Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

Border also moved into a lot of music shows as well did there not? There made Studio One (co-produced STV) but filmed in Carlisle, I believe that did a lot for them aswell.

Border also produced (for C4) The Groovy Fellas , a series with Jools Holland and Roland Rivron

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147769/

Of course the title was based on a phrase that got Holland into hot water over, during a live tea-time trailer for The Tube in 1985 (ish),

In terms of music/pop culture shows, Border also made "Bliss" (made in their studio complex shed IIRC) and "APB" for Channel 4 in the 1980s. So they carved a real niche in youth programming in the increased network output from Harraby.

In terms of the small five, the late 1980s were a boom time for getting programmes in the genres dominated by the Big Five on the network: "The Dodo Club" and internationally-produced episodes of "Highway" from Channel; that era's version of "Password" and a string of dramas for Channel 4 from UTV; "James the Cat" and "Pure Strength" from Grampian and, er, "That's My Dog" and "Tube Mice" from TSW.

After the Network Centre was set up in the early 1990s, it seemed the contributions from the smaller stations became sporadic - I can think of just two series for the network which came from Westcountry ("Energise" and "The L.A.D.S."), yet this era saw Channel contribute a children's drama series and one-off documentaries to the network.

Border seemed to be on the up after a miserable period in the late seventies and early eighties where three strikes nearly bankrupted them. Bliss came from a temporary studio called The Shed and featured Muriel Gray, when she wasn't presenting The Tube. Also The Krankies had their last major gig at Border and the station's fortunes were good in the mid and late eighties.
I visited Border's studios in 1985 to take part in some politics programme for sixth formers and was impressed with the facilites, which I'd imagine would be cramped and poor. Eastern Way was about the same size as my secondary school and the studio where this programme was recorded was spacious and modern. Also I managed to catch a glimpse of The Shed and the newsroom.

I know The LADS was originally a regional show for Westcountry which got enormous ratings in that region - I think it was getting about a 50% audience share at 10.40 - and that convinced a couple of other regions to pick it up, I remember watching it on Granada who showed it at 11.10 on Monday nights and I know it was on Carlton as well, which convinced them to do a networked second series, albeit at 1am. I do remember too Westcountry did Christmas With The Royal Navy, which was on throughout Christmas Day 1996 with Anthea Turner bringing together servicemen and their families, which I remember was just after Carlton had bought them and I remember reading in the Media Guardian, I think, that Westcountry staff were going to complain if it got a Carlton endcap.

The kids drama by Channel was Island, which was created by Adele Rose who created Byker Grove and I remember the hope was it would be a long-runner like that, but it never got past the first series. Of course by that point companies way smaller than Channel were making primetime telly and I seem to remember in Broadcast the boss of Channel saying they were hoping to get more commissions and their model was something like Hat Trick.

Grampain used to present the National Television Awards of course, I dunno why, and I know the last thing UTV did for the network was a documentary about Irish dancing which was on in about 2000, and had been on the shelf for ages. I remember The Box magazine, the short-lived TV magazine that lasted three months in 1997, talking about the ITC performance reviews (wonder why that mag never took off, eh?) and quoted them saying "Ulster have pitched a number of programme ideas to the network", which The Box translated as "Ulster's proposals are gathering dust on someone's desk".

Because it filled up their yearly network quota in one go?

It was the same reason why channel tv did the x factor etc, if there got fined it would not cost a lot.

That's different though, Channel is the compliance company that are used on Network shows, I believe not made by ITV Studios, I guess you could apply this to Grampian presenting the National Television Awards, again an oddity, but I don't believe they had a network quota, right?

Grampian to me only meant one thing.... you're about to watch a sex education programme

Reminds me of what Nick Hancock said on Room 101 many years ago...

"LWT basically meant: 'The next programme is going to be crap. Go out and play football'"

To be fair, LWT's drama was good, it was the other stuff that was a bit hit & miss!

Dunno what they thought about Atv/Central apart from 'Oh **** its Crossroads'!

Intoduced by Sarah Kennedy.



In all fairness to Nick he was basically referring to Mind Your Language.