for a tiny minority of viewers, subsidised at enormous public cost. Yet one of the main areas in which ITV producers can fairly claim to have established unequalled experience and success is in popularising minority subjects. That experience, coupled with complementary – not competitive – scheduling between ITVl and ITV2, is the key to providing a new and exciting service on the fourth channel.

AS TO THE ASSERTION that ITV2 would provide ‘more of the same’, there are scores of ITV programme makers who are clamouring for the chance to prove this judgement of Annan wrong, once the straitjacket of a single channel has been removed. But if we were to assume that the staff and managements of ITV companies would want to produce on ITV2 a service identical to ITV1, the machinery of the Independent Broadcasting Authority is there to prevent such a duplication. We at Thames (and most of our colleagues in ITV) would expect to provide an ITV2 service which is obliged by statute and by IBA control to fulfil requirements not yet met by ITV or BBC. One of those, for which we put forward the original proposals in 1971, is the acquisition of programmes from independent producers for showing at peak time. We would welcome these additional freelances, though I suspect that they are neither so numerous nor so devoid of opportunity as the critics of BBC and ITV suggest. The fact remains, however, that the ITV companies are already equipped to provide a service which will meet the philosophical demands of the Annan Committee and also win a sizeable audience. Alternatives to ITV2 can do the first, but not the second.

The Annan Committee reported almost a year ago. As I write, the Home Office is about to produce the results of its deliberations on that report. So once again broadcasters have halted to await their future. We wait also to hear when and how the new IBA contracts are to be advertised and awarded. At Thames we await with confidence the confirmation that our record will ensure the continuation of our contract in the future. But we wait. And while we wait, we have to go on working.

Elsewhere in this Review you can see what ‘going on working’ means. In 1977 it meant producing 300 hours of programmes for our region and a further 700 for the ITV network. It meant raising a bountiful revenue from our advertisers, establishing new records. It meant selling more programmes overseas than any ITV company has ever done before.

Those achievements are made possible by what I believe to be the most professional staff in British television. But those bare facts could imply that Thames in 1977 was identical in all respects to Thames in 1976, ploughing the same familiar furrow. Far from it.

IN 1977 we introduced Thames At 6 – a daily regional programme which replaced the former Today and brought Andrew Gardner from ITN to be its chief presenter. Already the new programme has been praised for its impact, and this is only the first stage of impressive developments in television journalism covering local news and current affairs.

In 1977 we introduced Time For Business, a weekly 45-minute programme for the London region, not only a forum for the world of business, manufacturing and the city, but emphasising to the general public the importance of business and its contribution to their life style. Presented by the unique popularising talent of Eamonn Andrews, the programme is ITV’s first in the field. It arose directly from the consultation between business and union leaders and ITV companies, promoted by the Independent Broadcasting Authority.

In 1977 our outstandingly successful Light Entertainment Department produced another string of entirely new hits. There were the situation comedies The Upchat Line and Miss Jones & Son; the sparkling variety shows Night Out At The London Casino; and a range of superbly spectacular productions, including the highly acclaimed Tommy Steele And A Show, now chosen to represent ITV at this year’s Golden Rose of Montreux.

In 1977, the year in which the Annan Committee put into ITV’s mouth the words ‘If the public prefers series, why produce one-off dramas?’, Thames’ Drama Department in fact transmitted in peak time two seven-part series and fourteen ‘one-off dramas’, or plays.

DETAILS OF THESE and other innovations are in the Managing Director’s accompanying report of the year’s programmes, together with information about other imaginative projects. But it is not only in our programmes that new developments are to be found.

In 1977 our Technical and Engineering Department, in addition to its many other technological developments, launched a new Outside Broadcast unit of its own design, which packs into a single vehicle the resources of a vast studio.

In 1977 our Sales Department launched Enterprise, its own entirely new computerised airtime sales system, which provides a faster, more comprehensive service to advertisers and also increases the efficiency of our internal operation.

In 1977, with London Looks Forward, Thames created and financed an unprecedented investigation and debate about London’s future, on which the Duke of Edinburgh commented: ‘This is the first time a television company has become so deeply involved in the organisation of a project of such great public interest. It must also be the first time that a television company has managed to establish what might be described as two-way communication with the public.’

