Life in Britain in the early 1980s

[Arran]

How popular (and influential) was teletext during the early 1980s? Teletext decoders tended to only be fitted to high end model TVs. On some TVs a teletext decoder was an optional extra.

[George 1978]

There may have been concerns with the name, but CITV was organised in a very different way from Watch It! hence a valid reason for a change of name. Watch It! was run by the regional ITV companies whereas CITV was effectively a time limited national ITV company (like TV-AM) although it was owned by Central.

I'm surprised that there wasn't a separate franchise for children's programmes in the 1991 ITV franchise round like there was for breakfast TV and the teletext service.

Is there any truth that CBBC was created as a result of the success of CITV?

When ITV was first set up in the mid 1950s the powers that be at the time considered having a sports franchise, a drama franchise, a light entertainment franchise, etc. Obviously, a news franchise was set up in the shape of ITN. If you consider CITV to be like a time-limited company than I suppose that World of Sport was like that on Saturday afternoons - ditto This Morning as well.

I know that due to the problems that TV-am had with the unions and all that, Scottish Television and a couple of other companies wanted the regional companies to have the breakfast television slot.

I suppose that CBBC was created in that way, but in many ways I am surprised that they didn't do it before ITV did.

[beccabear67]

It was late 1981 when I changed schools and the one I transferred to had a computer class with two systems. You could access the internet through a modem you laid the telephone hand set on top of. For graphics you had to write a program in code, you could switch between settings and achieve a very basic animation to it. I worked on a screen image of a very basic looking bird silhouette in a night sky with the wings static but the while thing gliding upwards and the stars in the sky twinkling off and on. When they switched to floppy disk drives from cassette tape ones you had to buy your own 3 1/2" floppy disk to keep your work on and though not cheap I did, but someone broke into my locker and stole it and that was the end of computer class for me. I might've had a grand career but for a lousy thief!

I remember one channel on an extra band or VHF on cable television being the main page for some sort of teletext service, but without the extra gear that was the only page I ever saw. There was Oracle and Cee-Fax in U.K. and Teledon I think in Canada.

Interesting to learn about how ITV (and BBC) developed in the '80s. I think of it as a time of lay offs and contracting out, followed in the '90s by mergers for ITV regions until there were no more basically. TVam and Breakfast television plus CITV and CBBC are sort of late wrinkles giving an illusion of more variety than there really was behind the scenes.

[Arran]

I suppose that CBBC was created in that way, but in many ways I am surprised that they didn't do it before ITV did.

The first and foremost reason for establishing CITV was to standardise and unify the selection of after school children's programmes across the nation. The continuity and presenters were a secondary feature of CITV.

The BBC already had a standardised selection of after school children's programmes. Remember that continuity and presenters cost money, so it's easy to understand why the BBC did not deploy it until after ITV had already tried it out and it proved to be popular with the viewers at the time.

Not all ITV companies liked the standardised content of CITV because they would broadcast programmes specific to their region. The most notable example was Gus Honeybun from Westward and TSW.

https://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/f...itv-after-citv

Both CITV and CBBC eventually evolved into their own channels separate from ITV1 and BBC1. I have wondered how different the history of terrestrial children's TV would have been since 1985 if CITV (or its predecessor Watch It!) had never been established and ITV companies had full autonomy over weekday afternoons right up until the takeovers by Carlton and Granada in the 1990s.

[Arran]

The various makes of personal cassette players becoming smaller and actually compact.

A Hi-Fi in a cabinet with a glass door or a flatbed type music centre with a perspex lid were ubiquitous features of living rooms in the 1980s.

CD players first went on sale in Britain in late 1982 and were perceived as toys for rich audiophiles until the end of the decade.

Hi-Fi was big in the 1980s. Hi-Fi magazines were sold in every newsagent shop and had quite substantial readerships.

[Arran]

Magazines in general were big business in the 1980s. Visit WH Smith and find a magazine for just about every hobby and interest imaginable.

I think that magazines were, on average, cheaper during the early 1980s than they were in the 1990s and 2000s after adjusting for inflation. You could buy computer magazines for LESS than £1 in 1984.

