I'm from the USA and grew up watching British imports on our local PBS station. Many 1970s-1980s versions of these idents are familiar to me as they heralded each episode of the various UK series I loved. In my city you could see different idents on the same channel in one evening, depending on the various series' origins, plus BBC shows in the mix as well. This is a fascinating video; thank you for all your hard work!
i swear i remember seeing the tyne tees ident where the logo forms out of a fluid on a yellow backdrop as a kid but I'm not sure where i would've seen it. could've just been something with a similar effect
I never knew Yorkshire TV went all the way to King's Lynn.... that blew my mind! I loved the sequences from ATV, HTV, YTV, Thames and LWT back in the 70s. It always felt like a treat if you saw a Westward, Tyne-Tees, Anglia (Sale of the Century) or Southern (Wurzel Gummage) programme because you'd see there branding - it was like a window into another region on the country. Excellent video.
Can you imagine what my region, Tyne Tees logo might have looked like if they had included the other regional river!? (T)yne (W)ear (A)nd (T)ees TV!?😳😂
I'm from the Midlands so I grew up with the Central cake which in my opinion is the best TV logo ever created, but personally I prefer the cake idents from the mid to late 90's, where you had some that were CGI, and others which were live action where the cake was made of wood, there was another one made of scaffold, one where the cake was put in water, they literally did everything with that logo, there are too many to list here! Bring the cake back, that's what I say!😃😃
Definitely mate! I loved the Central Cake as a kid. It was always on in the background, I never really appreciated it at the time but I’m really nostalgic for it now. It was a great ere for Central idents and idents in general
Excellent work! Seeing the progression of all these channels idents was a real trip. The Yorkshire segment at the end caught me off guard a couple times, since we have our own nation-wide channel called YTV here in Canada.
I like all the idents they're all fantastic in their own strange and quirky ways. Shame all that's gone now, but times move on i guess. Great video l love watching about tv history.
Thanks for the comment Todd! If you liked what you saw here check out some of the mini-documentaries we've done! Lots of great little TV history tidbits in there!
I wish ITV had had more respect for regional franchise identities and histories, at least for local news and specialist content. It might have been good PR for them to try a smaller scale version of what the BBC attempted, and share out some of the production for areas like Daytime, Children's, and Factual programming across smaller franchises, as the consolidation of the late 1990s and 2000s took hold. The BBC was still making Natural History programming and Casualty out of Bristol, so Factual and Religion could have gone there, and Tyne Tees managed the children's classic that was SuperGran, so Newcastle could have gotten CITV. The major studios in Manchester, Leeds, and London, would always have plenty of productions eager for space, had big soaps anyway, or ITN and LWT shows. Everywhere else sort of just blended into the background and vanished except STV and UTV for largely political reasons, even surprisingly Birmingham. I was born in the early 1980s and so a lot of the big franchises are memorable to me whereas the smaller or more niche ones like Channel Television are nice to see and hear about. My Nana is a great soap fan, so of course Granada, Yorkshire, and Scottish (Take the High Road), were omnipresent, Thames TV was children's shows to me, and LWT had sitcoms, Popstars, London's Burning, Sports, Poirot, Cilla Black, Gladiators, Denis Norden, Jeremy Beadle, and An Audience With. Granada and Yorkshire had Corrie and Emmerdale, Countdown, Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, University Challenge, The Krypton Factor, and nostalgia fests like Heartbeat. Regions as big as Yorkshire or Granada with such obvious local cultures to draw upon, were NEVER going to struggle, were they? I, however, grew up in the fighting minnow Border TV region. We were always a bit weird, neither fish nor fowl, and arguably Border TV might have actually helped maintain our sense of 'Border-ness' in a way that economic ties alone could not. Our local news comes from Carlisle, cross-Border pre-season football friendlies were still a thing, but now we settle for Common Riding coverage (like a village gala, but with lots of horses, ceremonial flags, traditional pledges to defend the burgh against the English, and historic origins, which a good old party after-words). It matters that we are seeing the same thing at the same time with people who at least nominally, are from a different national group to you. I find myself rather nostalgic over our humble little B logo, I like that we kept it going well into the 90s, it wasn't bland and generic like the standard ITV packages were and are, I like how it seemed to represent the geography really nicely, with the Solway heading out to the Isle of Man and the Irish Sea too. The Isle of Man only joined Granada relatively recently all told, early 21st century. Border TV certainly gave it a good go as one of the smaller regions, with a population of fewer than 1 million people, we were never going to be a broadcasting powerhouse and we might have been a little TOO small, but we propelled Melyvn Bragg into media management, and one of our newsreaders went national with ITN for a while and is now Dumfriesshire's Lord Lieutenant, so there's that I suppose. I was disappointed like all Border viewers probably were when we were merged with Tyne Tees and then found our 'local' news focusing far more about South Shields and Gateshead than Carlisle, Dumfries, or Selkirk as was normal and programming we considered local being reduced considerably. Luckily, after political and community pressure, Ofcom agreed with us and we got Border back in a form in 2014. Alas, it's not quite the same, the B logo is gone, but I'll give them credit they do a pretty good job covering English and Scottish politics in their current affairs programming, no mean feat when the region is tiny compared to the others, and indyref is a thing. Given there is now much more of an emphasis on local culture and heritage, local broadcasting, business sustainability, getting out of London etc, the loss of the regional franchises as meaningful brands and as hubs to train and develop talent, appears rather short-sighted and seems intended only to benefit the biggest franchises. At the very least there is probably potential for branded RU-vid-style online broadcasting of cheap and easy programming, local politics and issues discussions, local history, collaborations with regional further education providers, and features on tourist attractions, events, businesses, and hidden gems within regions. Maybe someone does it. Oh well, such is life...
