Category: 1970s

The Great Big Utterly Massive 1979 ITV Strike Datablast – Part 3
Oof! Finally, here we are, with the last installment of dry facts and possibly ill-advised attempts at making light of industrial unrest.

How were people coping?

We’ve already seen a few blase opinions from those tourists in the Channel Islands – but what about everyone else? Well, obviously they were watching the Beeb – but they weren’t entirely happy about it.

What with the strike starting in August, the BBC were sticking stubbornly to their usual summer schedule of repeats and sport. It must be understood that back in 1979, the very act of repeating any TV show for any reason whatsoever would cause The Great British Public to flail around their living rooms screeching like car alarms.

The idea that not everyone might have seen the original broadcast, and as a result might have wanted another chance to catch something they’d missed (or even if they had seen it and just wanted to watch it again in those pre-Sky-pre-streaming stone age times), never seemed to occur to anyone.

Indeed, in their twilight years, these would be the same sorts who watched 4:3 aspect ratio television with everything insanely stretched to 16:9 because “we paid for a widescreen telly, and we’re going to use all of it!!!”.

Nevertheless, a lot of viewers complained that the BBC ought to be putting on something more interesting than the fucking cricket. Of course, the reality of the situation meant BBCs 1 & 2 couldn’t simply be converted to Non-Commercial ITV – as explained by the “Comment” section of the Wolverhampton Express and Star on Wednesday 29th August 1979:

So, pretty obvious there. And when the calendar turned to autumn and the BBC ended the repeats, they began showing their own new programmes – which had quite an effect on their overall ratings. With no competition from ITV over September and most of October, BBC1’s ratings went through the roof, out up into the sky, left the atmosphere and probably touched the surface of the moon.

One of the more notable examples of this was the extraordinary, never-repeated achievement where the first two Doctor Who serials of the Autumn 1979 season – Destiny Of The Daleks and City Of Death – got phenomenal ratings the show has never matched since.

By the end of the former, ratings had risen to 14.4 million viewers, as calcuated by JICTAR. The last episode of the latter got just over 16 million, a level only achieved this century by a handful of football matches, various government announcements made during the pandemic, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

(For a full in-depth look into Doctor Who’s relation to ITV’s woes at the end of 70s, look at the nicely-titled Doctor Who And The 1979 ITV Strike, which sadly will not get a novelization from Terrence Dicks.)

A grim addendum

Before we continue, here’s a bit of business I have to properly address. In the previous part of this series, I mentioned that Yorkshire Televison broadcast a special message in place of the usual blue caption asking for information on the Yorkshire Ripper, then still at large. Well, here it is, shown below for completeness’s sake. It’s taken from Adam Martyn’s video on the ITV strike, which is also well worth watching:

…Brrrrr. Let’s get back to the matter at hand, as quickly as possible…

Restarting… a timeline of events from “Everybody out!” to “Welcome home!”

The first of these articles had a rundown of events leading up to the strike. So it stands to reason to do the same for how ITV crawled out of that massive hole…

10th September, 1979
- The intended date of the start of ITV’s 1979 autumn schedule. It comes and goes with people either watching BBC1, BBC2, or listening to the classical music over that apology caption. Or maybe they went to the cinema or a Joy Division gig, who knows?
21st September
- ITV management put another offer on the table to the collected unions (to refresh your memory, that’s the ACTT, EEPTU, and NATTKE). ITV declare it to be a “final” offer; reader, it wasn’t.
- The offer didn’t impress the unions, mainly consisting of ITV’s original offer of 15% now backdated to July, with the additions of a promised further 5% increase the following July, and two other cost-of-living related increases for 1980 and 1981.
- In return, the unions would have to accept the use of electronic news gathering equipment (also known as ENG). In other words, that would be the increased use of video over film cameras on location.
- The three unions all decided to hold off from either reccomending or refusing the offer, and put it to their members in a national ballot.
- Paul Fox, one of the heads of Yorkshire TV and part of the negotionating team, warns everyone that management were willing to start an emergency service, operated by themselves, to transmit the new autumn schedule. (Something like this had happened once before in 1968.)
24th September
- The ACTT decides that it won’t recommend the offer. This means EEPTU and NATTKE will follow suit.
26th / 27th September
- Following the ACTT’s refusal, everyone else follows suit and the results of the union’s national ballot overwhelmingly turns down ITV’s offer. Once again, no meaningful progress of any kind has been made…
Late September / Early October
- The ACTT put forward another claim. This redoubled their original demand, bringing the asked pay rise to 30%, backdated to July. The cost of living rises would be a 1% rise in pay in January 1980, and another 1% rise in July 1980.
- ITV turns down this offer flat, delcaring it to be “unrealistic”, and stating that such an demand might lead to pay going up to 50%.
11th October
- After weeks of deadlock, a major breakthrough occurs when NATTKE settle for a 26.3% pay rise to occur over the following year. EEPTU, who were negoating along with NATTKE, also agree to settle with that deal.
12th October
- With the other two unions forcing ACTT’s hand, the ITV companies work out a new pay deal with ACTT. They agree on an increase of pay between 40 to 45% over the following two years, the precise rise to be decided by the increase in cost of living.
- The ACTT agree to the gradual introduction of ENG, but without any staff being made redundant.
- Alan Sapper, leader of the ACTT, agrees not to recommend a rejection and puts it to a national ballot.
12th – 18th (?) October
- At some point during this period, EEPTU and NATTKE members vote in favour of the agreed deal.
19th October
- ACTT members across the country vote four to one in agreeing to the deal. For some reason, the only ITV company whose staff attempt to reject it are at Border Television. This may have been something to do with “Windscale”.
- The strike was effectively over – now began the rush to get back on screen.
Sound on, Vision on

At 12:47PM on 24th October, ITV returned – for about 15 seconds, about five hours ahead of the actual start time. If this sounds like a weird accident, you’d be right.

A Thames TV supervisor called Laurie Baker happened to be sitting in the announcer’s chair as everyone at Thames was checking the continuity studio’s equipment. Someone somewhere pressed the wrong button, and Mr Baker’s face was briefly transmitted across the entire nation until the wrong button was un-pressed.

The actual return of ITV happened at approx 5:40PM, later that night.

…Unless you lived in the Westward region, in which case two days previously you had been treated to a special transmission of the local news programe Westward Diary. The presenters welcomed (…welcomed, welcomed) everyone back well before Laurie Baker’s 15 seconds of fame. Apparently the lighting hadn’t been sorted out at that point, and everything was quite murky.

The return of ITV, recorded from UNKNOWN REGION

To give all the ITV regions a little bit of a way to get back into the swing of things, it was decided that the grand re-opening night would be networked directly from London. Thames TV took the honours, and pretended to be just plain old “ITV” that evening, going to the length of adjusting the Thames clock and having one of their senior announcers – Peter Marshall – addressing the entire nation as one big national channel.

