The Newsroom

Best and Worst Regional Titles and Themes

Pre Corporate Era (August 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
:-(
A former member
Brekkie posted:

As for the worst - ripped from a US station IIRC, and very much of it's time, the final look of Granada Tonight - "Bringing the News Home to You" hasn't aged well at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0JR1pcTvNs

I don’t think this is as bad as people say. The titles are clumsy, but it’s quite punchy - if they’d ditched the cheesy tag line and instead had some shots of the local area etc it would have been pretty good. The surrounding pres was pretty decent and the set looked alright too (other than the nursing home chairs). I can see what they were trying to do.
JW
JamesWorldNews
Mind you, all of the above provide a nice contrast with the “samey” nature of today’s outputs. As we all know, only Scotland, Wales and NI (and London) have anything distinctive.

Seeing them strung together like this gives a very bland corporate feel. Perhaps that was the intention, under the guise of “consistent branding”.

My most favourite of all time (regional theme and branding) remains the old STV one I mentioned a few pages back.

RI
Richard
DJ Dave posted:
I always liked these when Granada Tonight became Granada Reports again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHLrJQLtpr0
but then I thought the next set of tiles and set mainly looked cheaper compared to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDjoRp9UfnY


I agree. I wondered why they included the Prescott punch in the earlier ones though. It was obviously reported at the time, but to play a clip of it every night seems a bit much.
RI
Richard
Steve Williams posted:
Stuart posted:
I recall seeing that version when visiting family at the time and being astounded by that set design. It looks like they're presenting from the Headmaster's Study at an expensive private school. Whoever thought that was a good idea was clearly using a controlled substance. Shocked


Demented set. In that period they also had Bob Greaves and Stuart Hall doing a regular Lighter Side Of The News feature which they presented from two thrones. The titles aren't very good either, it's nice that they make reference to the classic Granada arrow, but it's the spinning letters that make no sense, as they spell out Granada Tonight, but the Tonight is backwards. So the spinning GT is alright, as that is the initials of the programme, but then you have a spinning RH and AG. What's that supposed to mean?

Those 2001 titles include John Prescott getting egged, which is a bit of a stretch to say happened in Granadaland, it happened in Rhyl! You might just be able to pick it up there, but I doubt HTV were very happy at Granada claiming it.


I think Rhyl was officially Granada/HTV overlap.
NW
nwtv2003
Richard posted:
Steve Williams posted:
Stuart posted:
I recall seeing that version when visiting family at the time and being astounded by that set design. It looks like they're presenting from the Headmaster's Study at an expensive private school. Whoever thought that was a good idea was clearly using a controlled substance. Shocked


Demented set. In that period they also had Bob Greaves and Stuart Hall doing a regular Lighter Side Of The News feature which they presented from two thrones. The titles aren't very good either, it's nice that they make reference to the classic Granada arrow, but it's the spinning letters that make no sense, as they spell out Granada Tonight, but the Tonight is backwards. So the spinning GT is alright, as that is the initials of the programme, but then you have a spinning RH and AG. What's that supposed to mean?

Those 2001 titles include John Prescott getting egged, which is a bit of a stretch to say happened in Granadaland, it happened in Rhyl! You might just be able to pick it up there, but I doubt HTV were very happy at Granada claiming it.


I think Rhyl was officially Granada/HTV overlap.


I don’t think there was an official overlap per se, I guess it’s as far as the signal went. As said it used to be easy to watch Granada in Llandudno but not much further west than that. I remember visiting Anglesey back in 1999 and you could pick up a very snowy Granada signal.

I’m sure back in the 90’s Granada Tonight used to report and do live stuff (usually when they put Paul Crone out on the road) from a number of places in North Wales such as Llandudno. I believe this pretty much stopped when ITV plc became a thing, if not when Carlton acquired HTV.

Granada’s news presentation back in the 90’s used to be pretty dire. Personally the best in ITV I think was the London Tonight theme from 1993. I also liked both Meridian and Westcountry’s news themes from 1993 also.

Worst would probably be Granada Tonight from 1998. The titles made no sense and just looked hideous. Needless to say they only lasted for about 10 months on screen.
DV
dvboy
Mike W posted:
I think the best for me has to be
https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=93467

Central West from 1997... The music, the colour scheme (very 90s I know) and even the little window on the weather in the cake logo shape. A lot of thought went into it and it shows.

The future was certainly touted to be bright when they moved to Gas Street. It's a shame as the studio centre opened as 16:9 capable and I understand a lot of the graphics were designed in 16:9.

It all went downhill from there, Central News West had some really awful titles before the corporate looks came in.

This is probably my favourite of all the Central News variations, CN East in 2003 https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=95452
Gone are the days of Llewella Bailey shouting the headlines at you at the start of the programme.
WH
Whataday Founding member
This has always been my favourite:



It's a rather inspired mash-up of the Welsh National Anthem and Men of Harlech (a rare nod to the station name). It manages to be authoritative yet warm, which I think is the perfect balance for a regional news theme.

The whole package screamed confidence, after a shaky few years following the franchise renewal.
ST
Stuart
Whataday posted:
The whole package screamed confidence, after a shaky few years following the franchise renewal.

I've always like that HTV ident. It was such a massive improvement from the 'ice cream van' version.
WH
Whataday Founding member
Stuart posted:
Whataday posted:
The whole package screamed confidence, after a shaky few years following the franchise renewal.

I've always like that HTV ident. It was such a massive improvement from the 'ice cream van' version.


The audio is apparently intended to be a stylised version of the original aerial ident. You can just about make it out it in the build up and more obviously the 'wah wah' at the end.
RO
rob Founding member
My favourites:

* The 2002 Westcountry Live titles - https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=91207
* The 2000 North East Tonight titles - https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=92723
* The 1996 Meridian Tonight titles - https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=91660
ST
Stuart
rob posted:
My favourites:

* The 2002 Westcountry Live titles - https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=91207
* The 2000 North East Tonight titles - https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=92723
* The 1996 Meridian Tonight titles - https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=91660

I did really like the 2002 Westountry Live 'smokey titles'. Quite a departure from the previous style.

Who stole Mike Neville's big desk from NET in 2000? Shocked
GE
gerryuk
Ok, i could not resist........

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