Shows. By Kenneth Gosling. A. Christa Ackroyd - presenter on Calendar during the 1990s; she left to join the BBC's Look North. [Being] punk rockers we were like: Were not getting in that thing Then this phone call came through from [band manager] Malcolm McLaren saying: If you dont do it your wages will be stopped this week. We were all in the car like a shot.. The Times, Thursday, 17 October 1991, Winners and Losers. The series, narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, was commissioned in 1969, took four years to produce, and cost a record 4m (approx 47m in 2018). He trained in , Sheila Kennedy, who later made a name for herself as an announcer on ABC Television and then Thames, , Simon is best-known for his long stint as a BBC Radio 1 DJ and radio presenter on several other , Bill Steel is mainly remembered as Tyne Tees Televisions chief announcer and one of the main , Vivien was a Central TV announcer and newsreader (early 1980s). [3] It was reported that Rediffusion's chairman Sir John Spencer Wills felt the ITA owed his company a 'debt of gratitude' for this, a comment which particularly annoyed the authority. The station continued formats inherited from its predecessors. The most controversial programme Thames broadcast was the documentary "Death on the Rock", part of the current affairs This Week series. top of page. It continued after Harry Corbett's retirement in 1975 with his son, Matthew Corbett, and lasted on Thames until late 1992. See MoreSee Less, Burt Bacharach, one of pop's greatest songwriters, dies aged 94. She was a presenter on BBC Radio 2 (1980), and also an announcer there (1980 - 1982). 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[20][29] Profits at Thames dropped from 14.1M in 1983/84 to 8.75M in 1984/85 during the strike period, but were able to recover back to 14.6M in 1985/86 just before flotation on the stock market. To shock the nation then, an easy way to do it would be to pin down someone like my dad and get yourself on every single national newspaper in the country., However, watching the interview it seems pretty clear that the Pistols were just badly handled by Grundy. Thames Television was involved in an attempt to win the new Channel 5 licence[55][56][57] when it was first advertised in early 1992. An absolute giant of British sports broadcasting. The group started answering the phones and dishing out even more abuse. We have always suggested that we would make absolutely sure the company would continue to be what it is at this moment in time.' Mary Green. [2] Questioning the ITA's decision, Rediffusion attempted to slow down the merger: only the threat of giving the licence solely to ABC made it relent. For fans of the radio series "Round The Horne" (1965 - 1968) - starring the inimitable Kenneth Williams - there are several full episodes on Spotify. David Hewson "Thames TV head leaves in dispute over Dallas". 2, published by Palgrave Macmillan. [20] For Thamess management, this was a materialist operation with a clear dimension, and to weed out unscrupulous bargaining and working practices. Later, the presenter claimed hed been pursuing a deliberate strategy to prove that these louts were a foul-mouthed set of yobs and that is what I did prove., Mike Housego sensed danger but decided that letting the interview continue would be less problematic than trying to clear the Pistols from the studio. Heres how it works. See MoreSee Less, RIP Raquel Welch. By April 1972, this had become Good Afternoon, after which her TV career spanned the next 25 years. Eamonn Andrews (1968) However, five years ago Classic Rock exclusively obtained internal files from Thames Television which give a unique insight into what happened on the day: memos criticising personnel, and hand-written notes by producers recording what happened in the aftermath were all inside the files. Responding to the incident, Thames said in a statement: "Because the programme was live, it was impossible to foresee the language that would be used."[12]. Mr Punter said: "The competition was a lot of fun and the students had . A few years after The World at War, Thames broadcast Hollywood (1980), a 13-part documentary series about the era of the America silent cinema. Melinda Wittstock. [21], On Monday 27 August, ATTC technicians walked out again over the new shift patterns;[22] the strike ended on 3 September 1984, at 1p.m. From Central, she moved on to host the , Christopher was an announcer for Associated Rediffusion, Southern, Anglia and Thames TV. Magpie was effectively a "groovier" version of the BBC's Blue Peter. Entertainment and arts reporter, BBC News. In 1983, she had a spell as a BBC TV network announcer. Moira Stuart's career in radio and television spans more than two decades. On Wednesday 17 October, another strike was instigated, as talks failed to reach agreement. Allan Hargreaves (1977). [24] On Monday 22 October, a management-run service started operating; the company claimed the revised schedule was popular with the viewers. On 30 July 1968 Thames began broadcasting to London. The Times, 15 July 1992. Initially, this ident was used only before local programmes; a modified ITV generic ident featuring this new logo was used for networked shows. If they only knew what lay ahead . A hit in its time, this programme became obscure due to lack of repeats. I knew the moment the autocue lady threw up her hands and her bag, her make-up cascading through the air, that we had smashed the deception. Thames paid 55,000 a show compared to the 29,000 of the BBC. 2 Aug, 2015 01:45 AM 4 minutes to read New Zealand Thames at Six was launched, later Thames News. This button displays the currently selected search type. It seems that the warning was not taken seriously if it had been, its doubtful that the band would have been put into a Green Room (a TV term for a room in which guests are offered refreshments before going on air) with a fully stocked bar. The flotation was not a great success, EMI and BET only managing to reduce their shares to 56.6%, with management acquiring much of the new stock. Pistols bassist Glen Matlock says the band werent keen on being dragged out of rehearsals but had their arm twisted. 