Independent Television in Britain: Volume 4: Companies and Programmes, 1968–80

452 Pages·1990·47.868 MB·English

by  Jeremy Potter (auth.)

INDEPENDENT
TELEVISION
IN BRITAIN
Volume 4
Companies and Programmes, 1968-80
Other volumes in the same work
Volume 1 ORIGIN AND FOUNDATION, 1946-62
(by Bernard Sendall)
Volume 2 EXPANSION AND CHANGE, 1958-68
(by Bernard Sendall)
Volume 3 POLITICS AND CONTROL, 1968-80
(by Jeremy Potter)
Also by Jeremy Potter
GOOD KING RICHARD?
PRETENDERS
INDEPENDENT
TELEVISION
IN BRITAIN
Volume 4
Companies and Programmes
1968-80
JEREMY POTTER
M
MACMILLAN
ISBN 978-1-349-09909-2 ISBN 978-1-349-09907-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-09907-8
© Independent Broadcasting Authority and
Independent Television Association 1990
Softcover reprint of the hardcover lst edition 1990 978-0-333-45543-2
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied
or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place,
London WClE 7DP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
civil claims for damages.
First published 1990
Published by
MACMILLAN ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL LT O
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by Footnote Graphics,
Warminster, Wilts
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Independent television in Britain.
Vol. 4, Companies and programmes, 1968-80
1. Great Britain. Commercial television services, history
I. Potter, Jeremy, 1922-
384.5540941
ISBN 978-0-333-53928-6 (four-volume set)
CONTENTS
vii
List of Plates
viii
List of Tables
ix
Preface and Acknowledgements
1
1 The Network
21
2 Labour Relations
33
3 A TV and Granada
54
4 The London Companies
84
5 Yorkshire and the North-East
107
6 Independent Television News
130
7 Southern and Anglia
148
8 Scotland and The Borders
171
9 Wales and the West of England
181
10 Westward and Channel
199
11 The Troubles in Northern Ireland
214
12 Drama
227
13 Light Entertainment
236
14 Documentaries and Current Affairs
244
15 Adult Education
252
16 School and Children's Programmes
267
17 Religion
277
18 Sport
284
19 Competition with the BBC
301
20 The Programme Journal
308
21 Preparing for the 1980s
327
22 The Breakfast-Time Contract
336
23 Controversial Awards
362
Appendix A The Television Fund and Company Grants
364
Appendix B Regional News
v
vi CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations 366
References 369
Independent Television 1962-80: A Bibliography 385
Index 404
LIST OF PLATES
1 Lord Grade (AT V)
2 Lord Windlesham (ATV)
3 Lord Bernstein (Granada)
4 Sir Denis Forman (Granada)
5 Howard Thomas (Thames)
6 Bryan Cowgill (Thames)
7 John Freeman (LW T)
8 Brian Tesler (Thames & LW T)
9 G. Ward Thomas (Yorkshire & Trident)
10 Paul Fox (Yorkshire)
11 Sir Geoffrey Cox (ITN, Yorkshire & Tyne Tees)
12 Peter Paine (Yorkshire & Tyne Tees)
13 Nigel Ryan (ITN & Thames)
14 Sir David Nicholas (ITN)
15 George Cooper (Thames & ITP)
16 Bruce Gyngell (ATV & TV-AM)
17 David Wilson (Southern)
18 Frank Copplestone (ITA, ITCA & Southern)
19 The Marquess Townshend of Raynham (Anglia)
20 Lord Buxton (Anglia)
21 William Brown (Scottish)
22 Alex Mair (Grampian)
23 Lord Harlech (HTV)
24 Anthony Gorard (HTV)
25 Peter Cadbury (Westward)
26 James Bredin (Border)
27 'Brum' Henderson (Ulster)
28 Ken Killip (Channel)
29 Programme Controllers Group (after Rowlandson)
30 Iranian Embassy siege, London 1980: ITN camera shot
31 Coronation Street (twenty-first anniversary)
32 Upstairs, Downstairs
33 Contract Awards 1980: Lady Plowden & Lord Thomson of Monifieth
34 Contract Awards 1980: outside the IBA offices
Illustrations are by courtesy of the lTV companies and the lBA
vii
LIST OF TABLES
A. lTV homes and revenue by region in the UK in 1980 7
B. Variance between basic rates of pay and total remuneration,
and relationship between increases and the rate of inflation as
measured by the retail prices index (LW T) 25
C. Granada Group: breakdown of net profit before tax 43
D. Provisional annual rentals and Channel 4 subscriptions for
contracts from 1 January 1982 318
viii
PREFACE AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This volume is a companion to Volume 3 - Politics and Control, 1968-80. It
covers different aspects of the same period and completes the history of
Independent Television from its origin and foundation to the end of 1980.
The division between the two volumes reflects the system peculiar to
lTV whereby a regulatory body which was by statute responsible for the
transmission and content of all programmes employed contractors to
undertake the primary function of programme-making. This arrangement
had the merit of ensuring that Independent Television became a public
service system despite commercial funding, but it built stresses into the
structure, and some tension between the supervisors and supervised was
inevitable. Other drawbacks were the necessity for much industry and
intercompany decision-making by committee and the inability of the
companies to take a long-term approach to programme planning and
expenditure owing to limited-period contracts and the uncertainty of
renewal.
Yet the system worked well, relations between the component bodies
were generally harmonious, and from this partnership between Authority
and programme companies sprang the extraordinary success of Indepen
dent Television in challenging, and to a surprising extent excelling, the
well-established and highly regarded BBC.
The lTV network was designed as a federation of companies, differing in
size and character, jointly and severally constructing programme schedules
in which strands of light entertainment were interwoven with news
bulletins, drama with sport, feature films with documentaries, church
services with broadcasting for schools. The purpose of this volume is to
convey some impression of this diversity by illustrating and illuminating the
rich assortment of companies and programmes making up lTV's overall
service to the public in the operation of a plural system on a single
television channel during a peak period in British broadcasting.
Some related topics and events not recorded in Volume 3 are also
chronicled here: labour relations, coverage of terrorism in Northern
Ireland, competition with the BBC, the genesis of breakfast-time television,
ix