1989 Thames/ Yorkshire/ LWT repeat seasons

[doubleM]

... after the fallout from those, Thames and the BBC using satellite to capitalise on their archives through UKGold.

A good point and (for a brief while - before Sky Multichannels arrived in Sep 1993) you didn't even need a subscription to view UKGold.

Not long after that the ITC Entertainment Group signed a blanket deal with Bravo that resulted in a lot of ITC and some ATV programmes being repeated (fora good two years or so till late 1996) and then Granada Plus appeared soon afterwards with a whole host of Granada and LWT vintage programming, the Granada group having swallowed up LWT by this point.

So that was BBC, Thames, Granada, LWT and ATV/ITC all in the mix, certainly representing the vast majority of popular and well remembered vintage British TV, at least from the colour era.

The cycle came crashing down a mere 5 or so years after it started (certainly as far as the variety of material being repeated) but even so vintage repeats didn't so much peeter out with the end 1980s but actually increased (albeit not on the mainstream terrestial channels) in the 90s.

[ian b]

I think the figure may have been as low as 52 out-of-time (over two years old) repeats of programmes involving Equity members permitted per channel per year at one point. The amount allowed was renegotiated upwards significantly when daytime programming came to BBC1 in 1986, and archive repeats have never carried quite the same scarcity value since then.

Was this actually “a thing” though?

I think it stems from a Jeremy Bentham penned piece in DWM around the time of THE FIVE FACES... repeat, but I’m not certain it was as restrictive as that.

Though I’m struggling to find a year with that many “out of time” repeats anyway, (excepting the various film series).


One more: I CLAUDIUS on BBC2 to mark the death of Robert Graves.

Which walks us off into one-off repeats in commemoration of someone: a MAIGRET for Simenon, an episode of Thames’ Billy Dainty series, Z CARS (Happy Families again) for John Hopkins, DR. FINLAY’S CASEBOOK (A Red Herring - again!) for Andrew Cruickshank, FAWLTY TOWERS for Andrew Sachs, and going back fifty years his final BBC series got a repeat of the back of Hancock’s suicide.

I’m still (slightly) aggrieved that nothing was shown when Stratford Johns died, considering how long his BBC1 career was.

[Billy Smart]

Was this actually “a thing” though?

I think it stems from a Jeremy Bentham penned piece in DWM around the time of THE FIVE FACES... repeat, but I’m not certain it was as restrictive as that.

Though I’m struggling to find a year with that many “out of time” repeats anyway, (excepting the various film series).

That was indeed exactly where I remembered the figure from, hence my doubtful prefix. If you combine 'out of time' sitcom and drama repeats to make up the 52 then it feels like a figure that was regularly reached in my childhood memory of very early eighties BBC schedules.

[Mark]

Well, in 1986, it wasn't far off on BBC 1:

20 "Hancock's Half Hour"
11 "The Onedin Line"
8 "The Liver Birds"

A couple of other seasons.

The Lime Grove tribute on 26/8/91

"Whacko!"
"Doctor Who" pilot
"Dixon Of Dock Green"
"Quatermass II"

There was also a "Maigret" and some editions of "This Is Your Life" in September.

In 1992, there was "Black and White In Colour" season with episodes of:
"Empire Road"
"The Lenny Henry Show"
"Play Of The Month: A Passage To India" 1965
"Tonight" 1963
"Z-Cars" ( "A Place Of Safety")
"Play For Today" ( "A Hole In Babylon") 1979
"A Man From The Sun" 1956

[John Williams]

Was this actually “a thing” though?

I think it stems from a Jeremy Bentham penned piece in DWM around the time of THE FIVE FACES... repeat, but I’m not certain it was as restrictive as that.

Though I’m struggling to find a year with that many “out of time” repeats anyway, (excepting the various film series).

That was indeed exactly where I remembered the figure from, hence my doubtful prefix. If you combine 'out of time' sitcom and drama repeats to make up the 52 then it feels like a figure that was regularly reached in my childhood memory of very early eighties BBC schedules.

