Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

[George 1978]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

A DVD player would probably be around £30, but a DVD recorder would still cost a bit more than that.

[tex]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

i also had the ferguson videostar, it was a top loader shaped like a large housebrick cost about £200, today a dvd player can be bought for £30 brand new

[agfagaevart]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

My first big purchase from my very first job was a Ferguson Videostar I bought around 1987. Looking back, it was a piece of cr@p! But at the time it did the job, and I was able to tape America's Top 10, Oprah winfrey's shows and all kinds of goodies like music from TOTP. It was a revelation to be able to record a movie and then rewind and pause and enjoy it all over again - Anytime I wanted! I still have around 3 - 400 vHs cassettes I need to sort out one day! Later on I upgraded to a better Nicam Stereo Mitsubishi deck which I still own, and then a Panasonic DVD recorder and plasma TV - All much better IMO as there was no FF or Rewing. Now of course those decks are redundant due to my sat box with its hard disk recording, and the VCR only sees use when I'm clearing out some tapes. My sat box even records onto USB so I can watch stuff back on my PC!!

BTW, I was sad to hear about the death of André Previn the conductor / composer; I remember his adverts for Ferguson's products back in the late '70s.
If I had bought a VCR in the early '80s it would've cost me a fortune, because even though it would've been great to tape some TOTP from back then, and movies that haven't seen the light of day since, blank tape was really expensive when I was using my VCR - it was about 10 quid each, for 3 hours!!! Later, I found a shop where I could bulk buy a box of 10 for about 2 quid a piece.

Have found some really interesting stuff during my clear-outs - adverts - continuity - etc.

[George 1978]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

My family didn't have a VCR until 1989 (the same year that we had a telephone for the first time!) I do wish that: A) I was at least 20 years older than I was back then; and: B) I had a VCR certainly from the start of the 1980s onwards.

I probably know what sort of the stuff I would have taped from 1981 to 1983 if I was in my 20s or 30s and also had a VCR back then: Charles and Diana saying "I do"; ATV becoming Central; Pope John Paul II visiting Britain; Channel 4 starting up; Breakfast Time and TV-am starting up; Shakin' Stevens, Bucks Fizz, Adam Ant and others on Top of the Pops; the 1983 General Election; hours of adverts, etc, not to mention what was on a Christmas, New Year and Bank Holidays. My point is that there was so much change and development in television from the Spring of 1981 to the Autumn of 1983, and the closest we had to a VCR was a tape recorder (with C90 inside) next to the speaker of the TV set, risking a family member talking in the background.

I must get my DVD recorder out of the box and set it up...

[agfagaevart]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

The Monday to Friday repeats of children's TV programmes on BBC 1 (pre-CBBC) feel so welcoming where you would find Why Don't You; Take Hart; Cheggers Plays Pop and others - repeated every weekday at the same time. Now we get Homes Under the Hammer in the same slot just like every other time of the year. Even the "Mr Mitchell" era of Grange Hill got repeats like that towards the end of the 1970s.

That's one of the things I noticed first! Back then I used to look forward to watching some of those shows I missed first time during the holidays, not having a VCR back in them dayz. Especially liked the Grange Hill repeats before the new eps were shown! Now it's mainly the crappo you mentioned and stuff like Don't Get Done Get Dom! you're lucky if they put on a decent ep. of Rockford Files!

BTW, something else I remember is that BBC2 used to show movies on Sunday afternoons, while ITV showed The Big Match. One film in particular that I remember was Smashing Time with Lynn Redgrave and Rita Tushingham as two Northern Gals who go down south looking for fun during the swinging '60s. Would love to know when that aired...

[George 1978]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

The start of the 1980s seemed such a good time to look at old schedules - it's where the 1970s meets the 1980s in many ways. I would have liked to go a year later to around the time Charles married Diana - different ITV regions had holiday morning schedules which consisted of a Sesame Street here, a Wattoo, Wattoo there, and a Flying Kiwi everywhere else as well. That sort of thing inspired me to write about the films that were scheduled in a similar way. And then the Big Bang of the 1980s happened on Friday 1st January 1982 - goodbye ATV.

The Monday to Friday repeats of children's TV programmes on BBC 1 (pre-CBBC) feel so welcoming where you would find Why Don't You; Take Hart; Cheggers Plays Pop and others - repeated every weekday at the same time. Now we get Homes Under the Hammer in the same slot just like every other time of the year. Even the "Mr Mitchell" era of Grange Hill got repeats like that towards the end of the 1970s.

[agfagaevart]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

Just out of curiosity...I searched what programmes were on the Beeb during 11 August 1980. And I have to say, there were some stonking-good shows on during that summer hols:

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedule...don/1980-08-11



https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binarie.../l/aug1980.pdf

The weather? Not so good...

[80sChav]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

Far from it, not as I am a Film Fantatic George, but in the good old days (re;, like the late Night ITV thread), I can recall (just about) the variations from around I'd say 1991, when he Region had something slightly different to the other ones! A great memory indeed mate

80sChav

[George 1978]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

Blimey! If you're correct, my ol' brain is better than I thought!

I do have access to the online Times Digital Archive and so I get my information from there. Of course, the films might not have been shown at the times that were advertised on.


What else would you use Kleenex tissues for?

[agfagaevart]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

I have heard of both films from my research - In This House of Brede was premiered in some regions in October 1977, but in the afternoons it was shown on ATV in the Midlands on Friday 24th November 1978 (they didn't show the networked film the previous October); Thames on Monday 11th August 1980 and again in the same region on Monday 12th July 1982 and Tyne Tees on Friday 22nd July 1983.

