Trying to find a programme...

Have you contacted the BBC to see if they have a Look North report in their archive? Unfortunately though, you may be out of luck - 1972 is before the TV companies stopped wiping material.

That seems a great place to start - looks like you can contact them directly with specific requests.

On another note interesting to see on that letter that a "London office" is referred to for Yorkshire TV. Did most ITV regions have a "London office"?

Thanks. At the risk of hijacking the topic the London offices I can understand, and to an extent Manchester. Not sure how Central got away with New York and Sydney - were they responsible for acquisitions?

Channel - St Helier and St Peter Port

It wouldn't surprise me. Crossroads was a Central production, and when it got axed, the replacement was an Aussie import, Home and Away. So I wouldn't be surprised if Central's Sydney office had something to do with that. After all, this was a year before the creation of the ITV Network Centre.

As for NY, didn't Central (via the ATV subsidiary ITC) own the Anderson puppet shows such as Thunderbirds?

By March 1984, the reorganisation of the company was complete, allowing pre-tax profits to double from £3.5 million to £6.5 million in its first two financial years.[7] Shortly afterwards, Zenith Productions was established as a subsidiary of Central Television, which produced programming for the UK and the USA - most famously including the company's television adaptations of the Inspector Morse novels.[8] Central's interests in on-screen fiction saw the company buy the Korda Film Library in 1986.[9][10]

In January 1987, Central acquired the British animation company Filmfair for £1.5million,[11] which went onto produce several of the station's networked children's series before being sold onto the Storm Group (Caspian) in 1991.[12][13] On the same day, Central brought a stake in Starstream, who co-founded and operated The Children's Channel - the 22% stake was sold in November 1991 to United Artists Cable International. A few months later, Central became the first ITV station to broadcast its own overnight service, including short news bulletins, imported output and the long running Jobfinder service - launched in 1986 in partnership with the Manpower Services Commission - which went onto run for 17 years and won a Royal Television Society award. Central was also awarded the Queen's Award to Industry for Export twice, for selling its range of programming to over 80 countries around the world, in April 1987[14] and April 1989[15][16]

Under its growing business portfolio, Central created CTE (Central Television Enterprises) in December 1987 and opened international bureaux in Hamburg, New York City and Sydney for sales, sponsorship and newsgathering operations. CTE, the company's key international distributor of programming, would later represent output sales for HTV, Meridian and Carlton,[17] who took over Central in 1994.

In 1989, the company founded Zodiac Entertainment - an American entertainment firm specialising in the production and distribution of animated cartoons. Central invested $35 million in the company before deciding to discontinue its production business in 1994, leaving Zodiac to become a distributor. Also in 1989,[18][19] Central established Television Sales and Marketing Services Ltd (TSMS), a joint venture with Anglia Television providing airtime sales and program sponsorships, in part to recover production costs.[20] In March 1994, Anglia acquired Central's stake in the company to take full control with Central moving over to Carlton's sales department.[21]

In March 1990, Central formed a partnership with The Observer newspaper to create Central Observer, making environmental themed films for British Satellite Broadcasting and terrestrial channels, with funding from the charity Television Trust for the Environment.[22]

Central was unopposed in retaining its franchise in 1993, which allowed the company to only bid a tiny sum of £2000 a year[23][24] - though the company stressed the need to cut more jobs to become more cost efficient,[25] as the company had agreed to pay 11% of their annual advertising revenue on top of their winning bid. The station's workforce was reduced to 1500 by 1990 and then to 900 by the start of 1992 - less than half of the payroll Central had employed in 1987. Central also profited from the auction after Meridian, a consortium in which Central held a 20% stake, won the franchise to serve the South and South East of England.[26][27] By April 1993, with the added increase of 8.8% in advertising revenues to £250 million and its income from programme sales rising to £83.4 million, Central became the most successful ITV company after the start of the new franchises.[28]