[beccabear67]

First time I experienced a CD player was I think 1985 or 1986. A friend had gotten one and played a disc of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms album on CD.

[George 1978]

It certainly wasn't until the 1990s when I experienced CD players - I will still heavily an audiotape person.

[George 1978]

Not all ITV companies liked the standardised content of CITV because they would broadcast programmes specific to their region. The most notable example was Gus Honeybun from Westward and TSW.

The Birthday Greetings slot that middle and small ranking ITV companies had - some regions like Tyne Tees used to have the continuity announcer doing them without any children's puppet in assistance, and also they did the odd 100th birthday as well. I believe that Anglia and Border had them, probably on when most other regions had local news for their area. Pre-1980 some regions like Anglia and Ulster had The Romper Room, based on the Canadian sub-Play School effort.

Smaller ITV companies did get some shows networked on CITV - remember Border's efforts such as The Joke Machine and Crush a Grape, the Stu Francis Crackerjack ripoff? I have always thought that anyone who watched in the Border region probably thought that their local station had opted out of the network to show the programme as they hardly ever got networked programmes on air from Border, and the Border "bow and arrow" logo ident was associated with Cumbria and south Scotland only.

[George 1978]

Magazines in general were big business in the 1980s. Visit WH Smith and find a magazine for just about every hobby and interest imaginable.

I think that magazines were, on average, cheaper during the early 1980s than they were in the 1990s and 2000s after adjusting for inflation. You could buy computer magazines for LESS than £1 in 1984.

In 1981 for example, Woman magazine was around 20p, TV Times (both IPC Magazines) was around the same price - my family had the Charles and Diana wedding issue for many years. A tabloid newspaper like the Daily Star was 12p, a middle market paper like the Daily Express was 15p, and a broadsheet like The Times was 20p. I would hazard a guess that they are around six or seven times that amount now.

[Arran]

I think CD players were reasonably mainstream by 1987 but were still a product for audiophiles with Hi-Fi separates rather than teenagers.

There was a rise in the popularity of cassettes in the late 1980s - possibly as a result of the music industry that had abandoned vinyl records but CD players and even CDs themselves were generally too expensive for the average teenager. Also, most cars now had cassette players fitted as standard.

[Arran]

In 1981 for example, Woman magazine was around 20p, TV Times (both IPC Magazines) was around the same price - my family had the Charles and Diana wedding issue for many years. A tabloid newspaper like the Daily Star was 12p, a middle market paper like the Daily Express was 15p, and a broadsheet like The Times was 20p. I would hazard a guess that they are around six or seven times that amount now.

Newspapers and magazines, along with postage, appear to have increased in price above the rate of inflation more than anything else (except housing) since the early 1980s.

New Scientist cost 70p in 1982. WH Smith is now selling it for an eye watering £5.95.

[Arran]

Smaller ITV companies did get some shows networked on CITV - remember Border's efforts such as The Joke Machine and Crush a Grape, the Stu Francis Crackerjack ripoff? I have always thought that anyone who watched in the Border region probably thought that their local station had opted out of the network to show the programme as they hardly ever got networked programmes on air from Border, and the Border "bow and arrow" logo ident was associated with Cumbria and south Scotland only.

The most famous networked programme from Border in the 1980s was BMX Beat. I have wondered how many kids at the time from outside of the Border ITV region actually knew that Border was an ITV company as opposed to an independent TV production company.

[Arran]

Every kid in the early 1980s wanted a BMX bike.

The popularity of BMX was so high that nearly 30% of all bikes sold in Britain in 1983 was a BMX.

[George 1978]

Newspapers and magazines, along with postage, appear to have increased in price above the rate of inflation more than anything else (except housing) since the early 1980s.

New Scientist cost 70p in 1982. WH Smith is now selling it for an eye watering £5.95.

When my father went to Sainsbury's in the early to mid 1980s and we were at the checkout waiting to pay, they had magazines such as Living and Family Circle at the till which were a lot more expensive, probably twice the price as ordinary magazines - these were in the days when supermarkets didn't really sell magazines.