However, some space was left for individual regions to do their thing. Over at HTV, one of their main announcers – possibly either Terry Dyddgen-Jones or Gwyn Parry – opened up services for Wales & The West with a useful explanation of how all the usual programmes were going to get back on-air over the following week, and precisely what was happening that night. An audio recording of this definitely exists, as I’ve heard it… but, erm, I can’t find it anywhere now.

Over at Yorkshire, they launched with a full YTV start-up, using a new start-up theme and caption that had been intended to debut the previous month:

It also seems that STV took the same route as HTV that night – but went much further beyond a mere introduction. From the Scotland On Air wiki (which has proved to be an invaluable resource in putting all of this together):

STV did its own presentation that evening rather than taking the national service. Chief Announcer Tony Currie did the usual start-up at 17:40 before the ITN News at 5.45 and, during the evening, the station had local commercials and voiceover slides. Currie did an in-vision closedown after the film Chinatown.

And like STV, it seems most other ITV regions also did their own local closedowns.

One very well-recalled element of this first night back was the “Welcome home to ITV” graphic package, and the close-harmony sung theme. This jingle and promo package had been reportedly put together about a couple of weeks previously, using unaffiliated technicians and talent, in anticpation of having something ready to go after the strike ended.

It seems to have only been used for at most a week, possibly only a few days – but everyone watching at the time has had the following burnt into their brains for evermore:

After the rundown of that night’s programmes, which included The Muppet Show, the TV premiere of the movie Chinatown and the first of many, many episodes of 3-2-1 (of which there was a massive backlog), ITV went straight into the News At 5:45. Newscaster Leonard Parkin summed up the mood of everyone watching and working for the channel…

Good evening, again… it’s good to be back again, so let me simply say, let’s get on with it.

Epilogue

There’s a fair bit more that can be written about the 1979 ITV strike. I’m just going to end this on one final little thing.

Around January 1980 – a date which at one point was theorised to be the potential end of the strike – Heineken put out an advert that must have caused some viewers to have a heart attack when it began.

The following is from the History Of Advertising Trust – watch below…
February 1, 2025
The Great Big Utterly Massive 1979 ITV Strike Datablast – Part 2

We continue with our look at ITV basically falling headfirst into a skip with some press reports of the time (mainly from the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express, as those are the two papers I have easiest access to)…

What The Papers Said

As you can imagine, ITV going into a coma was major news:

Daily Mirror, Wednesday 8th August 1979 – Front Page

ALL ITV programmes could be blacked out by the weekend. […] Singer Andy Williams was turned away yesterday when he went to ATV’s Elstree studios to appear on the Muppet Show. Thames say they may have to scrap the latest series of comedian Tom O’Connor’s London Night Out.
And Yorkshire have had to postpone recording the next Sandbaggers secret service series and Derek Nimmo’s Life Begins at Forty. Harlech stopped transmitting last night when The TV technicians started nationwide guerilla action after they were offered a 20 per cent rise in reply to their demand for 25 per cent.
Tempers frayed when workers were suspended for refusing to work overtime and others walked out in protest.
A spokesman for ACTT, the largest union involved in the dispute, said they had offered to go to arbitration, but ITV had turned them down.

Note the early version of the apology caption in the corner of the article, snapped by the Mirror off a telly – “We are sorry to tell you that there will be no further programmes on this channel today. We will give you more information tomorrow.” And because I’m that sort of person, I tried to recreate it in a teletext editor.

From page 16 of the same edition of the Mirror, we see what was meant to be broadcast on Thames that day, instead of the blue caption – note the oddly hopeful statement indicating “Industrial action may affect ITV programmes”. Bit of an understatement, that…

The Daily Express, front page, 8th August 1979 – includes details on the failed HTV news broadcast. Meanwhile, the first person to appear on Crossroads has died. Babylon (70s ITV) is burning!

From the TV listings of the same edition of The Express. This is what may have been shown on these ITV regions as it slipped over the edge, allowing for all sorts of random things to be replaced with blue screens…

Of special note is the fact that Sophia Loren might have been on at 10:35 in the morning in Anglia. Not a show of any kind, just Sophia Loren, on her own? I mean, obviously not – it must have been a brief documentary about her or something – but the idea of her just popping up and reading out kid’s birthdays (right in the middle of the usual summer morning kid’s programmes) is too amusing to ignore.

Imagine if she linked into Runaround at the end, and then apologised when it didn’t appear. Imagine Sophia Loren talking about “striking members of the ACTT”.

Skipping ahead to Saturday 11th August, the Daily Mirror confirms the nationwide blackout. At this point there’s still some vague hope (outside of the actual industry, perhaps) that it might be sorted out within the next week.

Unfortunately the recent developments have revealed how far ahead the Mirror’s TV coverage is written. “Britain’s Strongest Man” is “wacky”?

“But you’ve got to search hard for anything worthwhile.” The IBA Engineering Announcements are worth a look, Mirror TV Critic Bloke!

And here we have a section of the front page of the Express that same Saturday. Pretty much the same thing as before with no further new information – but check out that side article! RABIES IS HERE! RABIES MEANS DEATH! And then the actual article casually reveals that it was all a false alarm. Classic Express. The twats.

That edition’s TV listings are also caught on the hop. The now-familiar disclaimer looks absurdly optimistic.

Sadly, it seems that we’ll never find out what the bloody hell “BONKERS with Cleo Laine” was all about. The mind boggles at what that might have entailed. “Jazz ‘n’ jewellery, jazz ‘n’ jewellery…“

The following Monday’s Daily Mirror (13th August 1979) now has a slightly more realistic disclaimer: “ITV programmes are published in case there is a settlement of the industrial action which has stopped broadcasts.”

No Jamie And The Magic Torch today. Or “Sidekicks”, whatever that was – it seems to have been considered important enough to print in capitals.

But what was going on over in Jersey?

Are you ready for a through analysis of Channel Televison’s listings, covering the late summer and early autumn of 1979? Well, you’d better be, or else the Major will have some stern words to say to you upon your next visit to Benest’s of Milbrook (and FINE PRICE! ST. CLEMENT’S CLOSE ROAD).

As you might have guessed, upon the first Monday after the strike began all the national newspapers haven’t yet adjusted to whatever the new schedules of ITV’s only station were. This is what the Daily Mirror lists on that date:

Lucas Tanner probably went out as usual, but would have probably been joined by a couple of other films and inported ITC shows. By Tuesday, the various TV newspaper listings are being adjusted to acommodate the strike action.

The Mirror only prints the London and Midland ITV listings in the vain hope of everyone having a meeting and sorting everything out, along with the still inaccurate Channel listings.

