ITV Telethons

Hiya!

I would like to talk about the ITV Telethons.

I'd like to see some pres and ads for them- including the Thames-only 80 and 85 telethons.

I've been searching online for a while, but apart from Corriepedia, I can't find much in-depth stuff about any of the Telethons.

If anyone has any info apart from the usual "it was hosted by Michael Aspel and raised this much money" I'd be very grateful.

Bonus points if you can point me to a link that has something about the blue ears they sold- I can only find a single photo from HTV with the ears.

Thanks, everyone!

There are various portions of the presentation across the three on YouTube (and probably Vimeo and friends too), I presume you have looked there?

(Note that some videos may contain folk who are no longer "in favour")

The 1992 titles are here:


The end of that broadcast some 28hrs later is here, albeit in stretchyvision:


The onscreen number varied by the region, 0737 was Redhill (which I think at the time was covered by TVS).


As to the blue ears, you didn't look very hard because there are two other photo links posted in this Reddit thread here in addition to the HTV one that shows up in Google images, I found these in two minutes:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/9dsahh/tomt_a_uk_charity_event_which_sold_blue_ears/

That has a link to an archived Financial Times which suggests in 1990 they were being sold at Burger King of all places.

Worth searching "Telethon" here for some previous discussions on the topic.

Some info about the Thames Telethon from last year, including the listings for 1985 and a review of the 1980 event, though in true TV Forum style it seems to turn into a discussion on the scheduling of Take the High Road.

https://tvforum.uk/tvhome/thames-telethon-1985-43842/

There used to be a video on YouTube of protestors invading the studio on the 92 Telethon which caused all cameras to point to a very distracted Michael Aspel and swiftly cutting to a VT.

It seems to have disappeared however- would be interesting to see this again.

A couple of Thames Telethon clips:




There are a few others online such as this, but only show performances by musical acts and not any of the surrounding programme: https://youtu.be/hodVaJ9IjkU

Doesn't that second clip from the closing of the 1992 show make you feel nostalgic? All those entertainers, the regional stations, the local presenters.

That's hilarious!

And thank you for making me laugh after a very long day ...

Here's an interesting endcap: (click for bigger)



From this video:


You'll notice in the 1992 finale above their endcap says it was an "independent television production".

During the three telethons, the main programme was hosted from LWT, but when the were visiting all the regions, London was covered by Thames, not LWT. I recall during the 1992 edition, Michael Aspel said "lets see what's happening in London, with Frank Bough and Judith Chalmers at Thames".

This would, apart from Thames Weekend News on a Friday night in the early 80s, have been the only other occasion that Thames was broadcasting something outwith its normal hours.

It had never occurred to me that the London regional hits were produced by Thames - it wasn't mentioned as being such and the presenters weren't always Thames star. But that makes sense in terms of dividing up the work. They were never from their studios though, IIRC one of them was from the Connaught Rooms in Holborn and another from Hay's Galleria (I remember watching one on holiday in York so only saw the YTV and Tyne Tees versions)


That would work the other way too, the 1988 and 1990 Telethons were bank holiday Sunday/Monday, so a rare South Bank outing on Thames


Incidently the late night epilogue type programme that Thames made was shown on LWT at one stage, although that was recorded

Once TV Ark is back up, I'm sure on the old site, one of the still images from Telethon had Frank Bough and Judith Chalmers in the London regional Telethon studio, and i'm sure it read "Thames Television" on a sign next to the Telethon logo.

Big question - when will TV Ark be back?