Paul Lavers - Anglia Television continuity - 1989 - Prisoner

[@jackmeadows7777]

Screened at 23.20 on Monday 3 July 1989. Just behind Granada who played 153 on that night at 23.05 and Yorkshire who played 155 at 23.05. Central of course were over two seasons ahead with 334 at 23.35.

[@jezt42]

Thanks for the info. 👍🙂

[@pak8606]

Anglia had no episode on 17 July when YTV and Granada both aired episode 157 (YTV 23.05 and Granada 23.35). Anglia and YTV aired the same episode (160) on Monday 7 August 1989 and Anglia started before YTV who had a late start at 00.05, while Anglia started at 23.20

[@jackmeadows7777]

And I expect that Granada and YTV both had no idea at the time that they were showing the same episode. The same with YTV and Anglia. Grampian overtook STV on 19/08/1991 when Grampian had 259 at 22.40 and STV had it at 23.40.

[@pak8606]

@@jackmeadows7777 Quite possibly not. Grampian I'm pretty sure had 246 on 07/07/1991 at 23.05. Also, YTV and STV both aired episode 197 on 16/07/1990 at the same time, STV moved ahead when they had 198 on 20/07/1990.

[@jackmeadows7777]

The closest TVS came to YTV was when TVS reached 292 (as did Tyne Tees) at the end of 1992. TVS had very slowly been closing the gap between themselves and YTV since Oct 1985. Grampian and Border separately overtook YTV at the time of Vera’s promotion at Easter 1991.

[@pak8606]

I noticed the background went totally black when the Grundy logo appeared. Was this deliberate?

[@David315842]

Nice bit of continuity there, but sorry to say Paul that it wasn't the full version of the theme. LOL.

[@jackmeadows7777]

Poor Anglia viewers had months to wait for Kath Maxwell to end up in Wentworth. Even from her killing her baby it was over a month before she met the women in early 1995.

[@jackmeadows7777]

Meridian would have probably experienced the same had they not abandoned it. She could have been the first baby killer of the new millennium on Meridian.

[@pak8606]

Meridian, Channel, Carlton and Ulster wouldn't have seen Maxwell being introduced in episode 601. Anglia had 601 on 25/10/1994, she admitted to killing her child in ep 610 which I think was Anglia's first episode of 1995.

[@pak8606]

@@jackmeadows7777 😈

[@pak8606]

Were you a Maxwell fan?

[@jackmeadows7777]

And the dvd version of this episode has the alternate version of the instrumental music 🤔

[@madmurdock100]

The DVD version is the correct version of the theme tune for this particular episode

[@boldbeautifulau]

@@madmurdock100 correct, ITV were fading in the beginning of the music so that the end of the theme played out. They must have used a template of the vocal version.

[@pak8606]

@@madmurdock100 For much of the 100s and early 200s the odd numbered episodes had the instrumental version and the even numbered episodes had the vocal version of the theme tune. At least that's how I remember it on Channel 5.

[@brucedanton3669]

It was odd really with the old ITV system somehow. If you lived say in Lincolnshire I guess you would have picked up either Anglia, Central or Yorkshire as your ITV company at the time. Other areas of Britain of course also bordered on each other. I remember one time we went to Cumbria on the Lancashire borders. I thought the ITV area there would be Granada but in fact it was Border at the time. I guess it depended where the signal was from. Like parts of Yorkshire not having Yorkshire but Tyne Tees as their ITV area. I know this is not particularly anything to do with the Prisoner series as such, but you know what I mean really. Thank you of course!!

[@brucedanton3669]

And another time we went to Chester and seeing in the stores either the Radio Times or TV Times as either the joint BBC North West/ITV Granada version or the BBC Wales/ITV HTV Wales/S4C version at the time? Thank you!!

[@Salmagundiii]

I've only read of this TV show in passing. I've definitely never heard the theme song, it's amusing...like a 2nd rate ABBA tune!

[@jackmeadows7777]

Prisoner babies grew up even faster Paul a few miles west in Central-land and far slower up in Yorkshire where Judith-Anne was pregnant from 11/02/1985 until 03/11/1986!!

[@jezt42]

Hahaha! 👍😂

[@pak8606]

On TSW Judith-Anne was pregnant from September 1987 until October 1989.

[@jackmeadows7777]

YTV viewers must have been astounded when in November 1987 Dr Cuthbert told Christie her baby was born two months premature. She’d declared her pregnancy back in October 1986 so she was in fact at least four months late!!!!!!!!!!! 😂 Around this time Erica’s left arm was in a sling for much of 1987 April-November.

[@pak8606]

@@jackmeadows7777 Was it around ep 66 when Chrissie declared her pregnancy? TVS might have had a wait of around a year as Chrissie's pregnancy would have been declared around September 1987 there and episodes on YTV in November 1987 would have aired around September/October 1988 on TVS after their summer break, during TVS's short but confusing run of 2 episodes per week.

[@jackmeadows7777]

Correction - Christie announced she was pregnant at the end of 68 shown on 17/11/1986 on YTV.