By August 17th it’s pretty clear that this state of affairs isn’t being resolved any time soon, although the papers are still printing what would have been on normally in London and the Midlands. However, they do seem to be printing Channel’s actual line up now. From the Mirror on this day:

The giveaway being that you can see their local news has been extended to a full hour – which apparently included a brief rundown of national / international news. This is said to have involved someone driving to the northernmost part of the islands, switching the car radio to Radio 4, hurriedly scribbling down everything that was said, and then racing back to the studios to re-write it into a script.

In the same edition and on the same page, mention is made of the choice every viewer has at this point – watch the two BBC channels, or nothing at all. Everybody naturally goes for the former.

Despite the very 70s / 80s complaint of TOO MANY REPEATS COME ON BBC, this article makes no mention of the fact that one of them is Spike Milligan’s Q (Q7, to be precise). Despite Spike himself being pictured right above this column, the writer goes on at length about Des O’Connor Tonight, which was on BBC1 at that point before the eventual move to Thames.

Admittedly this would be because it’s only being repeated in the London area. The reason being this.

On Saturday 18 August, the Daily Mirror has a weird spell of desperate, screaming denial by printing a full range of ITV programmes that are not being broadcast. That’s because they’d already set the pages out beforehand and had to print them, but I like the idea of everyone at a newspaper office going insane from no BJ And The Bear.

However, the same edition does have this interesting little nugget of info in a corner of the page:

Your TV Top Ten

With all areas except Channel hit by the ITV dispute BBC-1 had the top ten to itself in the week ended August 12. Here are the JICTAR ratings:

1 Seaside Special
2 Des O’Connor Tonight
3 To Catch a Thief
4 Sword of Justice
5 It Ain’t Half Hot Mum
6 The Hunchback of Notre Dame
7 Return to Paradise
8 Star Trek
9 The Golden Fiddle Awards
10 Juke Box Jury

This is a bit of a diversion, but here’s what the less recognisable bits of that Top 10 might be. “To Catch A Thief” was most likely the Alfred Hitchcock film from 1955. “Sword Of Justice” was a Glen A. Larson show imported from the States, about “the weekly adventures of wealthy playboy soldier-of-fortune Jack Cole“.

Meanwhile, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” is again very probably an old movie version, perhaps the 1939 one with Charles Laughton – there was another from 1923 starring Lon Chaney, but as that was a silent film it’s less likely.

“Return To Paradise” was possibly yet another old movie, this time a Gary Cooper vehicle from 1953 (“An American drifter comes to a remote Polynesian island controlled by a Puritanical missionary and turns the social life of the island upside-down“).

Finally, precisely what “The Golden Fiddle Awards” was is unclear, although a quick search for it does turn up a Daily Record-sponsored compilation LP released the same year, featuring “the 250 players of the Golden Fiddle Orchestra and the 150 singers of the Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus“. Okay then!

Monday 20 August 1979 seems to have been the date where the newspapers were able to fully adjust their page layouts to fit the situation, finally dropping the intended ITV schedules and just printing Channel’s. This is from the Mirror on 22nd August:

The pictured movie at 8.25, “Seven Ways From Sundown”, clearly stars one Venetia Stevenson. According to The Movie Database, this is a Western about the following: “A Texas Ranger must capture an outlaw and take him-in, while tangling with savage Apaches and greedy bounty-hunters on the way back to jail“. So, standard cowboy shite.

And if you’re wondering what in the Christ “Kum Kum” is, it’s a Japanese anime that was also shown in some other ITV regions (not at this time, obviously) – HTV also ran it in the late 70s and very early 80s.

…But why isn’t Coronation Street on in Guernsey?

Finally, a quick look at the average viewer’s odd conception of what Channel TV was broadcasting at this point. Including, it would seem, a tabloid newspaper journalist.

MISSING “Crossroads”? Desperate for Ena? Longing to see Reggie and Anna again?

I was — and then I remembered the Channel[.]

So I packed a toothbrush and headed for Jersey which boasts the only ITV company still operating during the strike.

As I arrived, the sun was simmering the sea and blistering the bodies out in front of the hotel. But there was no time for all that.

My fingers trembled as pushed the “on” button.

Saturday afternoon – my first dose of “World of Sport” for weeks. Who would be on, I wondered, as the set warmed to life.

It was the test card – Channel doesn’t start broadcasting till 5 o’clock.

I dunked my disappointment in a cup of tea and settled down to wait – and watched cricket – on the Beeb.

It was the sort of Indian summer I hadn’t planned. But come seven o’clock it would be a whole new ball-game. “The Bionic Woman” would be on. It said so in the local paper.

Sure enough, there she was. My little electronic lovely doing battle with the baddies of darkest Africa. As I watched her triumphing over evil, I relaxed like a junkie after his first fix.

So this was what ITV was like. The memories flooded back.

The rest of the article features a lot of random tourists saying how they only miss the racing, or how they’re more interested in the Michael Caine film being shown on BBC1, or how they didn’t realise ITV was still going over here. It’s quite a contrast to how local viewers are said to have praised this new version of the service.

And then there’s a quote from Roy and Mary Smith, a couple who went on holiday specifically to the Channel Islands just to watch ITV. According to Mary:

I booked our holiday thinking we could see all our telly favourites. I expected to watch “Coronation Street” and “Crossroads” when I got here. Instead all I’ve found is old American films. It’s such a disappointment.

A rather more serious quote comes from Ken Killip, Channel’s managing director:

Our local advertising has increased since the start of the dispute, but because we have a marketing arrangement with Westward, our national advertising has died. There’s no doubt that if the strike goes on for much longer we would be in serious trouble.

NEXT TIME: Finally! We’re welcomed, welcomed, welcomed home...

December 14, 2024
Newspapers Getting Basic Facts Wrong, part 35252 in an indefinite series

From The Metro, 3rd November 2022:

Exciting news for Monty Python fans, as the comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus is coming back to TV.

There’s sure to be innuendos galore as the episodes return to UK terrestrial television for the first time in 35 years.

That’s TV — which broadcasts on Freeview, Sky and Freesat — has acquired the exclusive network television rights to all four seasons of the famous comedy.

The episodes will air every weeknight at 9pm from March 14, and will be uncut.

The series premiered on BBC in 1969 and originally ran until 1974.

BBC last repeated the series back in 1988, so news of its return will surely be music to many people’s ears!

Burton Daily Mail (Staffordshire), Thursday 30th November 1989:

Old fans of Monty Python and new friends of Michael Palin will welcome BBC2’s repeat showing from tonight of the first series of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (9pm).

[…] Now a cult programme worldwide, British fans can at last begin catching up again with early episodes tonight featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and, as a special treat, the funniest joke in the world.

Long Eaton Advertiser, “Weekly TV Post” section, Friday 14 July 1995:

9.00 Rab C Nesbitt
9.30 The All-New Alexei Sayle Show 2
10.00 Monty Python’s Flying Circus
10.30 Newsnight

TLDR; Python was repeated on UK terrestrial television until, at the very least, the year that the Sony Playstation was launched in the West. That’s not counting the occasional brief runs of selected episodes on BBC2, let alone the repeats on cable / satellite channels in the 2000s, such as those on the Paramount Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central UK).

