Tonight’s Granada TV… in 1965 

30 November 2016 tbs.pm/10487

The TVTimes tells us what was on Granada TV on Tuesday 30 November 1965. Things worth noting include:

  • All the schools programmes are Rediffusion productions today. In the 1964-8 period, schools expenditure for networked series was 40% Rediffusion, 40% Granada and 20% ATV, reflecting the comparative profitability of each major company and what they could make from the extra evening minutes of advertising earned by showing the schools programmes advertising free. STV and TWW also produced schools items in their own areas, with some TWW items being in Welsh.
  • The closedown period from 11.55 to 2.05 closely mirrored the times of schools lunch breaks in the 1960s.
  • Television hours for weekday contractors were limited by the Postmaster General to 35 hours per week, not counting news, education, religion or presentation. Sports and general outside broadcasts had their own allowance of 300 hours per year. Before 1964, the companies sent a weekly return to the Independent Television Authority showing what hours they had used; this was forwarded to the General Post Office. After 1964, each ITV company’s schedule had to be agreed with the ITA in advance, allowing the ITA to forward the hours statement immediately.

  • The longtime Rediffusion schools presenter Gordon Luck (2.05pm), a specialist in mathematics and geometry, was also seen as an occasional co-presenter with Redvers Kyle on Tuesday Rendezvous.
  • Notre Ville at 2.30pm is unusual: a Rediffusion production in French. ATV had made something of a speciality of French courses in the 1960s for both children and adult learners. The titles and opening and closing captions were in French, a charming little novelty.
  • The 2.40pm to 4.50pm closedown again shows the power of the Postmaster General’s government department over broadcasting hours. It’s not until the early 1970s that the restrictions were first eased and then lifted altogether.

14554245629_9f538233b1_b

  • Evening programmes in the north begin at 4.50pm with the innovative and engaging special service Granada in the North. This was started experimentally in 1964 and expanded into a full daily service in early 1965. It was an attempt to spice up continuity announcing by inserting local news, short filmed features and musical spots by local groups into the gaps between programmes.

  • Advertised Granada in the North sessions of 10 and 30 minutes were listed at 4.50pm every day and 11.30pm where the schedule allowed, but unlisted spots occurred at 6.55pm just before peaktime programming began, 8.55pm before the main ITN news from London, and at 10.30pm before the last dramatic programme of the evening at the end of peak.

14381171305_90f83d6304_b

  • The “GiN” project aimed to make Granada’s evenings seamless, a constant flow of programming, adverts, news headlines, music, trailers and promotions with no gaps to turn over to BBC-1.
  • GiN was produced by a separate team int he same department as the main regional news programme Scene at 6.30, a favourite with both the local viewers and the ITA that, slightly frustratingly, always went out at 6.35pm.
  • Granada in the North was most likely an attempt to copy ABC Weekend’s successful features offerings ABC at Large and ABC Newsdesk, which had also mixed entertainment with local features, combining the format with an attempt at ABC’s lighter touch, more promotionally intensive continuity.
  • ABC used continuity announcers to read their local news; Granada turned this on its head by having the local news presenters doing continuity announcements.

14554431047_fc646ce5ce_b

  • GiN was renamed On Air in late 1967, contracting down to become a local documentary feature most nights at 6pm before being swallowed by Granada Reports as colour came along.

  • Five O’Clock Funfair was the third variant on Rediffusion’s Five O’Clock Club format as Rediffusion tried to find a format that was both popular (like the original) and inexpensive (unlike the original). The dropping of the ‘club’ element had reduced the programme’s running costs in badges and newsletters, but had also reduced viewer loyalty.
  • I remember nothing whatsoever about The Californians, which means either it made no impression on me at all, or my father was watching Look North over on BBC-1.

ftn4-deco

  • Scene at 6.30 was not networked, of course, but had a major effect on the entire industry, influencing the formats of local news programmes from both the BBC and the other ITV companies. It contained national as well as regional stories and was presented by journalists like Mike Scott and Michael Parkinson rather than by newsreaders. Writers, presenters and producers on the show regularly went on to become huge names television in the 1970s – Leslie Woodhead, John Hamp, Michael Apted and, of course, Scott and Parkinson themselves.
  • Granada had a tiny London facility to allow Denis Pitts to interview local politicians before pr after major votes in parliament and for the video to be inserted live into the programme – a terrific expense to go to, but amazing television for the time.
  • The flexibility of Scene at 6.30 can be seen in its two most famous – and polar opposite – moments: giving The Beatles their live television debut, and breaking the news of the assassination of President Kennedy.
  • The entire format, including live inserts from other regions, would be stolen by the BBC for Nationwide in 1969.

ftn1-deco

  • The ITV staples of Double Your Money and Emergency – Ward 10 fill their usual longtime slots at 7pm and 7.30pm, followed by a feature film at 8pm: the 1959 Rank adaptation of The 39 Steps. Feature films were rarely networked at this point. The practice of splitting the film for the main ITN news would continue even when the slot expanded to 30 minutes and moved to 10pm some 18 months later.
  • The World Tonight at 10.05pm was an extension of the World in Action brand. It met with mixed success, some weeks have top notch, compelling stories to tell, other weeks scrabbling around for bits of film to string a programme together. It was also expensive, having to rely on film being flown back from the listed international production centres in the days before geostationary satellite links.
  • The World Tonight‘s format was disliked by critics, but it was a game stab by Granada at beating the BBC at its own Panorama game, especially with the use of so many foreign correspondents. However, it was a victim of its own inescapable costs.

14554225770_74c4507228_b

  • The news headlines at 11.30pm have come from ITN in London via telex to Quay Street in Manchester to be read out locally by GiN presenters. The following Granada in the North round-up featured first night reviews of new plays in Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool – the latter having a large and thriving theatre scene – plus the usual run of local news, short filmed features and musical spots by local groups, either redone live or repeated from earlier in the day as the audiences at 4.50pm and 11.30pm were quite different.

ftn2-deco


External links

You Say

11 responses to this article

Jim Nugent 30 November 2016 at 9:40 pm

WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.