Television South West

Television South West - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
7 South West Film and Television Archive. 8 UK Safety Group. 9 Programmes. 10 References ... Westcountry Television were the south-west region franchise winners ...
en.wikipedia.org

Television Radio Stores in Southwest Ranches, FL by YELLOWPAGES.COM
Find Television Radio Stores and other area businesses in Southwest Ranches, FL (Florida) using YELLOWPAGES.COM. Find local businesses and services by name and location.
www.yellowpages.com

Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: Permission denied in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 12

Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: No such file or directory in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 12

Warning: fopen(/home/templatecore2cache//*cluesnet.com/15/15305e5ff8c8caed019222474e1e0097b32f44c8.tc2cache) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 130

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 131

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 132

{{Infobox ITV franchisee| name = Television South West | image = ] | based = [Plymouth | area = [Devon
[Cornwall
South & West [Somerset
West [Dorset | owner = Self-owned | airdate = 1 January [ | oldlogo = | captionb = | closeddate = 31 December [ | replaced = [Westward Television | replacedby = [Westcountry Television | website = -->Television South West (TSW) was the ITV franchise holder for the South West England region from 1 January 1982 until 31 December 1992, broadcasting from the former Westward Television studios in Plymouth, Devon.

History On 28 December, 1980 Television South West were awarded the contract to serve the south-west of England from 1 January, 1982 for a ten-year period, succeeding incumbent Westward who had served the area since 1961.

TSW promised greater investment in the area including the introduction of Electronic News Gathering facilities at a number of sites in the region (a process already started by Westward) and a stronger emphasis on local programming (an area in which Westward were particularly successful).

However TSW's success in winning the contract may have been helped by boardroom friction within Westward which had blighted the company for several years and incured criticism from the Independent Broadcasting Authority. During negotiations to purchase Westward's facilities at Derry's Cross, Plymouth the management of TSW bought the whole company for £2.38million and thus went on-air four months early in August 1981, although they transmitted under the Westward name until the end of the year.

The studios, which had suffered from underinvestment, were completely refurbished with an additional studio being constructed, this programme being completed in 1984.

Programming Like their predecessor, TSW produced few programmes for the ITV network. Exceptions to this included the game show That's My Dog and children's cartoon Tube Mice, about mice who lived beneath the London Underground. They also produced The Cut Price Comedy Show, a short-lived production broadcast in the early days of Channel 4. The station continued using the Westward star Gus Honeybun, a rabbit puppet that (along with the TSW continuity announcers) read out birthday dedications on air to children from the area, who had sent in their cards to him. Gus was broadcast twice a day on weekdays (before & after Children's ITV), and usually once a day at weekends. The show was called Gus Honeybun's Magic Birthdays, and usually lasted about 2 or 3 minutes per episode. TSW used to sometimes opt-out of showing the first & last Children's ITV links of the day, so they could fit in Gus' birthday slot on weekday afternoons, although this gradually stopped by early 1990. Gus had a theme tune composed by legendary TV composer, Ed Welch & a short video was made to accompany it, featuring Gus & various TSW presenters walking around in Plymouth. A 7" single of the theme song was released in several local record shops. Other Gus merchandise available were cuddly toy puppets, keyrings and car stickers. One car sticker said "Watch Gus on TSW!" and had both his face & the TSW logo on it.

TSW specialised in making relatively highbrow programmes for their region; in the arts world, they had some big names who worked with them, including Moura Lympany, who was one of Britain's leading concert pianists at the time, potter Bernard Leach, and sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

TSW were one of the last ITV companies to start broadcasting 24-hours, which they did in September 1988. However, they were one of the first ITV companies to start broadcasting in Nicam Digital Stereo, which they started doing in summer 1990. Also in 1990, they made a quiz show called Sounds Like Music, which was presented by Bobby Crush, and was networked by ITV, becoming one of the few programmes TSW actually made for the ITV network.

Paradoxically TSW was seen as slightly more ambitious than its successor and its presentation, although still homelier than much seen on ITV and not dissimilar to that of Westward, was considered more professional than its forebear.

Scheduling foibles TSW were a notably regional company, declaring themselves as a channel in their own right, rather than just being part of the ITV network. They had a reputation for scheduling to suit their own requirements, and would often broadcast particular shows at different times to the other ITV regions or even opt out of network activity completely.

The Christmas Day Movie

Christmas Day 1982 saw TSW replace the main evening movie, The Black Hole, with a film of its own choice - The Inlaws starring Peter Falk (ref. The Times, November 8, 1982).

The Saturday Show

From its inception TSW broke new ground with its own dedicated regional children's Saturday morning series. Originally titled The Saturday Show, it was presented by local DJ Ian Calvert and (initially) teenager Joss Cook. When TSW began broadcasting The Saturday Show was broadcast alongside the final series of Tiswas. However, when Tiswas ended the rest of the network replaced it with their own series which they also called The Saturday Show and at this time, TSW opted exclusively to show its local series. Children's ITV presenters often had to explain at the end of Friday transmissions that South West viewers would not get the same programme as viewers elsewhere. After a period of overlap, TSW retitled its programme Freeze Frame to avoid confusion, but by 1986 TSW were taking the networked show Number 73.

