London Weekend Television (LWT) Last Day on Air (Part 1)

[JayFirestorm]

It's weird - I used to get totally frustrated when a programme (usual some US import such as Knight Rider of A-Team) would be on adjoining regions but not mine. But now they've all merged, it's lost it's indentity. I used to love the local interest programmes. Now it's bland - I very seldom even bother checking whats on now - its usually either Emmerdale or "Corrie" =/

[bigcherry99]

i know this sounds ridiculous, but the thought of LWT having its last day makes me want to cry

.

all those memories from the 70's + 80's gone forever

[mersey70]

Let's be realistic, the main reason ITV became 'so bad' in some peoples opinion is because in the 80''s they had a market share of over 50%, they now have less than 15%.

The TV landscape has changed beyond anything the cosy world ITV inhabited before the 90's, I loved the old ITV but there wasn't a certain Sky, Internet and endless home entertainment options we have now.

[Imaan158]

Central did that to, but in a early date.

[LeeAmes]

All they show now are repeats and repeats of repeats on every channel.

[dacrlit]

Was this a mock ? If not when did they broadcast this please?

[AidanLunn]

This was indeed broadcast

There's a clue to the broadcast date in the video description.

why don't you bother reading the description before watching the video???

[identlover]

twat

[p0ab]

Not a mock. This was 27th October 2002 at 5.30am.

[sambda]

Read the description on the right!

[Applemask]

It was broadcast on the last day of LWT.

[christianmesmar]

I miss this soo much!

[Regalseven]

Thames was the real los for ITV back in 1992 when Carlton replaced it as the weekday broadcaster for the London region. Thames TV made some of the best programs that aired on ITV. I could n't say the same fo LWT though. All the same it's demise well and truly marks the deterioration of ITV chanel as a quality broadcaster and AnthonyUK below sums it up so well "A shit broadcaster with tasteless coporate identity with meaningless programmes" I can never hardly bring myself to to watch ITV now

[AnthonyUK]

ITV plc(and plc in this case means punnet loads of crap!) is a shit broadcaster with a tasteless national corporate identity and meaningless programmes!

[dymond9999]

When you think of the excellent programmes LWT made for the ITV network it,s a pity they are no longer in existence, as we all could be doing with them today.

Typical ITV though, could not wait to see the back of LWT but were crafty enough to keep their studios.

[booers79]

Although LWT doesn't exist as an entity the production units just became ITV Productions (now ITV Studios), so it's essentially all the same people making those shows still, so you can't really put the blame on ITV!

[dymond9999]

I totally agree with you in principal but surely ITV saw this coming years before it happened.

How else could they justify the demolition of the Thames studios in Euston Road?

A building synonymous with all the best programmes we grew up with.

[sambda]

Euston Road - "A building synonymous with all the best programmes". Most of the stuff you're probably thinking about was made at Teddington.

[sdaonline]

I remember the hints that this would happen on the internet at the time!

[fomiz]

The good old days

[kainer2]

This is amazing. Did they something like this every weekend? Or was it a one off geekfest?

[623058]

it was for the VERY last LWT day before every thing went to ITV1

[tsangari]

And I wish I recorded it for myself.

[racrmimbpsvc]

I am telling you, start ups need to be like this again.

[sailorclose]

It Became ITV1 London, right?

[triassicranger]

Sadly, yes.

[spudulitus]

I am so confused, its the old LWT decals, clock, etc. But talking about MPEG 2 & the news about the Iraq war! When was this broadcast?

[triassicranger]

27th October 2002. It's in the video description.

[Tripp1993]

Good way to end LWT. BRING BACK LWT! WHY don't you start a campaign to bring back the regions? Name it the "ITV Region Revival Project". Now, you should do a promo video, and dedicate it to me since I came up with the ITV Region Revival Project. If there's more than 100,000 YouTube subscribers who hate

the new ITV, they could bring the regions back and you should show ITV the consequences of their actions. They WILL get guilty and revive the regions by the beginning of the year 2010. Thank you.

