Memories of Regional Programmes

Just spinning off from the UTV thread rather than inevitably derailing that further thought a thread for a bit of reminising about the sort of regional programmes the ITV regions used to deliver week in, week out, might be in order.

As mentioned there Central Weekend is probably the noteable example from Central. Our House is the other show I remember, usually airing early on Sunday evening. They also had Heart of the Country on either Tuesday or Thursday in the regional slots against Corrie, whilst Central was one of many regions that had a version of "Eye in the Sky", as did Granada IIRC, with basically a local presenter flying over the region.

I don't think they ever did anything scripted that wasn't shown nationally.


Following on from the talk of Granada Tonight earlier at one point they did cut the show back to 30 minutes in order to air local programming at 6.30pm. I think there was Schools Challenge and Crime File, plus a cookery show IIRC. They used to do a bit after the news too - Revelations was a noteable drama and I've vague memories of a rather tacky club based docusoap.


TV Ark has a regional programming section - though frustratingly now organised alphabetically rather than by region.
https://www.tvark.org/?page=3414

Two that immediately spring to mind for HTV Wales are:

The Ferret - Consumer programme which ran for years and years.


Barry Welsh Is Coming - Comedy - a rare genre for regional telly. It ran between 1996 & 2004, and returned for specials in 2007.

Wasn't Our House a Carlton London show that just happened to spread its way across the rest of the Carlton stations?

Our House started as a Central regional programme but ended up getting an airing across the Carlton stations (including HTV).

Had forgot about The Ferret. It's mainly the sports programming I remember from HTV Wales.

Just spotted on the "I" page of TV Ark that it looks like each region got a retrospective for the 50th anniversary.

What happened to the ferret?. did it just get axed

When I lived in Central, I remember:

- "Heart of the Country" with Tony Francis on Tuesdays at 7.30

- "Sky High" with Marie Ashby, Tuesdays at 7.30

- "Back to the Present" - history quiz with Bob Warman, Sunday early evenings

- "Lifeline" with Anne Dawson, later Lisa Foden

- "Central Weekend Live" with Kaye Adams, Nicky Campbell, John Stapleton, et al, Fridays late night

- "Pulling Power" - motoring magazine with Michele Newman

- "It's Your Shout" - Sunday lunch debate with Michele Newman

- "Central Lobby" - monthly politics debate, Thursdays (I think it still airs)

- "Central Goals Extra" - football scores and highlights with Bob Hall and Phil Mepham, Saturdays afternoons

- "Asian Eye" - news features, shown overnight

- "Our House" - home design, Sunday early evenings

- "Central News Week" - the main reports from earlier in the week shown with signing and subtitles, Sunday lunchtimes

There were probably more that I can't think of right now.

I also remember the 2002 celebrity idents that were placed before regional programmes. There were versions with Marie Ashby, Bob Warman and Wesley Smith.

I moved to Meridian too late to know any of their regional programmes. They don't make them now, except the monthly Thursday night politics programme.


EDIT: It's brought back memories of when I used to watch Home and Away at 6pm, followed by Central News at 6.25pm. I used to flick between Central East and West to compare presentation, as we received both living in Warwickshire. Good times!

HTV Wales had Nuts & Bolts well into the generic era. Is that still going?

It ended 19 years ago.

I think it ended when Chris Segar went into semi-retirement in 2013.



HTV Wales had quite a broad range of regional shows in the late 90s/early 00s when I was growing up. They had the soap Nuts & Bolts (which also got an airing on ITV2), the reality show Presenters and they even had a late night music show called Shotgun Slideshow which no one else remembers, but I always found a bit creepy. I seem to remember a Nicola Heywood-Thomas fronted arts programme too.

ITV Cymru Wales' Coast & Country is probably a forerunner to the various Trevor Fishlock shows that aired in my formative years.

Ah, vaguely remember Presenters. I probably recall more Welsh programming from that period to be honest - I think other than Nuts+Bolts HTV often appealed more to an older audience with their content.


Just reading some Nuts + Bolts articles of the time and they said it was the first HTV soap in 15 years, so can anyone remember something from the 80s? Of course back then most regions had a crack at some kind of soap in the hope of getting their own Coronation Street.

And over to Granada didn't they have their own kids series which usually aired on Saturdays at 12.30pm - a game show of some kind IIRC. I think Central and HTV both usually shows Movies, Games and Videos in that slot.

Saturdays at 12.30 in Central in the mid 90s was often "Movies, Games and Videos" and "The Munsters Today". Often followed by "The A-Team", I think!