Thames News Reports

[Del Boy]

I've been watching some old local news reports of London events mainly dating from the  70s and 80s. Thames News was the flagship Thames Television London region news program that went out after the national news.  Its interesting to see the city in everyday life and to note the difference in reporting compared to today.  

Here's a few : 
London snow in January 1981 
I love the motors in this one. The british stuff claps out (Austin 1300) but the Datsun seems to run ok


Terry-Thomas living in poverty


London Underground Disasters - part one and two



The Great Storm Of 1987 (Michael Fish "Don't worry there won't be a hurricane" )
I couldn't believe the state of the place when I went out to do my paper round that morning.

[Arthur Pringle]

I remember seeing a clipping from The Sun or another tabloid on the bedroom wall of someone I knew in the late 80's, it was of Terry-Thomas as seen in the video clip & the headline read something like 'Terry-Thomas smokes pot'. He was using cannabis to alleviate the pain of Parkinsons disease & somehow the press got to know about it.

[Del Boy]

Nov 14, 2019 22:56:36 GMT Arthur Pringle said:

I remember seeing a clipping from The Sun or another tabloid on the bedroom wall of someone I knew in the late 80's, it was of Terry-Thomas as seen in the video clip & the headline read something like 'Terry-Thomas smokes pot'. He was using cannabis to alleviate the pain of Parkinsons disease & somehow the press got to know about it.

It would have been far more controversial then I would imagine.

[Sparky]

When I was a kid, I used to love going away on holiday somewhere in the UK, switching on the TV and seeing what "TV Looked like" in that part of the country.

Even when out and about in town, I used to watch the TV's in the showroom window to try and see.

The different regions always fascinated me.

Local News was no exception - and totally agree Del, it was so different to what is dished out today.

I have only seen a couple of Thames News episodes..

We had "ATV Today", which was given 5 minutes at 6pm to cover any serious type stories.

Then at 6.30 after Crossroads would be the main "ATV Today" magazine program - which would cover all kinds of things around the region.

On Mondays and Fridays, it was extended to 45minutes with a vast section dedicated to Sport towards the end.

Chris Tarrant, Nick Owen and Anne Diamond all started work on this show.

Central News continued in the same fare after 1982 - but by about 1985, a new breed of producer was swept in - and it was 30minutes of serious news from the Courts, Police etc.

[Dirty Epic]

Very true about the ITV regional news/programmes having a distinctive flavour which near enough has gone from ITV and even the BBC these days.

I’ve probably mentioned it before but Granada’s Granada Reports/Tonight news if perhaps from a positive Manchester-centric bias did put forward a means of showing off the North West in a magazine-format. This was with some distinctive presenters like Bob Greaves, Gordon Burns, Lucy Meacock, Paul Crone, Richard and Judy and Tony Wilson and let’s say a couple of others whose dubious past has now caught up with them. Add to this the many ‘North West/Manchester’ programmes Granada made for the region like This England, This Is Your Right, The State of the Nation, So It Goes, The Other Side of Midnight etc.it did give 'Granadaland' a identity that was quite different from same that of Southerm, Tyne Tees, ATV/Central, Thames etc.

It’s not quite the same but it’s interesting it’s still known as ‘ITV News: Granada Reports’ rather than ‘North West’ these days unlike many other regions who have generic identities.

Yorkshire had it’s ‘Calendar’ programming which like Granada had distinctive presenters like Countdown’s Richard Whiteley and (tax issues aside) Christa Ackroyd. Again Like Granada Yorkshire had regional programmes associated with/to Calendar with again perhaps a Leeds/West Yorkshire-centric bias to them too!

I certainly would’ve liked to have seen Thames, ATV etc. programmes from back then and perhaps I’ll have a butchers on YT of some of the bits and bobs people have saved from them. I suppose all these ITV regions had a strong element of regional pride pre the move to ITV plc but not just in television but across the board generally things seem less distinctive so homogenic these days.

It’s interesting that the BBC did poach some of these presenters for it’s news/current affairs/talk show etc. programmes and it’s kind of sad that both BBC and ITV have cut it’s regional programming to the bone and more so in the Freeview/catch up era regional/special interest stations haven’t really filled the void for this either. Don’t get me wrong some of this stuff was as boring as watching paint dry but you did get an odd gem here or there which you simply don’t see now.

[Dirty Epic]

Nov 15, 2019 5:35:35 GMT Del Boy said:

Nov 14, 2019 22:56:36 GMT Arthur Pringle said:

I remember seeing a clipping from The Sun or another tabloid on the bedroom wall of someone I knew in the late 80's, it was of Terry-Thomas as seen in the video clip & the headline read something like 'Terry-Thomas smokes pot'. He was using cannabis to alleviate the pain of Parkinsons disease & somehow the press got to know about it.

It would have been far more controversial then I would imagine.

IIRC didn't the media go a bit overboard when Ian Botham and Viv Richards were caught with a few joints back in the 1980's.

Probably wouldn't raise as much of an eyebrow these days as you say Del although the gutter press/tabloids can be strange hypocritical beasts even now.

[Sparky]

Nov 15, 2019 9:16:26 GMT Dirty Epic said:

Very true about the ITV regional news/programmes having a distinctive flavour which near enough has gone from ITV and even the BBC these days.

I’ve probably mentioned it before but Granada’s Granada Reports/Tonight news if perhaps from a positive Manchester-centric bias did put forward a means of showing off the North West in a magazine-format. This was with some distinctive presenters like Bob Greaves, Gordon Burns, Lucy Meacock, Paul Crone, Richard and Judy and Tony Wilson and let’s say a couple of others whose dubious past has now caught up with them. Add to this the many ‘North West/Manchester’ programmes Granada made for the region like This England, This Is Your Right, The State of the Nation, So It Goes, The Other Side of Midnight etc.it did give 'Granadaland' a identity that was quite different from same that of Southerm, Tyne Tees, ATV/Central, Thames etc.