It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again. If you can’t get a basic fact like that right, despite the facilities that are presumably available to you as someone working for a major newspaper, what does that say about everything else you print?

December 13, 2024
The Great Big Utterly Massive 1979 ITV Strike Datablast – Part 1
The 1979 ITV strike was the biggest and most notorious spell of industrial action that the network had ever seen (and would ever see). Over the course of this three part series of posts, I’ll be gathering as much information as I can about the strike, and trying my best to uncover the actual facts obscured by the over-familiar tales of the time.

The blue screen of death…
a timeline of events from initial trouble to complete shutdown

May 1979
- The unions begin their negotiations with the various ITV companies for pay during the forthcoming 1979-80 period. The ACTT – one of the main unions within ITV – ask for a 25 per cent pay increase, claiming that the profits of the ITV companies had been going up faster than staff earnings.
- ITV offers a rise of around 9 per cent for all staff. The ACTT reject the offer.
30th June 1979
- The existing pay agreement for 1978-79 runs out. There has been no further development over ITV’s offer.
17th July 1979
- The ACTT votes in favour of major industrial action, with the option of a full-on strike.
18th July 1979
- EETPU, the electricians’ union, threaten a one-day strike to occur the following Monday. This is a major problem as these workers are responsible for actually ensuring the stations have electricity to broadcast with. When asked, Granada admit that they might not even be able to transmit so much as a caption from their studios apologising for the lack of service.
- NATTKE, the union for scenery movers and prop handers (as well as switchboard operators), announce they are going work-to-rule from the same date. This would affect production on various pre-recorded shows such as dramas, comedies, and so on.
Monday 23rd July 1979
- The EETPU one-day strike goes ahead. ITV is completely off the air for the whole of Monday. [CORRECTION!… Turns out that’s not quite right. Most of ITV was completely off the air that day, with the exceptions of Westward, and by extension Channel. Westward’s NATTKE members opted not to go ahead with this round of action, and that station was able to “put out a limited service with considerable changes to the advertised programmes”. Source: The Stage, “Television Today” section, 26th July 1979.]
Friday 27th July 1979
- Negotations between the ITV companies and EETPU and NATTKE resume. ITV raises their offer to a 15% pay rise, plus 5% fringe benefits. EETPU and NATTKE recommend their members to accept the offer.
- LWT only manage to transmit for about an hour (after taking over from Thames at 7pm as usual). They go off the air at 8pm, and remain off for the rest of the evening.
Monday 30th July 1979
- The ITV companies make an equivalent offer to the ACTT, after what was given to the EETPU and NATTKE.
Friday 3rd August 1979
- The memberships of the EETPU and NATTKE go against the recommendation to accept the offer, and choose to continue industrial action.
Monday 6th August 1979
- This is the point where everything really starts to go wrong: Southern Television are the first off air, going silent at around 6pm. (I have read somewhere on the internet that the announcer present at the time, Christopher Robbie, signed off in a slightly cryptic manner: “We’re going to leave you for a while now. Please don’t go away…” Annoyingly I haven’t been able to confirm that.)
- Thames follow during News At Ten, at 10:07pm. Halfway through the first half of the bulletin, technicians simply turn the power off. When the management switches everything back on again, everyone walks out.
- HTV don’t quite fall off the air, but are only allowed to finish News At Ten and the night’s programming via “restricted output” – in other words, workers allowed the management to continue operating the station themselves, but the engineers had withdrawn their labour.
- Ulster Television possibly went off-air this night, but the contemporary reports are vague as to the actual day.
Tuesday 7th August 1979
- Southern’s workers give the station a brief respite, and they resume broadcasting at 7pm.
- ITN’s news service is blacked out just before an edition of News At One, which was to be presented by Anna Ford. No further national news broadcasts would occur for the rest of the strike.
- The ACTT ask the ITV companies to take their present pay dispute to arbitration. ITV refuses.
- Workers at HTV decide to stage their own unauthorised local news bulletin, to be broadcast without management approval, presumably in place of News At 5:45. The bulletin was to be broadcast from tables set up in the HTV car park rather than the studios. Rather bizarrely considering everything that’s going on, ITN actually send a film crew to record the HTV staff’s rehearsals. HTV’s management respond to all this by phoning up the IBA in a panic and asking their own station to be disconnected from the transmitters. They promptly go silent.
- Ulster is definitely off air after this date.
Wednesday 8th August 1979
- ATV’s local production of programmes stops completely, but service remains, albeit with the now-increasing disruption to the schedules also seen in other regions.
Thursday 9th August 1979
- Grampian go off the air.
- The companies that can more or less be confirmed as still broadcasting to mainland UK by this point are Scottish Television, ATV, Southern, Westward, and Yorkshire. Granada are possibly still about, as well as Border.
- The Association of Independent Television Companies – representing the ITV managment – make a final demand that unless the unions lift their overtime ban, all 15 regional companies will stop broadcasting by next Wednesday.
Friday 10th August 1979
- As a result of the aformentioned demand from the ITV management, the ACTT calls out all ITV members who had not already been suspended to go on strike for the next 24 hours. The strike is to begin at 6pm. Other unions don’t officially go on strike for another week or so, but this means that the attempts to keep ITV on the air are now effectively over, bar the shouting (between management and shop stewards in the transmission galleries).
- As that fateful day’s service begins, the management of the remaining stations are still demanding transmission staff to take programming from what remains of the network. Everyone involved refuses to take any network feeds, or transmit anything to the other companies.
- Yorkshire is supposed to broadcast a movie (“Operation Crossbow”, 1965) to both their own region and the network. The film doesn’t appear.
- Someone at Anglia apparently decides to substitute one scheduled programme from ATV (most likely The Feathered Serpent, intended for 4:20pm) with a locally sourced copy of a different ATV programme – possibly an episode of the Leonard Rossiter sitcom The Losers. As with HTV, this prompts Anglia’s management to ask the IBA to disconnect the station from their transmitters.
- ITV slowly falls completely off the air. An incredibly erratic service – if it can be called that – continues in some regions until the early evening. Going by descriptions of Scottish’s output (see Tony Currie’s memories below), the only things transmitted are entire ad breaks with no surrounding programming, interspersed with white-on-blue IBA captions and the occasional announcer popping up to apologise that no actual shows were going out. This absurd state of affairs continues until 6pm, at which point the strike is official and everyone’s out…
- …Except for EETPU and NATTKE members, who will continue to show up for work for another week or so despite ITV having ground to a halt. Eventually they are locked out by the end of August.
- Naturally, LWT fails to start up in London at 7pm. The weekend will have to start somewhere else for the next 11 weeks.
- But in St. Helier, broadcasting continues with what is now the only ITV region – and it’ll remain that way until October. Shortly before everything goes kablooey, a van is dispatched to England to get as many film reels of random movies and ITC serials as they can bring back. This precious cargo is the main thing that will sustain Channel until late autumn.
The above is hopefully as complete and accurate as possible – if any further info comes along, amendements will be made. This was put together with the help of various pages at Transdiffusion, archived pages from the Mausoleum Club forum on archive.org, and this wiki: https://wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/1979_ITV_strike

