40th anniversary of the ITV strike

What was on before the strike?

Thanks to 623058 who provided me with these schedules for the Thursday and Friday following the strike, and gave me permission to share them here.

Thursday 25th October 1979:



Friday 26th October 1979:



Evidently these schedules are for the London area, but in answer to my queries earlier, it seems the only regional variations on the Thursday were the local news magazine and late night programming from 11.15pm (which may have just been a closedown in the smaller regions). I was wrong about the News at One not appearing on the Thursday, but it seems to have been a somewhat curtailed bulletin.

Friday was pretty much BAU - local news, Bible readings etc probably appeared prior to the 9.30am programme in some regions. The local news at 1.20 is back along with any other local content that often filled that spot (Lookaround, What’s On Where etc). Less variations than you would normally get in the afternoon and evening, I expect, but local again from 11.15pm.

There have been comments on TV-Ark’s Facebook page stating Westward Diary replaced The Muppets on the Wednesday - and that it may have even been shown earlier in the week. Not sure if that’s accurate info - in particular it seems unlikely Westward interrupted the blue screen of death earlier in the week for their local news. If they did show this on the Wednesday, they likely opted out of the trailers and pre-startup menu that advertised The Muppets.

Another rumour bouncing around over there is that Border didn’t come back on air until the following Monday “because they liked being on strike”. This I take with a very large pinch of salt, but I’m prepared to eat my words if necessary!

There have been comments on TV-Ark’s Facebook page stating Westward Diary replaced The Muppets on the Wednesday - and that it may have even been shown earlier in the week. Not sure if that’s accurate info - in particular it seems unlikely Westward interrupted the blue screen of death earlier in the week for their local news. If they did show this on the Wednesday, they likely opted out of the trailers and pre-startup menu that advertised The Muppets.

I wonder what Thames transmitted in the ad breaks to the network ? I suspect there was something 'viewer friendly' to cover any instances of local difficulties (a lá C4 of course) or maybe it was just their own (Thames's ) local ads ?

I've heard this, but never seen any proof of it, and I find it highly unlikely - as you say, the story is they came back on Monday just to do Westward Diary, which seems a bit odd. The programme at 11.15 in a number of regions on Thursday night was, rather oddly, ATV coverage of Nottingham Forest's European Cup match from the previous evening. And Mixed Blessings on Friday was a repeat, they were clearly really short of material. I would assume the Emmerdale was as well, they would sometimes show repeats between "new" series in those days.

The reference in the Cannon and Ball billing to Morecambe and Wise is because it was not long after Eric had another heart attack and there were suggestions that might be the end of the act. Eric and Ernie's move to ITV got off to a bit of a false start, they did two shows and then Eric had a heart attack, ITV went on strike and Eddie Braben was still at the Beeb.

Was the Emmerdale Farm on there a repeat? As there weren't any new episodes between the 5th July 1979 and the 8th January 1980. Possibly Thames showing episodes out of sync with the network like they did with Crossroads for a while earlier in the 70s.

Possibly already asked, but does anyone have the schedules for the second and third days back on air? There was no TV Times that week (perhaps a rushed copy was issued for the following week with quite a few TBAs in the schedule), but the national and local newspapers would have advertised the Thursday and Friday schedules.

The magazine was affected by three union disputes this year: in January a "slimmed-down" version was produced due to “paper transport” problems; in April a slimmed-down version again appeared for several weeks which had no production credits in the billings and no features due to the journalists being on strike for a 30% pay claim; and finally, due to the 1979 ITV strike, the issue of 25th to 31st August was the last to appear for almost two months until the week of 27th October to 2nd November in a special national edition, again with no production credits and with generic synopsis for the episodes. Multi-region editions covering broad expanses of the country appeared in the week of 10th to 16th November and the following week the magazine settled down its normal regional pattern. Production credits resumed in the week of 17th to 23rd November and non-generic synopsis the week after that.

. And Mixed Blessings on Friday was a repeat, they were clearly really short of material. .

I had thought that the ads were national (per the earlier national strike service), )