1989-90 What if?

Even the commissions from indies were mostly poor to begin with. The only decent thing I remember Carlton bringing to the network in the early years was the Dave Allen stand-up series in 1993.

For a very short time wasn't Central Lenton Lane in Nottingham, branded 'Carlton Studios' before becoming 'The Television House'?

That doesn't mean Carlton had nothing to do with them, though - if they hadn't commissioned them the programmes wouldn't have been made, and there were lots of respected and distinguished figures (Paul Jackson, Jonathan Powell) at Carlton commissioning the shows. They obviously had plenty of say in what was and wasn't made, and how it was made, they didn't just wait and see what turned up.



Other way round, I think - pretty sure it was The Television House before Carlton took over Central.

You know what I meant- just what did they commission of any note?

On a video of mine I found the last couple of minutes of something of theirs from 1993 (made by Channel X) called Fantastic Facts, presented by Jonathan Ross, and it looks pretty dire.

Good sex guide? that won an award, some kids shows again there won some awards, its seem Carlton strongest area was kids. Does: Talking Telephone Numbers or Is It Legal? count ( did enjoy that) lets not talk about the Brighton Belles

It wasn't very good, I remember it had been on the shelf for ages before it was broadcast. It was your bog standard compilation of funny adverts and silly studio business. A lot of Carlton's early light entertainment attempted to subvert the conventions of light entertainment a bit, I think Lose A Million is probably the archetypal early Carlton show, trying to be a bit subversive while also being light entertainment in its own right, and Chris Tarrant - with all his famed wackiness - is probably the ultimate Carlton celeb.

Carlton did make a lot of rubbish, and it's true the ITC said their first few years were disappointing, but what ITV company didn't? They did a couple of good sitcoms, Is It Legal as mentioned, plus Frank Stubbs and Bramwell were popular dramas of the era. They also lured Clive James over, and they got the Brits from the Beeb, and probably did a lot to improve their credibility, they were a total laughing stock at the time and they've proven to be a valuable brand for ITV.

Nobody can make much of a list of Carlton's nineties output, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a similar list for any ITV company in that era. A lot of shows from that era were quite popular at the time but have now been completely forgotten, from all regions. It doesn't help they were only completely independent for a few years.

Most notable shows that I can think of from that era were produced by Granada, Central or LWT - ie the companies financially best placed to produce anything of quality.

Talking Telephone Numbers is what came to mind straight away when thinking of a Carlton show from that period. Also Paul O'Grady's work pre-POG Show.

In terms of bigger shows, Carlton London was certainly the franchise responsible for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, but I'm not sure of their involvement in the commissioning process.

I seem to recall Claudia Rosencrantz (of the then ITV Centre) more or less single handedly, against a tide
of reluctance, commissioned the series ?

That was obviously the pre-October 1998 period when a show by an indy had to be commissioned via a franchisee, and their logo appeared at the end (and movies and imports also had a "An X Presentation" endcap X being whatever region you were watching it). That stopped I think at the same time they bought in the new ITV logo.

Millionaire was a direct commission to Celador from the ITV Network Centre - one of the first, I believe.
David Liddiment - the then controller of programmes - played the game winning a very small amount of cash to help demonstrate the underlying tension in the format, as a contestant as part of the pitch.

There was no 'communication cord' to any ITV franchise with the show. As the first series ran over 10 consecutive days, play out would have been via LNN to the network.

The first episode certainly stated "A Carlton Presentation for ITV" though - perhaps this was a formality until the policy changed in October.