That is the most 80s british news bulletin I have ever seen. Thatcher with public spending, Thatcher with the falklands, thatcher with the pit controversy
There actually weren't that many ads initially due to a dispute with the actor's union Equity, so it was often just a holding slide with few or no ads (depending on the region as the advertising was at the time sold by the ITV franchises). Something similar happened when TV-AM launched in 1983.
This was recorded by Channel Four from the output of their presentation mixing desk, there wouldn't have been any adverts to record, as the C4 adverts were inserted by local ITV regions before 1993.
He stated in his excellent autobiography that sitting there without a desk and with his papers sat precariously on his lap never felt comfortable. He also states that the early viewing figures for the Channel 4 news were very disheartening. Virtually no one was watching!
No wonder since 7pm slot was used very well by ITV, for example in December 1982 the 7pm hour would have This Is Your Life, Coronation St, Whose Baby, Only When I Laugh and Play Your Cards Right, whilst BBC 1 had a movie, Tomorrow's World, Top of the Pops, a repeat of To the Manor Born, Angels and Ask the Family - all big family ratings hitters
A true gem thank you for posting this. Glad that the delivery of news has got better over time and evolved into a programme of trustworthy news on mainstream media. Sorry to see Jon Snow go but it’s got a great news team of journalists behind it.
@Andy M - Couldn't agree with your sentiment more. Thatcher and Reagan was the start, when they realised that if you gave stupid people a scapegoat and dressed it up in stirring nationalistic language, they'd happily vote against their own best interests. Striking miners and Harry Enfields "loadsamoney" eh and it's still working.
"Mrs Thatcher plans her biggest ever public services spending squeeze" They didn't call it "austerity" back then but it meant the same thing. "Scargills allegations of pit closures put coal board on the defensive" - not long after this miners would go on strike to try to protect their jobs. They didn't know that the Conservative govt had been stockpiling Brazillian coal for two years in order to break the strike and when the miners finally fell, the govt would embark on a series of anti trade union policy that would ensure that unions lost almost all their power and so ordinary working people had no means to fight for better wages and conditions and they still don't. But bankers bonus payments continue to climb every year.
Keep repeating all that and you will come to believe it. Mrs T won the GE precisely because people were finally fed up with being held to ransom by trade unions' fed up seeing their spending power evaporate and their savings dwindle in value because of the high rates on inflation caused by trade union demands. Fed up having their power switched off; fed up seeing factories close due to union greed. And of course the Winter of Discontent sealed their fate.
I'm sick and tired of the ben sharpio adds on youtube the amount of videos I've decided not to watch on youtube because I cant stand seeing him.or hearing him even for 10 secs is starting to rack up
ITN had only two studios in 1982 - Studio 1 at 2,000 Sq Ft had a permanent News at Ten set and was also used by the other ITV bulletins - did Channel 4 also use this studio? As the only other studio was the 750 Sq Ft smaller Studio 2, which I would have thought would have been too small for the one hour news?
I wonder if you could help with this? ITN had only two studios in 1982 - Studio 1 at 2,000 Sq Ft had a permanent News at Ten set and was also used by the other ITV bulletins - did Channel 4 also use this studio? As the only other studio was the 750 Sq Ft smaller Studio 2, which I would have thought would have been too small for the one hour news?
