BROADCASTING licences are reviewed every six years by the Independent Television Authority. The major shake-up, which comes into effect today, 13 years after the start of ITV, is a severe warning to the various independent companies that there is no room for complacency.

The very fact that the oldest independent company of them all, Rediffusion, has not retained complete control of London’s weekday programmes is an indication that licences will not automatically be renewed.

Today, it has merged with ABC TV, and as from now your programmes from Monday to Thursday [sic] inclusive are coming to you by courtesy of Thames Television

At a Mansion House luncheon, the service was launched in the presence of figures prominent 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.

Speakers included the Lord Mayor, Lord Aylestone, chairman of the ITA, Sir Philip Waster [sic – Warter], chairman, and Howard Thomas, managing director of Thames Television.

Eamonn Andrews introduces recorded highlights of the luncheon at 11.30 tonight. Andrew Gardner describes the scene and talks to some of the distinguished guests present at the Mansion House.

At the weekend – Friday [sic] through to Sunday – programmes will be controlled by the London Television Consortium (London Weekend). This is the company that attracted Michael Peacock away from the BBC and has David Frost as one of its star men.

Then, as in the past programmes made by regional companies will be fed into the schedule for the London area.

Coronation Street, for instance, will continue from Granada, as will University Challenge, What the Papers Say and other well established programmes.

But there will be additional material from the north – from Yorkshire Television. For the territory up there has been divided down the Pennines: Granada hold the rights for the county of the red rose, Yorkshire Television – the company that attracted Alan Whicker away from the BBC – for the county of the white.

It was 18 months ago that Lord Hill, then chairman of the ITA, announced plans to change the face of ITV.

The richest and most sought after prize was London. The contract winners were announced first over a year ago.

Lord Hill said of the London weekday contract “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 ihe Authority to offer the possibility of a company of real excellence.”

Unlike Thames Television, there will be no opening ceremony for London Weekend Television. And unlike other companies there will be no station symbol – just the name.

London Weekend Television is backed by an impressive line-up of television professionals: men such as Aldan Crawley, Michael Peacock and David Frost.

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

At a recent luncheon in London, managing director, Michael Peacock promised: “There will be a lot of charges in your weekend viewing. New shows, new faces and new times to remember”

Well, what is in store for the viewer?

Thames Television

DRAMA

Frontier: New adventure series set in the North West Frontier when the British Army kept the peace in the Asian equivalent of the Wild West.

90-Minute Dramas: Three plays adapted by William Marchant from short stories by Noel Coward. Already in production, Star Quality, starring Glynis Johns and Robert Hardy, to be followed by Bon Voyage and The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe. A new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous Frankenstein by Robert Muller and an adaptation of Uncle Silas the ghost story by Sheridan Le Fanuare planned.

Premiere: Live, one hour television dramas will be presented through October with top directors, distinguished casts and writers.

The Sex Game: Romantic 60-minute plays. Trials and tribulations of lovers who ultimately merge to live happily ever after.

The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder. Adaptations of Edgar Wallace stones starring Hugh Burden and Willoughby Goddard.

CHILDREN

The Tyrant King: A London adventure for children. The first modern colour film TV serial made in Britain for children.

The Queen Street Gang: A new children’s adventure series in which a professor is captured by criminals and rescued by the Queen Street Boys, a highly organised gang, led by his own son.

Once Upon A Time: A series of 15-minute programmes in which celebrities will tell classic or original stories to a children’s audience.

The Sooty Show: Harry Corbett, Sooty, Sweep and the rest of the gang in a children’s entertainment series recorded at The May Fair Theatre.

Pinky & Perky: A series of 15-minute shows featuring the famous puppets Pinky and Perky and their colleagues.

COMEDY

Best of Enemies: Situation comedy written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver about two members of Parliament: a young Labour newcomer to the House of Commons and a wily old Tory. Tim Barrett and Robert Coote star.

Father, Dear Father: Patrick Cargill stars as the divorced father of two very highly nubile mini-skirted teenage daughters with Sally Bazely as his literary agent and good friend.

Comedy Tonight: A season of six new comedy plays written by top authors including Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, Vince Powell and Harry Driver and Dave Freeman.

Sid James: A new series, as yet untitled, written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, starring Sid James.

Horne-a-Plenty: Comedy-Revue starring Kenneth Horne assisted by Sheila Steafel and Kenneth’s friends, which might well bear an amazing resemblance to the radio series Round the Horne.

