"Nobody wanted generic ITV…Nobody who still remembers the way things used to be really wants generic ITV now. That was ITV’s unique selling point. It was your home station."
A documentary Web Video series from Bob the Fish Productions
. Written and narrated by Matthew Harris, it explores sixty years of history of the ITV network by looking in turn at each regional franchise and its presentation style, including its idents and continuity announcements.
A recap page is currently under construction.
Tropes used/discussed in the series:
- The Artifact: GMTV had become this by the late 2000s - by this point, it was strange to see a separate franchise for the breakfast hours when almost all of the other franchises had merged together to form one big company. It's why ITV bought Disney's share in the company and cancelled it, to be replaced by Daybreak.
- Capitalism Is Bad: The Broadcasting Act 1990 notably changed the scene to loosen regulations and apply lassez-faire Capitalism onto proceedings, with any company free to win the franchise if they had enough money (there was a quality threshold, but it was nebulous in nature) and also eventually able to have stakes in any other company which owned an ITV franchise. This is portrayed as a bad thing in the documentary, as it eventually led to the companies buying each other out and becoming a bland homogeneous company in the process, with little in the way of regional identity or individuality.
- Continuity Announcement: Just in case the title isn't enough, Matthew Harris reminds everyone that "ITV is brought to you by Granada" in "It's Glam Up North".
- Downer Ending: At the end of the day, many of the franchises covered in the series now exist as little more than vestigial names at best, having all merged together into one big, bland company with little interest in regional identity. The only thing keeping it from being an outright downer is that Scotland and Northern Ireland (at the time) still had individual ITV franchises in the form of STV and UTV.
- Follow the Leader (In-Universe): The original Channel 4 "Objects-Flying-Through-Space" ident was a major influence on the ITV idents that came after it.
- "The Hero Sucks" Song: "Portakabin TV", a song Richard Stilgoe sings at the end of Southern Television which really mocks the incoming TVS. On top of mockingly calling it "Portakabin TV", it sings about how they have no idea where Maidstone is. It might have been for the best that the whole song isn't included in the documentary, as it goes even further with the mocking.
- Network Decay: A major focus of the series as a whole. It charts ITV's course from being an independent network of franchises with distinct identities to the bland homogeneity of today.
- Network Finale: Several finales for some of the franchises which have lost their license are discussed. The one which is discussed the most is Southern Television, due to the fact that it symbolised how poorly they took their franchise loss, but the endings of TVS, Thames, LWT, and TWW do get brief mentions as well.
- Network Sign Off: Several closedown sequences from across the network are either shown or discussed.
- The Remake: The series uploaded on Vimeo is actually an expanded remake of an earlier version of the series that first appeared on YouTube.
- Running Gag: "Assuming you’ve been paying attention…" is used whenever Harris brings up important points in the history of stations from previous episodes that affect the ones currently being discussed.
- Sore Loser: Some former franchises covered really do not take the losses well:
- TWW was particularly the worst, responding by selling off their remaining months of airtime to Harlech (even though they had nothing prepared to fill the space with yet) and refusing any offers to allow them to have a say in the future.
- Southern Television handled it slightly better, but their final programme is described in the video as a “near three-hour televised tantrum”, emphasizing their classic programming to highlight how low-brow their successors were seemingly going to be, C. David Wilson providing a lengthy drunken rant, and even a mocking song that called TVS "Portakabin TV" (keep in mind the fact that the reason for the name was because TVS had been forced to use portable office buildings as Southern had refused to sell them the necessary space needed for them until they were finished).
- Take That!: The 1990 Broadcasting Act is not treated very well, mainly because it paved the way for the eventual merging of all the regional franchises into one big company. By extension, Margaret Thatcher, who was behind the act and whose reaction to "Death on the Rock" is considered by the documentary to be why Thames lost their license to Carlton, gets treated poorly, with it even being noted that everyone was disappointed when she survived the Brighton Hotel bombing.
- Tempting Fate: When discussing the end of Thames, it is noted that it was very sad, but that it didn't necessarily mean that the new station would be bad, saying that "maybe, just maybe, this new station could be as worthwhile as the last". That new station? Carlton, which on top of having much weaker idents than their predecessor, eventually turned out to be a Sketchy Successor more interested in merging the ITV franchises than creating productions or investing in their region.
- Vanity Plate: Production captions are discussed throughout the series. Up until around the mid-eighties, they would often show up at the start of programmes so that viewers would know which part of the ITV network a programme came from.
- Young Future Famous People: David Cameron gets mentioned as one of the executives at Carlton during The '90s.
