Granada Christmas Careline

Anyone know if the messages are played out from the newtork centre over the programmes?

Plus just before it is shown the sound seems to drop out for a moment. Hardly seemless!

It is most likely that the text added on screen is done at Leeds, where the ITV1 Granada feed is controlled from, rather than Manchester where Careline is based. I agree it's a slight pain when they add it onto programmes, but we're the only Region that still does this sort of thing and is very much a Public Service from the BBC, ITV and EMAP, plus it's a North West Instituion that has been going for years, I don't know how long, but there's a clip from MHP PP showing it to go far back as 1987.

I presume YTV's Christmas Line (On Leeds 44 81 99!) and the London based Christmas Line (from Thames, LWT and Capital AIUI) ended sometime ago.

But it's also the only time of year you get to see Gordon Burns and Lucy Meacock standing together on the advert, this year all of the ad's are filmed outside the Rovers Return rather than Locations in Manchester City Centre.

Not seen it, but a sound drop might imply that the output from Leeds is taking a round-trip via a gallery at Quay Street for the astons to be overlayed - a similar sort of soft-opt to local tickers on Children in Need.

This would introduce a few of frames of delay (I would imagine) when the gallery at Granada is switched into circuit which could account for the sound disappearing briefly. I would hope that Leeds could super a caption without causing sound glitches anyway!

Oh please, I'd just managed to get that out of my head!!

It definally ended before the phone numbers changed (i.e we never had 'On Leeds 2 44 81 99') so its quite a long time ago now!

So prior to 1995 then!

Someone on another forum where this came up reckoned that for its last year of operation, it was indeed two double-four eight one nine-nine.

Anyone tried calling that number to see what you get? And 0208 811 8055 while you're at it

The YTV Christmas Line used the same number as YTV's Help Yourself social action programme, so maybe it was a full time number for the Community Office or its equivalent at Kirkstall Road.

So no one tried calling it and singing "Ring YTV's... Christmas Line... on Leeds double four eight one nine nine!" over the festive period then?

I can confirm that, remember it distinctly.