SPECIALS

Already announced are two one hour specials starring Tommy Cooper; The Max Bygraves Show; Liberace in London; An Evening with Jack Benny, in which comedian Jack Benny conducts and stars with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall; a comedy concert with Victor Borge; The Frankie Howerd Show and, of course, The Goons, a half-hour radio show for television starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe.

Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks! returns for a new season and The Eamonn Andrews Show takes a completely new look when it comes from the May Fair Theatre in the heart of the West End.

FEATURES

Today: A live, dally topical entertainment and information show about people and places in and around London with Eamonn Andrews.

Robert Kee Reports: A series of monthly 45-minute documentaries on important issues of the day.

Applause! Applause! A series of six documentary programmes on great stars of variety and the music hall including Grade Fields, Max Miller, George Robey, Sid Fields, George Formby and Lucan McShane.

Magpie: A weekly magazine programme for children, Forty minutes of information and entertainment plus the serial story of Captain Fantastic.

ADULT EDUCATION

Ballet For All: A series of six half-hour programmes to help bring appreciation of this unique art to a wider audience.

So You’re Going on Holiday: An in-depth appreciation of the countries of Europe – the historical and cultural background behind the holiday facade.

The Tools of Cookery: A new series in which top TV cook Philip Harben demonstrates the importance of using the right tools for the job in the kitchen, from knives and saucepans to ovens and mixers.

World of Crime: Eight new programmes which examine specific cases of the victims of crime in Britain and North America.

RELIGION

A new ten-minute series entitled Last Programme – this will be shown seven nights a week, London Weekend Television will show the series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

THE AVENGERS

A new series starring Patrick Macnee and introducing Linda Thomson [sic – Thorson] as John Steed’s new partner, Tara King.

Among the successful programmes which will carry on in the new schedules are This Week, Armchair Theatre, Hullaballoo, Callan, The Eamonn Andrews Show, Sexton Blake, Opportunity Knocks!, and Public Eye.

So far as London Weekend Television is concerned plays return to Sunday night; David Frost has three shows; and there is an abundance of comedy to suit all the family. Concerts by Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin and Benny Goodman are planned. So are productions of the Beggar’s Opera and Benjamin Britten’s The Golden Vanity.

Saturday specials are planned to broaden the range of cultural programmes. And sports fans are catered for with Sports Arena on Fridays and World of Sport on Saturdays.

All we have to do is wait and see.

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Bryan’s day starts with an alarm call at 7.45 a.m. when he staggers into the kitchen, falls over the cat, turns on Tony Blackburn, hastily drinks his coffee and makes an early departure to search for the first available parking meter.

Before going into the office he visits the nearest tobacconist to stock-up on the day’s supply of cigarettes and cigars – how substantial a supply you can judge from the photographs.

The day begins with the morning papers, a large intake of nicotine, five cups of coffee and a conference with Producer, Nicolas Mellersh. Bryan is responsible for all the Light Entertainment items of ‘Today’, and much of the morning is taken up with booking people in advance for future programmes.

After a final conference with Tom Steel, Associate Producer, Bryan retires to the White Horse for fortification – if desperate, other alternatives are sought and Reg, pictured below, must guard his refreshments with zeal.

The afternoons are spent in the studio when the pace becomes much more hectic.

According to Bryan, a director’s most essential quality is the ability to con people – to convince them that you know more than them, that you are in complete control and know exactly what you are doing. “If I wasn’t a Director, I’d make a super con-man!”

“A Director is responsible for presentation. If we compare a Producer to the manager of a shop, a Director would be his window-dresser. The Producer decides what goods are to be displayed and the Director decides how they are shown, where they are shown and what lighting effects should be used.”

For Bryan, the most rewarding aspect of directing is editing: “I adore editing because when all your material is there you can retire with a Film Editor, select all the best bits and put it all together in a creative, imaginative way. I hate ‘live’ television as it is impossible to attain the same standards of perfection.”

His greatest compliment to date came from a Light Entertainment Producer who said, “You’re too much of a perfectionist, Bryan.” The most constructive comment, however, came from his doctor, who said, “You smoke too much Bryan!”

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TWW lost their contract to Harlech; Telefusion Yorkshire gained a foothold and half of Granada’s service area: ATV was to end their Midlands weekday/London weekend split and entrench themselves solely in the Midlands.

