|
Television & Radio 1981, on sale at £2.90, unusually
had a set of famous faces on the back cover as well as the
front.
On the front cover, pictured above, are
(clockwise from bottom left) Alan Whicker (Whicker's World),
Hywel Bennett (star of Thames sitcom, Shelley), Denis Norden
(host of It'll Be Alright On The Night 2 and Looks Familiar),
Lorraine Chase (from ATV sitcom The Other 'Arf), Kenny Everett
(The Kenny Everett Video Show), Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner in
Coronation Street), football commentator Brian Moore and
Elaine Stritch (Nobody's Perfect).
Hidden around the back are: Bamber Gascoigne (host of
Granada's University Challenge), ITN's Alastair Burnett,
Arthur Lowe (starring in LWT sitcom Bless Me, Father),
Noele Gordon (Crossroads), Jon Pertwee (as Worzel Gummidge),
Bob Holness (LBC), Dr Magnus Pyke (Yorkshire's Don't Just
Sit There! the successor to Don't Ask Me) and
Melvyn Bragg (The South Bank Show).
The cover carries the sub-title, Focus on Broadcasting, and
among features inside were:
- Focus On
A Crisis - a two-page article on ITN's coverage of the
Iranian Embassy siege. It was May 5th, 1980, a Bank Holiday Monday
and just after Coronation Street, the schedule was interrupted by
a newsflash. Running to 41 minutes, we are informed that this was
the longest newsflash in British television history. Over eleven
million viewers watched the dramatic climax to siege when delayed
pictures of an SAS attack were shown, making this the only newsflash
to reach the TV Top 20.
- Focus On
The Channel Islands was about ITV's smallest station, Channel
Television. The article ends with the statement: "In the eighteen
years since Channel started broadcasting not a single day has
passed in which the company has failed to provide a service for
its viewers." Which is another way of saying that when the rest of
ITV went on strike in 1979, Channel kept going.
- Focus On
ORACLE introduced us to ORACLE teletext with two pages
of screen grabs. The service, provided by ITV with editorial teams at
LWT and ITN, was available daily from about 9.30am
until closedown (although it wasn't updated after 11.30pm). At the
time it was in use in around 100,000 homes. "Remember ORACLE is a
service not just a scientific, computer-based marvel. It has been
said that by using ORACLE you and your family will learn to
live with, and love, computers! ORACLE is indeed the nicest
way of coming to grips with the computer-age."
The early Eighties would bring dramatic changes to Independent
Broadcasting and this was acknowledged in the text. With the
current ITV contracts running out at the end of 1981, the IBA had
announced that from 1982 the Midlands and the South of England
would become dual regions - similar to the existing Wales and West region - served by a single company
but with a different service for each part of the franchise area. In
London, the Friday handover from Thames to LWT would be brought
forward from 7pm to 5.15pm. The Authority was also responsible for
the setting up of a brand new commercial station due to begin in the
autumn of 1982, referred to then as the Fourth Channel. Finally,
it was considering eight applications from those interested
in providing a "possible breakfast-time television service on a national
basis".
The ITV franchise decisions would be made on 28th December 1980,
too late for inclusion in this yearbook, which was
published in November.
|