IBA Engineering Announcements
for absolutely anyone who’s still watching

One interesting detail is that the IBA Engineering Announcements continued to be broadcast as normal, and were the only regular form of programming on the national network during the strike. (The IBA refused to get sucked into any of the unfolding chaos, not wanting to upset their fairly decent relationship with all the unions concerned.) Here’s an example of an edition from 1977, which is the oldest surviving one:

On top of that, during the 7th September a unique network-wide test of various internal test patterns and cards were broadcast during daytime hours to make sure everything was still in working order, so that the viewers could eventually be Welcome Welcome Welcomed Home. The following is from a letter by Paul Gardiner of the IBA Engineering Information Service, which was written to someone who can only be identified online as, er, “pm5544”:

The special test signals that you saw were originated in London and fed to the entire ITV network – the purpose was to check the correct operation of the network by measuring various technical parameters at different places including Post Office Network Switching Centres, and various transmitting stations. Various tests are regularly carried out over parts of the distribution network (these signals are not normally radiated by transmitters), but there was a unique opportunity to carry out tests throughout the entire network during normal working hours.

The regular apology caption is said to have recieved regular audiences of up to 1 million – this is possibly down to the tapes of classical music that the IBA played out over the slide, as well as people leaving it on in the hope Crossroads would suddenly appear. Here’s Paul Gardiner again, from early September 1979.

Two pieces of music were played until about a week ago [the end of August]: Beethoven Piano Concerto No 3, and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1. These have subsequently been replaced with a tape consisting of Brahms Symphony No 2 (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), Mahler Symphony No 4 (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), and ‘New Year’s Day Concert in Vienna’ (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

And in the Yorkshire region, the regular caption was replaced for a while with a police message asking the public for any information on the Yorkshire Ripper, who was still at large at the time.

A continuity announcer’s lot is not always a happy one

Here’s the an account of the Backroom Boys™ drama that unfolded that Friday in STV, from an announcer working at that station at the time – Tony Currie.

On the day the strike spread to the whole country I was duty announcer at STV, and at 2pm we were due to transmit a feature film that was networked to us from Yorkshire TV. I was told to introduce the film, but not what to do if it failed to run. About ten minutes to go and the senior management of STV were in Master Control arguing loudly with the Transmission Controller and the ACTT Shop Steward. At one point the Director of Programmes and Transmission Controller were arguing about what I was supposed to say. Over talkback, I said “Gentlemen – you will know what I’ve said when you’ve heard me say it on air!”

The film was ‘laced up’ in YTV’s telecine so we could see six in the gate on the preview monitor. (It took five seconds for a film to get up to speed so the film would be set up with the leader showing the number SIX. When it rolled the film leader would count down to 4 then go to black for the final couple of seconds before starting) I knew that if the film stayed on the SIX then we weren’t getting it, and the Union had ‘blacked’ any local substitute which meant we would have to go off the air.

Ignoring the standoff in the control room (where it was very tense indeed) I introduced the film. Nothing happened. So I said “Well,I’m afraid that due to an industrial dispute we’re unable to bring you the film. it’s a lovely sunny day outside so I suggest you go and enjoy it now and we’ll be back with you at 5.15 for “Crossroads”!”

We faded to black and everybody marched out. Black Hill [the main IBA transmitting facility for STV] took control and put out the apology caption and music. Later the crew came back to go through the whole pantomime again. Black Hill switched back to Cowcaddens [the STV studios] for a commercial break, my colleague Pauline Muirhead introduced “Crossroads” (which of course failed to run) and then we let Black Hill show the caption for half an hour. Then back to STV for another commercial break and Pauline apologised for the absence of “News at 5.45” and we were off the air for 12 weeks.

(Excerpted from this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20090813101652/http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forums/topic29807/page2)

NEXT TIME: The press reacts, Jersey goes into overdrive, and a famous movie star makes a surprise appearance.

(This page was updated with a correction on Saturday 1st February 2025.)
December 3, 2024
The Strange Case Of The Attempted Arson Attack At Thames Television, 1970

Image from https://thames.today, a website from transdiffusion.org

Some years ago I found the following article on the website of The Camden New Journal, a local London newspaper. What I read struck me as both haunting and unsettling – it describes a disturbing attack carried out by a troubled woman, suffering an unexplained trauma that almost led to calamity.

The original page this was on seems to no longer exist, so here it is back on the internet again. The most notable parts have been marked in bold by me.

BROADCASTER Sir David Frost was targeted in a crude plan to blow up television studios in King’s Cross, the New Journal can reveal.

In an unsophisticated but potentially deadly attack, an out-of-work advertising model hoped to leave the old Thames Television House in Euston Road in flames.

Details of the bizarre plot have remained secret for 35 years but due to Freedom of Information rules the police files surrounding the incident are no longer under wraps and have been unlocked by the National Records Office.

They include descriptions of how bungling arsonist Patricia Drew, then 25, walked into the former television company’s headquarters – once regarded as a state-of-the-art complex of studios
and plush offices for executives – with a shopping bag stuffed full of do-it-yourself bombs on April 27, 1970.

The police files say she had become fixated with Sir David – one of the UK’s most popular presenters who boasts an impressive track record of scoring landmark interviews – and fellow chat show king Eamonn Andrews.

It is not thought, however, that either broadcaster knew at the time that they were at the centre of Ms Drew’s petrol bomb designs.

On the afternoon of the attack, receptionists and security staff at Thames were left shaken when she threw a burning milk bottle doused in petrol at a man at the front desk.

One building manager had to duck suddenly to avoid being hit. Witness John Shea, the centre’s commissioner, said: “I heard a bang as it hit the wall. When the bomb hit the wall it was about three yards away from me.”

Flames engulfed carpets and a wall decorated with a leather-style fabric but the blaze was controlled before any injuries were sustained. Staff at Thames later said Ms Drew had been seen in the building’s
corridors and loitering near the props room.

She was arrested on the same day at a council flat in Copenhagen Street, Islington.

The once-secret police files sent to prosecutors building the case against Ms Drew, who months later was convicted of arson, confirm Sir David was her main target.

Ms Drew, who prison medics believed suffered from mental illness developed over two years, told police she thought killing Sir David and his colleagues would break a “wicked experiment” in which media bosses had tried to hypnotise her through her television set.

She said that things that happened to her would be broadcast in mesmerising nightly bulletins.

