WH
Problem with it was that the music was utterly tuneless.
Well I disagree - one of my favourite news themes and very memorable. As I said it's a marmite thing.
The nicest thing I can say about it is that it fitted in perfectly with the whole 'five' personality transplant which saw much of the station dragged upmarket (this coincided with a huge increase in market share so I'm not sniffing at that era).
Whataday
Founding member
This look from Five News seems to be a very marmite thing in the pres world - I personally loved the whole thing, the music, the titles, the set, the little sting after the headlines. Shame it was only used for a very short period.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xya6zsX3Hps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xya6zsX3Hps
Problem with it was that the music was utterly tuneless.
Well I disagree - one of my favourite news themes and very memorable. As I said it's a marmite thing.
The nicest thing I can say about it is that it fitted in perfectly with the whole 'five' personality transplant which saw much of the station dragged upmarket (this coincided with a huge increase in market share so I'm not sniffing at that era).
NG
My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I thought East Midlands had short opts within Midlands Today in the late 80s/early 90s before they launched EMT as a standalone programme.
And iSTR that Jersey had their own opt-outs for the 21.28 news (though not during Spotlight)
noggin
Founding member
There weren't any small opt outs in the BBC back then - when the East Midlands split it was a fully fledged region in itself.
My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I thought East Midlands had short opts within Midlands Today in the late 80s/early 90s before they launched EMT as a standalone programme.
And iSTR that Jersey had their own opt-outs for the 21.28 news (though not during Spotlight)
ST
I did like that one, but I preferred the remix after the Carlton rebrand . . .
Ah . . . the halcyon days of regional ITV.
Everything was 16:9 except for the local news, which they didn't upgrade, as there was an obvious plan to merge the region with HTV West.
Here's one of my favourites which I don't think has been mentioned yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4wqTyQxaEw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4wqTyQxaEw
I did like that one, but I preferred the remix after the Carlton rebrand . . .
Ah . . . the halcyon days of regional ITV.
Everything was 16:9 except for the local news, which they didn't upgrade, as there was an obvious plan to merge the region with HTV West.
Last edited by Stuart on 28 August 2016 2:27pm - 2 times in total
DE
My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I thought East Midlands had short opts within Midlands Today in the late 80s/early 90s before they launched EMT as a standalone programme.
And iSTR that Jersey had their own opt-outs for the 21.28 news (though not during Spotlight)
And I think Carlisle did 2128 opts too didn't they?
EDIT: I may be completely making that up ... I can't find anything to support that ...!
There weren't any small opt outs in the BBC back then - when the East Midlands split it was a fully fledged region in itself.
My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I thought East Midlands had short opts within Midlands Today in the late 80s/early 90s before they launched EMT as a standalone programme.
And iSTR that Jersey had their own opt-outs for the 21.28 news (though not during Spotlight)
And I think Carlisle did 2128 opts too didn't they?
EDIT: I may be completely making that up ... I can't find anything to support that ...!
Last edited by deejay on 28 August 2016 3:25pm
LS
Lou Scannon
Good grief.
The first bit of that melody sounds like something that the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz might sing a song to! Not "newsy" at all.
Altogether now: "The house began to pitch, the kitchen took a slitch. It landed on the Wicked Witch, in the middle of a ditch..." (!)
LS
Lou Scannon
I did like that one, but I preferred the
remix
after the Carlton rebrand . . .
"Remix"?
The music introduced to Westcountry Live in the Carlton-owned era was surely a totally new melody altogether, rather than another remix of the 1993 launch melody?
Everything was 16:9 except for the local news, which they didn't upgrade, as there was an obvious plan to merge the region with HTV West.
Indeed. When Plymouth got v.2 of the "teal" generic look, their titles didn't have the same "split-screen" look as all the other ITV plc regions, but instead had singular full-screen pieces of footage throughout the whole sequence (as the whole production was in hellish 4:3-zoomed-and-cropped-to-14:9 <shudders>). They only got the exact same "split-screen" style as everyone else, when they moved to Bristol.
Speaking of Westcountry (wandering a bit OT, sorry)...
I always found it rather OTT that in Westcountry Television's earliest weeks/months on air, how they had various specific "names" for the different short bulletins (e.g. "Westcountry Latest" (weekdays) and "Westcountry Weekend Latest" and such like). Particularly as, during the course of one very short title sequence, you'd see the main "Westcountry News" name at the start, then seguing into whatever the uber-specific bulletin "name" was. Branding overkill, much?!
Similarly, there were also things like "Meridian Late" in that era.
Surely just two titles at the most (e.g. "...News" (for all short bulletins) and "...Tonight/...at Six" etc (for the main programme only), or merely the "...Today/Tonight" variable) is quite sufficient?
IT
There was a rare remix of the Carlton era Westcountry Lve theme, used for the full length lunchtime bulletin, which is a full-on piece to dance and party to, rather than the sedate evening theme.
:-(
A former member
was that the same piece used by one of the Central news's?
AN
Speaking of Westcountry (wandering a bit OT, sorry)...
I always found it rather OTT that in Westcountry Television's earliest weeks/months on air, how they had various specific "names" for the different short bulletins (e.g. "Westcountry Latest" (weekdays) and "Westcountry Weekend Latest" and such like). Particularly as, during the course of one very short title sequence, you'd see the main "Westcountry News" name at the start, then seguing into whatever the uber-specific bulletin "name" was. Branding overkill, much?!
Similarly, there were also things like "Meridian Late" in that era.
Surely just two titles at the most (e.g. "...News" (for all short bulletins) and "...Tonight/...at Six" etc (for the main programme only), or merely the "...Today/Tonight" variable) is quite sufficient?
It was very typical of the 1993 franchise round where the companies went big on regional news to win the franchises. You also had hour long bulletins as well. In west country's case you also had the 4 sub opts that were so small and sparsely populated they must have had to resort to reading out the parish newsletter.
Andrew
Founding member
Speaking of Westcountry (wandering a bit OT, sorry)...
I always found it rather OTT that in Westcountry Television's earliest weeks/months on air, how they had various specific "names" for the different short bulletins (e.g. "Westcountry Latest" (weekdays) and "Westcountry Weekend Latest" and such like). Particularly as, during the course of one very short title sequence, you'd see the main "Westcountry News" name at the start, then seguing into whatever the uber-specific bulletin "name" was. Branding overkill, much?!
Similarly, there were also things like "Meridian Late" in that era.
Surely just two titles at the most (e.g. "...News" (for all short bulletins) and "...Tonight/...at Six" etc (for the main programme only), or merely the "...Today/Tonight" variable) is quite sufficient?
It was very typical of the 1993 franchise round where the companies went big on regional news to win the franchises. You also had hour long bulletins as well. In west country's case you also had the 4 sub opts that were so small and sparsely populated they must have had to resort to reading out the parish newsletter.