ITV Network

Was it a standard practice to even use Presentation slides? I have to say I can never remember seeing them before around 1993 on imported programmes in the North East. TT would resort to a "THE END" slide before they'd use a presentation slide.....

(In fact I'm not even sure TT *had* a proper presentation slide. In 93, for a while when they started using one they were using "A TT Presentation for IT= // (c) MCMXCIII "! A badly-edited proper one appeared a few weeks later...).

I remember the afternoon schedule in the mid 1990s was simular across the ITV regions with all of them showing Home and Away, Chain Letters, Corrie/Emmerdale repeats but at different times and most regions showed A Country Practice but all at different times and stages in the storyline.

Central were the furthest ahead with Prisoner, Sons and Daughters and Shortland St so im assuming they were the company who was responsible for buying these programmes in, it would be stupid for each region to have to buy the same series themselves. I remember with Shortland Street HTV got the same edited episodes that Central had shown years earlier and once in 1998 HTV left a countdown clock on before an episode which had "Central Edited Version" on it and the date it was broadcast on Central. HTV always used to stick "An HTV Presentation" endcap on the end of overseas programmes like ACP, Prisoner, SS, even films.

With Home and Away and A Country Practice im sure if was Thames/Carlton who was responsible for these series. Thames were the furthest ahead with ACP but Central the furthest behind. I think Carlton were the ones who used to edit Home and Away. Also the end credits of both ACP and H&A were edited down to almost nothing when Carlton took over from Thames.

Probably more a logistical problem than a technical one - after a couple of weeks the stations wouldn't have had the right schedules, adverts or programmes ready. Far easier just to concentrate on getting one service on air.

If the circuits weren't ready, they wouldn't have been able to put out the temporary emergency service

Westcountry had one which they tacked seemingly onto every film and import between 1993 and 1998 - if it wasn't made by another ITV company (or otherwise made for ITV) then it was 'A Westcountry Presentation'. This included Home&Away, evening movie premieres (even though they had national sponsorship bumpers on them), and every imported programme on the overnight service which they took from Granada.

Since Westcountry tx was done by HTV Wales, I do wonder if some of their programme sources were taken from a dirty feed of HTV, and the presentation slide was so overused to make sure that they didn't crash into any HTV pres. This seems to hold water when in primetime there would often be a very abrubt switch without any fade to black between the a network programme's production slide and a Westcountry trailer - was this to avoid an HTV trailer? I stress that this is purely conjecture on my part, but there must be some wider explanation for this seemingly obsessive need to stick their slide onto the end of everything that they could possibly get away with.

Later on they introduced a slide with 'A Westcountry Programme' although I can't remember if this was a more sparingly used replacement for the 'presentation' slide or if it was used in place of the 'production' slide on their own output.

TSW certainly had various slides with 'A TSW Presentation' on it, but looking back on recordings of the time it didn't seem to get much use.

And finally, completely and totally unrelated, since we seem to be basking in mid-90's nostalgia here, I just came across a Westcountry startup from 1996, with a marvelous visible hard switch between GMTV and Westcountry, ah them were the days...

I remember seeing the TSW slide tacked onto the end of ITV-made programmes - thus making Coronation Street and The Bill 'a TSW Programme'
Maybe this was towards the end when they were one the way out and didn't care

I know Yorkshire had a presentation slide which they used at the end of every improted programme & film until around 1998. Not sure when they started, but I have a video from 1989. My grandmother used to have a video from the early 80s which had the very end of an ITC series on (not sure which) and ended with a "Yorkshire Television" slide (no "presntation" text, but the same idea).

They went through an odd phase when they would remove other stations' frontcaps/endcaps and replace them with their own (notable also was that their own productions continued to use frontcaps right up until the end - whether any made it onto a network transmission I don't know). This seemed to end around 1990 when they got their '4 seasons' ident set and moved to that fancy new IVC set in the evenings and gave the daytime IVC box the cheery green and blue backdrop.

In their final days presentation seemed to like things kept as simple as possible and would not go down the route of inserting extra slides for the sake of corporate willy waving. Indeed, IIRC they sometimes wouldn't even bother fading up production slides to end their own live output - certainly the 1991 rugby final doesn't have any form of slide on the end. There was also a general reliance on ITV branded national trailers in their final days, rather than always making their own material as would previously be done.

This all meant for some great IVC though - very often the CA would have to lead you through the schedule without any assisting slides or trailer packages, all very nice and cosy.

An interesting thread.

More nostalgia and technical, but as someone mentioned the Lunchtime ITV childrens programmes, can anyone remember what they were.

Of course there was Rainbow, and I remember Puddle Lane. I vaguely recall a show called Allsorts, and were the Wombles shown in that slot?

A 20-minute programme on ITV at 12.10pm, then a 15-minute treat on BBC2 about 1.25pm - how kids TV should be!

I know Rainbow and Allsorts were shown in those slots but my personal fave was Play Box. I remember that was always shown on a Monday.

I think I remember Allsorts!, was That was the one with Lisa from Emmerdale?
(sorry if i'm dragging this thread off topic)

Yes thats the one.

Jeez, that brings back memories. Any clips of it online?