In other words, Thames viewers were the only ones to see the missing bit.
This was the second Thames telethon. They did one in 1980, but I assume it wasn't 24 hour? I also tried youtube, and didn't find much specific to the Thames Telethon, which may not be surprising, as it was a London only event.
Feel a bit queasy after watching Harris, but I suspect that might be from the 1980 telethon (partly from his suit, partly because Metal Mickey had just started then so I assume LWT were happy to loan him out with a donation for a bit of publicity they wouldn't normally get midweek in London).
It would be interesting to see the continuity from the various regions when the film finished some 15 minutes earlier than expected. At least most appeared to be closing down straight after the film, so there was no need for a filler programme to be inserted.
Here's how Sir Charles Foster handled it on Granada...
As mentioned in the comments, although he doesn't mention why they're closing down so early, you can see they're shoving out everything they have on the shelf to pad things out. As mentioned in the Herald report, Tony Currie of this parish was on duty on STV and explained what had happened in the bit they missed, but I seem to recall he said he was just guessing what might have happened from the synopsis.
Yes, I was. The sudden ending came as a bit of a shock to our Transmission Controller and a yelled to him to put me up in vision. I had actually been watching (!) so had a pretty good idea what might have been missed. It seemed to keep the viewers happy, anyway, and allowed the TC to catch his breath and line up the end break and "Late Call"!
The first Thames Telethon raised the attention of the wonderful Clive James in his guise as tv critic of The Observer newspaper back on the 5th October 1980. It rates as one of my favourite pieces of tv writing, and I present it to you now.
(Mild Warning - I have decided not to sanitise the original piece - this is as printed, some references here in 2018 about 1980 may make some viewers shuffle awkwardly in their seats..)
Quote:
Thank You, wow
Doubtless the handicapped children benefited materially from the abundant funds raised overnight by the Telethon (Thames), but one wonders if even they thought it was worth the spiritual cost. Here was a sample of what the Americananization of television will do to our collecitve consciousness if we let it happen. There are less painful ways of committing national suidcide.
For example, we could all run a bath and stick our heads in it at a prearranged signal. Threatening to be the first of many, this Telethon was confined to the London area. People living in the other areas might like to have some hint of what went on. A full description would take as long as as the Telethon itself - i.e. a couple of days - but briefly, what occurred was this. A lot of famous people, some of them more famous than others, were asked to donate their services. The resulting shambles took place in the Wembley Conference Centre and was compered by Jimmy Young, Joan Shenton and Rolf Harris.
Scores of minor celebrities answered telephone calls from members of the public pledging money. A running total was flashed up so that we could all see how fast the target of a million pounds was being reached. Since there was obviously no way of stopping the Telethon except by reaching the target, it was not surprising that the lines were soon jammed. "Wo-ho-wo-ho-wo-ho-way" sang Leo Sayer, "I love you more than I can say". If you wanted to hear less of things like that, you had to fork out. An alternative was to switch off the set, but the Telethon had the hypnotic fascination of a rattlesnake.
Joan Shenton talked of "projects that make the quality of our lives better in the community". All unaware that she was engaged in a project guaranteed to make the quailty of our lives in the community appreciably worse, she struggled bravely to supply spontaneous link material. So did Jimmy and Rolf. The show needed a lot of linking, because the majority of turns had no clear start or finish, but consisted of bad comedians trying to make each other laugh, or people playing darts. Occasionally, a star came on. Petula Clark was one of these. "God belss the child who can stand up and sing" she sang.
This was hardly appropriate in the circumstances, but then Petula was the girl who once climaxed a feminist gala by singing 'I Don't Know How To Love Him'. When the applause died down, Petula had some patter ready. "Thank You, wow. What an atmosphere here. I just hope the people at home can feel the excitement we feel here, know what I mean?" Rolf Harris said "Your blood is worth bottling" He said that all the time. Then he said "Let's see how the darts are going" He said that all the time too.
Paul Daniels, a magician who is often quite a funny improviser, did some unfunny improvising with a member of the audience. "OK Sandra. You've got a lovely leg. What a pity about the other one". This too, was perhaps not entirely appropriate in the circumstances, but by now the Telethon had a momentum of it's own, like a glacier on the rampage.
The only certain benificiaries of a telethon are the corporations who secure cheap advertising time by putting up prizes or making tax-deductable donations. The audience gets little to enjoy beyond the unintentional humour generated by technical cock-ups. As for the handicapped children, they gain some of the means of life - but life in what kind of world? To do what? To watch Bernie Winters host a darts competition? There has to be another way.
Original published piece (c) Clive James/The Observer1980 - reprinted in 'Glued To The Box' by Clive James published by Picador Books 1983
JM
JamesM0984
Interesting to note Grampian took the network's daytime showing of Take The High Road and not STV's primetime showing the previous evening, although like STV they move Emmerdale back to teatime, something STV were doing as late as 1999 I believe - were they getting episode ahead of network TX and thus was it the same episode as the network saw later that evening, or were STV taping off network thus behind the network?
Interesting to note Grampian took the network's daytime showing of Take The High Road and not STV's primetime showing the previous evening, although like STV they move Emmerdale back to teatime, something STV were doing as late as 1999 I believe - were they getting episode ahead of network TX and thus was it the same episode as the network saw later that evening, or were STV taping off network thus behind the network?
Grampian never moved Take the high road to peak time until 1987, border moved it in 1984 ( it wasn't until Jan 1986 it become all year round series) STV kept emmerdale at 17.10 until early part of 1998.
Interesting to note Grampian took the network's daytime showing of Take The High Road and not STV's primetime showing the previous evening.
That is surprising - certainly in the later 80s Grampian was scheduling High Road in an evening slot. STV, Grampian, Border and UTV all showed it in the evenings from what I remember - though they all scheduled it locally. Granada used to play it out to everyone else - normally they were behind Scotland at the start of their “season” but showing 3 episodes a week as opposed to Scotland’s two a week meant they often caught up and overtook them, the season ending in England before it did in Scotland. I think it was pretty much an all year round show in Scotland?
Later STV started playing it out themselves in the afternoon, networking it to most English regions via Thames (but not showing it locally in that slot).
Doubtless the handicapped children benefited materially from the abundant funds raised overnight by the Telethon (Thames), but one wonders if even they thought it was worth the spiritual cost. Here was a sample of what the Americananization of television will do to our collecitve consciousness if we let it happen. There are less painful ways of committing national suidcide.
...
Scores of minor celebrities answered telephonec alls from members of the public pledging money.
...
The show needed a lot of linking, because the majority of turns had no clear start or finish
Interesting comments considering this was a month before the first Children in Need which, although different to what we're used to now, ended up doing exactly what Clive describes every year
In fact I wonder if the decision to have a Telethon then inspired by the upcoming Children In Need, or just complete coincidence?
