ITV50 Anniversary Special Bash

*Puts on anorak*

Sorry to nitpick, but the short 1982 Central News titles used the wrong music!

They normally used a short version of the 1982 main theme ISTR!

(ISTR there was an occasional cock up, because they used to play the ident live, that the wrong version appeared before a programme, eg the 'Central News' version appeared before an episode of Central's early kids series 'Murphy's Mob'. Now anyone remember that show?

Early episodes recorded at Elstree, using Watford FC as an additional location, then the later episodes recorded at Lenton Lane also using Derby County's Baseball Ground!)

Didn't they lift the Crossroads photo montage from the Bob Holness 40 years show? The sequence looked familar, bearing in mind I've being doing my VT to DVD transfers over the past few months.

Shame they had to slap the 2003 theme music over the Crossroads clips, when most of the clips were from the first series!

*Takes off anorak*

Fell down in the wind? After being up there so long? Seems a little suss! As no programmes use the chevron as the official YTV logo, isn't that the reason it has 'disappeared' from the building?

It's a worry that the first thing I thought after seeing that pic was "where's the chevron gone?"

There's been lots of discussions about this since it fell down in the Yorks & Lincs thread. Apparantly it did blow down in some strong winds a few years ago. There was conspiracy theories that the reason it had come down was because they were putting a new ITV Yorkshire logo up, but when you consider that, no new sign has appeared months later, the wording on its own looks daft, and that old branding appears all over this and most of ITV's regional buildings (particularly Granada's) I would believe the idea that it did fall down.

for those that do not venture into the midlands thread ...

Well, ITV Meridian started off with Mr Dineage (who else) saying something like "We're celebrating 50 years of ITV in the South" Not 47 then Fred?

The whole programme (broadcast in 4:3) was a bit messy and concentrated more on news events (i.e. Brighton Bomb, Miners strikes, the great storm of 1987) rather than programming. Only programmes mentioned were long clips of Worzel Gummidge, How (with Fred being lifted into a bath and swearing!), the Churchill drama made by Southern and regional programmes like Country Ways and Out of Town.

Featured interviews from ex-Meridian reporters Nick Knowles and Natasha Kaplinsky. Shaw Taylor did his 'keep 'em peeled' once more for us and Trevor 'the weather' Baker had hardly changed since his days on Day by Day. Greg Dyke spoke about his involvment with TVS.

What annoyed me most is that - of course - Fred and Debbie hosted it so it was incredibly South based. The North (Andy Craig etc) and South East (Mike Debens etc) of the region only got their studios mentioned - nothing else.

Anyway, great look back.

*Waits for someone to quote tvmercia's post to double the page size*.

Does anyone know where I can get copies of these programmes?
I managed to record Westcountry, Meridian & Yorkshire, but would love to see what the other regions did.

If anyone knows, I would be utterly butterly grateful!

Dunno if there will be a DVD release - if you want a swap, I've got London and Anglia. Anglia's was sad really, and came over more like on obit!

If folks are interested in swapping stuff I have a DVD recording of the Tyne Tees one, and wouldn't mind seeing a few of the other ones meself. PM me.

It was better than 'The Dream Factory' which they produced when they left the Northam studios but it wasn't an amazing programme. It was good however, to see some different clips being used rather than the same old archive footage.

Nice to see Trevor the Weather again. Actually there hasn't been anyone to do the forecasts so far today maybe they should give him a call to do the forecast for Meridian Tonight

Was there any need for 100 odd pictures?!