And so to the north.  The clichéd picture of the north - an area of dark satanic mills and industrial deprivation - is not really true.

The end of manufacturing in the UK is still something unimaginable in 1957.  Whilst there are pockets of deprivation and slum housing in the north, by and large the post-war affluence has reached the region.  With a National Health Service and social security benefits as of right rather than means tested, even the poorest person is 100 times better off than before the war.

So Granada has a good point.  Its region, with shipbuilding and coalmining is more prosperous on average than the midlands (though someway short of London and the southeast).  That Granada's region is mostly working class, with less of the 'new middle classes' further down south, is not something it feels the need to point out.  But advertisers are not stupid.  While Granada may reach 13 million people, the advertisers place different adverts there than they do in London.

In London, adverts for major airlines are not uncommon.  In the north, this would be unheard of.  But there is common ground between commercial television regions.  After all, everyone needs soap powder.