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bluecortina

A member since 26 July 2012

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bluecortina

ITV Breakfast

Ne1L C posted:
bluecortina posted:
Ne1L C posted:

I would have thought that a more coherent ITV breakfast setup would have been a stronger bulwark against BBC Breakfast Time. An ITN/Thames/LWT operation could have provided real clout.


Given the era I do not think this would have been financially viable for the ITV companies. It was quite a few years later that the management at ITV and the representative unions set out some ‘sweeter’ proposals for manning and broadcasting for later hours. I suspect ITV, or the companies you mention, would have tried to set up a separate company to provide a breakfast tv service with more suitable working practices - in other words TV-am in all but name.


Had TV-AM being stripped of their licence following the debacle of the Brighton bombing coverage its plausible to assume the IBA would have asked Thames/ LWT and ITN to provide an interim service.


But at what operational cost? People used to working 9 til 5 don’t just start suddenly coming it at 5am for the fun of it. I certainly didn’t.

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bluecortina

Sir Bruce Forsyth RIP

I was sat in telecine one day and was idly switching around on a monitor looking at what was coming into the building from far away and my eye was caught by a dimly lit studio. I wandered around to MCR and asked what it was and they told me that it was an incoming feed from LWT and that they were about to record a segment for Brucie's Big Night. The segment to be recorded was 'Beat the Goalie' which was taking place in one of our own studios with a local goalie and contestant. It was a Thursday night and as this was being recorded in London I don't quite know why we needed a return feed from LWT as it did not actually involve Bruce at all.

I wandered back round to telecine and looked at the picture on the monitor again. It was quite simply an unlit, unset studio with a single EMI2001 camera with LWT on it's side panel in the middle of the studio tilted down almost as though it was gracefully at sleep. Graceful would not be an understatement. My mind wandered back for a moment to the days when, as a boy, I would marvel at programmes made by that company as they all seemed so exciting, so 'showbiz'. I vowed there and then that someday I would work for that company. And I did, for very nearly 30 years and it was the time of my life. So perhaps In some strange way I owe a special 'thank you' to Sir Bruce for that initial spark.