The most significant of the changes was that there would be no weekend contracts in either the North or Midlands, and ABC – undoubtedly the most distinctive of all ITV incumbents – had put their bid in for the weekends at London, a move they had been well-prepared for over a long period of time, and the award of which appeared to be merely a formality.

However, two events changed the course of ABC’s fate.

The David Frost-Aidan Crawley London Television Consortium (later London Weekend) was bright, intelligent, cultured, and promised much for the future, and under the ITA’s ethos that the system had to be open to newcomers, the LTC were awarded the weekend contract for the capital that had been ABC’s by right.

Secondly, Rediffusion had, for a long time, appeared to be creating a number of problems between themselves and the ITA, culminating in an interview that was disastrous for them.

The Authority then decided to suggest that a joint company to provide London with a weekday service could be devised from the resources of Rediffusion and ABC.

This was Thames Television.

New ITV contractors needed to sign up the best talent they can find, as well as devising ratings-winning programmes, so as to establish a reputation for quality.

Thames had an advantage over all the new companies, as well as many of the older ones, in that they could develop new programme strands as well as incorporate elements from the outputs of both ABC (showbusiness, drama) and Rediffusion (current affairs, children’s and schools programmes).

They also had a number of artists on contract, ensuring that they had access to creative talent, and technical expertise and experience.

Added to this, they had Teddington Studios, a riverside location that they would use to the full in years to come.

The share split in Thames – ABC 51%, Rediffusion 49% – inevitably effected a number of decisions made in the company to the point at which Thames was, effectively, ABC in disguise.

From the first day, Thames was attempting to establish a loyal audience by scheduling a brand-new magazine programme “Magpie”, guaranteeing that viewers would tune in by incorporating episodes of the “Captain Fantastic” serial into it – itself previously a feature of Rediffusion’s “Do Not Adjust Your Set”, soon to be revived by Thames.

Eamonn Andrews would now be the anchor of “Today”, from Monday-Thursday. “This Week” would continue. There were a few sitcoms, like “Never Mind the Quality, Feel The Width” that had begun in the ABC era, and “The Avengers”, “Callan” and “Public Eye” would be mainstays of Thames drama.

However, there was one disadvantage for the new company. The previous London weekday contract was for Monday-Friday, morning to closedown.

Now LWT had extra hours from Friday, 7pm to close, which meant that Thames had, at best, four evenings a week in which to build an audience and to gain vital advertising revenue.

This led to some oddities in scheduling: “Opportunity Knocks”, an ABC Saturday night talent show, was to be slotted into a 6.45 slot on Monday evenings.

Eamonn Andrews’ chat show, on which he had previously interviewed “Sunday Night People”, was scheduled for Thursday evenings.

“Just Jimmy” with the Clitheroe Kid himself had been moved from Saturday teatime, where it had been a family show, to Friday teatime, as a children’s show.

Over time, Thames planning staff worked out the best network slots for many of their programmes and out of the three mentioned, only “Opportunity Knocks” survived in its original Thames timeslot.

8pm Wednesday became the slot for variety specials and one-offs, drama was featured at 9pm, and 7pm became a time for sitcoms.

“Armchair Theatre” was moved into various places throughout the week, but never quite fitted, and never really regained its hard-won reputation: there were, however, attempts to update it, notably “Armchair Cinema”.

In June 1974, “Regan” was shown in this strand, to unanimous praise, and this film led to commissions for “The Sweeney”. “Armchair Cinema” later became “Armchair Thriller”, and was allowed to disappear from the screen forever.

One thing that should never be overlooked is that Thames, with roots in ABC and connections to EMI could make use of those relationships to the full. Thames were able to reap rewards from cinema films of “Callan”, “Sweeney!” and “Sweeney 2” and, most lucratively, “The Best of Benny Hill” – made for very little, using video-to-film transfer of the best of the early Thames series.

The best years of Thames were probably from its inception to 1979, when there was still a great deal of the ABC staffing on board and when production values were maintained at a high level.

They had signed most of the major talent, such as Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper, Mike Yarwood and Kenny Everett, and had won a number of international awards.

The company was also about to make significant inroads into the US, thanks to Don Tuffnell’s sales of “The Benny Hill Show” and an entire week of programmes shown in the USA in September 1976. It might also be true to say that Thames lost their way in trying to establish themselves as world players.