TVS Was the one who broadcasted the UK version of Fraggle rock.. And I’m kind of glad they did otherwise the UK would have missed out on one of Jim Henson’s Masterpieces for the first time..
I liked how each ITV region had their own identity which they'd weave into the programmes they produced for the network as a whole. Some franchise holders had a logo which appeared before the programme to show that they made the programme? ALL regions had endboards which displayed the name of the region who made the programme unlike now where all you get is ITV productions on everything ... I miss regional identity. I'm not really a fan of the ITV blob and would like to see a massive restructure of tv in the UK as we've got more channels but not really much more quality programming what with repeats,HD simulcasts and 24 hour broadcasting I think we're worse off. Simulcasting the same output on multiple channels is annoying ( shopping channels and BBC News channel spring to mind). Bring back closedowns or at least broadcast repeats of popular shows overnight as not everyone wants to use or has access to streaming services to catchup with what they've missed. Linear TV is dying out I fear. Maybe worth looking at how viewing habits have changed as technology has evolved as a documentary?
I'm obviously too young to remember the regional ITV, but being from Wales, I'd technically be in the catchment area for HTV Wales/ITV Cymru Wales, but I'm also in one of those awkward areas (North-east Wales) that can pick up Granada too. Well, that's what I get for being 20 minutes away from Chester 😂 I love the brass figurine of the Anglia knight, it's authoritative using a knight as your branding. I also love the Central cake logo, which I believe was designed using a UFO as inspiration.
I think the use of blue backgrounds in early colour TV (1969-84) had more to do with retaining compatibility with the old (1930s) 405-line system, which had very poor contrast handling. When UHF-only channels started such as BBC2 and Channel 4, much better pictures could be seen than in the old days, even on black and white sets. In 1985, with increasing 16-bit computer power, colour TVs accounting for at least 75% of viewing and no more need for compatibility with pre-1960s TVs, elaborate CGI could be displayed in much better quality than ever before. There would have been little point in BBC1 having CGI 20 years earlier, even if it had been available, as nobody would have been able to see it as any more than some fuzzy, often jagged poorly defined grey shapes.
While watching, I am making a documentary dedicated to the 1991 ITV franchise bid. But talking about the whole this IR Extra "season",you did a very good job talking about ITV network idents! Hope to see more IR Extra soon! Edit: btw I have a question. Can I use your video footage for the documentary (or even a shout-out 😂)? I will give you credit.
@@GGYT. you'd probably be better to use as close to the original footage as possible as you might find that the quality of your end product suffers due to youtube recompressing the clips you take from Adam's videos which themselves probably came from old VHS tapes? I used to ptroduce broadcast audio and allways tried to use the highest resolution / fidelity audio where possible. What's the name of your channel as your documentary sounds interesting? EDIT: using alternative clips might help you to avoid copyright issues especially if you talk over them. RU-vid could ironically give you a copyright strike where adam managed to avoid it?
Granada was heavy on in-vision continuity back in the day, so it didn't rely as heavily on idents as the other ITV companies. That's why it didn't have many animated idents. Sure, it had its obligatory caption at the end of its produced programming, but that was it.
