Southern
The birth of a new service
On 30 September 1958, Independent Television (now
abbreivated to ITV) finally reached the South of England in
the guise of Southern Television which provided the new ITV
service for Central Southern England (Hampshire, most of
Dorset, parts of Surrey and Oxfordshire), with South-East
England (Kent, Sussex) to follow in 1960 when the Dover
transmitter opened.
Southern Television started its service using an old
Southampton cinema (The Plaza) in the district of Northam
as its main studio whilst a custom-built studio complex
that was being built on land reclaimed from the River
Itchen nearby. Once the new complex became operational, the
old cinema was then demolished. The transmission area,
although not as densely populated as Greater London or
boasting a conurbation the size of Birmingham or
Manchester, boasts a reasonably large number of viewers
(4.3 million in 1976); the area is highly affluent and has
a wide variety of industries including shipbuilding and
tourism (the New Forest, Bournemouth, and Brighton are
three of the top tourist areas in the region). Much of the
population lives on or near to the coast, so water-based
activities figure reasonably highly as well as countryside
pursuits.
Southern Television's opening night featured a
variety show, which featured celebrity dancers (Lionel
Blair, Una Stubbs) (pictured above left) as well as Gracie
Fields (above right) and the Bournemouth Girls' Choir.
Sadly no recording exists of the actual opening night apart
from some additional footage of the variety show recorded
by a film camera in the studio.
The advent of Southern now meant that you didn't have
to live in London or the Midlands to be able to watch
popular programmes such as the ATV-produced
Emergency
Ward 10, as long as you had a television that was
switchable between the two different VHF transmission
frequencies being used, or a set-top box which did the same
trick. But of course Southern produced its own programmes
for the region such as
Farm In The South,
Come
Gardening and
The Living Word, among others.
Being on the coast, Southern Television needed a boat
so that it could cover anything that happened on the water.
"Southerner", a 72-foot long ex-torpedo cruiser, fulfilled
this role admirably - it being well-equipped and big enough
to tackle everything from filming a lone yachtsman to that
annual sailing regatta known as Cowes Week.
"Southerner" was to prove very handy for covering
such events as Francis Chichester returning from his
round-the-world sailing voyage in the boat "Gypsy Moth" in
May 1967.
Southern Television produced its own general
entertainment shows for its local audience, including
Swap Shop. This picture (from 1959) shows a woman
who wanted to swap a gas boiler for a baby seat. Other
regional programmes produced during the early 1960s
included
Beat Your Neighbour,
Three Go Round
(for teenagers, part networked),
Home at 4.30 (for
women), and
Your Questions Please. By 1960 the Dover
transmitter became operational, expanding Southern's
coverage area to include the South-East of England.
The logo pictured here was generally in use circa
1963. Southern's target audience was generally the affluent
middle classes which were perceived to be the 'big
spenders' in the region as well has having conservative
tastes. There was also a slight bias towards the interests
of older people since the majority of the population of the
South's coastal resorts were people who had bought
retirement homes there.
Pictured above is a Southern film crew interviewing members
of the Hampshire Fire Service.
Southern (as with other ITV contractors to varying
degrees) produced programmes which were 'networked', ie.
shown throughout the country. It considered itself to be
one of the 'leaders' of the smaller ITV companies, that is
those other than the 'big three' (later 'big five') ITV
regions which produce the bulk of ITV's home-produced
programmes.
As well as home produced programmes such as
Danger
Island (for children)plus US imports squarely aimed at
a more downmarket audience, there was the opportunity to at
last provide a local news service for the region.
Day by Day was the name of Southern's news
magazine programme which continued until Southern lost its
franchise at the end of 1981. Its brief was to provide
local news in an entertaining manner, placing emphasis on
the personalities if possible as opposed to the events.
Local television means local news which could quite
possibly be virtually "on the studio's doorstep". Footage
of Mount Pleasant level crossing was used to illustrate the
introduction of diesel traction to railways in the southern
region. Mount Pleasant crossing is located within a short
walking distance from Southern's studios; indeed a railway
branch line used to run onto the land near where the studio
is located. The barrier, lights and footbridge are still
there today.
And of course there was coverage of local sport, with
the inevitable inclusion of football (soccer) matches of
local interest (full games as well as highlights) being
featured as part of Southern's output. The success of
Southampton Football Club including its 1976 FA Cup victory
provided plenty of newsworthy events for Southern to
cover.
One of Southern's most famous television programmes
was
Houseparty, an afternoon show aimed primarily at
women that was shown locally to begin with then
part-networked (one programme a week). It featured the sort
of items expected to be found within the covers of a
"magazine for women", such as cooking, knitting, crafts,
and general gossip. The studio was arranged so as to
resemble a living room and the regular 'guests' rang a
'doorbell' when they arrived after the programme had
started, often bringing items of interest with them. It may
have been a rather 'phoney' idea but the show was popular;
it only ended when Southern stopped broadcasting, though
Meridian revived the show for a brief time with the
daughters of some of the original cast, in
1993.
A networked children's programme produced by Southern
was the popular
How, which set out to answer simple
questions that frequently involved studio-based
demonstrations. Although the series finished when Southern
lost its franchise, the concept has recently been revived
in the form of
How 2. Presenter Fred Dinenage has
long been associated with the Southern ITV region and now
presents the local early evening ITV1 news programme
Meridian Tonight. Other networked children's
programmes from Southern included
Freewheelers and
The Saturday Banana.
Another popular networked series for children
produced by Southern was
Runaround, a quiz where
children answered general knowledge questions by running to
stand on one of three platforms on the studio floor, with
each platform representing one of three possible answers to
the question. Pictured is quizmaster Mike Reid (later to
star in EastEnders) next to a joke-telling robot called
Metal Mickey, and the year is 1980.
Probably the most popular and well received programme
Southern has ever made was
Worzel Gummidge, a
scarecrow that came to life (played by Jon Pertwee). The
one big regret that many people had over Southern losing
its franchise was the demise of this programme, 'No more
Worzel Gummidge!' moaned children (and adults) in large
numbers. Old episodes were to be later repeated on the
soon-to-be-launched Channel 4, together with another
popular and long-running series devoted to the countryside,
Out of Town.
Southern (rightly or wrongly) never seemed to think
that it could ever lose its ITV franchise to anyone else,
so it was a major shock to the company when it lost its ITV
franchise to a new company - Television South, or TVS.
After it finished broadcasting on 31 December 1981,
Southern continued to market its programming to other
broadcasters and briefly dabbled in film production but
could never replicate the success it had when owning the
ITV franchise. A sad end to a successful company.
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'Southern Montage' video clip (requires Windows
Media Player) |
