The Destruction Of British Television

It's hard to believe that no longer than twenty years ago was 1987. The BBC only broadcast BBC 1 and BBC 2 for about eight hours a day. It was interspersed with pages from Ceefax and the Test Card, Followed up by the fantastic musical anthems that used to follow it. We had the famous COW Globe and the First Electronically generated on screen clock on BBC 1. On BBC 2 we had the T W O Ident for us to enjoy.

Channel 4 had been dropped into hot water by Ofcom because of its type of programming. It also got the same bollocking several more times, but regardless they carried on.

On ITV [Was then called IBA, previously ITA] we had the best thing IBA have done yet, had Regional identity for the different regions.

Ten years later, On the BBC CGI idents started to creep in by '97 with the 'Smokey Globe' on BBC 1 and in my opinion the best set of BBC 2 idents to date the big '2' idents were being broadcast. Things were getting to be a lot more hi-tech and more modern.


IBA had gone to pot in the eighties and that’s when ITV stepped in. In 2003 ITV developed the best set of idents they had ever made. The Hearts. Still carrying Regional Identity!

Then we had the famous BBC Balloons. The most loved BBC 1 Idents of all time.

Then it came - the destruction of British TV.

Shock Horror - No More Test Card Closedown!! - 24 Hr programmes were introduced by 1997 on BBC one and ITV went 24 hr broadcasting in the late eighties. [?] News 24 took over the schedule and on BBC 2 showed OU programmes all night and did until the beginning of this year. Now all you get are a few pages from Ceefax and Music.

So that’s about it - then the BBC let off the Worst TV bomb - All of our screens are cluttered with on screen graphics, DOGs, Astons, Tickers, EPGs etc... Now they decide to introduce new end credit guidelines for all BBC programming. Great, more on screen Junk, and now ITV have gone down the 'Advert every two seconds' rule, and they got in the shiete with the Premium phone in scandal. Great British TV trying to rip the British Public off. Excellent

So do you agree that British programming is not as good as it used to be and is becoming crap or am I wrong?

I agree... unfortunately the fat-headed ******* that run channels these days hardly ever listen to the viewing public. You can't change things back, unfortunately.

BBC1 broadcast for MORE than 8 hours aday, back in 87

more like 12 hours at least!

I said *about* i knew it wasn't 100% Accurate

The actual programming is about as good/bad as ever, but as you suggest, the presentation is abysmal. When I see tapes of how presentation used to be done, it seems amazing that it could have gone from so good to so bad, so quickly.

I'm not really old enough to make an informed comparison, but I've opted for no.


Yes, there are problem with TV today and if the question was in relation to ten years ago, I'd probably say yes! However, it's important to remember that we forget the TV turkeys of former years, so therefore end up making unfair comparisons of the likes of ("insert crap programme of today here") with ("insert 80's classic here").

There was a lot of rubbish around in 1987, but there was also an awful lot more thoughtful and thought-provoking programming as well -- material that has largely disappeared in the intervening years.

I was struck by the Scientology report on Panorama. The 1988 programme, which I saw at the time and reviewed thanks to the net a couple of weeks back, was infinitely better than the newer, populist crap. ITV and BBC are as guilty as each other, although being grateful for small mercies the Beeb took longer to degenerate than ITV did, so we had a few more decent years.

Budgets are spread too thinly in the multichannel environment, and as a result we have more quantity, but correspondingly less quality.

Murdoch, Thatcher, Allen and Gyngell must all take their fair share of the blame. It doesn't help though that as a people, the British have become shallower, more selfish and have a shorter attention span than 20 years ago, and they have allowed TV to degrade. We're all to blame really.

Echoes my sentiments exactly - It was pretty much continually on the up until after 2000 which is when it seemed to all be on the slide.

It's lost an awful lot of its charm too. We've got flashy, dragged-out and busy idents that I wish could be countered with something simple once in a while, on-screen clutter which is worryingly on the increase, and inevitable recorded announcements at times.

in the past there was rubbish, but the quality of the good programmes were so much better, there was more variety in the prime time schedules, certainly on ITV, they had a fantastic mixture of documentaries, comedy, dramas gameshows and soaps, but thats all gone now, now its saturated with soaps, real life docs and talent shows and there is no thought process when it comes to TV branding, the CGI idents of yesteryear were so much powerful and memorable then todays rubbish, just look at UKTV Gold, they got people bouncing around on golden balls!

BBC 1 and BBC 2 broadcasted for longer than that in 1987. You're thinking of more like around 1977 and earlier, when
the two BBC channels would closedown early in the day for a few hours. As I recall, BBC1 would closedown at about
midday, and would resume with children's programming sometime later on in the afternoon.

Ofcom didn't exist in 1987. The IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) was the regulatory body for commercial TV
television stations back then. And IIRC it had a lot more balls than it's modern day equivalent, which sadly, is Ofcom.


ITV has never actually been known as the IBA. It'd always been known as Independent Television, or ITV. As I said
earlier the IBA was the regulator, trying to ensure that all commercial TV channels were responsible brodcasters.

Just to add a little to see, it was a common misconception that the ITC lacked backbone from the IBA but the first ITC boardroom had 75% of the previous years IBA boadroom members. The difference in change of power was thanks to the 1990 Broadcasting Act so same people just different powers.

1987, jeez, I've still got VHS tapes with Ben Elton on Saturday Live, an advert for some health debate show with Edwina Currie and loads of TVS presentation. I'd love to upload them all to YouTube but, as yet, I haven't a clue how.

Daytime TV was very different in 1987, notably lots more shows about television presentation themselves such as Open Air and TV Weekly. Now of course since Bargain Hunt launched in 1998, the morning slot especially is taken up by nauseating Lorne Spicer and DIY/auction shows.