What a pity that at yet another ITV franchise round, the company lost its contract to Carlton.

The legacy of Thames lives on now in both the name of an independent production company and an archive of programmes that has continued to be shown, frequently, on satellite and terrestrial television.

These programmes show, to both those who saw them first time around and to younger viewers just discovering them, that Thames had plenty of grace and style – qualities that both ABC and Rediffusion had in endless supply.

Not at all a bad thing.

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• 1:30 Closedown till 1:55

Looking back from today’s perspective it seems hardly worth closing down for only 25 minutes.

Surely a caption and music would suffice? But no, we must look at it from the point of view of the perceived corporate needs of Thames.

An interlude would have no dramatic or iconic import. Things would merely carry on where they left off. A closedown however, required a start up to resume the programmes.

This was an opportunity to promote the corporate identity of the (new) station, to show off the newly composed Salute to Thames march, and oddly to remind the cognoscenti of the ABC heritage of the company, with continuing use of the ABC startup theme Perpetuum Mobile – selected by Thames for a further ‘life after ABC’.

In this instance the next programme was the Grand Opening Luncheon of Thames Television – live from the Mansion House – something that would be at its most resonant after playing of the new Salute to Thames march just beforehand.

So the trivial “1.30 Close down until 1.55” was no minor coincidence. It was very much part of the plan…

• 4:40 Children’s Television – The Sooty Show

The legacy of Rediffusion can be easily discerned within the Thames output – for the early years at least. In this particular even the TV Times entry is pure Rediffusion thinking.

It was only in the London area that kids programmes had been traditionally grouped separately in the TV Times under the general heading “Children’s Television” and it seems that this was the first of many Rediffusion traditions that Thames carried forward.

Indeed it may even have been unthinking continuation by a sub editor of a habit long established. It may not have been Thames policy at all.

The Sooty Show, perhaps only a footnote in television history now, was at the time a legendary and wildly popular part of the junior culture. Sooty had appeared on BBC television since the fifties.

When it transferred to ITV it was a national newspaper story of supposed cultural significance. It was treated by the press as something of a coup for Rediffusion to have brought the glove puppet star across from the BBC and as of this date it appeared that Thames would continue to exploit the property.

The show is here produced by Daphne Shadwell, a long standing Rediffusion producer (and daughter of the ITMA radio band leader Charles Shadwell), and came from Television House.

• 5:10 Magpie

Magpie had been trailed in the press, well before the launch of Thames, as the ‘new look’ ITV’s response to the long standing Blue Peter on BBC Television.

With Blue Peter owning Mondays and Thursdays, Thames chose Tuesdays (and later Fridays as well from 1969) for their new show. From the outset the programme was conceived as a more hip, adolescent and indeed “laid back” event than the earnest middle England tone of Blue Peter could ever allow.

The tabloids liked to imply a class rivalry between the viewers of the two shows but many children watched both shows. Some adults later claimed to have been “Blue Peter children” or “Magpie kids” but the tribalism was undoubtedly exaggerated.

The engagement of more youthful figureheads than the BBC was using in children’s programmes was a revolutionary start. The new faces were hardly teenage but opposite the ‘mumsy’ tones of Valerie Singleton and Christopher Trace on Blue Peter, they probably seemed very young.

To bring real novelty to the programme, one of the presenters was ex-pirate DJ and Canadian (wow!) Pete Brady – though he had already earned some respectability with his new Radio One and Two afternoon show which had followed on after his career on the offshore Radio London had ended, along with the station.

One regular item within Magpie was the spin off feature “Captain Fantastic”. This was a character from the former Rediffusion show Do Not Adjust Your Set, a surreal forerunner of Monty Python.

• 5:50 News

The long standing eleven minute news bulletin at 5.55pm on weekdays was brought forward to 5.50 and extended to fourteen minutes as part of the ITA-led commitment to expanding ITN’s bulletins.

This followed on from the successful development of News at Ten, which had started during Rediffusion’s final year, with the transfer of the main evening news from seventeen minutes at 8.55 to half an hour at 10pm.

On this day, the lead story of the 5.50pm bulletin was the launch of Thames Television. Yorkshire TV had premiered the previous day and Harlech Television earlier in the year – London Weekend was to come later in the week – so Thames remained a solo launch story.

