Firstly, this blog isn't either related to Seaside FM or my programme, but it is something that I have an interest in and on previous occasions my blogs about similar things seem to have attracted a few readers, so here goes....

If your a bit of a couch potato and your partial to a bit of telly, then you'll know that Yorkshire Television has recently celebrated an important birthday and I'd like like to take this opportunity to wish everyone who has worked at Yorkshire Television, both past and present a very happy birthday, even though technically the name "Yorkshire Television" doesn't really exist anymore. The milestone birthday may not have been celebrated by its staff as much as they would have done in years gone by, the reasons will become obvious if you read on...

On July 29th 1968, Yorkshire Telelevision began transmitting from the first purpose-built colour studios in Europe and they were right here in YORKSHIRE! Over the years, it has been at the forefront of producing popular programming and bringing many a familiar face to our screen. Michael Parkinson, Alan Whicker, Austin Mitchell, David Jason and Richard Whiteley have all passed through what had become an iconic building at Kirkstall Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Television also gave British TV a number of firsts; for starters In 1978, it was the first to lengthen it's broadcast hours giving viewers their first taste of Breakfast Television. Their six-week trial called 'Good Morning Calendar' took to the air some five-years before the launch of 'TV-am'. Yorkshire Television was also first in the UK to offer 24-hour TV when it began showing pop music videos through-the-night.

Yorkshire Television was often reffered to on-air as 'YTV' or just 'Yorkshire', infact many people still call it that, but long gone are the days of continuity announcers like Redvers Kyle, Maggie Mash and Bob Preedy telling us what was "coming up next on YTV...". I'm lucky enough to own some voice overs that Mr. Preedy did for me in a similar vain to that used on YTV, I must dig them out for the show!

Since 1968, these announcements would always be accompanied on-screen with the famous chevron logo, along with a jingle based on the traditional Yorkshire song 'On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at', although this was removed by ITV in favour of corporate branding and national announcements from London in 2002.

Then on the 1st January 2007, as a result of the restructuring of ITV, the company transferred it's production and broadcasting business to 'ITV Productions Ltd', this meant the final nail in the coffin for the YTV name as Yorkshire Television Ltd. ceased trading.

In the latest round of cost cutting, Michael Grade has said that the studios at Kirkstall Road in Leeds will close. The likes of Heartbeat, The Royal, A Touch of Frost and Countdown will all be suspended or moved across to Manchester (details to come).

With no further programmes being made in Leeds, actors, producers, cameramen and script writters can be added to the long list of other talented people over the years who have been made redundant by ITV headquarters in London, which now seems to be where all of the output on our screens comes from.

On the plus side, if there is such a thing, ITV1 did actually allow three regional programmes to be made celebrating Yorkshire Television's anniversary, which is a minor miracle!

The 'Happy Birthday: YTV at 40' series reminised about classic programmes Yorkshire Television used to make. We didn't need the proof, but the show reminded us that YTV made some corking telly shows. Who remembers 'Emmerdale' when it was 'Emmerdale Farm' or even a very young Catherine Zeta-Jones in 'The Darling Buds of May'?

It was Yorkshire Television's game shows that were a bit of a TV favourite in our house, I used to cringe at some of the silly questions the late Ted Rogers used to ask in '3-2-1' and I always wanted a Dusty Bin! My Mum seemed to like watching Jimmy Tarbuck on a Friday Night in 'Winner Takes All', remember that?

Then there was the classic comedy like the critically-acclaimed 'Rising Damp' starring Leonard Rossiter. Another couple of favourites, which seem to have been overlooked on the anniversary programmes, were 'Home To Roost' with John Thaw and Reece Dinsdale (now in Corry) and 'Only When I Laugh' which not only starred James Bolam and Peter Bowles, but also Richard 'I Don't Believe It' Wilson as the doctor! All of these have recently been re-run on ITV2, minus the Yorkshire Television production credit and logo at the end, ITV Productions never made those shows, our beloved Yorkshire TV did!!! - Dam those ITV corporate swines!

Yorkshire Teleision were also big for factual programmes like 'First Tuesday', which was shown (as the title suggests) on the first Tuesday of every month and ran for a whopping 10 years. Then there was 'Jimmys' which ran from 1987 to 1994, the first ever fly-on-the-wall reality television style documentary on British Television. I seem to remember Jimmy's having a fantastic uplifting theme tune performed jazz saxophonist Snake Davis.

And, you can't talk (...or type) about YTV without mentioning their long-standing regional news programme, 'Calendar'. The very first presenter of the show was former politician Johnathon Aitken, personally, I'm too young to remember him. For me, it has to be the legendary Richard Whiteley who I remember watching at tea-time. Richard, of course earned the title 'twice nightly' after viewers in the Yorkshire TV area got to see him twice in one night on both 'Countdown' and then 'Calendar' within the space of a couple of hours.

If you're younger than me, it might be Marilyn Webb, Geoff Druett, Mike Morris, Christa Ackroyd, Christine Talbot, John Shires or Gaynor Barnes who you associate with 'Calendar' - the list is really endless.

Then there's the weather presenters, who remembers Bob Rust? Infact, Yorkshire's current weather guru - Jon Mitchell has written a book called "Bright & Breezy: YTV in All Weathers" to coincide with Yorkshire's 40th anniversary.

The book sees him give an insight into how weather forecasting has changed in YTV's 40 years onthe air. There are also anecdotes from past Yorkshire Television personalities like Austin Mitchell and Derek Fowlds.

A poll was also launched for the celebration in order to find a 'Yorkshire Icon'. The on-line survey asked people to pick someone they thought worthy of the award from a list of 40 faces from Yorkshire Television's history.

The person who came out on-top was none other than Richard Whiteley, and his partner Katherine Apanowich was there to collect the award. Kathy, herself a former Emmerdale actress, revealed that Richard was there on the day when they were pulling the long-standing YTV chevron from the studios and he said "I think we've seen the best days", I think he was probably right.

Mike Brown - Regional telly fan.

Related Links:

• Bring Back Regional ITV group on facebook.com.
• Yorkshire Television entry on Wikipedia.org
• History of Yorkshire Television at yorkshirepost.co.uk.
• Yorkshire Television logos at tv50.org.
• History of Yorkshire Television music on transdiffusion.org.
• History of Yorkshire Television logo on transdiffusion.org.
• Bob Preedy reading the YTV weather, then introducing Hale & Pace on youtube.com.
• Calendar opening titles from 1987 on youtube.com.