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ITV 1979 strike, effect on emmerdale storylines

(July 2009)

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CH
Cherry
TonyCurrie posted:


Only Channel Television stayed on the air during those twelve weeks. There, a local union agreement meant there was no dispute. Of course there were no network programmes either. But Channel's boss travelled to London and loaded up a vanful of film programmes. Channel would do their lunchtime news as usual from 1.20 - 1.30 and then close down until 5pm from which point they showed US and Australian film series (and episodes of "The New Avengers" with an hour-long "Channel Report" news magazine at 6. This included National News headlines. These were obtained by someone driving to the most northerly point of Jersey and painstakingly scribbling down the 5pm news from IRN that was broadcast on Radio Victory and could just be heard on a car radio!!

Great insight Smile Sounds like Channel did really well staying on air! Does anyone know exactly what shows Channel managed to get their hands on?

Also, what effect did the strike have on Coronation Street's storylines? Did the strike really make Granada re-tool "immoral" storylines?
TC
TonyCurrie
Cherry posted:
TonyCurrie posted:


Only Channel Television stayed on the air during those twelve weeks. There, a local union agreement meant there was no dispute. Of course there were no network programmes either. But Channel's boss travelled to London and loaded up a vanful of film programmes. Channel would do their lunchtime news as usual from 1.20 - 1.30 and then close down until 5pm from which point they showed US and Australian film series (and episodes of "The New Avengers" with an hour-long "Channel Report" news magazine at 6. This included National News headlines. These were obtained by someone driving to the most northerly point of Jersey and painstakingly scribbling down the 5pm news from IRN that was broadcast on Radio Victory and could just be heard on a car radio!!

Great insight Smile Sounds like Channel did really well staying on air! Does anyone know exactly what shows Channel managed to get their hands on?

Also, what effect did the strike have on Coronation Street's storylines? Did the strike really make Granada re-tool "immoral" storylines?


I have the complete Channel schedule for the period but it's not to hand right now. But from memory: as well as at least one Feature Film every night (viewers loved that) there were episodes of "The New Avengers", the Mystery Movie series ("Columbo", "Macmillan & Wife" etc), and quite a few series that had yet to make their network debuts.

Channel didn't officially have VTR facilities. (Actually they did - they used SONY High Band U-Matics, but since the IBA didn't approve those for broadcast use, they hid that fact from the regulator. I now own the last remaining U-Matics from Channel) Thus all the material they were able to screen had to be on 16mm film, which restricted their choice a bit.

Viweing figures went up rather than down, and many viewers preferred the network-free diet!
Last edited by TonyCurrie on 21 August 2009 11:24pm
SG
SiGa
I have just stumbled across this thread tonight and have read it all with great interest.

Does anyone know if Channel used the network continuity and the welcome home bit on that night?

Granted viewers would have known there was no network stuff because of a strike, but some would be confused by the welcome home to ITV.

15 days later

ST
stevek2
what has the title changed to

ITV 1979 strike, effect on immoral storylines Shocked

that should read emmerdale Confused
SP
Steve in Pudsey
It's said that since the thread opened. If you edit your original post you should be able to change it.
IS
Inspector Sands
stevek2 posted:
what has the title changed to

ITV 1979 strike, effect on immoral storylines Shocked

that should read emmerdale Confused


It's always read that.... I did wonder what was immoral
:-(
A former member
Inspector Sands posted:
stevek2 posted:
what has the title changed to

ITV 1979 strike, effect on immoral storylines Shocked

that should read emmerdale Confused


It's always read that.... I did wonder what was immoral


have you seen alot of soaps it full of them Laughing

13 days later

TW
TW@
What happened in the regions that went off before it went nationwide?

Did they show the episodes of Corrie to allow viewers to catch up, or did these regions miss out?

10 days later

ST
stevek2
Inspector Sands posted:
stevek2 posted:
what has the title changed to

ITV 1979 strike, effect on immoral storylines Shocked

that should read emmerdale Confused


It's always read that.... I did wonder what was immoral


must have been the spellchecker Embarassed

19 days later

MA
Markymark
TonyCurrie posted:


Ignoring the standoff in the control room (where it was very tense indeed) I introduced the film. Nothing happened. So I said "Well,I'm afraid that due to an industrial dispute we're unable to bring you the film. it's a lovely sunny day outside so I suggest you go and enjoy it now and we'll be back with you at 5.15 for "Crossroads"!"

We faded to black and everybody marched out. Black Hill took control and put out the apology caption and music. Later the crew came back to go through the whole pantomime again. Black Hill switched back to Cowcaddens for a commercial break, my colleague Pauline Muirhead introduced "Crossroads" (which of course failed to run) and then we let Black Hill show the caption for half an hour. Then back to STV for another commercial break and Pauline apologised for the absence of "News at 5.45" and we were off the air for 12 weeks.


Very interesting.

I remember what must have been that same point in time watching Southern TV that afternoon. Continuity announcer Christopher Robbie appeared at 14:00hrs after a commercial break. "We're going to have to leave you for a while, I can't say for how long, but we will be back. Please bear with us......." He was faded to black, and then 30 secs later up came the the IBA caption at Rowridge, along with of course Oracle teletext disappearing too. They didn't return from that point for the 12 weeks. The IBA caption persisted for about a week, with no music. It was then replaced (as in all the regions I think) by captions and music from the IBA's pres studio at Crawley Court. Normally used of course for the Tuesday morning Engineering Announcements programme,
TC
TonyCurrie
Markymark posted:
It was then replaced (as in all the regions I think) by captions and music from the IBA's pres studio at Crawley Court. Normally used of course for the Tuesday morning Engineering Announcements programme,


If I remember correctly, the caption originated at each transmitter (absolutely no point in booking network circuits when each TX had a slide scanner and the correct slide) but the music came from tape machines at St Hilary, the transmitter site to the south-east of Cardiff. The Crawley Court studio wasn't used because it would have to have been manned, and normally it wasn't.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
From posts elsewhere I think the music originated at the local transmitter during the inital stages of the strike, and then later it was networked.

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