BBC Nations and regions

I was going to start this topic last week but then thought I should probably do a bit of research of my own rather than just ask the question, but to be honest finding definitive answers has proved tricky. TV Ark is probably the best source, but is a bit hit and miss as obviously they can only go back as far as they can find the archive material for - so the actual launch can pre-date the info they have available.

My question is simple though - when did BBC TV go regional? From what I can find nothing happened in England at least before the launch of ITV in 1955, but I think BBC Wales, BBC Scotland and BBC NI pre-date the English regions, but can't quite see from when.

Well, if you believe Wikipedia, BBC English Regions started gradually from the late 50's (Northern Regions).

BBC Midlands regional news appears to have started in 1964, as Midlands Today, but ISTR with a recent interview between BBC WM's Ed Doolan & MT's presenter from the 60's & 70's, Tom Coyne, Midlands Today was only used as a temporary title initially, as it didn't start at 6pm on occasion. (The regular title was 'Midlands At Six'!)

The old version of the MT website gave Coyne & David Stevens as being the regular presenters from 1967 ISTR.

Tom Coyne went back oop North in 1980 to Tyne Tees, while David Stevens continued until 1985.(Think his last day on screen was the day the COW globe came on screen, as there was a short piece with him saying Goodbye to the Mirror Globe! Now that's a clip that needs searching out, if it was ever archived?)

(Might search out the Doolan / Coyne interview, as I did 'Radio Download' it somewhere!)

Very strange that you brought this up when today I watched this clip of South Today turning 50 years old in January 2011. So that would take BBC South to January 1961.

BBC Regions started in 1927 as a radio region, the oldest being BBC Midlands (source is Wiki on this)

I watched the last remains of the first ever Look North for Yorkshire at the Media Museum in Bradford which dated to 1968 which is of course the year that YTV started up. No coincidence, I'm sure!

One question, why does England get 12 regions, whilst Scotland gets one and the same with Wales and Northern Ireland? STV even split theirs to North and Central, and even further for news!

Probably looking at ITV is a good place to start:

From what I can find out (not that you need telling but please correct me if I'm wrong!):

North Scotland: 1961 (Grampian)
Central Scotland: 1957 (STV)
Border: 1961
Northern Ireland: 1959 (Ulster tv)
Wales: 1958 (Teledu Cymru / TWW)
West: 1965? (TWW)
Anglia: 1959
South West: 1961 (Westward TV)
Channel: 1962
South: 1958 (Southern TV)
London: 1955 (Associated-Rediffusion/ATV)
Yorkshire: 1956 (ABC/Granada), Yorkshire TV 1968
Midlands: 1956 (ABC/ATV)
North West: 1956 (ABC/Granada)
North East: 1959 (Tyne Tees)

So was the North West and Yorkshire originally one ITV region then, or a split franchise with Granada operating both?

And this whole topic is kind of an off shoot from the BBC2 70s season and seeing the national variants of classic logos. I'm guessing that BBC1 as it would become had largely regionalised by the time BBC2 had launched, so was BBC2 regionalised from it's launch or did that come later?

EDIT: Cheers Martin

1962.

And repeating for the BBC:

Scotland: ???
Wales: BBC Wales launched 1964 (BBC2 - 1965?), but previously Wales/West service from 1957
Northern Ireland: 1968?
London/South East: 1960, though seemingly largely neglected as a region until the mid-80s.
South West: 1961
South: 1961
West: 1957 with Wales, 1964 separate
Midlands: 1968 (BBC1 & 2)
East Midlands: Late eighties?
East: 1959
North: ???
North East and Cumbria: 1962 (previously North)
North West: 1968 (previously North)
Yorkshire: 1968 (previously North)
Yorks & Lincs: 2002
Channel Islands: 2003 (sub opt)
Oxford: 2000 (sub opt)

Some truly horrific BBC regional logos in the early years too it seems.

the coincidence being that the IBA split the franchise into two and built new masts at Winter Hill and Emley Moor, and the BBC was able to take advantage of this and split their transmissions too.

The north got a pan-regional Look North from Manchester before the Leeds operation, of course.

You've omitted:

Cambridge: 1997 (sub opt)

That explains why Oxford got one then!