National Television Awards

I remember the first one in 1995 because the next morning Keith Chegwin and Paul O'Grady really slagged it off on The Big Breakfast saying it was a really boring show (I know that's a bit rich given the state of The Big Breakfast at the time) and that Eamonn was a rubbish host and his script was appalling. I bet they didn't mention it used to be a Grampian production.



He's not demanding to do these programmes, people have to invite him to do them.

Of course he presents TV programmes, he's a TV presenter. That's his job.

I remember this!!! It was intriguing as it was so unusual to see the Grampian logo at the end of a broadcast, probably one of the only programmes all year to be produced by Grampian for the ITV network. (I'm probably wrong but please do not criticise). I wonder why Grampian produced the show from London and not a local company such as Carlton?

Could it be something to do with complience, if there were complaints and fines it would be based on a much smaller population coverage?
Similar to some shows being under the Channel branding if I recall correctly.

They should get Ricky Gervais to do the opening monologue.

No. They shouldn't.

Well, it's always been an indie production, certainly used to be Indigo Productions, I think it still is. I think they're a Scottish company - they also do all of Billy Connolly's programmes - and I wonder if it might have been set up by former Grampian employees and so they worked through them. Obviously when it began it was still in the days when indie productions on ITV used to have to be presented to the network via a franchise, but as you say, it was certainly unusual to see the Grampian logo on the network. You can also argue that it allowed them to be totally independent of all the nominated programmes.

I have the brochure from the 1997 Edinburgh TV Festival where there's a full-page advert for Grampian which majors heavily on what a success the NTAs have been, with a big picture of Caprice who used to be a regular in those days. I can't remember what she'd do other than come on in a spectacular frock and get in the papers.

They’re called Indigo Television.

Grampian co-produced the show with Indigo Television from 1995 to 1997. I have no idea why and don't think it was a compliance thing, because that wouldn't have given them a production company credit.

The only thing I can imagine is that there were former Grampian staffers behind Indigo, or something like that.

I also liked the old theme they used, and I agree I also liked the TV Logos in the opening.

They used to use the actual idents rather than just logos, and they were used in the transitions to the nominees for each category too, flicking through the idents until it landed on the channel of the nominated programme.

It can be seen here:

The 1997 awards were two days after the BBC rebrand. Therefore they’re using the wrong idents for them.

Though I’m sure the BBC had the idents under wraps beforehand and I’m sure they weren’t going to provide ITV copies of them before their launch just for use on their awards ceremony.

Yes, that year they used a pre-rebrand BBC 1 trailer logo rather than an ident.