Detective Inspector John Harris later said in his report: “She (Ms Drew) formed the intention of blowing up Thames Television House and all the people in it, with David Frost as the main target. I should mention that she has never met David Frost but seems to have a fixation that he is involved… There is little doubt that she will eventually plead guilty to causing the fire. It should be made clear, however, that apart from this one fixation about television and television personalities she is otherwise normal.”

Ms Drew made a statement to police but changed her mind about signing it, leaving a half-written account in the investigator’s papers.

She said: “About two years ago I made an advertisement for Whitbreads Beers. After this I felt funny and when I had a drink I used to get very dizzy. I thought I was going mad and I went to hospital for a check-up but they said there was nothing wrong.” There are no police mugshots in the bundle of papers but witnesses to the petrol bomb strike described her as having a dyed blonde hair [sic] and pimple-marked face.

Her work for the beer company was to pose for a poster advert. In his own statement DI John Harris quotes Ms Drew extensively. He said: “Ms Drew said ‘I had to do something so I decided to blow up the studios and try to get David Frost and Eamonn Andrews. I saw (how to make a petrol bomb) on television. I’m afraid it didn’t work very well. I was disappointed when it just flared up and didn’t explode. I waited around to find somebody in authority and when I saw a man sitting on the desk talking on the telephone he looked like someone in authority so I threw it (petrol bomb) at him. He looked important so I wanted to kill him and light the place. (David Frost) wasn’t there so anyone in authority would do. I had to stop the experiment’.”

Attempts to trace Ms Drew, who this year [2005] would celebrate her 60th birthday, have failed, although it is known she flitted from job to job in her mid-20s, working in Holborn and Islington in a photography shop and betting office.

The incident is currently only recorded on one other place online, at the website of the National Archives: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11177456. The full document is not digitised – a booked trip to the archives at Kew would be required to read it:

Lord knows what happened to Ms Drew. Given that almost another twenty years have passed since the publication of the above article, I’m honestly not sure if she’s still alive. I do hope (despite the wretched quality of mental health care in the 70s, even compared to today) that she found some peace eventually, and got the help she clearly needed.

November 17, 2024
The increasingly silly Radio Times listings for Not The Nine O’Clock News

Originally published on my personal blog in October 2024.

This is an annotated copy-paste archiving of the original TV listings for Not The Nine O’Clock News, as harvested from the BBC Genome which in turn came from the Radio Times. The bulk of the listings were an example of something that happened a fair bit with British TV comedy back in the day, but which has now been stamped out due to “reasons”.

These were listings quite unlike the usual formula of a straightforward description of a programme, followed by a cast list. Below you’ll find examples for the show in question that were clearly put together by the people who actually made it (rather than the Radio Times staff), and these were used to put across the whole comedic feel of NTNOCN. Probably one of the earliest examples might be Python – a slightly later one would be The Young Ones, and I may try and collate the ones from the latter at some point.

All listings are for the original broadcasts. Be aware that the transcriptions on Genome may contain some mistakes and formatting errors, which have been corrected if spotted. Comments in bold are added by me. Please also note that there will be “material that is of its time”, and that I do not necessarily support all of the implied opinions in the quoted text…

Not the Nine O’Clock News
(“Pilot” episode)
First (intended) broadcast: Mon 2nd Apr 1979, 21:00 on BBC Two England
A new series of six topical comedy programmes with Rowan Atkinson, Chris Emmett, Christopher Godwin, John Gorman, Jonathan Hyde

This edition never went out. The announcement of the 1979 UK general election caused it to be pulled from the schedules, due to the BBC’s rules about comedy shows not being allowed to influence potential voters during a general election cycle. However, some sections from this ill-fated first try ended up being recycled for the following actual first series which began that autumn, with an almost completely different cast after a bit of a re-think…

Not The Nine O’Clock News
Series 1, Episode 1
First broadcast: Tue 16th Oct 1979, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The first of six topical comedy programmes, in which a team led by Rowan Atkinson, Chris Langham, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith offer unhinged interpretations of the world of news and current affairs.
Designer PAUL JOEL
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD and SEAN HARDIE
(Rowan Atkinson is in The Atkinson People, on Radio 3 Friday, 10.0 pm)

Not The Nine O’Clock News
Series 1, Episode 2
First broadcast: Tue 23rd Oct 1979, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The second of six topical comedy programmes, in which a team led by Rowan Atkinson, Chris Langham, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith offer unhinged interpretations of the world of news and current affairs.
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD and SEAN HARDIE
(Rowan Atkinson in The Atkinson People, Radio 3 on Friday, 10.0 pm)

Not The Nine O’Clock News
Series 1, Episode 3
First broadcast: Tue 30th Oct 1979, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The third of six topical comedy programmes, in which a team led by Rowan Atkinson, Chris Langham, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith offer unhinged interpretations of the world of news and current affairs.
Designer PAUL JOEL
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD and SEAN HARDIE
(Rowan Atkinson in The Atkinson People, Radio 3 on Friday, 10.0 pm)

…And I’ll interrupt things there, as the first series’ listings were very very straightforward. The rest of them followed the same basic pattern, with the plug for The Atkinson People dropped from the fourth one as the latter had finished airing. The remaining episodes went out on 6th November, 13th November, and 20th November 1979.

We pick up from what was effectively the Christmas special, which was a compilation of stuff from the first series...

Not the Least of Not the Nine O’Clock News
First broadcast: Fri 28th Dec 1979, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Highlights from the series, in which Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Chris Langham and Pamela Stephenson offer their own anarchic view of the State of the Nation. (The repetition of that last sentence is giving me flashbacks to each introductory bit of continuity in this…)

This was then followed by a repeat of that compilation in March, to precede the second series.

Not the Least of Not the Nine O’Clock News
First (repeat) broadcast: Tue 18th Mar 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
A last chance to see highlights from the first series, featuring Rowan Atkinson, Chris Langham, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson and Griff Rhys Jones
Producers JOHN LLOYD, SEAN HARDIE (A new series begins shortly)

And now, finally, we get to the actual meat of this article. From the second series onwards, actual humour creeps into the previously dry Radio Times listings.

