OFCOM slash ITV's regional quota

Houseparty was basically a group of mainly upper class women talking about knitting patterns, wholesome food and entertaining. A kind of Loose Women for the Hyacinth Buckets of the seventies without the z list celebs.

What would be good for ITV is to do some kind of "Regional Showcase" - basically pilot a handful of formats in each region from local directors .


It be costly but could be worth it if out of 3-4 formats in each of the 15 of so regions they found even just a couple of hits.

That sort of thing did used to go on.

Maybe not nationally, but I know that regionally, we used to get quite regular series of commissions from independent film producers and script writers. They'd generally take the form of half-hour shorts, topped and tailed by comments from the producers themselves and/or a presenter.

One of many regional services that died out in the mid-1990s.

The two shows were obviously merged in my head!!

I was only a kiddie when Houseparty went out, so I do have a defence...

So was I! I just have a very good memory

Lampooned beautifully by Victoria Wood as "McOnomy"...