☆ Granada on strike | Monday 14 February 1983

[@NeilMiles]

From Quincy to De Quincey, nice little scheduling quirk there. This is from Monday 14th February 1983

[@anthonyperkins7556]

I remember when Yorkshire Television staff walked out on the first break of a News At Ten from ITN in the 70's and closed down the station, the rest of the ITV network carried on as normal and took the programme but with Yorkshire Television out of the loop the other regions had a mad dash to their videotape / 35mm film archive, raided the tape / film stock for replacement programmes, lined up those programmes and went into them after their regional news bulletins.

[@arthurvasey]

Usually after News At Ten, it was not uncommon to find one of the following, which varied from region to region: Off-network reruns of The Sweeney or Minder; Some regional news programme in a similar vein to World In Action, but about your region; A political debate, presented by one of the regional news presenters, featuring local politicians; An American sitcom; An American detective show; Some American-made programme like The Andy Williams Show or The Monte Carlo Show or some show featuring Michel Legrand or something similar! Never any fixed pattern and subject to change - Friday nights on Tyne Tees usually had horror films!

[@ClydebridgeStation]

@@arthurvasey I seem to recall Friday here in STV land was NB, which was an arts show, or Billy, an american comedy, or Scotsport Extra Time, a sports preview show. Didn't |Tyne Tees have DIY TV with Eamonn Holmes?

[@arthurvasey]

@@ClydebridgeStation Can’t recall that Eamonn Holmes thing - you’re probably thinking of Ulster - but, unless there was a networked film or one of those TV miniseries based on books, aired under the umbrella banner of “Best Sellers”, which began during the Montreal Olympics or edited football, the slot after News At Ten most nights was usually when American sitcoms and detective dramas were aired - if you had been able to access all ITV regions across the country, regardless of where you lived or were staying at the time, if your nearest ITV region was showing some political discussion, there’s always the option to watch something like Quincy on another regional ITV channel!

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

Was that 1978? Partly coinciding with the BBC strike.

[@DaveMuirhead]

Blimey! It's hard to believe this was 40 years ago! I was 21, and remember it well! How time flies.

[@mixtapesfrommylatepartner]

Love to see what's happening at the same time in different regions. Wish there was more of this sort of thing. The only other one I know of is the technical breakdown Yorkshire / Thames upload.

[@DaveMuirhead]

40 years ago! How time flies.

[@11carbuff19572011]

Charles Foster is now the announcer for the daily series "Judge Rinder".

[@cerinolancerinolan7148]

So i believe.

[@christopherhulse8385]

Sadly no longer with us.

[@garyscottrodger]

Fabulous upload, cheers!

[@mxp1934]

spongebob:WE WILL STAY ON STRIKE UNTIL WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE EVEN IF IT TAKES FOREVER

[@abbycollins]

FOREVER! FOREVER!

[@inny74]

Damn, ITV viewers really got the short end of the TV programming stick in the 70s and 80s because of all these strikes didnt they? 😆

[@madmantronixx7998]

I don’t know what it was about blackouts and buzzing sounds as an 8 year old, but they used to scare the life out of me! News flashes also scared me.

[@MrDunkiep]

Me too. I used to be terrified of the way the open university ident used to break a long awkward silence in programming.

[@madmantronixx7998]

@@MrDunkiep even the news flashes late at night used to scare me. I always used to look at the front door to make sure no one was trying to break in.

[@MrDunkiep]

@@madmantronixx7998 my mind worked the same way. I used to get very upset if I found someone in a tv programme had died in real life

[@madmantronixx7998]

@@MrDunkiep even famous people when read out on the news I would hide behind a pillow. When BBC finished at night and the dot was on the tv I would hide.

[@MrDunkiep]

@@madmantronixx7998 So funny. We were obviously both both with the save messed up chemicals in our heads!

[@bigredsock1]

So were pre-recorded networked programmes broadcast from the region that made them? How did this work for programmes like Crossroards and Emmerdale Farm which were shown at different times in different regions?

[@stuart121972]

Yes they where. I believe the regions that opted to show these programmes at a different time would record the programme from the network feed then transmit them locally.

[@richardsharpe2966]

A strike that lasted 2 hours weared

[@Sheffield_Steve]

Yes, but if it's during peak time what would've been Granada's (& ITV's) biggest moneyspinner, that was the point surely?

[@DaveMuirhead]

It was for a meeting.

