Channel TV in the afternoon

Has anyone been unlucky enough to see Channel TV at 3.00 in the afternoon?

First of all, why does the 3pm Channel News bulletin come from the newsroom when it has a great looking studio? There is also no weather bulletin or summary of any kind.

And what the hell is 'Puffin's Pla(i)ce' that comes on before CITV? The programme is designed for kids right (pre school kids at that.)??? Half the time when the male presenter was speaking all you could hear was sounds of smashing glass or toilets flushing from the sound department and half the things he was talking about when you could hear him I couldn't understand myself. Then he was on about Legally Blonde and Harry Potter which come on, which 4 year old kid is gonna watch?!?!

I like the idea of having a regional children's programme that includes details of events for children and birthdays... but this was nothing of the sort. They might as well stick cartoons on instead.

My goodness, Reuben, you're the brave one, daring to knock Oscar Puffin and his chums.

Oscar's been around since the dawn of ITV on the islands and is one of a small band of puppet presenters, the most famous of which was Gus Honeybun of Westward, then TSW.

When you think how few potential viewers the Channel franchise goes out to, you realise what a fantastic job they do down there in St Helier, per head of population.

I THINK (willing to be corrected) the reason for the 3pm news coming from the newsroom is because Oscar is in the only studio when they want to do that news. They break the Oscar set, for the news set, between the last Oscar appearance and 6pm.

Yes I've noticed the loud sound effects on Puffin's Pla(i)ce and the general bizzare production, half the time its as if he's talking to himself rather than the viewing public

Do Border still have The Nitty and Gritty Club on Sundays, where the opening and closing titles was the best bit of the show?

Channel TV has to be the most regional ITV company now, even though they have a shoestring budget. I know they opt for LNN continuity most of the time and thats fair really, but the regional service they give is very good. We were in Jersey in 1996 and I managed to watch some of Channel TV and it was very good. I remember there was a massive TV at Jersey Airport which had Channel on, and from what I remember they had Puffin and the preseneters doing IVC all afternoon, even introducing a repeat of Coronation Street too. But no-one can slant CTV's efforts for kids, they still care. Shame Anglia (well GR/N/D/) got rid of BC, which was a shame, and Gus, well blame either Maggie or TSW. Though you can't complain really as they do give a decent regional service for a tiny budget, compared to the Carlton, Granada and SMG regions.

Blame TSW. Westcountry would have taken Gus if TSW hadn't thrown a wobbly over loosing its franchise.

As for Channel being the most regional, I'm assuming you are not including the nations, as IMO Scottish, Grampian, ITV1Wales and UTV are more regional.

Yup, I wasn't including the nations, I know the Welsh, Scottish and Irish offer a good regional service to the viewer. BTW Does Carlton Westcountry still opt-out for their childrens thing? (I think it is a Pirate.)

<Devon anorak on> Not quite a pirate.... it's a sea Captain - going by the name of Flotsam and his seagull friend Jetsam (or "Jessie" for short).

Birthday People
<Devon anorak off (too hot for anoraks!)>

I think HTV West still show a childrens prog after the mid afternoon news - its only on for about 2 minutes though. HTV Wales have Crimestoppers.

I agree with you ,but lets not forget good old UTV they just do their own thing and it's **** You ITV 1 .

IVC all afternoon? My region (YTV) never ditched it - because they never used it in the first place! Pity that all of ITV no longer uses it now.

YTV DID have IVC when they launched (using a very nifty projected backdrop which featured the diamond pattern from the original ident - looked very effective), they dropped it when they moved to colour.

And UTV does still have it occasionally (only in the evenings and only usually only at/near the weekend).

Channel dropped it at the end of 1999, however the set was (is?) still used for short news bulletins.


According the the floorplan of their Jersey base, there is a separate small studio for Oscar. The large(r) main studio is separate.

As to it's location, it's in between master control and the archive, and across the corridor from 'Creative Channel'. No toilets anywhere near it

Anyone know what the presenter of Puffin does when he isn't chatting up wooden birds? It's on every day, presumably some are recorded but that is hardly a full-time job.

A good presenter, It's a fine art to witter on for 5 minutes when absolutely no-one on the islands has a Birthday!