It’s not quite the same but it’s interesting it’s still known as ‘ITV News: Granada Reports’ rather than ‘North West’ these days unlike many other regions who have generic identities.

Yorkshire had it’s ‘Calendar’ programming which like Granada had distinctive presenters like Countdown’s Richard Whiteley and (tax issues aside) Christa Ackroyd. Again Like Granada Yorkshire had regional programmes associated with/to Calendar with again perhaps a Leeds/West Yorkshire-centric bias to them too!

I certainly would’ve liked to have seen Thames, ATV etc. programmes from back then and perhaps I’ll have a butchers on YT of some of the bits and bobs people have saved from them. I suppose all these ITV regions had a strong element of regional pride pre the move to ITV plc but not just in television but across the board generally things seem less distinctive so homogenic these days.

It’s interesting that the BBC did poach some of these presenters for it’s news/current affairs/talk show etc. programmes and it’s kind of sad that both BBC and ITV have cut it’s regional programming to the bone and more so in the Freeview/catch up era regional/special interest stations haven’t really filled the void for this either. Don’t get me wrong some of this stuff was as boring as watching paint dry but you did get an odd gem here or there which you simply don’t see now.

Agree here. Each area had it's own style of news.

Though, this would be down to the area, the characters, the industries, customs etc in that area.

Yorkshire still has "Calendar" which isn't a patch on the old programe.

I think Countdown started life in 1981 (Pre Channel 4) as a Pilot called "Calendar Countdown".

I was brought up watching ATV and then Central.

ATV were constantly under fire from the North and East of the region (Nottingham/Derby etc) as they felt that the news programme didn't reflect them enough, most of the coverage tended to be in the West Midlands. Which wasn't true - they did cover a lot of that side of the region.

This was one of the mitigating factors in the change from ATV to Central.

The ATV area was huge and very diverse - given the technology available to them at the time - it would have been a struggle to cover a news item that broke at 4pm in North Derbyshire - and get it back to Birmingham - processed/edited/dubbed and ready for transmission at 6pm.

This is how the Nottingham studio came along - this was intended on including the East Midlands News studio. They also later opened a bas ed in Oxford - "Central South".

Thing is - with many magazine/news programmes of the time - they were designed to inform and educate, while we all sat round the TV as a family at Tea Time.

Attitudes are so different now.

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Thanks Del and some good posts here in reply - in Luton we had "Look East" which although was supposed to cover our area, it seemed to talk a fair bit about East Anglia so I got to hear certain Cambridgeshire town names quite a lot! I also was interested in the regional news reports variations when we went on holiday too!

I agree the style of reporting seemed different then and looking back at the old reports brings back memories. The report with the snow was December 1981 I think, although that long harsh winter went on all the way in to January 1982 I remember. An unfortunate accident for the Cortina estate owner who had ground to a halt in the middle lane of a motorway and got hit up the back by the Bedford TKM lorry, taking a Bedford Chevanne with it!!

So sad about Terry-Thomas, before seeing that news report I never realised how bad things had got for him by then. His wife really did everything she could by the looks of it.

As for the 1987 storm, that was horrendous for a lot of people although my town got off lightly!! I stayed in the 6th form library doing my coursework I remember at lunchtime! I seem to remember there was a breakdown in communications from the Met Office to the BBC Weather section which is why Michael Fish and Jack Scott got taken by surprise - the latest info never reached them but some old lady seemed to have got more accurate information from somewhere!

As for the people who couldn't get to work on public transport due to the weather, social media and todays age of internet and texting would have helped (a bit) with information and the lad would be able to contact someone at his employer by a contact by text to let them know in advance he can't get to work - hope he didn't lose his job over it! Mind you even today, a lack of info from the train companies doesn't prevent disasters on the trains as we have seen recently!

[Lord Emsworth]

Nov 15, 2019 7:25:41 GMT Sparky said:

When I was a kid, I used to love going away on holiday somewhere in the UK, switching on the TV and seeing what "TV Looked like" in that part of the country.

Even when out and about in town, I used to watch the TV's in the showroom window to try and see.

The different regions always fascinated me.

Agreed Sparky

It's surprising how much the regional ITV stations varied in terms of content and presentation.

And then of course, times that by ten, for the first time I went to America and watched their TV - didn't take long to realise that, despite 100s of channels, it was actually pretty crap.

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Nov 18, 2019 8:51:41 GMT Lord Emsworth said:

Nov 15, 2019 7:25:41 GMT Sparky said:

When I was a kid, I used to love going away on holiday somewhere in the UK, switching on the TV and seeing what "TV Looked like" in that part of the country.

Even when out and about in town, I used to watch the TV's in the showroom window to try and see.

The different regions always fascinated me.

Agreed Sparky

It's surprising how much the regional ITV stations varied in terms of content and presentation.

And then of course, times that by ten, for the first time I went to America and watched their TV - didn't take long to realise that, despite 100s of channels, it was actually pretty crap.

Funnily enough when I watched the TV briefly in my hotel room when I visited New York in 2000, I didn't think too much to the US programmes I didn't know about - they do odder things like show the opening titles of a starting episode, then immediately stop for the "commercial break" - before returning to the programme.

I did make an exception when I managed to catch an episode each of The Rockford Files and Chips though - now they were some examples of US TV I'd rather watch than todays trash!