[@danielr02]

Emmerdale Farm got so very lucky they changed their schedule from Monday and Tuesday to Tuesday and Thursday in 1977!

[@bigredsock1]

But for many years the time varied from region to region. Some showed it at 7.30, others at 5.15! Also it used to take breaks and didn't run all the year round.

[@noobfromroblox8088]

RO kids) We are sorry for this break in our programmes we are sorry

[@willow2]

what

[@zetametallic]

Were you able to receive both HTV and Central as alternative regions by any chance, bottom of Granadaland region geographically? In Liverpool we could get HTV near perfect and watchable Central but I suspect if we had gone for a massive array we'd pull that in perfectly too. Also Yorkshire and Anglia in b&w. I think I actually remember that night (aged 6) as my dad said: "We are switching to HTV tonight, they have problems". I used to love World in Action (yes, I know bit of a female geek even then) but the soaps none of us were fussed on.

[@martinhughes2549]

The signal from Moel Y Parc transmitter could be received in Lancaster no problem, however it couldn't be seen in Wrexham (1977)without a relay, or in parts of Colwyn Bay or Bagillt,Talacre.(till 1996) North Wales topography was not forgiving for UHF. Granada was receivable in Rhyl& Prestatyn,Deeside,Flint, but not in Rhuddlan or the Vale of Clwyd. Granada showed areas of North Wales as within Granada reception areas that could not in fact get a Granada signal (except for 405 lines on VHF in some cases-pre 1985)

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

@@martinhughes2549 Moel Y Parc was even watchable in parts of Cannock - The Wrekin and Sutton Coldfield overlapped there. I think one channel may have been too close to one of the Sutton Coldfield channels but HTV Wales and S4C were not bad.

[@christopherhulse8385]

@@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek HTV Wales used channel 49 from Moel-y-Parc and Sutton Coldfield had Channel 4 on channel 50.

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

@@christopherhulse8385 Come to think of it, we lost HTV Wales when Sutton Coldfield's Channel 4 started.

[@christopherhulse8385]

RIP Charles Foster

[@stuart121972]

At the end of the HTV continuity you can hear a ticking noise, I guess it must be the studio clock.

[@stuartharris2165]

You could quite often hear the HTV studio clock, by the sound of it Sue wasn't announcing from the continuity booth, maybe she was in the gallery??

[@MatgoStyles]

The clock ticking down to the next industrial dispute I expect.

[@robmortimer4150]

I wondered what that was!

[@richardsharpe2966]

It's was for the first time in years that Corrie was not on neither was World In Action but they showed Monday's Corrie the next day is that correct would like to know please

[@Westy1971]

Corrie & World In Action were both half hours wasnt they? So how come they didnt swop back to the other programmes in the Granada region that wasnt made by Granada inbetween? Unions may have a point sometimes, but going off for 2 hours, when you're only transmitting an hour of your own material within that time seems daft.

[@newstarcadefan]

Could have been worse...it could have been a 6-week action.

[@nowster]

The reason would be that the electricians had literally pulled the plug on everything. Hence the blue fault caption from the transmitter at Winter Hill and the period of black before the studio at Quay Street took back control with the Granada symbol.

[@ClydebridgeStation]

From what I've read before on the TVLive forum, back in the IBA days, if you were scheduled to be on air, and you returned black to the transmitter for 30 seconds, then the IBA transmitter took control, until you were ready to take back control, so the blue fault caption came up.

[@nowster]

@@ClydebridgeStation I suspect that if Granada wasn't sending any syncs to Winter Hill the blue caption would come up automatically. Sending a period of black and silence would regain control and alert any staff at the transmitter (back in the days when they used to have engineers at the main sites) that programming was imminent.

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

@@ClydebridgeStation The caption also appeared in the winter of 1981 in London when a sync fault affected "Play Your Cards Right" - sound continued unaffected.

[@hugoboss5895]

They knew where to kick Granada where it hurts. Right in the coronation streets. I bet more than half of the Granada region would have been tuning in at 7.30 Mondays and Wednesdays back them😂

[@cerinolancerinolan7148]

Is that Charles Foster by any chance?

[@nowster]

Yes. It's mentioned in the description.

[@t0ffeeman]

TVS had Private Benjamin and Paris by Night!

[@mango4606]

Wow.

[@richardsharpe2966]

It was the night of Ken Mike and Deirdrie

[@derwennsrobinson5384]

coronation street

[@rojielobernabe2008]

ACTT again