Those are considerable achievements, but it is inevitable that hundreds of other successes go unrecorded in a formal Chairman’s statement. The award of the OBE to our brilliant Controller of Light Entertainment Philip Jones and other honours to our staff – and the programme awards, both to complete production teams and to individuals like cameraman Nick Downie (Royal Television Society News Feature Award) and designers Alex Clarke and Rod Stratfold (RTS Design Award for Rock Follies) bring pleasure and pride to all of us. In the same way, the achievements of week-by-week programmes like Help!, Money-Go-Round and Magpie (which has now raised more than half a million pounds for children’s charities), go largely unsung although they remain a crucial part of our service to the public, especially to the underprivileged. These are not the routine achievements of some shapeless thing called a company, but the creation of dedicated, imaginative people; for people are the main ingredient of a television programme company.

DURING THE YEAR we have made several changes in our structure and management, building a younger team to move Thames forward. This energetic group is now led by Mr Bryan Cowgill, the outstanding BBC programme maker and channel controller, who joined us as Managing Director in October. He took over from Mr George A. Cooper who had reached his retirement age after contributing so much to ITV as well as to our company. The first Sales Director both for ABC Television and for Thames Television, Mr Cooper succeeded me as Managing Director in 1974. His knowledge and advice continue to be available to us on a consultancy basis.

AFTER TEN SUCCESSFUL YEARS, changes in the Board were inevitable. One of our earliest directors, Mr Humphrey Tilling, formerly Company Secretary of EMI Limited, and a member of its Board, also came to retirement age. The wise and polished contributions of Mr Tilling will he missed at our Board meetings, but we shall continue to enjoy hearing his scintillating after-dinner speeches at our social events. In his place, we are fortunate to have another EMI director, Mr John M. Kuipers, particularly because of Mr Kuipers experience of electronics and his recent supervision of EMI’s interests in Australia and the Far East. Retirement age was also the reason for the resignation of one of our two independent directors, Lord Wolfenden, and we were sorry to lose his guidance on educational programmes, dating back to his pioneer work on the Schools Advisory Committee in 1957, when Rediffusion Television introduced the first television programmes for schools. Succeeding him as another non-executive independent director we are fortunate to have the services and experience of the distinguished film and television producer, Lord Brabourne.

The collaboration between Bryan Cowgill and our Director of Programmes, Jeremy Isaacs, is already producing new ideas, new programmes and new ways of extending our public service. At the time of Mr Cowgill’s appointment, the Board also made other changes to the senior management. Ian Scott became Director of Administration and Finance, with Jim Shaw continuing as Director of Sales and Marketing. A new senior management team was formed to work alongside the four executive Board members: Muir Sutherland, Managing Director of Thames Television International; Bob Godfrey, technical and Engineering Director; John Hambley, Planning and Development Director; and John O’Keefe, Industrial Relations Director, with Ben Marr continuing as Company Secretary.

All the promotions involved in these moves, and those immediately resulting from them, are internal appointments from among our existing management. At the same time, we have begun to make structural changes to our departmental system where we think them necessary. Current Affairs and Documentaries have now been split, for example, into two different departments under Mike Wooller and Peter Pagnamenta. Further changes will follow, including the establishment of the ambitious Regional News Unit about which the Managing Director writes elsewhere.

NEW POLICIES ARE EMERGING at Thames, for example, in relation to sport and to filmed programmes. When Rediffusion Television, the pioneer London weekday contractor, was merged by the Authority with ABC Television, the weekend contractor for the North and Midlands, then dominating the Saturday/Sunday afternoon audiences, LWT took over ABC’s World of Sport with outstanding success; but no longer can ITV sport be concentrated into the weekend. With such international sports specialists as Bryan Cowgill, Managing Director of Thames, and Paul Fox, Managing Director of Yorkshire, recruited into the Independent Network, there should now be vigorous competition with the BBC on weekday sports coverage and commentaries.

