Thames News | |
---|---|
Also known as | Thames at Six Thames Weekend News |
Genre | News, London (regional) |
Presented by | Various, including: Rita Carter Steve Clarke Andrew Gardner Robin Houston Tricia Ingrams Graham Miller Penny Smith |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Running time | Main bulletin: 30 minutes Other bulletins: Times vary |
Production company | Thames Television |
Original release | |
Network | Thames Television |
Release | 12 September 1977 – 31 December 1992 |
Related | |
Thames News was the flagship regional news programme of Thames Television, serving the Thames ITV region and broadcast on weekdays from 12 September 1977 to 31 December 1992.
The news service was produced and broadcast from Thames TV's headquarters at Euston Road in north-west London and, during its last few years in operation, from district newsrooms in Dartford in Kent, Guildford in Surrey and Watford in Hertfordshire.
Prior to Thames News, the station opted not to provide a conventional local news service in spite of requests from the Independent Television Authority to improve on Rediffusion's scant levels of regional output.
Instead, Thames produced Today , a local current affairs magazine show presented chiefly on alternating nights by Bob Holness, Eamonn Andrews and Bill Grundy. The programme was axed in the summer of 1977, several months after Grundy's infamous on-air interview with The Sex Pistols.
Today was replaced on Monday, 12 September 1977 by Thames at Six, a more conventional news magazine programme, presented by former ITN newscaster Andrew Gardner. The following year saw Thames establish a full strength newsroom, enabling daily coverage of London-specific news for the first time in ITV's history.
A lunchtime Thames News bulletin, presented by Robin Houston, was launched on Tuesday 5 September 1978. A late night bulletin, broadcast after News at Ten , was due to launch on the same day, but was held back until Monday 28 April 1980 because of union problems. During 1979, the main evening programme was renamed as Thames News. [1]
On New Year's Day – Friday, 1 January 1982 – Thames and its weekend counterpart London Weekend Television (LWT) began new franchise periods, and at the same time, the weekly handover from Thames to LWT was brought forward from 7pm to 5.15pm on Friday nights.
Prior to the change, Thames aired a full Friday evening edition of Thames News at 6pm, followed by Thames Sport at 6:30pm, but after the franchise renewals, LWT was reluctant to start a weekend news service, despite pressure from the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which had also suggested introducing a single seven-day service co-produced by both companies. LWT director of programmes, Michael Grade, described the idea as "impractical for various reasons".
Therefore, Thames produced special Thames Weekend News bulletins for broadcast on Friday evenings, including a 15-minute round-up during LWT's light-hearted magazine programme The Six O'Clock Show . LWT paid Thames a reported £500,000 (£1.8 million in 2024) a year to provide 16 minutes of local news on Friday evenings.
The arrangement ended in January 1988 when LWT launched a full strength local news service, provided by Screen News and later, Chrysalis Television.
On Wednesday, 16 October 1991, Thames Television learned it would lose its ITV franchise to serve London during the weekdays to Carlton Television, which joined up with London Weekend Television to form London News Network, a new seven-day news service for the capital.
Thames News produced its final full-length programme on Wednesday, 23 December 1992, presented by Steve Clarke (a former presenter of the BBC's rival London Plus programme) and Gytha Hutton (a reporter based in Thames' Guildford newsroom). The very last bulletin was broadcast on New Year's Eve, Thursday, 31 December 1992 and presented by regular sports anchor Graham Miller. The bulletin closed with the town crier of London, Peter Moore, announcing the end of Thames News after 15 years.
|
|
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Television as a single entity, but the two companies are still separately licensed. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of "ITV Broadcasting Limited". Carlton has been branded on air as "ITV1" since 28 October 2002. Carlton Television Ltd, the original holder of the licence, has since been dissolved. Carlton UK Television Limited however is now known as ITV Consumer Limited and legally operates ITV plc's websites. As Carlton's name has no relation to its region, its on-screen identity has been completely removed. Other regions have kept their original company name as a region name and in their local news name.
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 09:25 Monday morning to 17:15 Friday afternoon at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT).
London Weekend Television (LWT) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights. From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities.
BBC London is the BBC's regional television news programme for Greater London and its surrounding areas. Its local competitor is ITV News London, which is produced by ITN for ITV London.
The London Studios in Lambeth, Central London was a television studio complex owned by ITV plc and originally built for London Weekend Television. The studios were located in Central London, on the South Bank next to the IBM Building and the Royal National Theatre. The building was set on 2.5 acres of land and was 24 floors high. The London Studios closed on 30 April 2018. Many ITV programmes now come from Television Centre in White City, London.
London News Network was a television news, production and facilities organisation in London. It was created in 1992 as a joint operation between London's two ITV contractors, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television, with each company holding a 50% stake.
ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ITV Broadcasting Limited for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is transmitted from Crystal Palace in South London.
The history of ITV, the United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies "Independent Television" commercial network, goes back to 1955.
Night Network, Night Time and Night Shift were names given to the overnight schedule of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the companies broadcasting through the night by the end of 1988. At first, individual companies created their own services; however, before too long, many of the smaller ITV stations began simulcasting or networking services from others.
ITV News London is a British television news service broadcast on ITV London and ITVX. It is produced by ITN.
STV News is a Scottish news division produced by STV. The news department produces two regional services covering STV's Channel 3 franchise areas of Northern and Central Scotland.
LWT News was a regional news service provided by London Weekend Television, serving the Greater London area in various formats between January 1982 and 3 January 1993.
This is a timeline of the history of the British television network ITV.
This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Central Independent Television. It has provided the ITV service for the Midlands since 1982.
This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster London Weekend Television. It has provided the ITV weekend service for London since 1968.
This is a timeline of the history of Carlton Television, and of its former owner Carlton Communications. Carlton Television has provided the ITV service for London on weekdays since 1993, and Carlton Communications took over the services for the Midlands, South West England, the West of England and Wales before merging with Granada plc to form ITV plc.
This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Thames Television and its predecessor Associated-Rediffusion. Between them, they provided the ITV weekday service for London from 1955 to 1992, after which Thames continued as an independent production company until 2003.
This is a timeline of television in London.
This is a timeline of the history of regional news on the British television network ITV.
This is a timeline of overnight television broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It focuses on programming between midnight and 6am and includes details of when channels began into the night and 24-hour broadcasting.