While spending some time over on the excellent TV-ark I stumbled across various regional closedowns from BBC 1.
In this case, the local news presenter from the North West came into vision, trailed ahead to next weeks late night films, read out a few local news headlines, and then they showed 'another selection of viewers slides' - They then superimposed the BBC 1 North West clock over a still picture of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester while playing the National Anthem followed by a plug for Radio 2 and a 'remember to switch off your set' reminder.
This was a clip from 1980 and don't remember ever seeing a regional BBC1 England closedown. I would have been only one at the time.
So my question is, for how long did BBC 1 have regional in-vision closedowns? Was this a regular thing? When did they stop it? Was it an opt-out from the main BBC 1 feed?
Ah the era of 'This is BBC 1 South West' ... It was usual for a considerable period up to the end of the 1980's for swathes of weekday continuity up to closedown on the channel to be regionally based.
Closedown usually featured a still weather chart as far as I remember too.
Usually the late news presenter would double up and do both.
There's a clip on TV Ark of a BBC1 Midlands closedown from 1979, which apparently was one of the last due to BBC Budget cuts, with a young Alastair Yates presenting and reading the News too.
Some regions did their closedowns in vision, others out of vision. I think it was often a decision based on what the ITV competition were doing with their pres.
Brian Baines at Leeds reputedly used to close down out of vision because he would already be in his bike leathers for a quick getaway home. Redvers and co on YTV were also out of vision.
As well as the fantastic Alistair Yates closedown (which handily tells us that regional pres was abandoned in 1979) and a John Mundy one from Manchester, there's a BBC South effort from Paul Harris.
Indeed. Presumably regional continuity was abandoned across England at the same time rather than on an individual basis.
Because BBC regional announcers - unlike their network colleagues - were also newsreaders, the lines seemed to become blurred. For instance, it was common practice to hear the announcer give a standard link out of vision into their own news bulletin. As far as I'm aware, English regional announcers only appeared in vision to read the news and at closedown - never to do standard programme links - but the late night link seemed to normally include a news bulletin anyway.
In Scotland, the announcers read the news until the late 80s. However two announcers seemed to be on duty each day - one to read the news, the other to do continuity. I can only recall one very specific example of in vision continuity on BBC Scotland. At one point in the mid 80s, BBC Scotland ran its own schedule all through the early part of Friday evening and the announcer would pop up in vision at the start of the evening to trail the schedule.
I honestly can't remember if they actually introduced the first programme in vision or if the globe came on as usual but the announcers were familiar figures as newsreaders anyway, seeing them in vision in this way didn't seem as odd as it may sound.
According to the TV Room, there was one announcer at BBC Scotland, Robert Logan, who didn't do the news - he was also a Conservative councillor, so he couldn't read the news without compromising the BBC's impartiality.
In Scotland, the announcers read the news until the late 80s. However two announcers seemed to be on duty each day - one to read the news, the other to do continuity. I can only recall one very specific example of in vision continuity on BBC Scotland. At one point in the mid 80s, BBC Scotland ran its own schedule all through the early part of Friday evening and the announcer would pop up in vision at the start of the evening to trail the schedule.
I honestly can't remember if they actually introduced the first programme in vision or if the globe came on as usual but the announcers were familiar figures as newsreaders anyway, seeing them in vision in this way didn't seem as odd as it may sound.
I remember the invision announcers on BBC Scotland too. I can't remember if this was just a Friday, but remember that this was after BBC1 Scotland had changed to BBC Scotland and towards the end of the mirror globe era. I seem to remember them introducing more than the first programme
JJ
jjne
Don't remember a single occasion when BBC North East appeared in-vision.
In fact, there didn't seem to be much local continuity at all that I remember. What little there was was quite poorly produced as I recall -- there was a curious echoing effect on the voice. I'm not sure (I was too young) but ISTR that it was mostly Tom Kilgour who made most of these announcers.
A little strange given the copious use of IVC on the other side.
There was a regional closedown as late as 1994 in the South West due to transmission of a regional documentary, so programmes following it were timeshifted and broadcast from Plymouth. You can see it on this page: http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc_southwest/bbcone.html