17 December 1992. Today was cancelled two months later, and Bill Grundy never worked in prime-time television again. A memo from studio producer Mike Housego (who was in charge of the programme as it went out live) to Todays overall boss Tom Steel reveals that after the show ended the group were led back down to the Green Room. THE greatest composer of popular music there has ever been. Like all ITV franchisees, it was a broadcaster, a producer and a commissioner of television programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and, as one of the "Big Five" ITV companies, for networking nationally across the ITV regions. Moira is known to many as the first African-Caribbean female newsreader to appear on British television in 1981. Richard O'Sullivan, Beryl Reid, John Cater, Carol Hawkins, Martin Clunes, Maureen Lipman. The result was Magpie - a magazine show aimed at eight to fourteen-year-olds, which was to provide genuine competition for Blue Peter. Yes, all of this actually happened . From its formation in 1954, the Independent Television Authority (ITA) offered broadcasting licences to different companies for weekday and weekend service in its first three Independent Television network locations, the London area, the Midlands, and the North. Holiday travel series. How this evaded the press at the time and how it evaded Pistol scriptwriter Craig Pearce remains a mystery. Brooks, Richard. The Thames TV papers also seem to put paid to the conspiracy theory that the groups appearance was some kind of publicity scam concocted between Thames TV and their part-owners, EMI. The Times, Saturday, 27 December 1980 pg. Tributes are being paid to former Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd after her death aged 93. Melinda Wittstock "Contest for Channel 5 is clouded by doubts". When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. 1 9 6 8 - 1 9 8 0 (UK) ITV had no real challenger to Blue Peter until 1968 when Thames Television invited Sue Turner, whose background was in current affairs, to find the answer. [citation needed]. It was live TV and the Sex Pistols were front-page., Steve Jones memory of McLarens reaction is markedly different: He was terrified. The original host was Eamonn Andrews, with Bill Grundy taking over in 1976. Harry Gration. Members of the group uttered obscenities during their interview with Bill Grundy. [18] The programme questioned the authority of British troops who had shot dead suspected IRA members allegedly planning a terrorist attack on a British military ceremony in Gibraltar. [38], During 1989 reports appeared that talks were taking place with Carlton about an agreed merger,[39] which resulted in no action. [30] A few days afterwards speculation appeared that Carlton had attempted to buy a sizable number of shares; Michael Green, chairman of Carlton, was quoted saying "I can't possibly comment" but a Thames spokesperson pointed out "It does seem quite likely, however, no one share holder can own more than 10% of our equity so it's difficult to see what they might have in mind". ABC had majority control of the new company and the make-up of its board predominantly (and eventually fully) came from ABC. The revised ident retained the London landmarks but contained them in a blue and orange triangle, pointing downwards, with three wavy blue lines to represent the river and the words 'Thames XXI' in the orange part of the triangle and it was this logo which was used on the first ITV branding idents on 4 September 1989.[54]. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64558222 See MoreSee Less, Another musical genius has gone RIP Burt Bacharach Michael Clark. Chrissie Hynde's relationship with Jones, for example, is fictionalised ("I didn't realise I was around this much," she said to Jones (opens in new tab), who admitted it was "bollocks"). Thames's subsidiary production company Euston Films continued to produce many of Thames's highest-profile drama contributions to ITV network programming to the end of its ITV franchise. In 1976, the tabloids, an apparently the nation, went berserk. ; Kaye Adams - journalist on Central Television; later presenter on Scottish TV. Louder is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. [43] Thames bid 32.5 million while Carlton Television placed a bid of 43.2 million,[44] and since both Thames and Carlton were deemed to have passed the quality threshold, the franchise was awarded to Carlton for having submitted the higher cash bid. So, as this was the last story on the programme, I let it go., Housego had no way of predicting the extent to which Grundy would lose it. She was the first black journalist on TV after landing job on Thames TV in 1968 Ms Hannah said her contract was not renewed after bosses showed racist letters The offensive right-wing notes ranted . The handwritten sheet was given to the founder of the inaugural David Bowie fan club by the star. The outcome of a damaging and costly dispute has resulted in substantial progress towards a more realistic and effective way of working". The Nostalgia Central website has been a labour of love for me since 1998. Thames's share was bought out by Flextech in 1996.[61][62]. The presenter of Thames TV News, Eamonn Andrews, told her she was a natural for the job. In January 1985, the company made a deal with international distributors for US production company Lorimar to purchase the UK broadcasting rights for US drama Dallas, at that time transmitted on BBC1. ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY. Another BBC favourite was comedian Benny Hill, the star of The Benny Hill Show (196989), who was placed under contract. Grundy appears not to hear the profanity, which wasnt that easily audible as people were talking across each other, although in the hand-written notes on the Thames documents it says: Bill told to cool it on earpiece., Grundy took no notice. Opinions varied on the matter of political motivations; some cite the documentary "Death On The Rock", which may have caused displeasure to the then government,[48] whilst others link it to a more general ideological dislike of the way ITV had been run at the time, with over-manning, and the fact that programme production was generally limited to franchise holders (sometimes critically referred to as barriers to entry), being seen as examples of why more commercial freedom and competition was needed within the network. 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