Local viewers had seen the Lord Mayor’s welcoming luncheon from the Mansion House that afternoon and would also be treated to recorded repeats of the speeches at 11.30pm in a round up called “London’s New Television Service”.

This was perhaps misleading as it was a new contractor on an existing service – but the TVTimes was playing the ‘Outside Broadcast’ (still then an exciting phrase) for all it was worth.

Viewers in the regions had not seen the Outside Broadcast from the Mansion House and so the ITN bulletin included clips from the speeches and a commentary for the innocent provincial viewer outlining the media excitement of the London event. And this was reasonable enough.

In our modern multi-channel society, these matters would be assumed of little interest to the viewer – but in an age with just three television services being available to the majority of viewers, the launch of a new ITV contractor for London, even ‘just’ two former contractors with a new name, was considered worthy of being the lead story on the national bulletin. Even the BBC covered it.

How times change.

• 6:04 Today with Eammon Andrews

Under Rediffusion, the space between the news and the programme that followed was filled by Commander Laurie West presenting a full, informative weather forecast with maps and charts and statistics. Thames replaced this with the duty announcer reading a headline forecast over a caption, and the weather bulletin disappeared as an item in its own right from the pages of the TVTimes.

Thames Television’s new Today programme was conceived as the jewel in the crown of their local programming – it was one of the items specified in advance in the original ABC franchise application for the weekend contract.

It had originally been imagined as a Saturday roundup of past and future London events and was modelled on the erstwhile ABC Weekend magazine programme previously seen on Saturday nights in the Midlands and North.

The formula was to be the same – a roundup of cultural and personality-led events from the area, with an avoidance of the sort of mundane “warehouse fire in Salford” stories that had dominated regional news in the past.

When ABC found itself rather unexpectedly in bed with Rediffusion to provide the weekday service in London, the local news commitment was “buffed up” into a planned daily show – on weekdays at least – and the advance publicity stressed the “news for London about London” approach.

Exactly what this amounted to was not made clear. The point was made that the show was intended to avoid the trap that Rediffusion had fallen into with their long lived Three After Six local programme – packaging national stories into a local show on the excuse that the capital city was not the equivalent to a provincial region.

Rediffusion had always claimed in their defence that the then VHF signals covered the whole South East and so London local news would be of little interest in Bedford, Guildford or Oxford.

The option of doing a show for the whole south-east region did not seem to have occurred to them. It was only some years later with the slow transfer of viewers to the smaller region UHF coverage that the London ITV area became a true service for London alone.

Thames’s early period in black and white is often overlooked by media historians – but coverage differences between traditional VHF and the new UHF were as much of an issue at the time as the introduction of colour after 1969.

Sales of colour sets were initially slow and the majority continued to watch on VHF for several more years – it was 1975-6 before the number of colour TV licences issued was greater than the number of monochrome ones.

Thames seem to have painted themselves into a corner with Today in their desire to achieve more for London than Rediffusion had done with Three After Six. From the word go, the new show interviewed stars, musicians and actors, previewed West End hits and reviewed the culture of the capital.

This was probably more to do with the presenter being Eamonn Andrews, a stalwart of ABC ‘sports and celebs’ shows for many years past, who created a more personality-oriented atmosphere than Thames had planned for its main news magazine. The show became a modern version of BBC radio’s famous In Town Tonight of the forties, at least until Eamonn Andrews moved on, tempered only by news of the odd warehouse fire in Wapping….

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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.

• Today
• This Week
• People & Politics
• Time For Business
• Thames at 6
• London Looks Forward
  • The Living City
  • The Future City
• Documentaries
  • Hazlitt in Love
  • The Gospel According To St Michael
  • Walt Disney (2 programmes)
  • Marriage Guidance
  • Lonely Hearts
  • The Ruth Ellis Story
  • The Hunting of Force Z
  • Hammer & Sickle
  • Billy
  • Jimmy
  • Aycliffe

OUTSIDE BROADCASTS

• Series
  • Drive In
  • A Town Called
  • Kitchen Garden
  • Wish You Were Here…?
  • Pub Entertainer of the Year
• Sport
  • Darts
  • Horse Racing from Sandown, Newmarket, Epsom, Lingfield
  • Football (7 matches, including 4 internationals)
  • Sportscene
  • Wrestling
• Events
  • Jubilee Flower Show
  • Miss Thames
  • Astrology
  • Model Railway Exhibition
  • Nurse of the Year
  • Variety Club Lunch
  • Evening Standard Drama Awards
  • Evening News Film Awards
  • Royal Film Performance
  • Great British Achievements
  • Chipperfield’s Circus (Easter and Christmas)
  • The Motor Show
  • Britannia Awards
  • The Loyal Address

LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

• Specials
  • The Benny Hill Show
  • TV Times Top Ten Awards
  • The Eric Sykes Show
  • Bruce and More Girls
  • The Peggy Lee Show
  • Max Bygraves’ Christmas Show
  • Vera Lynn Sings
• Series
  • David Nixon Show
  • Looks Familiar
  • Opportunity Knocks
  • This is Your Life
  • Whose Baby?
  • Whodunnit?
  • Wednesday at Eight
  • The Tom O’Connor Show
  • The Little and Large Tellyshow
  • Night Out at The London Casino
• Comedy Series
  • Odd Man Out
  • Get Some In
  • George and Mildred
  • What’s On Next?
  • Paradise Island
  • Miss Jones & Son
  • The Fuzz
  • The Upchat Line

CHILDREN’S

• Pre-School Learning
  • Rainbow
  • Rainbow Has A Baby
• General Interest
  • Magpie
  • Fanfare
  • Somersault to Moscow (Magpie Special)
  • …And I Write Music (Magpie Special)
• Drama
  • The Tomorrow People
  • Horse in The House
• Animation Series
  • Jamie and The Magic Torch
  • Chorlton and The Wheelies
• Entertainment
  • Michael Bentine’s Potty Time
  • Sooty
• Pre-School Entertainment
  • And Maisy Too
  • Mice and Mendelson
  • The Wotsit From Whizz-Bang

FEATURES, EDUCATION AND RELIGION

• Features
  • After Noon
  • Mavis
  • Money-Go-Round
  • London Scene
  • Superman & The Bride
  • The Story of Job
  • Problems
  • Help!
  • Our School and Hard Times
• Education
  • Seeing and Doing
  • Finding Out
  • The World Around Us
  • Writer’s Workshop
  • The English Programme
  • French Studies
  • It’s Life
  • It’s More Life
  • London: The Making of a City
• Adult Education
  • Could Do Better?
  • This Sporting Land
• Religion
  • Get Out and Push
  • Close
  • Christmas Pie
  • Drawing to an End
  • Faith In Place: Matt’s Place
  • Christmas Special
  • A Matter of Morals
  • St Nicolas Cantata

DRAMA

• Serial
  • Rooms – 61 episodes
• Series
  • Romance – 5 episodes
  • Rock Follies of ’77 – 7 episodes
  • London Belongs To Me – 7 episodes
  • The Norman Conquests
    • Table Manners
    • Living Together
    • Round & Round The Garden
• Film Series
  • The Sweeney
  • Van Der Valk
• Plays For Britain
  • Cork & Bottle
  • Last Summer
  • It’s Only Rock ’n Roll
  • The Proofing Session
  • Not Quite Cricket

The post The programme year 1977 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

The post Talking about ITV2 appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Jeremy Isaacs, Controller of Features
Today, Good Afternoon, This Week, Something to Say, Documentaries – including And on the Eighth Day, Black Man’s Burden, The Day Before Yesterday, Dowager in Hot Pants, Dickens: The Hero of My Life, A Far Better Place, The First Casualty, Hard Times, The Hardest Way Up, Harry’s Out!, The Making of a Saint, Munich: The Road of Excess, Queen of Hearts, Till I End My Song, The Second World War, We Was All One, A World of Their Own.

Jeremy Isaacs, Thames Television’s Controller of Feature Programmes, was this year awarded the Society of Film and Television Arts’ Desmond Davis Award for his “outstanding creative contribution to television”. A former President of the Oxford Union, his senior programme appointments in ITV and BBC have included the editorship of Panorama and production of This Week. He joined Thames on its formation in 1968.

When I was asked to write for a series of advertisements on Thames Television’s programme departments I didn’t want to do it. I gave three reasons: the only good advertisements for television programmes are the programmes themselves; most campaigns advertising television companies are designed not to draw attention to their good stuff but to distract it from the rest; and all advertisements like this are sitting targets for the satirist.

On the other hand, I recognise that many of the people most interested in the future of television see very little of it. If advertisements succeed in telling them about the programmes we make, there is something to be said for them. So here goes.

