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

[Richard1978]

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.

[zabadak]

Did accurate maps ever exist for ITV regions or were the boundaries always blurred? There were instances of people watching the wrong ITV for where they lived because of various factors.

I used to have one IIRC...

[zabadak]

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!

[Arran]

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.

[George 1978]

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.

[agfagaevart]

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]

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]

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]

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?