ITV lies

Whilst there are some gems left on ITV (such as Lad's Army), many must surely agree that it's now gone pretty much beyond the point of no return as far as ever returning to the decent regional network that it was was is concerned. Yet all along the way, have been various assurances from various big names claiming that the present reality would never happen. So what are your biggest corkers from the great and the good? Here's mine:

"There has been speculation that ITV companies, on a course as they are for ever-more consolidation, will move away from their regional identities and their regional commitments... Let me take this opportunity to stress how inaccurate those views are... Regional character matters. We will look to Ofcom to defend it with vigour."
Tessa Jowell, June 2002. (4 months before regional station names were removed from general use, 6 months before regional programming commitments were cut back so far that they might as well have been scrapped alltogether.)

But, to be fair, Chris, that example is YET another lie from Tony Bliar's government, not from ITV itself.

Yes, agree with Nick on this one.

Also concerning this bit ," .....beyond the point of no return as far as ever returning to the decent regional network that it was... " - Did we all perceive our own region as DECENT ? - or did we just put up with the poor quality regional programming, dodgy in-vision announcers and lack-lustre schedule full of foreign imports and cheap regional programming. Are we deluded to the actual quality of the regional stations as there was no choice because we didnt have SKY and hundreds of channels in previous decades?

Looking between a listing for, say last Autumn, versus 15-20 years ago I know which one I would choose. The older schedule used to contain numerous hours of schools' programming each morning, lunchtime news bulletin followed by The Sullivans and then the afternoon filled with cheap/dodgy imports or regional programmes. These imported programmes littered the schedule throughout the day where the only true network part of the schedule was from 19:00 - 22:30. Remember how Home and Away used to be at different times per region and even different episodes depending on region!

I personally feel that there is a greater quality of programming on ITV since the consolidation began and now we have respectable programming throughout the daytime and nightime(to an extent) If anything the weakest part of the schedule seems to be the 19:00 - 22:30 slot which relies too heavily on soaps and one-off dramas - there does need to be some variety injected into that part of the schedule.

Possibly, because I receive the ITV1 Wales service, I am happy with the amount of regional programming and content. The quality does seem to vary but overall I feel the quality is acceptable and there is a variety of regional programming within Wales. (as detailed on one of my other threads)

It is a shame that other regions have suffered such a dramatic loss in regional programming but ITV is changing and has to change to survive.

I'm sure if ITV3 ran a whole week's worth of regional telly from 20 years ago - we would all cringe at the quality and naffness of the presentation and content. It's just in our minds that we remember it as good because we had no choice.

I think I'll leave it there.