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 2, Episode 1
First broadcast: Mon 31st Mar 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The return of the comedy programme that won more awards than other programmes that haven’t won any awards at all have won. Featuring Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD, SEAN HARDIE

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 2, Episode 2
First broadcast: Mon 7th Apr 1980, 21:10 on BBC Two England
by William Shakespeare
Highlights from the Prague Festival Theatre’s expensive and overrated production of Shakespeare’s most famous sit-com.
King of Burgundy: Rowan Atkinson
Welsh army: Mel Smith
Portia: Pamela Stephenson
Old Nimmo: Griff Rhys Jones
Designer MARHORIE PRATT (This should be “Marjorie” – not sure if this was a scanning error or a typo in the original listing)
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD , SEAN HARDIE

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 2, Episode 3
First broadcast: Mon 14th Apr 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
A situation comedy written by BOB DEASEY and MAURICE FOTE
Don’t Get Your Vicars in a Twist!
Trouble in store for the sofa when Ros has to explain away a misunderstanding with the milkman… with hilarious consequences!
Lovable young couple: Rowan Atkinson
Man from the gas board: Mel Smith
Girl on sofa: Pamela Stephenson
Pakistani: Griff Rhys Jones
Designer MARJORIE PRATT
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD, SEAN HARDIE

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 2, Episode 4
First broadcast: Mon 21st Apr 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
from the Opera House, Welwyn.
WOOMERA PHILHARMONIC conductor CANAAN BANANA
Haydn No 95 ‘Excruciatingly Dull’ Symphony
Laundromat Avocado Ma, Non Mobutu Nimmo Quartet for strings and relish tray
Soloists: Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones
Designer MARJORIE PRATT
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD, SEAN HARDIE

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 2, Episode 5
First broadcast: Mon 28th Apr 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Drama Today
‘Gulp’ by GAVIN TOAD
Set in a small Welsh weaving shed, ‘Gulp’ looks at the events leading up to the abdication of Edward VIII through the eyes of a professional footballer and a politician’s widow. Expensively directed by a member of the Socialist Workers Party.
Mrs Simpson: Rowan Atkinson
Lord Reith: Pamela Stephenson
Virginia Woolf: Mel Smith
Vet: Griff Rhys Jones
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD, SEAN HARDIE

(Nowadays I’d quite happily watch the above for real. People in 1980 didn’t know they were born)

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 2, Episode 6
First broadcast: Mon 5th May 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
(Mae’n naw o’r gloch!) live from Bangor
17: Os awn ni nawr fe fyddwn ni yng Nghaerdydd oriau cyn y gem…
Gyda Griff Rhys Jones, Rowan Atkinson Jones, Mel Smith Jones, Pamela Stephenson Jones
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK JONES
Producers JOHN LLOYD JONES, SEAN HARDIE JONES

(This is what the above says according to Google: “17: If we go now we will be in Cardiff hours before the game…” Also “Mae’n naw o’r gloch!” apparently means “It’s Nine o’clock!”.)

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 2, Episode 7
First broadcast: Mon 12th May 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The Death Lasers of Kzaarn
Huge evil squids threaten to destroy the universe, but the Doctor is trapped in the same concrete corridor as last week…
Zagglimorgx: Rowan Atkinson
Talking suitcase: Mel Smith
Mini-skirted alien: Pamela Stephenson
Fourth extra wearing hat with rubber tentacle on: Griff Rhys Jones

There then followed a small series of compilation episodes, lasting for three weeks.

The Bert of Not the Nine O’Clock News (Not a typo)
First broadcast: Tue 9th Sep 1980, 21:30 on BBC Two England
Some of the greatest hats (also not a typo) from the last series.
The Jewish-looking one: Rowan Atkinson
The fat one with split ends: Mel Smith
Sex interest: Pamela Stephenson
The other one: Griff Rhys-Jones

Twenty-Five Years of Not the Nine O’clock News
First broadcast: Tue 16th Sep 1980, 21:30 on BBC Two England
2: The Formative Years
More highlights from the first four per cent.
Trusty Old Ham: Rowan Atkinson
Man who saw Old Ham on bus: Mel Smith
Ancient Crone with face lift: Pamela Stephenson
Face in crowd: Griff Rhys Jones

Not the Lot of Not the Nine O’Clock News
First broadcast: Tue 23rd Sep 1980, 21:30 on BBC Two England
The last of the best of the last lot. A new lot is set for Oct with the old lot: Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson and Griff Rhys Jones
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD, SEAN HARDIE

Onto the third series…

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 3, Episode 1
First broadcast: Mon 27th Oct 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The first of eight programmes: The Banana of T’ai
Twenty years ago, the remote island of Santa Meej boasted one of the largest banana stocks in Brazil. Today only one is left.
Nympho with chocolate bar: Rowan Atkinson
Man in Land-Rover with binoculars: Mel Smith
HRH The Prince Philip: Pamela Stephenson
Thane of Fyffe: Griff Rhys Jones
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD and SEAN HARDIE

(Title written in Korean)
Series 3, Episode 2
First broadcast: Mon 3rd Nov 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
BBC2 North Korean Cinema Season
Not the Nine O’Clock News
Perhaps Ng Mnong’s least seminal work, which tells the story of two Korean orphans whose adventures with a water lily and a duck (symbolising the bicycle and the vacuum flask) become tragically entangled in the ideological panic of the Great Step Sideways.
“Recommended…” (Sheridan Morley)
Ho Vis: Rowan Atkinson
Eg Nog: Mel Smith
Frank Chapple: Griff Rhys Jones
Hydroelectric dam: Pamela Stephenson

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 3, Episode 3
First broadcast: Mon 10th Nov 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The third of eight programmes
Gosh, that’s amazing!! Weekly look at relevant and unusable technological gimmickry, packaged together to look like a building society commercial.
Laser device for opening Long Life milk cartons: Rowan Atkinson
Man who keeps pointing at things with his ballpoint pen: Mel Smith
Plastic greenhouse: Pamela Stephenson
Carpet salesman: Griff Rhys Jones
Designer COLIN LOWRY
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD and SEAN HARDIE

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 3, Episode 4
First broadcast: Mon 17th Nov 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The fourth of eight programmes
The Mysterious Television Programme of Arthur C. Clarke
Venezuelan geologist: Rowan Atkinson
Intergalactic foetus: Griff Rhys Jones
Dishonest amateur photographer: Mel Smith
Former head of programmes, Yorkshire Television: Pamela Stephenson
Designer COLIN LOWREY
Director BILL WILSON
Producers SEAN HARDIE and JOHN LLOYD
(At the end of this listing is a plug for the then-forthcoming vinyl release and accompanying book:)
Record (REB 400) and cassette (ZCR 400), from record shops. Book (same title), £1.95, from bookshops, from 27 November

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 3, Episode 5
First broadcast: Mon 24th Nov 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The fifth of eight programmes
Special collectors’ edition made to commemorate HRH Prince Charles’ 32nd consecutive winter holiday in Australia. Hand-tinted by Rowan Atkinson, Griff Rhys Jones, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith.
(Contains jokes of more than one country of origin)

Not the Nine O’Clock News Surplus Sale
Series 3, Episode 6
First broadcast: Mon 1st Dec 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The sixth of eight programmes
Ex-SAS Coat Hanger Car Aerial, ££2.95. Genuine ex-Traffic Warden No Parking Cones, £4.67. Phoney TV-cum-contact lenses, £56.80. Wide selection reconditioned Rowan Atkinsons, Mel Smiths, Griff Rhys Joneses, Pamela Stephensons to be sold as seen.