I think it was a thing as this letter from Nigel Davenport in 1980 seems to confirm.

https://ibb.co/4pHvVZf

[Simon36]

Speaking of tributes, there was a DIXON episode shown in 1981 as a tribute to Jack Warner. BBC4 took over a lot of tribute duties when they were in their early years, showing, for instance, the RUMPOLE play for Leo McKern. When John McGrath died, however, they decided against a repeat of THE CHEVIOT, THE STAG AND THE BLACK, BLACK OIL, saying they’d “had enough of dead white men for a while...”

BBC2 showed THE SPONGERS as a tribute to Jim Allen in 1999.

Along with the glory days of UK GOLD, BRAVO and GRANADA PLUS, there was also CARLTON SELECT, quietly churning out old episodes of TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, SHINE ON HARVEY MOON among other things...our videos must have all been exhausted by the end of the 90s!

[ian b]

Thanks for that letter link John - appreciated, (on a side note, there’s a wonderfully prevish interview with an Equity bod on a contemporary FEEDBACK about the Doris Archer singing).

Well, in 1986, it wasn't far off on BBC 1:

20 "Hancock's Half Hour"
11 "The Onedin Line"
8 "The Liver Birds"

The ONEDIN and BIRDS repeats went out under a new agreement with Equity, which catered for lower daytime repeat fees.

I’ve assumed the Hancock, and later UP POMPEII), repeats were somewhat connected with their rights being “sorted” for the VHS releases.

[RobinCarmody]

Speaking of tributes, there was a DIXON episode shown in 1981 as a tribute to Jack Warner. BBC4 took over a lot of tribute duties when they were in their early years, showing, for instance, the RUMPOLE play for Leo McKern. When John McGrath died, however, they decided against a repeat of THE CHEVIOT, THE STAG AND THE BLACK, BLACK OIL, saying they’d “had enough of dead white men for a while...”

Are you sure about this, or is this a Right-wing fantasy? The reason why I ask is that McGrath died six months before McKern, and indeed shortly before BBC Four launched. It does sound rather like something a certain sort of person - not actually, in most cases, admirers of John McGrath (other than to the extent that they might want to exploit Scottish independence, which he supported, to bring about the ethnic and cultural cleansing of England) - wants to believe that BBC executives say. Hopefully you're inferring that they had misunderstood him ...

[Simon36]

Speaking of tributes, there was a DIXON episode shown in 1981 as a tribute to Jack Warner. BBC4 took over a lot of tribute duties when they were in their early years, showing, for instance, the RUMPOLE play for Leo McKern. When John McGrath died, however, they decided against a repeat of THE CHEVIOT, THE STAG AND THE BLACK, BLACK OIL, saying they’d “had enough of dead white men for a while...”

Are you sure about this, or is this a Right-wing fantasy? The reason why I ask is that McGrath died six months before McKern, and indeed shortly before BBC Four launched. It does sound rather like something a certain sort of person - not actually, in most cases, admirers of John McGrath (other than to the extent that they might want to exploit Scottish independence, which he supported, to bring about the ethnic and cultural cleansing of England) - wants to believe that BBC executives say. Hopefully you're inferring that they had misunderstood him ...

I was quoting from an internal email I received at the time. Obviously, not an official stance. Your chronology has thrown me somewhat though. Maybe it was BBC2.

[Mark]

Well, in 1986, it wasn't far off on BBC 1:

20 "Hancock's Half Hour"
11 "The Onedin Line"
8 "The Liver Birds"

The ONEDIN and BIRDS repeats went out under a new agreement with Equity, which catered for lower daytime repeat fees.

I’ve assumed the Hancock, and later UP POMPEII), repeats were somewhat connected with their rights being “sorted” for the VHS releases.

I had forgotten about the "Up Pompei" repeats, yes I think they had all been cleared for VHS.

On the "Lime Grove" tribute night, there was one item not credited in the schedules, it was the two minute "Introducing Television Centre" film, ( stills of the new building to music) at the closedown, a nice touch to end the evening.

In 1982, there was a run of 10 "Dad's Army" repeats, one of which was the B/W film recording of "Something Nasty In The Vault", before the colour VT one finally turned up.

