ITV Regional Variations in the 70s and 80s

I remembered that only the other day! I thought they'd filled the slot with Richard Madeley's old quiz show Runway, but I might be mistaken. It's the only time I've ever heard of a regional news show being taken off for a couple of weeks when it's not a holiday period. I wonder what the reasoning was behind it? Granada Tonight returned with a new look after its break, but not one so extensive that a 2 week break was required.

Until the late 1980s, Ulster Television's main evening news bulletin would take a summer break and was replaced by a five-minute news bulletin, then a 20-minute programme called "Summer Edition" would follow, I think this programme was presented on location from seaside resorts.

They did a similar thing this year with their "UTV Live Tonight" bulletin taking a break for a month.

Because Granada couldn't care less, one suspects. They showed Runway in one of the breaks, yes, I remember in one of them they dropped the 7pm network show, which I think was a repeat, and showed Father Dowling Investigates from 6.30 to 7.30.

The Ross show was The Late Jonathan Ross, which was followed at 11.30 in both regons by a virtually identical show, Welcome To The Candid Café, only that was made by Granada and presented by Tony Wilson.

STV: had it at 510pm from the start until 1992. then in 1993 it went to 6pm with scotland today going to 6.30pm ( where it had been since for ever at 6pm)

somewhere in 1998 it was moved ( some people said it lost them viewers)
5.10pm H&W
5.40pm ITN news
6pm it was Random show,
Monday; "what will there think of next"
Wednesday Take your pick!¬
Thursday " we can work it out" CRAP itv version of Watchdog,
Friday: scotsport extra time.

but by March 1999. it all ended.



that also happened with The Sullivans BUT it it work the other way around Tynes tess has to lose

* over 200 episodes of blockbusters
* A Country Practice, also lost a number of episodes

Also Did STV broadcast Families? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QB9PPxW1QM

Weekends on Scottish were anyone guess, but we did see somethings: like:
* Thunder in Paradise, airwolf, Corsby, father downing.

EDIT we did get Team Knight Rider, but some time after the rest of ITV got it

but other show were dumped up here
* That's Esther ( I believe some where soon by the end)
* Young Hercules
* The Magnificent Seven (TV series)

there two other strange tv show we got but never lasted

* time slide something like that
* other one

[quote="Steve Williams" pid="638383"]

There is a lot of info re ITV scheduling of Prisoner on this website http://www.wwwentworth.co.uk/ITV/index.htm

HTV did a simular thing with Shortland Street back in 1993 to what Yorkshire did with The Young Doctors - HTV skipped 2.5 years and over 600 episodes of Shortland Street so that Central and HTV could show the same episodes. The decision wasn't popular and Central and HTV both axed the show 8 months later. I wish HTV had kept running their episodes in 2003 as even tho it would have been axed anyway at least more of the better eps would have been aired.

Carlton and Central did the same. One example was the TV version of Just a Minute which Carlton broadcast in the afternoons. The first series was London-centric (all the topics to talk on were about things in London) but by the time the second was commissioned, Central had been taken over by them. So they changed the format and it became a London team vs a Midlands team, with Tony Slattery heading up 'London' and Dale Winton heading up 'Midlands'. It was all very tenuous and wasn't a get success

Slightly off topic, but ITV game shows often had teams representing the local companies, didn't they? I've no memory of any examples though? Does anyone know of any and when this culture ended?

Bullseye and Mr and Mrs both used to introduce their contestants as 'representing the Anglia area' (Bullseye) or 'all the way from Westward' (Mr and Mrs). I'm not sure they were representing the region as such, I doubt the guys at the region involved would have known when it was recorded.

Yes, I remember watching, I think, the second ever MOBO Awards which were shown on Carlton and Central alone in 1997. I also remember, around that time, Carlton's pop show Videotech had a particularly starry hour-long episode which was also shown on Central and I think most other regions picked it up as well, but just that one episode. I wonder if that was an attempt to pilot a networked version, but in any case it didn't work, and CDUK started the following year which was pretty much the same thing.

Hmm, I thought Central carried on with Shortland Street to the bitter end. Certainly, when they moved all the news bulletins around in 1999, I was living in ATV Land, and 5.30-6.30 became the regional hour and the regions either showed an hour-long regional news or a half-hour local show followed by the regional news at six, but Central showed Shortland Street at 5.30 five days a week. That's a better slot than Home and Away got! And also opposite Neighbours, which seems a bit stupid.

It only lasted a few months at 5.30 but I think most other regions had already dropped it. Central seemed to be crazy about their Australian soaps, though, they also showed something called Echo Point which I don't think was on in any other region, and they were one of the only regions to show Blue Heelers as well.

I do remember Blue Heelers being shown on Granada, but I'm sure it was dumped at like 1.30pm on a Friday, usually the same kind of slot A Country Practice got, both programmes I found dreary as hell, but BH didn't last very long on Granada, same with Shortland Street. That was shown a lot during the mid 1990's, it stopped and then came back for a couple of weeks in the Summer of 2002, and then never came back.

Blue Heelers was shown on Carlton Select for quite sometime aswell, probably why it appeared on Central.

I think when they moved Home and Away to 5pm in 1999, I think it was Networked for the first time, as you say the 5.30pm slot was Regional then, Granada had an hour long News programme for a couple of years. But I think by this point most Regions had H&A on at 5.10pm anyway, I do remember Border to be the only region showing at 6.30pm.

I think I've seen a repeat of ATV's The Golden Shot where a couple were introduced as being "All the way from the Grampian region". I don't think it was anything official, just a small verbal celebration on the part of the presenter of ITV's old regional structure. Quite endearing really!