ITV 1979 strike, effect on emmerdale storylines

The ACTT members at STV only 'blacked' the filling of the gaps where network programmes should have been, so the transmission crew were still there to play the commercials. However all the programmes were from the network (and didn't happen) hence the ludicrous situation where they played commercials between breakdown captions. Then at 5.45 all of ACTT's member in ITV were called out on strike. The electricians and porters belonged to a different union, but most wouldn't cross the ACTT picket lines.

When STV came back, we did indeed transmit Mike Sammes' "Welcome Home" song. I still have both the original tape and the slides. Unusually this didn't appear in an animated form, because until the strike officially ended there was nobody to transfer it to a medium from which it could be transmitted, so the graphic was a still slide.

Thanks for the info, I take it this was one of the day that feed come from HTV, I can remember you saying that stv and HTV providing feeds for each other for crossroads.

Just a shame it was not one of the days you have the actully tape to play.

I remember coming home from school and switching on STV and seeing the caption about the strike .Whatever happened to Pauline Muirhead and Mark Gower .

isn't mark working for one of the uni now? just like Liz Kristiansen


also MR Currie, I wish you would write a book about all you tales of tv over the years

Without plugging my YouTube channel too much, here's a clip from "The Story of ITV" shown in 2005 and their take on the 1979 Strike and the latter TV-am strike in 1987-88.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxziGvLJheE

That's a point, how did the whole 'Welcome Home to ITV' theme come about? The animated version of the logo was played after the news as part of the menu after the news and these too would have had to have been put together at some point.

How much notice was there that the strike was finishing and how soon before 5:45 did people return to work? Or did they get non-ACTT members at a production house to make it all during the strike and it just sat waiting to be used? (I'm assuming that the Musicians Union weren't as sympathetic as Equity)

That's a fascinating insight into the 1979 ITV strike, Tony. Many thanks for sharing it with us.

The ACTT certainly was a force to be reckoned with. I remember that they were responsible for putting Border Television off the air several times back then. For those on the fringes of Border's area, this wasn't too bad a hardship as signals could be picked up from adjacent regions (Granada, STV and Tyne Tees) and so they could continue to watch ITV, but for the rest of the area, where the only signal which could be picked up was a Border one, this left it with no ITV service.

The strikes came close to putting Border off the air for good IIRC, and I think the ACTT were eventually told that any more industrial action would spell the end for the station.

Your guess is pretty much spot on. The music was recorded a couple of weeks in advance and the graphics made up by a non-union operation. I was always surprised that ACTT didn't declare the whole lot "black" and walk out again!!!

I seem to remember having three days notice that the strike was due to end.

Mike Gower I haven't seen for years, although I still see Liz from time to time.

Book? There is my little volume, "A Concise History of British television" but it's not about my own experiences. Neither is my "Radio Times Story".

However my tales of my early days in commercial radio will appear in "Not Quite Altogether Now" due on October 1st (Neil Wilson Books - £14.99 since you ask....)

That does sound interesting, I dare say there a few tale to tell about Commercial radio when it first started, hopeful this might lead on to a follow up book about your experiences in STV/BBC

Tony, thanks for this fascinating insight.

A couple of points intrigue me though - why was the apology caption originated at Black Hill rather than from STV pres? And when returning from the caption to attempt to show Crossroads, did STV have to go through the full start-up procedure?

I don't suppose anyone remembers what happened in ATV Land at the time, as this thread is fascinating?

I'm pretty sure ATV showed Paul Nicholas's kids show(from Granada?) on their 'final' day before they stopped.
(I think they went off around tea time finally!)

Do any Midlands viewers remember an edition of 'ATV Today' going out as a voiceover only over a still caption of the 1979/1980 logo, apart from pre-recorded interviews?

Would that have been around the same time, or a different problem altogether?