On the subject of repeat fees, at the start of this year, Judy Jarvis ( Matheson) tweeted an invoice from ITV 4, for a showing of her episode of "The Professionals" before Christmas, it was for £6.10, and similar for two showings of her episode of "The Adventurer", shown in France.

[brigham]

The BBC is often a target for right-wing rumour-mongers.
At one time, it was reported that the Director-General (no less) had described the organization as 'hideously white'.
How low can these race-haters stoop?

[Simon36]

The BBC is often a target for right-wing rumour-mongers.
At one time, it was reported that the Director-General (no less) had described the organization as 'hideously white'.
How low can these race-haters stoop?

He did. It was Greg Dyke. Predictably, that phrase was quoted by the right-wing press without any context. But let’s stick to the topic.

[Nick Cooper 625]

Didn’t Channel 4’s 1983/84 repeat run of THE PRISONER show them mostly in a bizarre order too?

Indeed it did (original position in brackets for those less familiar with the series):

19/09/1983 Arrival (1)
26/09/1983 Many Happy Returns (7)
03/10/1983 A. B. and C. (3)
10/10/1983 Free For All (4)
17/10/1983 The Schizoid Man (5)
24/10/1983 Checkmate (9)
31/10/1983 The Chimes of Big Ben (2)
07/11/1983 The General (6)
14/11/1983 It's Your Funeral (11)
21/11/1983 Hammer Into Anvil (10)
28/11/1983 A Change of Mind (12)
05/12/1983 Dance of the Dead (8)
12/12/1983 Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (13)
19/12/1983 The Girl Who Was Death (15)
02/01/1984 Living in Harmony (14)
09/01/1984 Once Upon A Time (16)
16/01/1984 Fall Out (17)

Originally they had split the two part "Once Upon a Time" / "Fall Out" by inserting "Living in Harmony" between them, but they did switch OUAT and LiH before broadcast.

Plus, the print of 'A, B & C' has a large chunk cut out of it.

[Nick Cooper 625]

I’m sure there must have been lots more but that’s all I can recall just now apart from a steady showing of one-offs; I recall A SENSE OF FREEDOM having a C4 repeat, and later, bizarrely, PENDA’S FEN!

Penda was part of their "Film 4 Today" repeats of selected all-film editions of Play for Today, which also included Stocker's Copper. Rudkin did a nice new intro for the former.

[Nick Cooper 625]

Ch4 showed The Prisoner in the routine order it was always shown IIRC
which obviously was still not to the satisfaction to some of the prisoner aficionados.

On the contrary, as Simon C's post detailed, they showed the series in a completely different order to the original transmission run, which in itself is inconsistent, but has been the accepted order for other repeats, and VHS and DVD releases.

[Nick Cooper 625]

Halliwell’s TV Guide claims that C4 showed one episode out of sequence (wouldn’t that automatically make it two episodes out of sequence?) causing uproar among fans. I wonder if this is simply garbled nonsense, or that it’s referring to the swapping of FREE FOR ALL and SCHIZOID MAN.

I think it's an example of the ignorant snootiness of that book.

[Richardr1]

Speaking of tributes, there was a DIXON episode shown in 1981 as a tribute to Jack Warner. BBC4 took over a lot of tribute duties when they were in their early years, showing, for instance, the RUMPOLE play for Leo McKern. When John McGrath died, however, they decided against a repeat of THE CHEVIOT, THE STAG AND THE BLACK, BLACK OIL, saying they’d “had enough of dead white men for a while...”

Are you sure about this, or is this a Right-wing fantasy? The reason why I ask is that McGrath died six months before McKern, and indeed shortly before BBC Four launched. It does sound rather like something a certain sort of person - not actually, in most cases, admirers of John McGrath (other than to the extent that they might want to exploit Scottish independence, which he supported, to bring about the ethnic and cultural cleansing of England) - wants to believe that BBC executives say. Hopefully you're inferring that they had misunderstood him ...

I was quoting from an internal email I received at the time. Obviously, not an official stance. Your chronology has thrown me somewhat though. Maybe it was BBC2.

BBC Four did have a tribute night to him on 27 March 2002.

