The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

If you want more information about how the Calendar newsroom operated you should try and source a documentary that Channel Four aired in the mid-90s. I used to live in Yorkshire and had moved away by 1991. At the time the documentary went to air it, it brought back many memories. Anyway, Channel Four ran a strand of programming on the news business (for want of a better phrase) and looked at every aspect: newsgathering, print journalism, broadcasting, national vs. international, etc.
They recorded and broadcast a behind the scenes documentary at Calendar as part of this strand. IIRC it ran for 4 or 5 weeks (longer than the week-long strand of programming). It after the opening of the Calendar News Centre; I remember because Calendar itself came from an elevated studio platform in the corner of the News Centre below where Nick Powell and Geoff Druett were broadcasting.
For some reason I have it in the back of my mind that Calendar wasn't the first choice for the documentary. Channel Four had approached CNN and wanted to film there for at least 6 months. CNN said no and Channel Four looked elsewhere. As Yorkshire Television was about to open the News Centre, they approached them. The rest, as they say, is history.

The documentary was called Deadline

Well, it was a YTV production, so YTV presumably would have pitched it to C4. A lot of it was about the requirements and specific challenges of regional news as well, so they may have wanted to do a doc about CNN as well but I don't think YTV would have been considered a replacement for it. Slightly different set-ups.

Here's a clip from Deadline

I have made several attempts to purchase this series. But alas nothing. Apparently it was an independent production company that made it but they don't even own the rights to it. So if anyone could help further I would be most grateful.

I've never seen a view of the studio up in the gods from the newsroom floor looking up.

Questions that I don't think have ever been fully answered. When the news desk view was changed to CSO in about 1996 was it still physically the same studio, and where was the Calendar East news studio located, was it built next door also in the gods?

Deadline was a "Real Life" production, an independent based in Leeds. It was part of a Ch4 strand about TV news. I believe it was started by ex YTV staff in the early days of Indies.

Apart from the high position the small studios were in Leeds with a backdrops to mimic CSO.
The Sheffield news reader for South read from the Sheffield office newsroom.
All play-ins came from the Odetics machine seen in Nick Powell's report above.

I did work experience at the Calendar South News Desk, the studio was very small. I got to sit in the gallery every night, while Calendar was broadcast

Yes Deadline was made by Real Life productions who were based round the back of the Calendar news centre just up from the old Emmerdale Studio / Lookers car showroom

It was run by ex calendar editor Ali Rashid who is married to Ruth Pitt one time Calendar presenter who became head of Granada Documentary for a while. Both of them were very nice people to work for and deal with, as was the working atmosphere at Yorkshire Television.

Interesting in that clip with the IBA chairman saying tht he believed in commercial TV regionalism. It all went very very wrong after the mergers and the accountants took over. ITV stopped producing programmes and just started producing fillers between the adverts.

At the time of "Deadline" Ali Rashid was the Calendar Editor - Ruth Pitt was running Real Life.
I believe when she joined Granada Ali Rashid took over Real Life.

Better memory than me there. I think this was circa 1993/4 - I certainly remember dealing with both of them on Real Life business. I remember Ali leaving as Calendar editor and remember a project with Ruth & he had in mind called 'The Real Royal' which was to have been a fly on the wall Documentary about Scarborough Hospital. Sadly it never got commissioned and things (and people) moved on.