A Family at War - The War Office Regrets - strike action

[ozsat]

Anybody know the answer to this one?

Series 1 Episode 7 'The War Office Regrets' was originally scheduled for transmission at 9pm on 26 May 1970 and provided to the ITV network by Granada tv.

But during the afternoon on 26 May the Granada technicians walked out and Granada TV went off the air for the rest of the day and evening.

The episode was later rescheduled for 23 June 1970 and the rest of the series followed on after that.

But does anyone known if the whole ITV network lost this episode on 26 May 1970 - or just the Granada region?

I'm guessing the playout would have been from Granada so it did not air at all - same with Coronation Street the following night and for about 4 weeks.

[stearn]

The Coventry Evening Telegraph reported that the Midlands region would see and edition of The Saint instead of A Family At War

[ozsat]

Thank you - that would be in the good old days when local newspapers were published during the day with a stop press too.

[ian b]

Obviously it's CORONATION STREET-centric, but it's well worth checking the ever marvellous Corriepedia for other Granada aspects - as this entry shows...

https://coronationstreet.fandom.com/wik ... _May_1970)

[ozsat]

I saw CS was delayed - but was not schedule for the initial day. I wondered if a backup option was available on the first day.
But I suspected that 'in effect' the network playout cables were cut from the Granada end for any Granada production.

[stearn]

The newspapers basically say there were no technical staff on site from around 7am, so there was no recording at and no playout from Granada at all, and the IBA had a caption card on screen for that area. I had hoped to at least find out what Thames broadcast, but the Reading evening paper mentions the industrial action, but didn't change their TV Schedules, and the main dailies were all printed too early to reflect anything. A change in programme wasn't a big thing, so there isn't even the mention of what replaced A Family at War in the TV columns the next day.

[Mark]

I don't recall it from the time, but I must have been aware of it!

Wonder if Thames also had an ITC series to hand, very handy to fill an hour in an emergency.

[yellowtriumph]

The agreement between the ACTT and the ITV companies at the time was quite clear in this respect. If an ITV company was unable to transmit a programme to any other ITV company due to industrial action then the receiving company(ies) had to individually fill the space with locally sourced material.

[Mark]

A repeat of "Benny Hill" perhaps?