In terms of filmed programmes, and with all the studios of Thames Television now overflowing with both live and videotaped programmes, this company must turn increasingly to the medium of film to augment its programme output. The international success of Sweeney!, in the cinema as well as on television, has proved that British drama series of the highest quality can be filmed entirely on location, and therefore Thames’ subsidiary film company, Euston Films, will extend its production.

Benefiting by all the expertise which has been gained by this company over its busy seven years, Thames Television will now take the further step of making a series of full-length feature films for television. It is hoped to revive and refurbish the reputation of British feature films at their very best, except that these films will not be produced for the cinema, hut for today’s greater audience television.

To the makers of our past and future programmes, and to every member of the staff of Thames Television, I express thanks for a highly successful year, and look forward to another period of exciting progress.

The post Chairman’s statement appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

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.

The post A message from the Managing Director appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

On June 22, one-and-a-half million Londoners watched a unique evening of television when Thames devoted four hours to exploring Londons present state and future prospects. This was the culmination of two months of special programmes, and prefaced a two-day conference, all part of Thames’ London Looks Forward project.

The project also included a unique research study of Londoners’ attitudes, a new book on London planning, and a series of specially-commissioned background papers.

The eight documentaries that preceded 22 June ‘evening of London’ revolved around the homes and lives of four London families, all from different areas and social groups. Made by the Today team and broadcast on consecutive Fridays from April, the films surveyed London through the families’ eyes taking planning issues to the people, and at the same time evoking the peoples’ experience for the planners. Many distinguished planners and decision-makers came to Thames’ studios on June 22, first to watch a special 90-minute documentary on London’s present and future, and then to join in live televised debate and answer the criticisms voiced in the programme. The four families were among the studio audience who heard, and questioned, the varying philosophies proposed.

The London Looks Forward unit is currently investigating two major problems which affect London’s present and future – those of derelict land, and the lack of playspace for children.

THE CONFERENCE

Howard Thomas, in his welcoming message to all attending the Conference, described the project as aiming to ‘help Londoners learn about and contribute to the future planning of their great city’, and expressed Thames’ gratitude to the many people and organisations whose enthusiastic and inspired help’ had been essential to the success of the project. HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh opened the London Looks Forward Conference on Monday 4 July, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Prince Philip, who had played a formative part in pre-conference discussions, set the tone for the Conference by exhorting participants to concentrate on specific means of action, rather than general aims, and to reconcile conflicts in search of a common sense of purpose.

Conference Chairman Max Nicholson then launched the first of six working sessions which covered the project’s primary themes. The speakers, all actively involved in shaping London’s development, ranged across the planning spectrum, from trades unionists to academics, from Secretary of State for the Environment Peter Shore to Terry Harris of the Albany Community Arts Centre and Peter Large, Chairman of the Jubilee Committee on mobility for the disabled.

For two intensive days, 200 invited members joined the Conference speakers in lively uninhibited discussion. A massive number of facts and ideas were generated, as points of contention and agreement were discovered between parties and people who were often meeting for the first time.

During the Conference, the Today programme was broadcast live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and transmitted impromptu interviews with Conference participants. LBC also gave full coverage to the event; its ‘AM’ programme gave up-to-the-minute reports on Conference proceedings and interviews with speakers. In a special half-hour programme on the evening of July 6, Prince Philip and other leading contributors to the project discussed their views of the Conference and their ideas for future action.

THE FUTURE

London Looks Forwards initial achievement has been to bring together a wide range of views, experience and interests to seek out fresh ideas and areas of agreement; that is also the future aim of the London Looks Forward unit, now in operation under the Conference Director John Hambley.

In particular the project will focus on what Londoners want of their city, and what they can do to improve it both by their own actions and by entering the continuing debate on the capital’s future.

On the research side, the London Looks Forward unit is now investigating dereliction and playspace, two issues at the heart of Londoners’ discontent with their environment. And with reason, for in inner London alone there is estimated to be some 2,000 acres of wasteland; the capital as a whole contains over 20 million square feet of disused industrial buildings. How has this appalling situation arisen, why does it persist and what should the government and the people of London be doing about it? These are some of the questions which the research is aiming to find out.