It included a repeat of The Long Roads - a Screen Two from a decade earlier, the first Z-Cars, and a tribute programme.

[Nick Cooper 625]

A couple of other seasons.

The Lime Grove tribute on 26/8/91

"Whacko!"
"Doctor Who" pilot
"Dixon Of Dock Green"
"Quatermass II"

Episode 3 of QII, cut down to 30 minutes. The Dixon episode - The Rotten Apple - was followed by the next three consecutive episodes in subsequent weeks.

Some others...

05/07/92 - A Night in With Alan Bennett

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lad: Countdown (1973)
Play for Today: Abigail's Party (1977)
Days at the Beach (1981)

From 12/07/92 - Alan Bennett Season

A Day Out (1972)
Talking Heads x 6 (1986)
Sunset ACross the Bay (1975)
A Visit from Mrs Protheroe (1978)
Objects of Affection: Intensive Care, Our Winnie, and A Woman of No Importance (1982)

From 03/10/92 - War and Peace

Testament of Youth x 5 (1979)

28/12/92 - Granadaland

Coronation Street: High Noon
Roll on Four O'clock (1970)

From 02-03/01/93 - London Weekend

Steptoe and Son: Without Prejudice (1970)
Only Fools and Horses: Go West Young Man (1981)

From 01/05/93 - Richard Eyre Season

Play for Today: Just a Boy's Game (1979)
Play for Today: Comedians (1979)
Play for Today: The Imitation Game (1980)
Play for Today: Country (1981)
Sunday Premiere: Past Caring (1986)]
Screen Two: The Insurance Man (1986)

From 16/05/93 - Crime and Punishment

Play For Today: Rumpole of the Bailey (1975)
Porridge: Happy Release (1975)

31/05-01/06/93 - Cops on the Box

Z Cars: Happy Families (1964)
The Sweeney: Supersnout (1975)
Hancock's Half Hour: The Lawyer (1957)
Shoestring: Mocking Bird [1980#3|31/05/93] VHS BRT 625 TX [COTBo:001/B] [01/01/94]
Fabian of the Yard: The Executioner (1955)

From 31/05/93 - The Wednesday Play/Play for Today

Up the Junction (1965)
Where the Buffalo Roams (1966)
The Gorge (1968)
The Fishing Party (1972)
Kisses at Fifty (1973)
Hard Labour (1973)
The Spongers (1977)

18/07/93 - A Night on the Tyne

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1973)

30/08/93 - One Day in the Sixties

It's Marty (1969)
Comedy Playhouse: The Offer (1962)
Peyton Place: Pilot (1964)
Department S: The Man From 'X' (1969)
Till Death Us Do Part: The Blood Donor (1968)
Adam Adamant Lives!: A Vintage Year for Scoundrels (1966 - edited to 45 minutes)

From 23/10/93 - After Margaret

Only Fools and Horses: Yuppy Love (1989)

27/12/93 - At Home With Vic and Bob

Christmas With Rutland Weekend Television (1975)
Dads Army: Broadcast to the Empire (1970
Play for Today: Nuts in May (1976)

[ian b]

I know there's a fine history of US tv labelling its first episodes as "Pilot", whether or not it was a pilot, an amended pilot or a complete remake of a pilot but for the sake of future clarity the PEYTON PLACE episode that BBC2 repeated was its first episode as screened, and not the untransmitted pilot that was made, (and, as far as I know, has never seen daylight from Fox's vault - if indeed it still exists at all).

Then again, film series with their different method of repeatability is probably outside the remit of this thread. Bought in ones doubly so!

:)

[Mark]

Nigel Kneale wasn't always that lucky with the "Quatermass" repeats, was he...I don't think he was thrilled with the choice of episode and time slot for the 86 repeat either.

Didn't the "Adam Adamant" repeat have the original Stones track on it?...I'm sure it did.

Ch4 also had the messed about with "Ready Steady Go" repeats, in the 80's, although I'm sure I recall the Otis Reading special was complete.

[Mark]

10 editions of "Face To Face" were repeated on BBC 2 starting in October 1988, including Martin Luther King and Tony Hancock.