Love the vid, but STV didn't do all of Scotland, where I am from, we had Border TV or just Border, though we did get some STV and Grampian programs back in the day
The original Harlech ident is just as eye straining at 405 lines as at 625 lines. If anything its worse because the contrast between black and white is starker, so I'm not surprised they binned it after a year and didn't even attempt to give it a colour makeover. In any case by 1968 virtually all productions were being made on 625 line video and standards converted to 405 lines for transmission, so they really did intend for it to appear at 625 lines.... HTV's aerial ident is far more pleasing whatever the television standard one is watching in.
Isn’t the Anglia Knight still alive and well and housed in the ITV News Anglia newsroom? If so glad someone still has an eye of the history in the new merged world
The first Ulster Television "zig zag" ident has 6 dots (not 7 as you state) nor do they represent the 7 major cities, they represented the 6 television transmitters across the province
@@AdamMartyn THAMES 1969-1989. The best of tv idents. I have watched a Thames logo history, and of the 70's ones some of them sounded a little warped. But it's still my favourite ITV logo. A classic sound.
It’ll never become mainstream unless they provide it via an app or even a puck like sky stream that you can purchase to give access to freely. The idea that they expect everyone to buy a new tv is stupid. It needs to be accessible to as many people as possible to work.
Remember kids, there wasn't much on the box in my day so a spinning silver knight on a horse sent us into a plastic spasm! Also just a note on the British sex industry in those days...it was an old lady in a tent selling kisses for a quid. Ahh heady days. Yours Sincerely Linda Bananahammock, Milton Keynes
Here are my current NOW 112 predictions. It would be nice to know yours, Adam. Release date: 22 July 2022 Predicted tracks in no particular order (might change overtime): 1. Harry Styles - As It Was 2. Dave - Starlight 3. Aitch feat. Ashanti - Baby 4. Dove Cameron - Boyfriend 5. Jack Harlow - First Class 6. Becky Hill & Galantis - Run 7. Joel Corry, David Guetta & Bryson Tiller - What Would You Do? 8. David Guetta feat. Becky Hill & Ella Henderson - Crazy What Love Can Do 9. Lizzo - About Damn Time 10. Camilla Cabello feat. Ed Sheeran - Bam Bam 11. George Ezra - Green Green Grass 12. Bad Boy Chiller Crew - BMW 13. Mabel, Jax Jones & Galantis - Good Luck 14. Megan Thee Stalion & Dua Lipa - Sweetest Pie 15. Foals - 2AM 16. Diplo feat. Miguel - Don't Forget My Love 17. Shawn Mendes - When You're Gone 18. Justin Bieber feat. Don Toliver - Honest 19. Koffee - Pull Up 20. Lady Gaga - Hold My Hand (from "Top Gun: Maverick") 21. Nathan Dawe feat. Ella Henderson - 21 Reasons 22. Wet Leg - Chaise Lounge 23. Sam Smith - Love Me More 24. Sam Ryder - SPACE MAN 25. Ava Max - Maybe You're The Problem 26. Lauren Spencer-Smith - Flowers 27. Mark Owen - You Only Want Me 28. Soft Cell & Pet Shop Boys - Purple Zone 29. Michael Bublé - Higher 30. The Wanted - Gold Forever (For Tom) 31. beabadoobee - Talk 32. Sigala feat. Talia Mar - Stay The Night 33. Ed Sheeran - 2step 34. Sam Fender - Getting Started 35. Charli XCX - Used To Know Me 36. Griff & Sigrid - Head On Fire 37. Rex Orange County - Keep It Up 38. N-Dubz - Charmer 39. Tom Grennan - Remind Me 40. Dylan Conrique - Birthday Cake 41. The Kid LAROI - Thousand Miles 42. A1 x J1 feat. Tion Wayne - NIGHT AWAY (DANCE) 43. Disclosure & RAYE - Waterfall 44. YUNGBLUD - The Funeral 45. Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia 46. Digga D - Hold It Down 47. Wilkinson - Used To This 48. Dermot Kennedy - Something To Someone 49. Keith Urban - Nightfalls
Am I the only person who has a total aversion to the music on the first generic ident? The 80's saxophone just grates on me. I think I initially didn't like it because it messed with the cosy regional identity and made ITV very clinical and a bit boring.
There's a couple of satellite channels that have obviously got Granada and Yorkshire 70's comedy (dubious at best) shows for next to nothing. I know times and attitudes have changed but honestly ITV back then was producing some of the most common, working class and downmarket rubbish and got away with it whilst Thames and LWT were producing some of the most racist programmes ever to be seen. People go on about golden years but it's only ever one or two programmes that stood the test of time.