Even with all that vacant space, there are still not enough places for the kids to play. London Looks Forward’s work on playspace will start by running a survey to find out what sort of play facilities people in London actually want and can afford; it will be asking why official targets for provision of open space set in the early 1950s are still far from being reached by many London boroughs, and how local authorities, both of their own volition and together with local residents, can improve the situation.

In addition, the unit has put forward ideas for making short programmes or programme-slots on schemes initiated by Londoners for London. The aim would be to interest viewers in what is being done at a grass roots’ level, by people like them.

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Chairman
Howard Thomas CBE

Managing Director
Bryan Cowgill

Executive Directors
Jeremy Isaacs – Programmes
Ian M Scott CA – Administration & Finance
James F Shaw – Sales & Marketing

Other Board Members
Mrs Mary Baker
Lord Brabourne
John T Davey FCA
R R W Dicks
H S L Dundas CBE DSO DFC DL
John M Kuipers
Sir John Read FCA
Colin S Wills FCA

Executives
Ben E Marr CA – Company Secretary
R G J Godfrey – Engineering & Technical Director
John Hambley – Planning & Development Director
John O’Keefe – Industrial Relations Director
J A Muir Sutherland – Managing Director, Thames Television International

F J Atkinson – Technical Controller
Donald Cullimore – Controller, Public Relations
RJ Hughes – Sales Controller
Derek Hunt – Chief Accountant
Philip Jones OBE – Controller of Light Entertainment
Verity Lambert – Controller of Drama
Max Lawson – Financial Controller
Sam Leitch – Head of Sport
Geoffrey Lugg – Controller, Programme Planning & Liaison
Ian Martin – Controller of Features, Education & Religion
Malcolm Morris – Controller, Programme Department (Administration)
Peter Pagnamenta – Controller of Current Affairs
A C Parkinson – Controller of Administration
Eric Parry – Controller, Programme Services
Mike Phillips – Controller, Advertising & Publications
Grahame Turner – Controller of Outside Broadcasts
Sue Turner – Controller of Children’s Programmes
Mike Wooller – Controller of Documentaries

HEAD OFFICE AND LONDON STUDIOS
Thames Television
306-316 Euston Road
London NW1 3BB
Telephone: 01-387 9494

TEDDINGTON STUDIOS
Teddington Lock
Teddington
Middlesex TW11 9NT
Telephone: 01-977 3252

MOBILE DIVISION
Twickenham Road
Hanworth
Middlesex
Telephone: 01-898 0011

REGIONAL OFFICE
Norfolk House
Smallbrook Queensway
Birmingham B5 4LJ
Telephone: 021-643 9151

The post Inside Thames appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Raymond Aron

Sir Isaiah Berlin

Anthony Crosland

Paul Foot

Denis Healey

Sir Keith Joseph

Enoch Powell

Brian Abel-Smith

James Baldwin

Bishop Butler

Lord Devlin

J.K. Galbraith

Roy Jenkins

Herbert Marcuse

Shirley Williams

Talking about ITV2

“All the people named above have spoken this year in a single Thames Television series. The series, which brings important intellectual debate to a wide public, was the first on British television to give its participants proper time to develop their arguments and ideas. Hence the eminent authorities it has attracted and continues to attract.

Some people may be surprised to find that such series are made by an ITV company. And perhaps they are right to be surprised. For the imagination and professionalism of Thames’ programme staff has far too few outlets on the present single channel. Their many ideas for serious minority programmes cannot possibly receive sufficient screen time, especially as ITV is always opposed by the combined forces of BBC1 and BBC2.

Nevertheless, towards the day when additional channels provide further opportunities, Thames will go on devoting the largest possible proportion of its output to serious and informative television.”

