ITV in the Face Episode 11: Border & Channel

Made in 2015 to celebrate 60 years of ITV, a look back at a time when it wasn't a single channel but a conglomerate of regional channels, all with their own idents and identity: occasionally bizarre, often charming, this is the show that looks the history of ITV in the face.

Episode eleven: Border and Channel. Two companies that couldn't sustain a full half hour, mashed together into one, starring Craig Austin, Oscar T. Puffin and Rudyard Kipling.

[EJCotterill]

Rewatching for the umpteenth time all of ITV - in my Face- is literally only the thing getting me through the flu at the moment. Love this series so much. Thank you Matthew x

[anonUK]

The lion passant was the symbol of the Duchy of Normandy, which was William the Conqueror's patch and whose successor Houses ruled England until 1485. The last part of the Duchy of Normandy to exist since 1204 is the Channel Islands.

[giles]

Any idea why Border lost their ident on the ITV 1999 generic look?

[nigelhall]

Oh when that new logo appeared...I too thought and said out loud...Viacom!

I was thus in stitches when, a second later...so did you!

Fantastically written and presented...all of the series. Take a bow and keep up with the dry humour!

[shrillbert]

As an interesting note for viewers who wonder how Channel fared in the blind auction, Channel survived it after bidding £1, 000. They weren't unopposed, but the other guys were ex-Channel employees who thought they could do better and bid £102, 000, only to be shot down on quality grounds.

[cornerofthemoon]

Great series. I'm an American who lived in the UK in the 80's and witnessed which I assumed was the Silver Age of Regional Television. I found the infrastructure odd but charming as the US has local affiliate stations which are all pretty much carbon copies of each other and don't contribute programming (with the exception of an occasional news story) on a National level. Central was my favorite station, probably because it produced Spitting Image...: )

[janinefarnell]

I’ve watched these lots of times because i’m a real region geek😂

[dangerouslytalented]

Channel 31 (public access tv in Melbourne Australia) kept continuity announcers till about 2002. I was one of them

[eilidhmm]

One of the few good things ITV have done in the past 10 years is giving Border their sub-regional news back - the Scottish side's political show, Representing Border, has quite honestly the best coverage of Scottish politics (not that STV or BBC Scotland really try all that hard...)

[paulbrown]

I discovered your vids a few days ago, watched them all and this is the one I’ve been waiting for.

I’m from Border TV land.

The chopsticks are part of me! And seeing the Border logo at the start or end of a network show on ITV air Ch4 brought a sense of pride of my local ITV station ❤️

[johnking]

The timeline for analogue television in the Channel Islands was thus - 1) Monday 3rd October 1955, BBC Television arrived on the Channel Islands from Les Platons transmitter. 2) ITV (Channel Television) arrived on Saturday 1st September 1962 from Fremont Point transmitter. 3) BBC Two, colour television and UHF transmission began on Saturday 24th July 1976. 4) Channel 4 arrived on Tuesday 2nd November 1982.

[johnking]

21:55 - Channel Television provided a scaled back television service during the infamous 1979 ITV strike. They had no access to the ITV network and had to reply on imported material to Jersey to air, along with local news and local programming. This gave the channel a weird mix for a typical schedule, which was reduced to run from 5.00pm until near midnight each day. Usually films, repeats of ITC made programmes such as Danger Man, The Prisoner and repeats of The Avengers, The New Avengers filled the time between local news, local documentaries and imported movies from the 1940s and 1950s.

[ddar]

25:15
What's Deirdre from Coronation Street doing there?...

[richardjames]

I grew up in the Border region (before moving to the Tyne Tees region) - I remember adverts for livestock medicine on Border in the early 1980s - gives you a flavour of the demographic!

[Sheffield_Steve]

I thought the Border logo was some times referred to in design language as "Chopsticks in a bowl" ?

[opentellyonyoutube]

The Border ident with the rearranged ITV 1989 music actually continued to be shown in tandem with the final (pre-Hearts) ident. There is a video of the ident introducing the ITV Nightly News, launched in March 1999.

[Jessica_Kirk]

8:36 ITV Br-OH GOD DANG IT!!!!

25:57 *V I A C O M*

[GryphLane]

23:45 I've watched this a lot and it had bothered me that I couldn't work out why it looks so American. But you just know that "CTV 25" is exactly how it would be styled if it was an obscure American cable network.

[stutheironman]

I grew up in Border region. Had such a crush on Suzanna Boccaccio as a kid 😂. I miss in-vision continuity so much

[craigwoodley]

You should have 10x the amount of subs with the great content you produce 😄 Sound could be a little better but nonetheless great. 👍