[JoeScaramanga]

It'll never happen because it will be too expensive.

ITV is hemmoraging money at the moment. And it long ago gave up caring what people think about it.

[DistantCousin]

Absolutely, ITV has become completely ruthless, and it's general quality has plummeted beyond belief - I rarely watch it anymore.

[afuzzyduck]

ITV's gotten so bad I finding myself occasionally hoping the licence fee gets scrapped just so the BBC's demand for advertising drives ITV into oblivion...

[alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

@Tripp1993 I agree. ITV is just so bad nowadays!!! The regions of ITV produced much higher standards of programs than today! LWT, Thames, Granada, and Yorkshire were the great ITV regions! I hardly ever watch ITV nowadays not even for local news!

[peterhicks]

@Tripp1993 Did any of that actually happen?

[Galindagirl13]

@Tripp1993

The reason ITV became so bad is because it used to be a network then the two main shareholder companies (Carlton and Granada) gradually bought out all of the regional stations and then merged to create what we now know as ITV PLC, however, when regional programmes are broadcast in the various regions, they are still billed on the transmission schedule as 'Border, Yorkshire, LWT...'

but I agree.

BRING BACK LWT and good prime time entertainment for Saturday nights!

[BassPlayer9651]

@Tripp1993 Theres a group called bring back regional itv on facebook

[1soniccool]

The uk guys miss LWT

[identlover]

we sure do...sigh...

[Malpass93]

We miss all the regionality ITV used to have.

[jaychristie909]

Even though we were in Granadaland, I miss LWT more, it made the best shows on ITV.

[Regalseven]

Sad day for London television. LWT were a fun and largely entertaining crew of enthusiastic people at their very sophisticated southbank studios. Though in comparison to Thames TV (which broadcasted to the London area on weekdays until its demise in the early 1990s) the programmes weren't always of the highest quality. They as an institution will be missed all the same.

[CADAVERHUSK]

itv1 = dull dull dull.All ending credits are exactly the same.Makes me ill it really does

[charlieboy7t5]

I wonder how many people lost their jobs when ITV decided to reinvent itself.

[AnthonyUK]

Granada are the villians in all this;they took it all and emerged the winners!

[butiamthedoctor]

I'd rather Granada won than Crapton, things would have been 100 times worse if they'd won.

[jm01231]

oh god!

MERLIN THE MAGICAL PUPPY!

[studboydave]

Nice that they made such a big effort on their last day.  Thanks for posting.

[fraserkatie]

"A well Swung Fanfare " was the tune on the Transmitter service page here!

[webbersite]

world famous studios ! AAAAGHHHH

[jsmall147]

except scottish tv!

[AidanLunn]

and ulster and channel!

[Rackabello]

its sad, to see this, i have fond memories of LWT while I was living in Surrey :(

[betterwatchit]

At least they did *good* TV!

[deselmes]

Would Carlton have done anything special for their own last day on air two days before?

[poopiepoos]

I don't think they did. Lot of the regions didn't really mark their passing unless the continunity announcer was leaving their role to say its been X amount of years announcing for you. HTV used a sombre ident. It was only LWT that made their effort and thats only because the majority of the people involved are/were tv presentation freaks! :o)

[nach0king]

Sacrificed a goat, probably.

[lesnar01]

pure class the good old days with shows like hale and pace and london's burning

[25AUG1968]

They certainly won't return any time soon, because the ITV of modern times has too many soaps and reality shows and too little ambition (paraphrased from the Pilkington Report). Mike S.

[sslaxx]

Not ITV plc by this point. ITV plc came into being in 2004.

[JimfromLynn]

How telly should be with a good start up each morning.

And a good closedown each night rather than silly quiz shows.

[methecooldude]

I totally agree with you!

[bunnysss]

A number 1!