A documentary showing fifty television crews from throughout the television filmed what happens during one day during the making of their shows. The documentary also shows the marketing of satellite television.
I Directed some of this, Top of the Pops and the sequence with Ian McCaskill doing the weather. Especially poignant today 12th December 2016 as Ian died today. RIP Ian McCaskill.
Orson Jones I worked in the scenic block and used to sneak in to TOTP and watch rehearsals in 1990. It was a brilliant show! I've often wondered what happened to David Thoroughgood, camera man, and Pinkie the warm up man!
43:56 - "The Laughter Show" was the vehicle for Les Dennis and Dustin Gee. Sadly Dustin died in 1986 and Les was left to shoulder the show on his own. The 1989 series they were discussing here got six episodes and a Christmas special. So they didn't get the eight episodes they originally wanted, they got seven. The show would continue until 1991.
1:10:27 Scene in which they discuss whether the f-word and c-word can be included in a documentary - I like to think that the makers of One Day In The Life Of Television had to sit and have the exact same conversation about whether to include those same words in this scene - the ultimate in meta!
19:44 - The Nine O'Clock News was relaunched on Monday 31st October 1988 with a brand new set based in the heart of the BBC newsroom at Television Centre, a one presenter format, and the lightening bolts firing out of the transmitter opening titles. The set/titles would also be used for weekend and bank holiday news bulletins. The opening titles were never liked by the public, but remained until April 1993.
@@johnking5174 Oddly enough, I used to record a lot of news show on VHS at the time, even though I was only 9 years old in 1988. I'll have to look through the boxes in the loft to see if any of them are still there.
17:10 - "Omnibus" mentioned here was airing Fridays at 10.20pm on BBC One. So in this case the Midlands wanted to push it to 10.50pm and have their local Crimewatch episode air instead, and as you can see Paul Fox was in no mood for that. The Midlands would have had to air that local show at 11.30pm instead after Omnibus.
2:35 - The TV AM lock out was the death nail for union power. The shouted "scab" all they wanted, but the unions power grip was over and rightly so. The power of a union to take down an ITV company was just too much and by 1988 they had lost.
Paxo's comments at 1:27:29!!!!saying we'll get a load of programmes that will make blankety blanks look like the encyclopia brittanica - well there is a programme like that, its called deal or no deal
They should do a updated version but I know the chances will be very small as they will not be as open as they was in 1988 as there is social media these days and I am sure a lot will moan like mad and they will be noticed the most. This will be a big shame.
During the preparations for News at Ten, both Alastair Stewart and Sandy Gall came across as a bit rude, pompous and abrupt as they prepared. This is the truth of most British newsreaders. Reggie Bosanquet of ITN was well known for his hard drinking before News at Ten.
2:38 - This man was an utter bastard. His union felt they could go out on a one day strike in November 1988 and come back the following day. TV-am MD Bruce Gyngell was not having one day threats of strike hanging over his company and locked them out, totally wrong footing them. He sacked them all by Spring 1988, but they still remained at TV-am centre, nursing a wound which they inflicted on themselves.
Thank you for uploading this, very very interesting piece of television, interesting to see how much has changed in 25 years and how Jeremy Paxman dare I say it is right
Paxman certainly complains a lot. Still, it was good of him to take on the weighty role of arbiter of the nation's taste. I like that the execs at 18:55 start complaining about camera work right when the boom mic gets in frame...
Irony: All those fancy bottles of water on the table where BBC management are discussing the necessity of budget cuts. Other networks don't have such luxuries.
Well, the management at Granada, Thames, LWT etc all lived well, and were well catered for in their own companies. BBC is publicly funded, and more so back in 1988, when their commercial arm was nowhere near the size it is now in 2024, they relied on every pound of the licence fee. ITV could simply increase advert rates to increase budgets, and since in 1988 it was still a monopoly of ad money on TV, it worked.