HOWARD THOMAS, Managing Director

THAMES

today • this week • good afternoon •  something to say • treasures of the british museum
the second world war (in production) • documentaries including we was all one (winner 1972 Prix Italia)
my brother david (winner 1972 UNICEF award) • adult education and schools programmes

Thames Television, 306-316 Euston Road, London NW1 3BB

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Answering John Tasker (Head of Sound, Teddington), when he suggested that “it shouldn’t take a crisis to get management and staff together”, Mr Thomas repeated what he and the Chairman had said at the two earlier presentations at Euston. “In an industry which is at the very centre of communications, we seem to find difficulty in communicating effectively with each other. There has got to be an improvement: and I hope you will see these talks by the Executive Directors as a positive step forward.”

All three presentations were well attended and the general opinion was that useful information about the company had been put across. The question sessions at the end were particularly valuable.

Extracts

The Managing Director introduced the presentation by reiterating Thames’ position as ITV’s leading company. “Let me remind you, then, that Thames now makes more of Britain’s most popular programmes than any other ITV company. That in its own area, London, Thames is consistently more popular than the BBC or London Weekend Television. And that in sales of commercial time, despite a period of comparative recession in the advertising industry, the company has outstripped its competitors.”

Technical operations

Having described the divisional structure of the company, he paid tribute to the engineers. “The technical operations of Thames are second to none in ITV. The studios at Teddington, and those here at Euston and also our outside broadcast division at Han worth, keep us on the air and they also keep us one step ahead of the game in this fast-moving business. It was Bernard Greenhead and his team who did such a great deal to pioneer colour television for ITV.”

Sales

He then introduced George Cooper, Director in charge of Sales, Research and Publicity. Mr Cooper reminded the audience of ITV’s growth from a medium reaching only half a million homes across the country in 1956 to one now capable of being seen in 16.6 million homes. 94% of the total population was now covered by ITV, and advertisers spent £98.5 millions in 1969 to reach that audience.

He went on to talk about the Thames area. First its size: “If you take the whole of the population of Australia plus the population of New Zealand, and put them into an area half the size of Tasmania, you have the Thames market in size and population. It is the largest and most influential of all television areas. It contains four-and-a-quarter million Independent Television homes and fourteen million people”.

Its buying power: “Although our single area contains 25% of all the television homes in the country, it accounts for over 30% of total national sales. Many companies can, and do, operate successfully and profitably in the Thames area alone. With its high concentration of retail outlets and stores, its higher than average incomes and the sophistication of its population, it offers considerable economies in sales and marketing costs and gives opportunities for exceptional rewards to companies who are geared to take advantage of these conditions.”

ITA forecast beaten

Mr Cooper then turned to Thames’ actual performance in selling time.

“The Independent Television Authority calculated that from 1968 the five main companies would earn revenue in the following order:

1. ATV with seven days in the Midlands.
2. Granada with seven days in Lancashire.
3. Thames with four-and-a-half days in London
4. LWT with two-and-a-half days in London.
5. Yorkshire with seven days in Yorkshire.

And they divided the London contract on an almost equal basis, with 50.4% of the revenue to Thames and 49.6% to London Weekend.”

In practice, he continued, the ITA’s forecasts have not materialised. Thames soon became, and has remained, No. 1 revenue earner and not third as the Authority predicted. And what about the roughly 50/50 split of London revenue between ourselves and LWT?

“In fact, we are considerably above the 50% line and LWT are well below it. We have been steadily improving our share of the London revenue going up from 55% to 60% and in June 1970 as high as 65%. This in spite of intensive efforts by LWT to improve their position with attractive rate offers to advertisers. These achievements made Thames No. 1 in London and No. 1 across the Network, a position we intend to maintain.”

Future

Finally he looked to the future: “Advertising budgets are being cut, money is being spent on promotional activities other than television and press, and our customers want more help and services from us. We have pioneered support activities like the Ansafone Service, reply coupons in the TVTimes, inclusive production facilities and many other services which are time consuming and sometimes costly. But these facilities are necessary if we are to attract new sources of revenue to make up for losses and to encourage our customers that television is right for them. Colour, videotape, studio facilities for the smaller advertiser – these and many other services will be necessary to develop our advertising income and maintain the excitement and effectiveness of the medium.”

The post Staff communication to be improved appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Associated Rediffusion took over the building in 1954, and began the conversion from what had been the wartime Air Ministry to the home of the infant ITV. Studios and technical areas were installed where steel shelters had stood for Winston Churchill and headquarters RAF staff. One member of the Marconi planning team which supervised the conversion was Phil Berkeley, now Head of Engineering Projects for Thames.

Since TVH went on the air on 22 September 1955, it has been the base of ATV, ITN, Rediffusion, Southern, Scottish, TV Times and Thames.

Now the building is to be ripped apart again, for IPC, and given a new name.

… and at the Lyceum

The Lyceum has been associated with staff parties for almost as long as TVH with television. Many Rediffusion parties were held there, and Thames continued the tradition for its first two years.

But now that Thames has moved to Euston, the Board has decided it would be inappropriate to hold parties there any longer. Chief advantage of the Lyceum was its closeness to Television House, particularly for staff involved in transmissions on the night of the party.

Announcing the change this week, the Managing Director stated “We will not have a Christmas Party at the Lyceum this year, but instead consideration is being given to either a summer or autumn function at a more suitable location within the Greater London area. A committee to plan this, and discuss the form and frequency of future parties, will be set up under the chairmanship of Colin Wills. It will consist of representatives of various departments of the company and members of the Social Club committee.’*

Euston move completed successfully

The careful and elaborate plans made over several months by Administration and Engineering Departments have paid off. The Euston move has been completed more or less without mishap and on schedule.

The last departments moved earlier this week, and all central London staff are now in their new accommodation — with the exception of Betty who opens the shutters of her new Club bar at 6.00 pm on Friday 13th!

Casualties of the move included Maintenance Foreman Derek Drury (slipped cartilage) and the electric typewriter of Sales Director’s secretary Betty Wilson (smashed carriage).

First reactions from the staff to their new home and to the smoothness of the move were good. Sue Mathiesen, Secretary to Sales Controller Jim Shaw: “There’s so much more space and light, and the cleanliness after Television House is marvellous. I used to work in the area before when I was with Rank Xerox, and I like being back. It’s so much easier to get to the shops at Oxford Circus by getting on the Victoria Line.” Bob Hurley was one of the team of duty officers who worked around the clock throughout the move. He praised the job done by Vanguard, the removal contractors. “They were ahead of schedule and goods were pouring into Euston at such a rate that we had to work hard to keep up with them.”

A last word from Colin Wills, who was in charge of the move. “The Executive Directors are most appreciative of the way in which the staff tackled this difficult changeover. Without their cooperation and readiness to roll up their sleeves to get on with the job, we should not have succeeded. I should also like to thank the members of the co-ordinating committee who planned the move.”

On the lighter side, Wanstead police telephoned on Monday, 2 November, to tell the company that old files were seen drifting down Wanstead High Street! In view of the recent council workers’ strike they are not pressing charges against Thames or against the refuse contractors who should have delivered them safely to a dump.

The post End of an era at TVH… appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

On 7 July the Executive Directors visited the site accompanied by the two architects – John Ware, responsible for the Control Rooms and Studios; and Marshall Levy for the overall conversion of the building. Dave Dunn, in charge of the move, our Clerk of Works, Ted Mathews, and Philip Berkeley acted as guides to the Directors.

The tour of inspection started in the foyer – still a shell of brick and concrete. Marshall Levy had prepared perspective sketches showing two different colour schemes made after consultation with Alan Kaupe, and the choice was made on the spot. The second decision was how to use the small shop which we have, just adjoining the foyer, and this was much easier to visualise on the spot. It will become a newspaper, magazine and tobacconist’s kiosk.

The party then examined the dressing rooms, the two studios and so up to the Central Apparatus Room, where the installation of equipment racks had begun. The control rooms are planned very much like those at Teddington, but with rather more acoustic isolation because of traffic noise and the possibility of noise from tube trains running below Warren Street.

These air-conditioned technical areas, the vast telecine area with its open booths for the individual machines were very favourably compared with the cramped layout at Television House. The party then had a look at one of the office floors, still raw concrete but with the windows glazed. These again are a complete contrast to Television House but still difficult to visualise in their final form.

