Defunct ITV Regions:What Still Survives

Its very odd it just seems to have been directed at the Carlton side of things. Had Granada acquired Central itself earlier who knows maybe it would have been seen as part of the family.

I can't see it having anything to do with the Lew Grade V the Bernstein brothers stuff of the sixties and seventies. That was, by all accounts, a friendly rivalry between Granada and ATV. Although I think Granada people in later years did take rivalry a bit more seriously hence all this ATV made tat, Granada made the network rubbish seen in the ITV50 book and such.

Dream That Died is a good read, written by a long serving Granada employee.

I've read elsewhere that 'proper Central' people disliked Carlton. Better the devil they knew I suppose!!

Central certainly got completely snubbed; going from being a relative powerhouse of general entertainment (especially when you include Zenith) in the 80s and early 90s; to being responsible for the majority of primetime gameshows through the 90s to basically nothing after Crossroads.

Granada had been quite kind to ATV in some respects - certainly they were one of the regions who frequently showed (and paid for 'imports' of) ITC programming.

The guy who I occasionally speak to recalled when in 1982 Central arrived anyone who still had an ATV branded Car parking permit sticker was looked down upon, so I suppose it happened in reverse with Carlton. Can't really blame them the company did have a poor reputation whereas Central had always tried to create an image of substance.

Why were people with ATV badges frowned upon? Were staff generally glad to be rid of the Grade influence?

There was certainly in some parts a feeling ATV's image had become a little too populist as I say Charles Denton grabbed the change to make a fresh start and as he said by 1981 ATV was seen, despite some very big budget dramas, some big investigation series and a boost to local programmes, as nothing more than the company that made cheap soaps and game shows and wasn't dedicated to the Midlands.

I suppose at that time ATV was seen as the has-been and Central was the shiny new future and anyone stuck in ATV's past wasn't 'with it'.

Surely the obvious answer was 'Give them a nice shiny Central one instead!'

Six years, a thread turned up on here, asking who owns Central Archive, Its nice to know that six years later, where still unsure as to who owns what, where most of its based, what has been skipped, what got saved, same goes for TVS.

Border's local programming was black-and-white until mid to late 1973. The studios in Carlisle had monochrome cameras. That's why the first networked series of Mr and Mrs with Derek Batey was made in Newcastle as a Border/Tyne-Tees Colour Co-production. Even after that filmed news inserts were black and white for a while longer until colour film processing gear was installed. Adverts, feature films and series made on film were shown in colour from Border's 10th birthday in September 1971, as Border had colour telecine equipment. In-vision continuity and late night news bulletins were black-and-white for a good time even after the main studios were colourised.

I think that probably would have been the case whatever way everything merged and whoever came on top. Central's big disadvantage was that it was in the centre of the country. They couldn't keep all the ITV production centres and Manchester is the more obvious one to keep, not only in terms of what it produced but geographically too.

And of course it's the same conclusion that the BBC made

First of all Happy New Year and thanks for all the fascinating information,
I can't believe that many programmes are seemingly just locked away for no good reason (paperwork outstanding etc).

I will concede that there will be some crud but on the balance of probability there must be some corkers as well

PAPERWORK

I have to ask what is so important about this paperwork? who is it that actually gets paid royalties? is it just actor? is it everyone that worked on it?

What I don't understand, people claim unless we have the paper , YET the master tapes have credits and list everyone that worked on that episode, SO Why cant there just use the credits to pay people I cant be that hard surly?

No they don't, by a long way.

The credits also won't list what things had to be cleared for broadcast, and whom with, or the conditions applied to those clearances.

Just look at QI - the've said it's very unlikely it'll ever be released as-is around the world, because of the quantity of material which is only cleared for use in the UK and the expense of re-clearing it for worldwide usage. Now imagine if they lost the paperwork for that - there will be some material which can be broadcast anyway (out of copyright / BBC have a licence for it already / originally cleared with a perpetual licence / etc), but other stuff they won't even know whether it's cleared, who to approach about getting it cleared, or any conditions that were placed on the clearance. End result is a legal minefield which could end up very expensive if things aren't sorted before transmission.

Basically, without the original documentation, unless someone is willing to take the risk of being sued for breach of contract / copyright / etc, these programmes will remain in their boxes.