Paul Fox the managing director of BBC Network TV was certainly in no mood for anymore opting out of the network television programmes and he certainly didn't want the Midlands to show the scheduled edition of Omnibus half an hour later comparing to the rest of the network. Although the Midlands did ask Jonathan Powell the then Controller of BBC1 whether he would allow a regional opt-out for a Midlands Crimewatch he said that he doesn't want to do it as there was already enough opting out of the network. The Midlands had no choice they had to take in the scheduled edition of Omnibus at the exact same time as the network and other regions if they wanted to show their Midlands Crimewatch programme then they had to show it afterwards.
Omg that TV am thing - I'm so stressed!! Yet Jeremy effortlessly copes with the pressure whilst everyone else is running around like headless chickens in the background. I'd end up having a nervous breakdown....
45:59 - Please remember it was Jonathan Powell here who forced through the dreadful Eldorado on BBC One in 1992, and look at the ratings catastrophe that turned out to be. So his judgement was not something I would rely on.
The BBC English regions follow the same programme schedule as London when it comes to network television except they opt-out for the regional news and current affairs programmes.
That was not always the case in the 70s and 80s, many English regions did opt out for local programming, especially larger BBC One regions. However that all started to ebb away from around 1993 onward
@@johnking5174 I believe that the BBC One regions could opt-out of the network schedule for local programming but they had to rejoin the network once their regional programme had finished.
@@johnking5174 Oh okay but Alan Yentob was not very happy that BBC Midlands wanted to opt-out of the network programme for a local Crimewatch programme.
@@mrhammadmossop1988ul-haq BBC Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were treated for more leeway, as they are "nations" and needed the extra time - English regions were not classed in the same way. For example during the Children in Need nights of old, NI, Scotland and Wales used to opt out of the London feed for a lot more than any English region, who simply had short 5-10 min opt outs per hour.
More TV channels may quadruple choice, but it doesn't necessarily mean better tv. All was well at first, but degenerated into an utter load of trash. The "more choice is better" ship has sailed since then.
44:20 - "we've gotta cut something" - which didn't apply to Jimmy Savile who by 1988 had sexually abused hundreds of kids and young adults with a lot of abuse happening at BBC Television Centre where they were at here, his show was never cut or axed by Jonathan Powell back then.
@@anthonyperkins7556 Savile was powerful.He was friends with Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Margaret Thatcher - he had the best lawyers to strike down any idea of sex abuse. Savile is very dark. He could easily bully people. So any person he abused, you really think they would have stood a chance against all that? Also, the atttiude by some towards the abuse victims is the same attitude that forced thousands of young children to remain silent about sex abuse they suffered from catholic priests and nuns. They all thought no one would listen or believe them. When he is dead, he can't bully them.
@@anthonyperkins7556 That attitude is the reason why victims didn't speak. The feeling they wouldn't be believed. Also Savile had very expensive lawyers who would crush any victim coming forward. Can you imagine how he would hire the best London lawyer and get it crushed. He threatened people with legal action. He was best buddies with Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher and more.
Here in the South of England. The ROWRIDGE Transmitter put up a caption saying this programme was unavailable. I had to switch to H.T.V. West. No REASON was ever given.
16:45 - I know very well how bad some BBC regions were for "opting out" of the network. Mostly English regions followed London's schedule, but Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland nearly always opted out of the network most weeknights, pushing network shows later or dumping them altogether.
Maggie Thatcher literally tore a cannon and ball through the unions smashing their powers, and as a result, the days a union could hold a broadcaster to ransom ended.
@@MrThecarebear Especially thru nasty piece of legislation The 1990 Broadcasting Act and the barmy stupid bidding system where if you bid too much you lost, if you bid too little you lost, and there was no middle ground or mention of the ridiculous quality threshold that was meant to kick in....
@@anthonyperkins7556 The franchise auction was actually changed from Thatcher's original idea. She wanted a simple winner takes all approach, highest bid wins. However the minister in charge of implementing the franchise auction through the ITC arranged a financial review of bidders, which led to the strange winning bids.