(This listing was hidden on BBC Genome under an “offensive language” warning, because whatever automated system that was in place couldn’t understand the context in which “cum” was being used…)

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 3, Episode 7
First broadcast: Mon 8th Dec 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The seventh of eight programmes
Special anniversary edition!
Many happy returns of the day to Lord Diplock, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (73), Mr Maurice Green, former editor Daily Telegraph (74), and the Declaration of War on Japan (39) from Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones.
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK
Director BILL WILSON
Producers SEAN HARDIE, JOHN LLOYD

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 3, Episode 8
First broadcast: Mon 15th Dec 1980, 21:00 on BBC Two England
The last of eight programmes
Twenty-first and final edition with Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, Rowan Atkinson
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD and SEAN HARDIE

(No jokes here – possibly a degree of exhaustion had set in by the end of this series, although it seems more likely that John Lennon’s murder a week prior may have caused a brief retreat from thinking up silly listings. Reportedly the entire team spent the first day of production on the final episode too depressed to write anything.

Also… the claim that this is the “final edition” is rather curious. Were they thinking of knocking it on the head after three series?)

In 1981 the programme took an extended break off TV screens, with the gap filled with various things: a live show, a radio special covering the Royal Wedding, more books and more records. In Autumn 1981, another selection of compilations followed.

Not Another Not the Nine O’Clock News
First broadcast: Fri 9th Oct 1981, 21:00 on BBC Two England
First of three of bits of the best of the last three series shoved together in a different order.
Featuring
Rowan Atkinson, Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson
Director BILL WILSON
Producers SEAN HARDIE , JOHN LLOYD
Not the Nine O’Clock News (record RES 421. cassette ZCF 421) from retailers

An Eighth Chance to See Not the Nine O’Clock News
First broadcast: Fri 16th Oct 1981, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Another chance to bone up on the bits you don’t quite know by heart yet from the previous three series. With Rowan Thingy, Pamela Whatsit, Mel Errrm and Griff Rhys Jones
Director BILL WILSON
Producers JOHN LLOYD , SEAN HARDIE

Last of the Summer Repeats
First broadcast: Fri 23rd Oct 1981, 21:00 on BBC Two England
26: Not the Nine O’Clock News
The inimitable four old codgers take another turn down memory lane.
Mulch: Rowan Atkinson
Nimmo: Mel Smith
Cheesy: Griff Rhys Jones
Humpo: Pamela Stephenson

And now the final fourth series in 1982! Things start in a slightly more subtle manner than usual, and then once again go completely off the rails.

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 4, Episode 1
First broadcast: Mon 1st Feb 1982, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Due to lack of space in this edition of Radio Times, there is, regrettably, no room to give details about the above programme in the allotted amount of area available, due to the shortage of allottable pagery, except to say that the usual allocation is larger than this.
Featuring Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones, Rowan Atkinson

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 4, Episode 2…

(…and here we hit a snag, in that I can’t find the listing for the second episode. There doesn’t seem to have been any strike action that stopped that week’s Radio Times going out, or anything along those lines – whatever the listing was, it’s has been omitted from Genome, and in its place is a basic write-up done for iPlayer. Anyway, for the sake of completion, episode 2 was broadcast Monday 8th February 1982, at the standard time of 9PM on BBC2, and it was the one with the Game For A Laugh parody. Now let’s just skip over to the third one…)

Ni He Seo An Nuacht Ag A Naoi A Chlog (That’s “Not the Nine O’Clock News” in the Irish language)
First broadcast: Mon 15th Feb 1982, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Series 4, Episode 3
Irish General Election Special with subtitles
Ruadhn Mac Aidicin (Rowan Atkinson), Mel Mac Gabhann (Mel Smith), Pamela Nic Stiofain (Pamela Stephenson), Griff Rhys Mac Seion (Griff Rhys Jones)
A roisin Phil (Posy),
Ta suil agam go bhfuil tu slan. Mo bhron nach raibh me in ann scriobh chugat ach bhi an iomarca oibre Ie deanamh agam anseo sa Radio Times – se sin i roinn na coitchirte. Mile buiochas le haghaidh na stocai. Tabhair focail do Sinead ar mo shon-se.
Mise le meas, Sean.

(A Google translation of the above: “Dear Phil (Posy), I know you are. I felt like I couldn’t write to you but I had too much work to do here in the Radio Times – that’s in the commons department. A thousand thanks for the stocks. Give Sinead words on my behalf. Yours sincerely, Sean.”)

Not the Nine O’Clock News on Ice
Series 4, Episode 4
First broadcast: Mon 22nd Feb 1982, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Spectacular tedium for children from 1 ½ to 90, from the Schwarzwaldkirschentorteleizurcenter, Munchen Gladbach.
Introduced by JOHNNI STYLE with ARMAND AND MURIEL and the HEINRICH KNODL HARMONICA RASCALS
Robin Cousins: Pamela Stephenson
Gang of oovy(?) brigands: Rowan Atkinson
Huge chicken in skis: Griff Rhys Jones
Humorous cowpoke: Mel Smith
Designer DAVID HITCHCOCK
Director GEOFF POSNER
Producers JOHN LLOYD and SEAN HARDIE

To Let
Series 4, Episode 5
First broadcast: Mon 1st Mar 1982, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Convenient space, central BBC2 conservation area, adjacent BBC1 with handy rear access to Radio 1; would suit Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones or perhaps Pamela Stephenson; might convert into comedy programme like Not the Nine O’Clock News (subject to usual permissions).
Sole agents David Hitchcock (Designer), Geoff Posner (Director), Sean Hardie, John Lloyd (Producers)
Book, Not the Nine O’Clock News, £1.95 from booksellers

Not the Nine O’Clock News
Series 4, Episode 6
First broadcast: Mon 8th Mar 1982, 21:00 on BBC Two England
Dear Not the Nine O’Clock News, I would like to complain in the strongest possible terms about your treatment of………………… in the last programme ever. It was disgusting/ outrageous/rancid/not nearly long enough. I am not a prude/fat old codger/your mother, but this really takes the biscuit/mickey/last train to Clarksville. I shall not be watching again, yours sincerely ….
PS My favourite was Mel Smith/Griff Rhys Jones/Rowan Atkinson/Pamela Stephenson/Designer David Hitchcock/Director Geoff Posner/Producers Sean Hardie, John Lloyd (Delete/fill in as applicable)
Book (same title), £1.95 from booksellers

(In 1983 there was another short run of compilation episodes, to squeeze out some final repeats out of the series. Those listings aren’t really worth copy and pasting as they’re pretty straightforward. By this time everyone involved had gone their seperate ways, with some of the last output basically being John Lloyd and various writers putting out more books along the lines of those ones you kept seeing plugs for in the Radio Times listings. Which is a topic for another day, perhaps…)

November 12, 2024