Thames says goodbye

[TheMasterNo6]

Someone should send this to ITV now and along with it a piece of shit, fresh and smelly with semi-digested food bits and say: THAMES WAS BRILLIANT, THE SHIT IS A METAPHOR FOR YOU NOW...

[hollyoaks132003]

who was the woman who was on the bill at 1.16 and whats the actress called

[DeadlyNightShade60]

Mr Bean FTW

[D7Kaka]

what is the actress name at 0:39 & what was this programme? it's on the tip of my tongue & driving me mad. She was soo hot in the day :-)

[neiljohn2012]

@D7Kaka Patricia Hodge; now to be found playing Penny in BBC Two's comedy 'Miranda.'

[neiljohn2012]

@D7Kaka And according to Wikipedia; Rumpole of the Bailey.

[Rheinmetall1]

So many memories from Thames Television, even though I'm not British.

[Vennegoor10]

Another thing Thatcher did to destroy the country was her revenge on Thames TV for "Death on the Rock". