Perusing Tuesday’s TV listings in that day’s paper I noticed that Sooty had moved over to ITV and a new magazine show ‘Magpie’ was on at 5.10. There had been something billed earlier that afternoon as Opening Of Thames but that meant nothing to me. The set warmed up during the ad break and then a very unfamiliar face appeared in the announcer’s chair (I was later to discover this was Sheila Kennedy) in front of a very different backdrop. It was when she said something along the lines of “Now we start today’s children’s programmes on Thames…” that it sunk in; change had come, it was all becoming a little exciting!

I hadn’t been completely unprepared for this, some months back my parents had mentioned something they’d read in the paper that ITV in London was changing and the name ‘Thames TV’ came up. I just assumed it was to be a straight name change, Redvers Kyle, Muriel Young, Jon Kelly and Laurie West would all still be there with a ‘Thames TV’ logo pinned on the front and back of the programmes instead of ‘Rediffusion’. But seeing Sheila Kennedy followed by the plain text version of the FROM THAMES ident playing into The Sooty Show it became clear that it had really happened and it was all going to be very different, subsequently I sat through ‘Sooty’ anticipating more Thames graphics and announcements at the end of the programme. I mention ‘graphics’ but up to this point it was just down to plain text, no station symbol at the start or end of the programmes, just a simple FROM THAMES.

Magpie was up next which immediately presented itself as an ITV version of ‘Blue Peter’ and, as often noted, a tad more hip and trendy, although I also recognised it as a near replacement for Rediffusion’s Come Here Often which, in retrospect I feel was the better show.

That first edition was not without excitement though, a filmed report of a balloon flight taken by Susan Stranks included footage of the balloon bursting into flames not long after landing and Susan had safely stepped away. Later in the show fellow presenter Tony Bastable introduced us to the concept of the various Magpie badges, inviting viewers to collect the complete set of eleven (I still cherish my ‘Four For A Boy’ badge to this day), while Pete Brady took us on a pre-filmed helicopter trip along the Thames around Teddington Lock and the weir, complete with an aerial view of the studio buildings. Also appearing in that first edition was the start of a short run of Captain Fantastic lifted straight from Rediffusion’s Do Not Adjust Your Set which seemed a bit weird really and at odds with the rest of the show.

Children’s programmes over, another commercial break and it’s ITN News time with, for the first time for me anyway, a sighting of the Thames clock, now with Philip Elsmore signing on as our evening announcer. The clock doubled as a calendar, I’m sure I’d seen something similar hanging on the wall in our local branch of Barclay’s Bank. Main story on the news was the arrival of Thames Television during which I noticed the skyline ident being played. Now that looked really impressive and I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t use that in front of the programmes.

The new regional news programme Today held very little interest for me as a nine-year-old and anyway, it was a summer evening so I was back outside playing with my mates until later in the evening when, along with the rest of my family I settled down to enjoy Tommy Cooper’s King Size show. During the commercial break the screen went blank cutting an advert part way through.

Around ten seconds later another commercial started playing but this was also faded abruptly as the screen went blank again and stayed that way, prompting my father to grumble about the poor organisation of this ‘young upstart of a company’. Little did he know! The apology card that followed at least went some way to explain. That was the last I would see of our new TV station that day, nine o’clock was bedtime for me and my siblings, after which I assumed my parents would be switching to BBC-1 for their further televisual entertainment.

The following morning I just had to reassure myself that, after the previous night’s fiasco Thames would still be there. As my little sister finished watching Play School on BBC-2 I quietly turned the dial to Channel 9 where I was greeted by the familiar Test Card D with the wording ‘ITA Thames Television London Weekend Television’ which somewhat confused me; Thames was London’s WEEKDAY television, how could they have got that one wrong?

After Rediffusion’s solid and paternal method of presentation it took a little while to get used to the slightly more ‘showbiz’ and lightweight approach from Thames. At nine years old I was totally unaware that we were really watching ABC in different clothes and I really had no idea as to why things had changed in the first place.

A few days into the new regime though it did occur to me to check out the other station that we could pick up in Crawley from a place called Chillerton Down. Sure enough, there on Channel 11 was Southern Television, dependable as ever and totally unaffected by what had been going on in London, armed with the reassurance that they would NEVER go away…

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This brought incessant problems of morale and money. The ABC staff, trained in Manchester, were facing upheaval from their comfortable homes to start afresh in a ‘foreign’ city. Studio staffs had their loyalties split down the middle and were uncertain whether they would be working for LWT or for the new and unnamed company arising from the demise of ABC and Rediffusion.

ABC paid out half a million [£9 million now allowing for inflation] in redundancy settlements, and Rediffusion almost twice as much. There was also the question of pensions, and transfer of rights. Since Rediffusion’s pension funds had been invested with typical business acumen there were handsome benefits for those whose careers had developed with the growth of their company. Somehow we managed to keep ABC Television going and by the end of our last financial year (March 1968) we had a turnover of £11,753,000 [£203,000,000] and showed a trading profit of £2,159,000 [£37,350,000]. The parent Corporation could have no complaint about the return on its original investment.

When we came to giving the company its name I was resolutely opposed to any more initials. I had always envied the solidity and sturdiness of a single word like Granada or Rediffusion. I believe in descriptive titles for companies and products and I would have liked to include the magic word ‘London’ but already this belonged to London Weekend Television. (I had no regrets when they began to use the initials LWT for in the process they lost some of the impact of the word ‘London’.)

As well, I wanted a name that would lend itself to a graphic symbol. My first thought was Tower Television, combining the symbols of the old and the new, Tower Bridge and the General Post Office tower. In the end we settled for the name of Thames, influenced partly because our Teddington studios were alongside the river, near the ancient lock. It was also a name of international recognisability and our future expansion lay in world-wide sales. Above all, Thames was a romantic name, for many have come to London as I did, to stand on the bridges and gaze on the breath-taking skylines. My own favourite skyline was the rooftops of Whitehall, as seen from the bridge over the lake in Green Park, and it was this that led to the London skyline which became the symbol of Thames Television. We did take artistic liberties with our spires and somehow the Post Office tower popped up from behind St Paul’s Cathedral. The London Evening News calmly ‘lifted’ the skyline idea, turned it into a silhouette and used the result as their own symbol. We could hardly object, because London belongs to all of us who live and work there.

The signature music came to me when I saw a gypsy woman selling lavender in a Chelsea street. She was singing ‘Who’ll buy my sweet lavender?’ The street cries of London were the very first singing ‘commercials’. When the day came to launch Thames officially with a rather pompous opening ceremony at Mansion House, Lord Mayor and all, a pretty girl strolled into the gold-plated hall with a trayful of sprigs of lavender, singing ‘our song’. She happened to be a soprano from Sadler’s Wells, but the simple melody was a refreshing change from the customary fanfares. Some fortunate composer was commissioned to ‘orchestrate’ the tune, almost to the point of unrecognisability I regret to say, and it probably provided him with a pension for life.

But it was not all harmony in Television House when we began to move in to the former Rediffusion headquarters. I took a corner office in the building, from where I sighted Ivor Novello’s former roof-top flat, and Thames’ occupation began whilst the remaining staff of Rediffusion were still struggling loyally to complete the advertised programme schedule. Brian Tesler was already planning our new ‘mix’ for London weekdays. We decided on which ABC series to retain, and which of Rediffusion’s. Beyond that we planned new series like Frontier, a vigorous North West India episodic tale of war and love. For economy reasons this had to be filmed in the mountains of North Wales, which surprisingly were not all that different from the authentic Himalayas.

Rediffusion’s venerable current affairs programme This Week, was an inevitable choice, but we decided to drop the two quiz programmes which had overstayed their welcome and possibly had handicapped Rediffusion in their application, Take Your Pick and Double Your Money. We also decided to discontinue ATV’s Crossroads because of the poor quality of scripts and acting compared with Coronation Street. This turned out to be a mistake and the series had to be brought back by sheer public insistence. For this reason Crossroads episodes transmitted in the London area always languished six months behind the Birmingham sequences. Only years later were the episodes synchronised, with Noelle Gordon interpreting to the London audience in a special ‘what-happened-then’ edition the missing strands of the endless saga.

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The majority shareholder, who also provided the majority of the staff and management, was the former ABC Weekend Television, owned by the Associated British Picture Corporation.

ABC Weekend had begun in 1956, serving the Midlands and the North on Saturdays and Sundays from Aston in Birmingham and Didsbury in Manchester.

Being the smallest of the “Big 4” companies of the time and covering the largest area for the smallest time, it wasn’t long before ABC Weekend decided (with a push from the ITA) to concentrate resources on their presentation in order to make a mark.

Along with this concentration, they took over the former Warner Bros studios in Teddington and began to produce some of ITV’s best-known programming of “the golden age” – The Avengers, ABC Armchair Theatre, Redcap and many others.

When the ITV contracts came up for renewal in 1967, ABC applied for the London weekends (Friday evening to Sunday night) contract with a high confidence of success, having been something of the golden boy in the ITA’s eye.

The minority shareholder was Rediffusion London, owned by British Electric Traction and BET’s subsidiary Broadcast Relay Services, began life as a joint venture with Associated Newspapers, calling itself Associated-Rediffusion (A-R).

A-R was the first ITV station on air, launching in September 1955, and held the “plum” contract for London weekdays – at that time including Friday evenings.

Associated Newspapers sold the majority of their shareholding during the very lean times at the start of the service, when all the ITV companies were unprofitable and haemorrhaging money.

The name Associated-Rediffusion, however, lasted on air until 1964, when, with competition from the new BBC-2 and the pirate radio stations combining with a major change of fashion and style in the UK, the company relaunched itself on air as Rediffusion, London.

As the most powerful ITV company, and as incumbent, Rediffusion were very confident of retaining their licence when the ITA announced the contract reviews. They were so confident, in fact, that much of the interview was spent lecturing the regulator on how television was done and how little the regulator knew how to do it. Also thrown in for good measure was a complaint about the loss of Friday evenings when the next contracts began.

This arrogance, for want of a better word, annoyed the abrasive chairman of the ITA, Lord Hill of Luton. The insult was made worse when the management leading the bid left, only for some of them to return as leading lights in other consortia.

Lord Hill already had a tough decision to make as to where ABC, its existing regions abolished, would fit into the new system. Rediffusion’s arrogance and the treachery of its senior management weakened their position in his eyes.

With an absolutely startling bid from the great and the good of broadcasting for the London weekends contract, Lord Hill and his Authority would need to make some very tough choices.

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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.

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There were an enormous number of variables to consider, amongst them being:

• The staff at the two companies had to be kept busy running them for a year.
• A small stockpile of new programmes would be needed ready for launch day.
• The company had too many studios.
• Both ABC and Rediffusion had other businesses and large international earnings they didn’t want to share with each other.
• The two companies had overlapping departments.
• Colour was on the horizon, meaning investment in technology and training was urgently required.
• The new station needed a name and an identity.

Staff

The two companies still had a job to do until July 1968 and still had to make programmes, sell adverts and make a profit for the parent companies in that time.

Therefore the staff, whilst facing redeployment (everyone was, at least, guaranteed a job somewhere in ITV, somewhere in the UK) had to be kept happy and in full creative flow.

Stockpiling

The original companies had had the chance to produce some “in the can” productions before coming on air in the mid-1950s, but with most of television being live they weren’t much needed.

By 1967, most of television was on video and film. The audience, once so enamoured of live productions, now cared less for them and wanted more polish to their programming. A “year zero” when the new contracts began, using bought in, repeated or just live material wasn’t possible. New production needed to be ready for day one.

Studios

The new company would have studios in Didsbury, Aston, Teddington, Wembley and Kingsway.

Didsbury would have to close and the staff redeployed elsewhere in ITV; Aston would go to ATV; Teddington was too great a prize to give up; Wembley was a direct competitor for Teddington but closing it would mean redeployment of the staff; Television House in Kingsway was a wonderful fancy London headquarters but inconveniently sited and expensive to lease from BET.

These would need to be rationalised, but with one eye on the coming of colour.

Other interests

Despite being subsidiaries rather than independent corporations, both ABC and Rediffusion London had diversified.

They had also developed nice lines in foreign sales, which brought in foreign currency, always in short supply and much wanted by business and government alike.

A straight merger of Associated British Cinemas (Television) Limited and Rediffusion Television Limited was therefore out of the question: ABPC wouldn’t give half of its Avengers dollars to BET.

The two parent companies, the Associated British Picture Corporation and British Electric Traction (who also controlled Broadcast Relay Services, the other shareholder in Rediffusion London) wouldn’t consider a merger either. They had nothing in common and no reason to do so just because their two most profitable subsidiaries were considering it.

Therefore, a new company would have to be formed, co-owned by the original companies or their parents, and the existing television subsidiaries would need to carry on their separate existences to manage the non-merged parts.

Overlaps

ABC and Rediffusion were the only two of the “Big 4” not in competition with each other. They were separated both regionally and chronologically and had never had that much to do with each other.

But both had news and features departments, drama and comedy directors, sport and OB controllers. Only Rediffusion had a Schools Department, but then many of Rediffusion’s department heads had fled to the new London weekends consortium.

Luckily, that very same consortium was in the market to pick up department heads anyway, making redeployment easier; nevertheless, the new company would not have double the staff of the old – people would need to be asked to leave.

Colour

The coming of colour, much promised but now actually on the horizon and written into the new contracts, meant that existing studio equipment would be rendered defunct.

Camera operators and vision mixers would have to retrain in the new higher-definition line standard; engineers would need to learn how to correct a whole new set of faults.

This meant a lot of investment back stage would be required, and also meant that the studio rationalisation would need to be carefully thought through in case money was wasted.

Identity

Of all the things to worry about, the station’s name and identity would be the lowest of problems – until the station went on air.

Once launched, a botched identity would alienate viewers and advertisers. Viewers would feel less loyal; advertisers would get confused.

Therefore, the question needed careful consideration at board level. And, with the new board uncomfortably split between Rediffusion and ABC members busy dealing with the arguments and problems of the merger/new company plans, the board was the one place where rows and entrenched views would come out into the open over something so trivially important (or importantly trivial) and lead to an unworkable compromise.

Some of these questions would be solved quickly. Some would need the Authority to step in and demand a decision. Some would devolve on the shoulders of Howard Thomas, the new MD. And some would be being fought over long after the new company had gone on air.

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After 13 years, it’s fade out for ATV, the weekend contractors, on Sunday and Rediffusion, the weekday contractors, on Monday.

In come Thames Television with weekday programmes starting on Tuesday. And London Weekend Television begin an extended weekend period at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Just 18 months ago Lord Hill, then chairman of the Independent Television Authority, announced plans to change the face of ITV.

Rivals from industry, finance and show business submitted their ideas to the ITA to win contracts for programme areas. The richest and most sought after was London.

Lord Hill announced the contract winners in June last year.

Of the London weekday contracts, he said: “With our principle of programme quality in mind, we felt that Independent Television would gain benefit if the abilities of ABC and Rediffusion were to combine in providing the weekday service. The combination of these two companies seemed to the Authority to offer the possibility of a company of real excellence.”

And so ABC, who held the contract for weekends in the North and Midlands, and Rediffusion began merger talks. There were major difficulties. But the outcome was Thames TV. Company executives, at first worried, now agree to merit in the idea.

ABC were particularly strong in drama. Their Armchair Theatre series had won a big reputation. Rediffusion were best known for current affairs and documentary programmes.

So these departments were fitted intact into the new company. Other departments were dovetailed, employing the best talents from each company. Result: a new company “with a heritage of 13 years’ TV experience,” said an executive.

Thames starts its transmissions at 1.45 p.m. on Tuesday with a new identification symbol — the London skyline. With landmarks like St. Paul’s reflected in the River Thames.

The first programme is live coverage of an inaugural lunch at the Mansion House. The Lord Mayor will welcome the new company.

Managing director Howard Thomas says: “Our programme policy is: first provide London — Greater London and the Home Counties — with a weekday programme service of its own. One daily programme reflects what is going on in London.

“Second, produce programmes of national importance for networking. Thirdly, produce programmes of international quality.”

The London weekday programme Mr. Thomas refers to is Today, a daily live entertainment – and – information show about people and places in London. Introduced by Eamonn Andrews (who will also be returning to his own show — but on a weekday).

Some other major programmes to come from Thames include :

DRAMA: Plays adapted from Noel Coward short stories. The Sex Game, a series of romantic plays. Alarm, a series based on the work of the Special Service Section of the London Fire Brigade. And Frontier, a series set on the North West Frontier.

COMEDY: Series with Sid James and Kenneth Home.

FEATURES: Robert Kee Reports, a series of monthly documentaries, and Applause! Applause!, programmes on great stars of the music hall.

SPECIALS: Programmes starring Max Bygraves, Liberace, Jack Benny, Victor Borge and Frankie Howerd.

ADULT EDUCATION : Programmes on ballet, holidays, cookery and crime.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMES: The Tyrant King, a serial in which three youngsters hunt a villain in and around London. Sooty, Pinky and Perky and Once Upon a Time, 15-minute stories told by celebrities.

London Weekend Television starts on Friday at 7 p.m.

There will be no station symbol — just the company’s name. Nor will there be an opening ceremony. Unless Frank Muir uses one in his comedy series. We Have Ways of Making You Laugh, their first programme — at 7 and live.

London Weekend Television was brought into being by a group largely composed of TV professionals, like Aidan Crawley, Michael Peacock and David Frost (who will appear three nights a week).

Lord Hill said: “Of the applicants for the weekend, the London Consortium impressed us most, particularly because of its creative talent.”

Managing director Michael Peacock says: “There will be a lot of changes in your weekend viewing from August 2. New shows, new faces and new times to remember.

“The new look for the weekends offers something for everyone. Plays come back to Sunday night. David Frost has three new shows. There’s plenty of comedy and entertainment for all the family.

“Saturday specials will broaden the range of cultural programmes. Sports fans will have Sports Arena on Fridays as well as Saturday’s World of Sport. For the children, there is Knock Three Times on Sundays.”

Among the shows planned are concerts by Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Benny Goodman and Peter Nero. Productions of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Benjamin Britten’s The Golden Vanity.

Of particular interest to Londoners will be Discovering London, an adult education series on the sights of the capita], and Roundhouse, a religious series presented before audiences in Camden Town.

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Given the right conditions, they breed.

These little darlings are called Emmies.

They come from the United States, and they’re very rare.

The National Academy of Television and Sciences awards one per year to the best entertainment programme produced outside the U.S.A.

In this category, a programme competes against the popular programmes from all over the world.

Last year, Rediffusion won the one on the left for their production of ‘The Caretaker’ by Harold Pinter.

This year, ABC Television won the other one for ‘Call me Daddy’, a comedy written by Ernie Gebler.

Now, the two companies have joined forces to form Thames Television, the new company that will be responsible for London’s week-day programming from 30 July onwards.

And if the last couple of years are anything to go by, we may soon have a family of Emmies about the place.

Thames Television

Serving London from 30 July.

‘Call me Daddy’ will be repeated on ITV tonight in London and in most other ITV areas on Saturday.

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