As the builders moved out, it became the responsibility of a team led by ‘Rick’ Rickards and Peter Smart to get the cables laid and the equipment installed and working. This will be one long rush job – as by 17 November colour programmes must pass through our new London Centre to the GPO Tower and the Croydon and Crystal Palace Transmitters. The whole technical operations staff of Television House will by then be working from Euston – together with a small film and administration group.

Phase II of the building scheme provides the additional accommodation for these people, including a temporary canteen and will be complete before November. It will not be until September 1970 before all the remaining office, film, restaurant and other areas are completed and ready for the final move out of Television House.

To look after administrative matters, Dave Dunn has been appointed Manager at Euston and took up permanent residence on 21 July, with Sue Shields as his Secretary – the first girl on site.

From the photographs it is possible to get a good idea of the extent of the building, the service roadways passing through it and the relationship with our new neighbours. There is no doubt about our proximity to the GPO Tower – the No.1 reason for choosing a site in that part of London.

The post Progress at Euston appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

11.30 Cricket
and at 3.5
The Fourth Test Match
from Headingley
England v. Australia
commentary by
Ian Woodbridge ∙ Michael Parkinson
with summary by
Sir Leonard Hutton
and Bobby Simpson
television direction by
GEOFF HALL
Yorkshire Television Outside Broadcast

1.30 Close-down till 1.55

1.55 Thames Television
See panel

A New Service for London
Inaugural Luncheon at
The Mansion House

The distinguished guests celebrating the beginning of the new Service are eminent in London’s Government and business, in London’s music, art and sport, and in the Nation’s Press and Parliament which reflect the life and power of the Capital City

Speakers include the Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor, Lord Aylestone, Chairman of the ITA, Sir Philip Warter, Chairman, and Howard Thomas, Managing Director of Thames Television

commentator
ANDREW GARDNER

television direction by
JIM POPLE

Thames Television Outside Broadcast

2.45 Racing from Redcar
and at 3.20
Outside Broadcast cameras visit Redcar racecourse, where the racing team gives you a complete service, with starting prices, Tote returns and results from other courses
3.0 South Gare Sweepstakes (6f.)
3.30 North Sea H’cap (1½m.)
4.0 Sand Dune Stakes (1½m.)
commentators
in the grandstand Tony Cooke
in the paddock Ken Butler
on the rails Peter Moor
interviewers
John Rickman of the Daily Sketch and George Dobbie discuss form and crash helmets old and new
television direction by
ROY LOMAS
Tyne Tees Television Network
Outside Broadcast

4.10 Driveway
Episode 1: Meet the Major
cast in order of appearance

Major Alan Brock	Anthony Newlands
Miss Fisher	Judy Liebert
Shirley Pickering	Marjie Lawrence
Harry Weeks	John Trigger
Company Sergeant Major	Edwin Brown
Pamela Brock	Margaret Ashcroft
Julie Brock	Sandra Bryant
Mrs. Armstrong	Moyra Fraser
Mr. Brough-Morton	Maurice Hedley
Mrs. Brough-Morton	Dorothy Black
The maid	Anne Woodward

series devised by peter dacre
script by basil dawson
designer michael bailey
produced by CECIL PETTY
ATV Network Production

4.40 CHILDREN’S TELEVISION
The Sooty Show
– it’s that bear again and of course, Sweep and Soo
presented by
HARRY CORBETT
today’s special guest
GERRY MARSDEN
musical director alan braden
designed by alex macintyre
produced by
DAPHNE SHADWELL
Thames Television
Network Production

5.10 Magpie
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
with
TONY BASTABLE
PETE BRADY
SUSAN STRANKS
and including the return of The man from Do Not Adjust Your Set
Captain Fantastic
(produced by daphne shadwell)
directors
DAVID HODGSON
ROBERT REED
producer SUE TURNER
Thames Television
Network Production

5.50 News

6.4 Today
with
EAMONN ANDREWS
casting a quizzical eye on London, and everything else
directed by TERRY YARWOOD
produced by
ELIZABETH COWLEY
ALEX VALENTINE
Thames Television Production