Follyfoot

In March 1988, TSW controversially opted out of a repeat showing of the 1970s children's classic Follyfoot - which was being shown as part of the Sunday morning Children's ITV offerings - mid-run. While the other ITV regions continued to show this series, TSW moved its popular local gardening magazine, Gardens For All, into the slot. Pressure from viewers forced TSW to broadcast the outstanding Follyfoot episodes.

Children's ITV continuity

From 1987 until January 1990, on weekday afternoons, TSW used to often opt-out of showing the first & last Children's ITV (CITV) links of the day, so they could have some more air-time for Gus Honeybun's Magic Birthdays instead. Sometimes they would even go straight from the advert breaks into the next CITV programme rather abruptly. This got to be really annoying, as it meant that south-west viewers missed out on competitions, special guest interviews, programme trailers and general chat by the presenters. This all began sometime in 1987, when the presentation of CITV finally went 'live', instead of having the pre-recorded links that had been used before. However, the most upsetting CITV link to not be broadcast by TSW, was on 22nd December 1989, which was the then current presenter Jerry Foulkes' final day on CITV. His last link was to be at 5:08pm, straight after the final programme of the day, which was Knightmare. However, TSW went straight from the end credits into an advert break & then into Gus. This was a real shame as south-west viewers never got the chance to hear him say "Goodbye". However, in January 1990, after a request from the CITV committee, TSW stopped opting-out of any more links, only twice opting out early thereafter - on 20th December 1991 & once again on one day in August 1992. So from January 1990 onwards, Gus Honeybun's programme was slightly reduced in length each day, so that the CITV links could always be shown too.

One afternoon in February 1983, TSW opted out of the Children's ITV links entirely, the programmes being introduced in the normal fashion by Roger Shaw.

Home And Away

Perhaps most controversially, on Wednesday 20th September 1989, TSW moved the repeat showing of the popular Australian soap, Home And Away from its teatime slot of 5:10pm, to an earlier afternoon slot of 3:27pm. The show was shown at this precise time as TSW's daily birthdays slot, Gus Honeybun's Magic Birthdays, followed it at 3:57pm (before Children's ITV started at 4:00pm). It was moved slightly back to the earlier time of 3:23pm from September 1990 (when CITV started earlier at 3:55pm), with Gus Honeybun being shown at 3:53pm. The move of Home And Away was viewed as a very bizarre thing to do, seeing as the first showing of the show was at 12:30pm (later moved to 1:20pm in 1991), meaning the same episode was broadcast twice in three hours. Also, it meant a lot of the shows' teenage audience would still be in school when the repeat was shown. TSW argued the move was necessary to avoid having to schedule two quiz shows together, but as the years passed and programmes came and went their argument became increasingly non-existent.Contributor's letter published in North Devon Journal School's edition, edited by Bideford College, 1991 In September 1992, it was finally returned to a teatime slot of 6:30pm, for TSW's final three months on air. However, on Monday 4th January 1993, it was moved back to its original 5:10pm slot by Westcountry Television, who had replaced TSW three days earlier on 1st January 1993. It then stayed in this time-slot (5pm from 1999) until ITV lost the rights to the show in 2000. After moving Home And Away to an earlier time, TSW showed a number of other different programmes in the 5:10pm slot instead. These included the popular quiz show, Blockbusters (UK game show), Sportsmasters (a short-lived sports-related quiz show, which was hosted by Dickie Davies) & the UK/Australian soap opera, Families.

At one point in early 1992, TSW schedules were showing a distinct lack of investment and a heavy reliance upon acquired material. Various afternoons had five consecutive Australian imports from 1.20pm starting with Home and Away, A Country Practice, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors and then the Home and Away repeat.

Networked comedy

In 1990 TSW opted out of showing the comedy series The Piglet Files, starring Nicholas Lyndhurst, whilst every other region showed it. They did eventually broadcast it a while later though. Another networked comedy series, The Nineteenth Hole, starring Eric Sykes was pulled mid-run after viewers complained about its politically incorrect humour. Ironically, TSW filled the slot with compilations from the Carry On films. South West viewers denied the chance to see the entire series of Nineteenth Hole had to wait for a re-run on UK Gold almost ten years later.

The ITV Chart Show

In January 1989, the popular music show, The Chart Show was moved from its original home of Channel 4 to ITV & was shown at 11:30am on Saturday mornings by all ITV regions. It was renamed "The ITV Chart Show" in September 1989. Following this show each week at 12:30pm on TSW, was a local programme called The South-West Week, which was a review of the week's news for the deaf & hard of hearing. It was presented by Lawrie Quayle. However, occasionally when a networked event or special programme (such as a 'live' football match for example) was due to be shown at 12:30pm on all ITV regions, TSW opted-out of showing The Chart Show at 11:30am, so they could fit in The South-West Week instead. As this show was only half-an-hour long, they also used to show another random programme to fill up the hour time-slot, which on several occasions were some episodes of the original 1960s TV series of Batman (TV series), which starred Adam West.