[fatcat]

In the early days of LWT (some also taken by other TV co.) they repeated some Rediffusion gems including.

A Man of Our Times (George Cole) 1969.

Half-Hour Story 1970/71 including..

It's Only Us (Jill Bennett, John Osborne)

Robert

George's Room

Which Two of these Ladies is he Married to?

Dead Certainty

[ian b]

Granada had a run of repeats in 1976 or 1977, late at night of (mostly?) American series specially selected, (I forget its overall title right now, and I've never compiled a list)...

COMMAND PERFORMANCE was its overall title - starts off as selected episodes of US sitcoms on late Saturday afternoons early in 1976, and a latter night slot later in the year for dramas.

The Telly Savalas episode of GRINDL, (no, me either), was one of the comedie.

[Simon Coward]

The Telly Savalas episode of GRINDL, (no, me either), was one of the comedie.

Granada had taken the series in the 1960s (as had Rediffusion), so I suppose it would have still been vaguely familiar there by the mid-1970s.

In the 1960s, Granada seemed to specialise in showing imported sitcoms that weren't otherwise widely seen across the ITV network - My Favourite Martian, The Pruitts of Southampton, The Tom Ewell Show and I'm sure there were plenty of others. I don't imagine this was unrelated to Leslie Halliwell's presence at Granada.

[JezR]

The companies that didn't run Crossroads at 18:30 from the mid 1960s often used American comedies to fill a half-hour there or after the national news; Granada is the prominent major in that category, but Tyne Tees is one of the minors with this practice as for a time was Channel. For the last having something to run off telecine was essential as they had no VT.

[Mark]

I remember "My Favourite Martian" on Granada, but not those other two, "Gilligan's Island" is one I remember well in that slot, Granada was possibly the only one to screen the complete run ( with only one or two others showing a handful of them?).

I remembered I had taped an episode of "The World Of Wooster" from 1966 ( "Jeeves And The Delayed Exit of Claude And Eustace") back in the 80's, checking it up, it was on 1/9/82 on BBC 1, not entirely sure why it was shown though.

[ian b]

Cough cough...

Later in 1982 saw vintage repeats (radio and tv) to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the BBC...

[Simon36]

Randomly, C4 repeated THE LOVERS in 1996.

BBC2 also had a rather tasty RICHARD EYRE season in 1993, which contained three Play for Todays, JUST A BOY’s GAME, COMEDIANS and THE IMITATION GAME, and the SCREEN ONE: PAST CARING.

Just a Boy’s Game was repeated again in 1998 by BBC Scotland to mark their 75th anniversary, which was odd as they hadn’t made it!

Abigail’s Party also has a theme night on BBC2 in 1997, and, oddly, BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE got a repeat on BBC2 in 1998.

[Mark]

Cough cough...

Later in 1982 saw vintage repeats (radio and tv) to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the BBC...

Oh yes, of course it was, went right out of my head, kept thinking it was a tribute screening.

Ch4 also ran "Rising Damp".

BBC ran highlights editions of the ATV M/W series "Two Of A Kind" in 1986 and complete ones in late 90's.

There was also "Pilot Paradise" in 1996, featuring "Happy Ever After", "Citizen Smith", "Up Pompei" and "Hi-De-Hi" on BBC 2.

A couple more from the Granada 86 repeats, "The Dustbinmen" and "The Cuckoo Waltz", I also have the 69 Xmas special of "Nearest And Dearest" ("The Ghost Of Picklers Past") on my list, which was possibly from the same run.

Talking of "Nearest And Dearest", Granada had a run of some episodes , early 90's I think ( don't have a date on my list) one oddity was an episode which was B/W for Part One, and Colour for Part Two ( or the other way round, I forget which!).

[Mark]

The "Nearest And Dearest" episodes that Granada screened were:

"Getting To Know You"
"Two Pennies To Rub Together"
"Workers Playtime"
"The One That Got Away"
"A Man And A Woman"
"What Seems To Be The Trouble"
"An Open And Shut Case"
"Make Yourself At Home"
"The French Disconnection"
"Get Up Them Stairs"
""The Right Spirit"
" A Price On Your Head"