Defunct ITV Regions:What Still Survives

Was it A LOT what Granada Binned?

I will say this Granada stuff are right bunch of Blue Meanies, and still ITV south/london and leeds did NOT like that office one bit, I believe its still like that to this day. ITV still has not merged into one fully formed company ten years down the line.....

I wonder if there is anything in here about central archive: From ATVLand in Colour
http://www.macearchive.org/mace-shop/dvds/product/from-atvland-in-colour.html

Yes, the guy who rang me - and I said contact TV Times as they used to get most copies - said there was only a "handful" of Crossroads photos for example out of thousands. I know there was thousands as in 1997 Broad Street had rooms full of little stills in boxes, all those went in the skip.

So if it wasn't for the TV Times keeping their copies there would be very little of anything ATV/Central photograph wise.



I know Carlton gets a lot of stick, but Granada are far worse in the sense (just read the ITV50/Dream That Died books) they think they're better than anyone else so in the scheme of things ATV was just song and dance so didn't matter and they put Tyne Tees down as being a unimportant station that makes nothing of substance to the network.



I guess the people behind that, MACE, may know about the 'history' of the local archive, however Granada also 'lost a warehouse' full of ATV/Central paperwork like the TVS situation as recently people have been asking about programmes and told they have no idea who owns the format/copyright or such. If you want to ask Richard Jeffs he is on Twitter I believe and runs the archive (I forget its name) which owns the Telly Savalas film on Birmingham from circa 1980.

Im surprised no one took stuff out of the skip or some members of staff kept some of the stuff that was being thrown out, as in the case of TVS and also in other parts of Central land, stuff was saved. You would have thought there would have given it to the TV and film Museum like what there did with content left in broad street

The master tapes of music was supposed to go to YTV in Leeds. At the time I had a friend working there (who later discovered some ITC material in the Central Film Library) and he said it never turned up.

However I was told the music went into the EMI/Granada library, but they charge over £1000 just to check for your pleasure! So it either went to Granada's music division or it went to the BFI or it went in a skip.

I know one of the bosses at Central/Carlton was grabbing what he could. The fact the film library is at MACE rather than destroyed/metled down was down to the boss at Carlton - Granada came in when they were shutting it down and said get rid of it.

For this to still be going on in 2003 I thought was pretty disgraceful, so yes a lot more survives than it would have if it hadn't been for some staff who did care enough to intervene. But I have to say the ITV Archive people in London are brilliant and have done their hardest to repair that damage done, unfortunately some of it was one-offs and will never be recovered.

Hopeful some other people went past the skip and grab what there could, its Possibly some stuff went walkies like those pic but said member of the public don't like to come forward in case there get in to trouble. I bet its like all the stuff from 1970s.

I know this for a fact GRAMPIAN still has most its photo and press archive in Aberdeen, I remember ask Kristy showing old a good amount of press, pic etc and even transcript of the first days line up etc... Tapes are a different kettle of fish, I should also be noted Scottish and Grampian both have missing tape archive from the 1970 and 80s. again who would expect anyone wanting to view "Whats your problems" or Top Club 1979?

It was said When Grampian moved office in Aberdeen in 2003 a good amount of archive was throw out,

But stuff, was also sent to

* Glasgow warehouse on the south side of Glasgow,
* http://ssa.nls.uk/ A good amount of 1960s/ 70s
* But some did get the chop and skip

===============================================

I have to ask is there ANY reason for TV companies to still Skip video tapes in this day in age? we cant expect them to keep hold of everything.

I don't see why there is any excuse for it, surely they should first off offer it to the nearest local film archive, it does help both parties, the archive can market the footage and make some money and the ITV company via keeping copyright control also makes money back. Seems odd to destroy something that may be of use to some production.

Quite. At least the BBC in the 70s had the excuse of being contractually unable to do anything with their archive; and unable to foresee changes which would come as a result of Home Video (and later multichannels).

So, did the Carlton/Granada merger practically result in the removal of Carlton management structure? I always had assumed that the transaction didn't really change much - and that stuff like the closure of Lenton Lane would have happened either way.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly was going on, a few ex-staff at Lenton Lane - one who had worked for the network back to the ATV days - said how 'Granada came in and started saying what was to happen'. So the 'merger' really was a take-over.

Strange that they treated Central so badly though. There are other factors going back to the idea ITV Network, which was Granada in all but name anyway, who commissioned the shows, went on a mission to discontinue anything Midland made to close it. Which isn't surprising really as Lenton Lane was imposed on ATV and was never profitable.

The producer of a soap made there which underwent a rather bizarre revamp said they didn't have any say over that, and was told of the changes the network was imposing on it. Whether that was deliberately an attempt to remove it who knows - but if it was, it worked. Carlton had released a totally different set of 'improvement plans' only a few weeks earlier that were suddenly ditched.

The one thing I have noticed is it's the ex-Carlton/Central staff who are often the most helpful at ITV who still remain there when it comes to old ITV. Granada ones appear to have been taught by the book of 'put a price on everything, even information'.

A quick look in 'The Dream That Died' book about Granada TV it covers a little of Central's demise.

It notes that almost as soon as Granada tookover Carlton Granada executives seized virtually all the significant jobs.

"Charles Allen now got out the axe again. The first to suffer was the Central franchise where 400 jobs were lost and the Nottingham studios sold off".

THANKFUL, some who worked at Central used to to HEAD of the ITV duty office, I hope he is still there.
I will say this, I was able to get SOME information about some stuff, but as soon as I asked about proper details there get rather upaty and snotty and starting demanding information from me, I agree Granada are just GITS.



That is Shocking, I wonder why Leeds was spared?

I guess it got its downgrade a few years later when Countdown was moved, that studio shut and a load of staff were laid off. Tyne Tees used to employ over 1000 people as well, but their demise was a slow gradual downgrade by Granada over several years.

Central was certainly a speeded up killing off.

I don't understand why Central was butchered, so fast, its not like it was a threat, or was Granada plan just to have KENT house and Manchester studio cover all the work for ITV? ITV could have used those lenton lane for renting out, Im surprised there never went after Maidstone.

Im going to have to get a copy of that book.