6.30 The Laughter Makers
Carry On Nurse
For the first time on London’s television screens, one of the hilarious Carry On films
starring
KENNETH CONNOR
KENNETH WILLIAMS
CHARLES HAWTREY
WILFRED HYDE WHITE
BILL OWEN
LESLIE PHILLIPS
cast

Bernie Bishop	Kenneth Connor
Oliver Reckitt	Kenneth Williams
Hinton	Charles Hawtrey
Ted York	Terence Longdon
Percy Hickson	Bill Owen
Jack Bell	Leslie Phillips
Bert Able	Cyril Chamberlain
Henry Bray	Brian Oulton
Colonel	Wilfred Hyde White
Alec Lawrence	Ed Devereaux
Matron	Hattie Jacques
Sister	Joan Hickson
Ginger	Michael Medwin
Nurse Dorothy Denton	Shirley Eaton
Nurse Georgie Axwell	Susan Stephen
Nurse Stella Dawson	Joan Sims
Nurse F. James	Susan Beaumont
Nurse Helen Lloyd	Ann Firbank
Nurse Nightingale	Rosalind Knight
Nurse Rose Harper	Marita Stanton
Mick	Harry Locke
Jill Thompson	Jill Ireland
Mrs. Janie Bishop	Susan Shaw
Mrs. Marge Hickson	Irene Handl
Meg	June Whitfield
Norm	Norman Rossington

written by norman hudis
produced by PETER ROGERS
directed by GERALD THOMAS
Matron’s nurses have a hard time keeping amorous patients under control at Haven Hospital

8.15 Cooper King-size!
starring
TOMMY COOPER
An hour of Tommy’s classic comedy routines
with
special guest star
FRANKIE VAUGHAN
and
Deryck Guyler
Julie Rogers
Richard Caldicot
Felix Felton
Hugh Morton
Totti Truman Taylor
Len Lowe
Tony Fayne
Jay Denyer
Gladys Whitred
Max Howard
Louise Canine Review
and
Surprise guest stars
We know who they are but we’re not telling Tommy
special material eric merriman
bob sharples and his music
designed by robert macgowan
produced by MARK STUART
Thames Television
Network Production

9.15 What Shall We Tell the Children?
ROBERT KEE
introduces a
Report
by sally vincent
Sex Education in Britain Today
What should you tell your children about sex? How frank should you be? What words should you use? Tonight’s programme reports on how haphazardly too many children still learn the facts about sex. It shows that schools can help with sex education. Most importantly, for those who still find the subject a difficult one, it shows how some parents have answered the questions their children ask
produced and directed by
FRANCIS MEGAHY
Thames Television
Network Production

10.0 News at Ten
with
Andrew Gardner
Reginald Bosanquet
Leonard Parkin
Half and hour of up-to-the-minute news from ITN
The Weather Forecast

10.30 The System
ANTHONY BATE
JAN HOLDEN
in
The Flea Pit
by anthony skene
cast

Bull Atherton	Anthony Bate
Leo Atherton	Jan Holden
Dr. Gillie	Norman Scace
Peter Tolchard	Simon Lack
Jeremy	Norman Eshley
James	Tim Wylton
Carol	Fay Sparks
Rosa	Judi Bloom
Superintendent Baldwin	Hugh Cross
Paul Pevney	Robert Powell

designer peter caldwell
executive producer
H. V. KERSHAW
producer JOHN FINCH
directed by MICHAEL COX
‘Soldiers have to be strong. Do things we won’t do. Things we can’t approve of. You don’t have a guard-dog and blame it for biting’
Granada Television
Network Production

11.30 London’s New Television Service
EAMONN ANDREWS
introduces recorded highlights of today’s luncheon to mark the opening of Thames Television
ANDREW GARDNER
describes the scene and talks to some of the distinguished guests present at the Mansion House
directed by JIM POPLE
Thames Television
Outside Broadcast

11.50 Carry On Curate
KENNETH ROBINSON introduces the first of a series of six programmes about the image of the clergy as depicted by the mass media
arranged by SIMON BUXTON
Thames Television Production

and

Close-down

The post Tuesday 30 July 1968 appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.