Franchise loss On 16 October, 1991, following changes to the way ITV contracts were issued (now via a blind auction rather than a bid on merits and potential) it was announced that TSW had lost their franchise because of an 'unrealistic business plan' related to their bid, which was viewed by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) as being far too high. This triggered TSW to apply for a judicial review against the ITC, on the grounds that their bid had been unfairly dismissed. The case went right up to the House of Lords, but was rejected in February 1992. The implications of the court case did change the behaviour of the ITC into being more open with regards to its business.

Westcountry Television were the south-west region franchise winnners & took over from TSW at midnight on 1st January 1993. Westcountry chose not to purchase the studios of TSW, preferring new facilities just outside Plymouth, at Langage Science Park, Plympton. The old TSW studios were then stripped with the equipment being auctioned, and the building itself was converted into office space. Currently, a solicitors' practice use the premises, but the site (occupying prime building land in the heart of Plymouth) is earmarked for closure and scheduled for demolition and future redevelopment.

The End of TSW On 31 December 1992, TSW said goodbye with their final closedown in Derry's Cross Studiosin Plymouth. This final closedown - or rather, by this time, final message before the franchise changeover at midnight, for we were now into the era of 24-hour transmissions on ITV - is most notable for TSW’s asserting themselves in a continuum, as though there had been no franchise change 11 years earlier, as announcers Ian Stirling and Ruth Langsford spoke of “the last 31 years” (since 1961 when Westward began). This, in many ways, was quite true - after a brief assertion of its comparative youthfulness and modernity, TSW had become effectively “son of Westward”; when Westcountry took over at midnight on 1st January 1993, in-vision continuity disappeared, the Derry’s Cross building was abandoned in favour of the nondescript Langage Science Park, near Plympton, and Gus Honeybun was axed.

At 11:57 PM, after the final message, they went into a 3-minute news report calledInto The New Year from ITN (Now ITV News) which aired on all ITV regional stations except Television South which ended on 31 December 1992.( They were broadcasting a farewell programcalled Goodbye to All That at that time before Meridian Broadcasting began live via satellite from Winchester Cathedral. )Thames Television also ended on that night. The report ended with Big Ben's loud bells which was cut into an image of Big Ben ending an era of 32 years beginning Westcountry Television.

South West Film and Television Archive On losing their franchise, the directors of TSW decided to establish a public film and television archive, based around the back catalogue of Westward and TSW programmes they owned. They created the "TSW Film and Television Archive", one of the first and largest of what has now become a network of regional film archives. The archive is a charitable trust, existing to preserve the region's moving image heritage. It is open to the public and holds film and television recordings from a wide variety of sources, including donations from the general public. It is an invaluable source of rare footage reflecting the region's cultural heritage.

TSWFTA (renamed the SWFTA in 2003) holds the entire surviving back catalogue of Westward and TSW programmes, together with several tens of thousands of other items (which all have a connection to the south-west of England) donated by members of the general public. The SWFTA aims to preserve moving image material as a resource for future generations. With five staff, four of whom came from TSW, they regularly supply material for a wide variety of educational and other uses. They provide community film shows, and help anyone with an interest in using or viewing the material they hold.

UK Safety Group After the franchise loss, TSW undertook a reverse takeover with the White Ward Group, makers of safety footwear and associated articles. The name of the company was changed to UK Safety Ltd, and traded for a number of years, before entering administrative receivership.

Programmes

Today South West
TSW Today
TSW Newsport
Tube Mice
That's My Dog
Sounds Like Music

References

External links

SWFTA
Transdiffusion Ident
Recreation of TSW's clock Shockwave Flash required
Television South West at TV Ark

Television South West - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Television South West (TSW) was the ITV franchise holder for the South West England region from 1 January 1982 until 31 December 1992, broadcasting from the former Westward ...

South West Vintage Television Museum
This is www.tvmuseum.co.uk - The web site of the South West England Vintage Television Museum

south west england film archive
south west england film and television archive based in Plymouth. SOUTH WEST. FILM & TELEVISION ARCHIVE. The Official Film Archive for the South West of England

South West Film and Television Archive
The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is a registered charity dedicated to the finding, keeping and sharing of the region’s unique moving image heritage.

BFI | Film & TV Database | Television South West
Notes First transmission 12/8/1981 (took over franchise from Westward TV. Last transmission 1992/12/31 (franchise taken over by Westcountry TV).

TV ARK | ITV South West Index
TELEVISION SOUTH WEST - 01 January 1982 - 31 December 1992 ... This page has been written and presented by Simon Luxton. The information ...

Westward | Album | Ident
Plain sailing ... Westward Television Southwest England: 1961-1981 (Lost franchise) Plain sailing

Production Companies - Film & Television - Exeter - Westfilm Ltd ...
... companies - Corporate & Non Broadcast, Production Companies - Film & Television South West England UK ...

Production Companies - Film & Television (Wales & South West ...
Production Companies - Film & Television (Wales & South West) directory for the video broadcast film and television industry in UK and Ireland ...

Television jobs - Media UK
Television jobs ... Technical Assistant, BBC South West BBC, Plymouth Posted by hodes.co.uk | Views: 323 | Closes