Thursday's Game was seen on Central on Friday 1st June 1984, and Anglia six weeks later on Friday 13th July 1984. Ironically, Thames had shown it on Friday 24th November 1978 at exactly the same time as ATV was showing In This House of Brede!

Blimey! If you're correct, my ol' brain is better than I thought!

The Kleenex was for when you had a cold - I thought everyone knew that?

If you say so, its not my business anyway.

[George 1978]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

BTW, I recall ITV showing afternoon movies circa 1978 / '79. One was called Thursday's Game with Gene Wilder as an addicted gambler who loves playing pocker. It was not a comedy so some viewers may have been disappointed by it, but I would love to see this movie again, as ITV never repeated it. However they did keep showing In This House of Brede, with Diana Rigg as a career woman who decides to become a nun (???) and she won a Golden Globe or summat for it. I found it quite tedious, but ITV saw fit to show it at least THREE TIMES between the late '70s and early '80s.

I have heard of both films from my research - In This House of Brede was premiered in some regions in October 1977, but in the afternoons it was shown on ATV in the Midlands on Friday 24th November 1978 (they didn't show the networked film the previous October); Thames on Monday 11th August 1980 and again in the same region on Monday 12th July 1982 and Tyne Tees on Friday 22nd July 1983.

Thursday's Game was seen on Central on Friday 1st June 1984, and Anglia six weeks later on Friday 13th July 1984. Ironically, Thames had shown it on Friday 24th November 1978 at exactly the same time as ATV was showing In This House of Brede!

The Kleenex was for when you had a cold - I thought everyone knew that?

[agfagaevart]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

I have been thinking about this and have been fascinated by it as well - up until around 1989 (or as late as the early 1990s in some of the northern regions), different ITV regions used to show old films usually on a Monday or a Friday afternoon - presumably the viewers mostly consisted of the housewives, the retired (who probably remembered when they were made), pre-schoolers, the disabled, the unwell (both temporally and permanently - probably in bed with the portable, as well as some Lucozade and some Kleenex), and those playing truant from school (almost ditto) . As soon as News at One's very own Leonard Parkin shuffled his papers as he prepared to go off air, giving way to the regional news, the film followed - and what a choice there was provided you could have the capability of picking up as many ITV regions as you can from the aerial on your roof.

Lucozade aids recovery...I dunno what the Kleenex was for. Hmmm.

3) MELODY aka SWALK - The film was all over place up until the early 1990s. Jack Wild of course (most associate him with this) and Mark Lester of Black Beauty fame were in this, and so were a few CFF "stars" as well. The Bee Gees sung the signature tune as well - it was all about a boy and girl in love, sitting next to each other in class, etc - how innocent it would have looked back then - very much of its time. Only in 1971 could this film have been made. Used to sell for quite a lot online as a VHS copy. Shown by Central on 11th November 1983, Thames on 5th December 1983, Border on 17th September 1984, TSW and Channel on 26th November 1984, Thames again on 17th November 1986, Border again on 22nd June 1987, Thames once again on 23rd November 1987 just over a year since they last shown it, Granada on 6th June 1988, and Central again on 24th April 1989.

this was shown on Talking Pictures a few weeks back; That channel is the only saviour in a dark oasis of satellite TV. Showing old sitcoms and films you can't even see on You Tube!

BTW, I recall ITV showing afternoon movies circa 1978 / '79. One was called Thursday's Game with Gene Wilder as an addicted gambler who loves playing pocker. It was not a comedy so some viewers may have been disappointed by it, but I would love to see this movie again, as ITV never repeated it. However they did keep showing In This House of Brede, with Diana Rigg as a career woman who decides to become a nun (???) and she won a Golden Globe or summat for it. I found it quite tedious, but ITV saw fit to show it at least THREE TIMES between the late '70s and early '80s.

[George 1978]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

Getting back on topic, all I can say is that I wish that I could get all the ITV regions back in the 1980s - what a choice with films in the afternoons back then, almost like Sky Movies of its day. I went into a phase of getting various indoor aerials and signal boosters so that I could get Yorkshire TV in Nottingham - pre Channel 5, never mind pre-Sky Digital. If HTV was showing a Cary Grant film, then why couldn't I see it as well? It was so different to the networked James Bond film that we would see on Bank Holidays.

Saturday afternoons were similar once World of Sport was axed (and by virtue, Dickie Davies had a bit more spare time at the weekend) - up until around 2002 we still had the odd Carry On film on there.

As I said before, there is some Tyne Tees continuity and adverts from a 1986 showing of one of these films on YouTube - that is one example of what I referred to in my original post. Cue the continuity announcer doing her Gus Honeybun bit with birthdays (not usually for the youngsters either), and also mentioning that various things in the region were cancelled due to the weather, and then living into the film with black and white TT ident thrown in for good measure - I wouldn't mind watching that back then with a lovely Cup a Soup and being entertained for that afternoon.

[Arran]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

To be pedantic, the ITV companies in the 1980s weren't actually broadcasters. The IBA was the broadcaster and ITV companies were known as programme contractors. Only after the 1990 Broadcasting Act and the replacement of the IBA by the ITC did ITV companies become broadcasters.

ITV regions still officially exist and Channel 3 is in a funny position of being regulated more than other channels and having to provide PSB. This doesn't apply to the other ITV channels which are regulated in exactly the same way as an obscure satellite channel.

[zabadak]

Re: Regional weekday afternoon ITV showings of old films in the 1980s

Near Manchester it was possible to pick up Welsh analogue TV, so occasionally I would watch BBC Wales, HTV & S4C through the snow if they had something better to offer.

For while, in east Devon, we could pick up Westward (later TSW) and the Bristol version of HTV - they showed different editions of Jasper Carrott's show on the same day, luckily the times didn't clash!