Happy Birthday Yorkshire Television

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Posted July 8th, 2008 by Mike Brown in

Howdy!

This blog isn't either related to me, my show or Seaside FM, 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, If your a bit of a telly anorak like me, then you'll know that Yorkshire Television has just 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 happy birthday, even though it technically Yorkshire Television doesn't really exist anymore. The milestone birthday may not have been celebrated by it's 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 'TV-am' launched. Yorkshire Television was also first in the UK to offer 24 hour television when it began showing pop music videos through the night.

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 that 'Yorkshire Television Ltd' rather sadly ceased trading.

Until 2002, Yorkshire Television was often reffered to on-air as 'YTV', infact many people in the area 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 Mr. Preedy did for me in a similar vain to that used on YTV, I must dig them out for the show! The on screen idents (or jingles) that accompanied the announcements were based on the traditional Yorkshire song 'On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at'. Yorkshire's famous logo which featured on the idents between 1968 and 2004, and on the outside of the building (until recently), was a chevron.

It's such a travesty that that many journalists, announcers, newreaders, producers and other skilled people have lost their jobs at Yorkshire TV due to cut backs and that everything we see on our screens, other than the odd pan-regional programme (which are also dying out), now come from London.

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.

'Yorkshire' (as we still lovingly call it!) 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 '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 YTV production credit and logo at the end, 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 'Jimmy's' 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, I believe it was 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 assoociate with the programme. Richard, oof 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 your younger than me, it might be Marilyn Webb, Geoff Druett, Mike Morris, Christa Ackroyd, Duncan Wood, Christine Talbot, John Shires or Gaynor Barnes who you associate with 'Calendar'.

To commemorate the birthday, there was a poll 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 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.

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