► The fall and fall of LWT 

4 August 2016 tbs.pm/9163

In the week of 22 February 1971, London Weekend Television was teetering on the edge yet again, facing a takeover from Rupert Murdoch.

In this audio recording of part of the BBC’s 24 Hours news programme (a forerunner of Newsnight), Ludovic Kennedy introduces Barrie Penrose’s stirring of the pot investigation of what has gone wrong at the troubled broadcaster.

You Say

5 responses to this article

garry 4 August 2016 at 10:05 pm

The start of the second phase of I.T.V. London Weekend Television the T.V.A.M of it”s day. High brow programmes that nobody watched near bankruptcy and The Late Sir David Frost. Who says history does not repeat its self! With endless strikes as well.

David Barber 6 August 2016 at 1:20 am

I loved LWT. They were the kings of light entertainment and gave us The Professionals.

garry 10 August 2016 at 3:50 pm

Yes David,but love had nothing to do with it. I.T.V. B sky B and even Channel Four has to make money. If they hadn”t London Weekend Television would have become another Setanta Sports or most notably B.S.B. That”s the way the Capitalist System works. Love it or Hate it. You could even include the B.B.C Licence Fee in the same process of thought.

FRANKIE HOLTZMANN SMALES 11 August 2016 at 12:08 am

I was a shame that LWT fell it had such great programming such
as Dempsey and Makepeace amongst many others that the network
had to offer but as when the 80’s rolled on to an end LWT’S quality
somewhat dipped in the 90’s due to the uplifting rise of cable and
satellite where viewers emigrated to from the mundane dosage
of terrestrial television where on both digitalised services they could
watch top quality entertainment and that’s where the problems started for LWT that lead LWT to close with another 90’s threat was channel 5
launched by the spice girls that feature cable quality entertainment
with movies every night and top quality drama lastly LWT R.I.P.

frankie holtzmann smales.

alienbugstomperfan

garry robin simpson 30 August 2016 at 10:13 pm

Very true Frankie. The same thing happened here in the South. First when Southern lost out to T.V.S. and then T.V.S. to Meridian. Sadly it is all I.T.V. P.L.C. now. From The New Forest GOD BLESS!

Your comment

Enter it below

A member of the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
Liverpool, Tuesday 19 March 2024