Interestingly this is the same evening STV introduced their thistle ident. It was previewed on the evening news then went live around midnight which was their birthday.
0:34 - that might even be from the first date that the cake appeared, it may even be the very first cake ident broadcast! Albion Market started on a Friday night (30th August 1985) so it’s possible they launched it when ITV’s autumn schedule started that Friday evening at 7pm, which was the time for Albion Market. BBC1 did the same earlier that year, coinciding a presentation relaunch with a schedule relaunch.
The Central Cake launched on Friday night 30th August at 7pm into Albion Market. Gary Terzza was the announcer that evening. Earlier in the day all continuity was done out of vision - the only clue things were a changing was the continuity studio which was shared with Central News for the shorter bulletins at this stage. On the Thursday the studio still had the coloured diagonal stripes but on the Friday lunchtime CN bulletin the cake background was in place and some of the promos used the Cake. It wasn't until 7pm that the full ident packaged launched. In-vision was still being used although it was being reduced as the cake idents and flowing continuity progressed. It was not long after that the voices of Paul Veysey and Ted May arrived - mainly in the evenings with pre-recorded in-vision from Nottingham which was used in both East and West regions. This lasted for several months before all in-vision continuity stopped.
I mean... I was here for some nostalgia, but the very first show being Albion market (a show I have never seen and didn't know the name of before) took me RIGHT back!! My dad had a cassette of great tv show theme musics, and that was definitely on it! I now need to check out more of that show. I had no idea it was called that, but always LOVED hearing it play while in the backseat of the car when I was super young! :)
They're all online on various sites. I started to watch it on January 1st, and although it took me a while to get into it, I'm loving it now. You'll never see Norris from Coronation Street in the same light again!
Love to see this! Cool to think that this was 6 weeks after the country had been rocking along to the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium. Albion Market certainly brought us down to Earth with a bump :)
The early days of the Cake was merely a rip-off of Channel 4's blocks. It wasn't a bad package, in fact I love it, but it was clearly just a copycat. However, they let it grow into something which offered a lot more variety and creativity. By the early 90's, Central had one of the greatest presentation packages of all time. And it only continued to get better and better. It's just unimaginable what Carlton were thinking, when they ditched the Cake and went with the awful clone of their London idents during Central's final year or so as the on air brand. It's interesting how the closedown announcement falsely claimed that Central would be back on air at 6.15 with Good Morning Britain.
@treffy19 There was often an inconsistency in Central's branding. The second version of the Moon ident persisted as the frontcap on the network way beyond it being dropped in the regional package. But it kind of benefitted them that they had a somewhat easy attitude to their idents. It seems like they just let the pres department play with the ideas however they liked, and put any decent result on screen until the concept naturally found its own path. Looking back now, I think that Central had the greatest presentation packages of all time, spanning any that I have ever seen worldwide. For me, even surpassing the legendary BBC Two idents of the 90's.
The "Cake" was an accident. At the time, Central wanted a CGI version of the 2nd Moon Ident, but computers weren't capable of colour morphing at the time and the cake was a compromise. Once Central Presentations (who also produced the Meridian first onscreen presentations and Carlton's 1995 ident package) started becoming more proficient in the use of CAD, the cake came into it's own, as it's applications were virtually limitless (CP went a bit nuts with it, eventually)! Removing it was one of the stupidest things Carlton ever did, but ultimately, I'm pretty sure, the intention always was to drop the Central name as quietly as possible, so replacing the cake with a "Centralised" version of the Carlton idents was a step down that road.
@@97channelThe inconsistency was deliberate, for the same reason that Thames never used the Thames ident to introduce a Thames programme that had a Thames frontcap ident. [Thames ident: “Now on Thames, The Bill”. Thames ident plays again]. It would look quite jarring, ditto the Central cake linking in to… the Central cake.
Yes it was utter crap. They made a big deal of it at the time though. I had just got my first tv in my bedroom at my parents, for Xmas84. So I was now watching stuff I wanted to see. I liked Girls on Top, had no clue it was play on words / sex position. And I watched Albion Market, could not see the point in it at all. It was drivel. Just a lot of bored and depressed characters wandering round a rubbish strewn dingy run down covered market in London. The only thing I remember about it was some guy / trader was upset his market stall was doing badly, so he tried to kill himself by jumping off the roof! They talk him down and get him some better tat to sell....and that was more or less the plot line for the first few episodes. I gave up on it rapidly. I had no clue it was meant as a soap opera and it was not really my thing anyway. It did not last long before it was axed. There were a lot of crummy weird shows knocking about on ITV etc in this period. Stuff like Triangle, a drama soap set on a cross channel Ferry...another idea that someone thought was good, but in practice turned out to be truly terrible....
@@Simon-xc5oy Albion market sounds like early eastenders. Depressed people rubbish strewn streets. There’s a lot of weird crap knocking about on itv now. The mask singer for one and slut island for another 😆
@@GallowaywindI think he was making reference to my “I’ve beaten you, Benriggers :P” comment in the description of my cake continuity from 1st September 1985.