What I want to do most is give people the information they need about what is going on in this country and the world. I aim at a mass audience, but a far more sophisticated audience than we used to think. So we make a wide range of programmes and Thames has the biggest current affairs department in ITV.

This Week, reporting national and international affairs, looks like having (crossing my fingers hard) one of its best years yet under John Edwards. The Timothy Davey interview, for example, was a remarkable news scoop, Today, our daily London local programme, had a rougher than usual start when we began it. But now it’s seen in more homes than both London evening newspapers put together. It tries to combine hard reporting of London’s problems with live discussions of national issues. And it makes people laugh too. Good Afternoon, which used to be called Tea Break, is still a beginner: a magazine for people at home during the day, not aimed at women as a weird separate species, even though it’s presented by women and produced by one. We’re still working to get it right, and we welcome suggestions.

With total derestriction of broadcasting hours we shall be offering some new programmes, most of them fairly modest ones. Television from lunchtime onwards calls for a leisurely style, not the breakneck pace we too often have to affect in our limited evening hours. Our share of ITV time is limited too. For example we can do only one major documentary a month. Because we care about what’s wrong with this society and the world we used to concentrate them – perhaps a bit gloomily – on social issues. We still choose to be serious, but now we aim at more variety of subject matter and treatment. For example John Morgan and Jolyon Wimhurst have just made a quite extraordinary film about the cultural and political history of Munich, the Munich that the Games tourists will only glimpse. And we’ve nearly finished Queen of Hearts, the story of Eva Peron. Our series on the Second World War is taking shape, but it is too early to say much about it. It’s our biggest project yet, and we’re not halfway. Finis coronat opus.

The new programme I am particularly pleased, with is Something to Say. So often in television I have been responsible for discussions cut off just when they became interesting, and angry with myself afterwards. What I have always wanted to do was a programme in which just two people debated one subject for as long as they liked. Now we have it.

For me, Thames Features Department is a worthwhile place to be. Provided we get on with the job, no-one bothers us. The Board doesn’t enthuse about every programme we make, but no-one is leaning hard on us to aim for high ratings. Not that we don’t try to attract audiences – that is one of the things television is about. But programme quality comes first. (Admittedly, the pressures are eased by the huge success of our colleagues in Light Entertainment and Drama in attracting audiences.)

In ITV the programme maker’s fear is that when times are hard budgets are cut, but when revenue booms the Board of Directors naturally want to take it all as profit. The encouraging thing about Thames is that the risks we run in Features are cheered on by the Sales Department and even by the Finance Director, and not taken over their dead bodies. We now have the budgets and the staff and the resources to make the programmes we want to make and which we think viewers will want to watch. There’s no reason I can see why that should not continue. If it does, I could be persuaded to write this sort of advertisement again…

The post People behind programmes: Jeremy Issacs appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

By Monday the building was transformed into an efficiently operating Television Studio.

Jane’s new reception area in the foyer is designed to impress. Jane, herself, describes it as, “Rather elegant.” The wall behind her is lined in sage-green suede. “The first few days,” says Jane, “have been hectic but fun. This area is still buzzing with workmen and the foyer becomes increasingly impressive daily as yet another section is completed.”

The new Switchboard (pictured above) under Mrs Laycock’s supervision is much more compact than the one at Television House. For the time being the Switchboard is operated by four girls – with Mrs Laycock in the photograph are Sheila Noonan and Christine Rayment.

The ‘Today’ team also appear delighted with their new wall-to-wall carpeted surroundings and their room is already well endowed with ‘Today’s’ unmistakable stamp of busy chaos.

Opposite ‘Today’ on the third floor, Graphics have a bright spacious office. It seems to have inspired an unexpected house-proud streak in Jim Bainbridge, which has even brought a smile to the lips on his wastepaper basket.

A temporary canteen has been installed on the fifth floor under the supervision of Miss Lovell. The canteen is catering for approximately 164 people but Miss Lovell is still trying to work out how that number consumed 400 cups of coffee on the first morning!

Much of the building is still incomplete as the bottom central picture of the fifth floor illustrates. The reaction so far from people now working at Euston has been one of approval. When the workmen have finished, the building will not only be functionally well designed but also an impressive showpiece.

The post Day Number One 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.

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.

The post New London look! appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.