Border TV memories

As Border sadly no longer exists, what's everyones memories of Border TV?

Angus Simpson (who went on to present Scotland Today) told me when he started at Border he used to read the news off cards mounted on a lectern they pulled out of an old church, because at that time they couldn't afford an autocue.

And Mr & Mrs. I remember that.

Er...

That's it.

They weren't known for quality productions?

That's a rhetorical question, right?

Yep.

I was used to Tyne Tees with their grand powerful set with fabulous Tyne Bridge backdrop, it's loud orchestral theme, and Mike Neville utterly dominating the screen.

Border News had two dour people sitting on dining room chairs in front of a grey wall, I was concerned that I had gone back in time or something.

Yeah, they had that awful green office chair and low table set until fairly recently that looked awful.

A few years ago a friend of mine was applying for a job there (luckily he didn't get it) and was sent a video of an episode of Lookaround to look at and comment on as part of the application.

The episode they sent was one of the worst news programmes I'd seen - the top story was something really dull with no pictures, the next few weren't that much better either, there was a badly directed live report previewing a football match amongst all the basic production errors.

I know they probably picked the worst episode to send out but even so..

In terms of local news Border was always on a hiding to nothing, having to cover Cumbria, North Northumberland, Southern Scotland and the Isle of Man. But it was "local" in a way that the combined service from Tyne Tees is not. In the early days Border had its own pop music show, an inter-town talent contest called Cock of the Border screened in peak time, plus a wide range of programming aimed at the local audience, including some children's, documentaries, features, quizzes, game shows etc. Now ITV is bland and largely devoid of anything which reflects the nations and regions of the UK. Its great strength was its regionality. All that's been trashed...and, in my opinion, a great deal has been lost in the process. The independent local companies, especially the smaller ones, were devoted to their regions. And even the bigger franchise holders like Granada, Yorkshire and Thames were proud to produce drama and other programming made in and reflecting life in their areas. Border TV is being missed.

That rings a bell

*titter*



*BORING*

just kidding

God I remember when i was a lad Border....nostalgic drivel bla bla etc

Sorry, had to be done

Didn'r border do n umerous episodes of .....

About Britain
Highway
The Time...The place

quite a few children's programmes for the network including Do It , Dramaram and Crush a Grape as well as helping to produce some episodes of Summer saturday morning shows (am I right thinking they do a few Ghost Train)

Lets not forget Mr and Mrs and said earlier and Derek Batey's afternoon chat show (cannot remember the name)

Has something specific happened to the ITV Border service? Or is this just refering to what's happened to all of the franchises (being taken over)?

Surely ITV Broadcasting are still required to make *some* regional content on the ITV Border service?

the reason I ask is that perhaps I heard a while ago something somewhere briefly about Border regional content being lost—perhaps I'm wrong though.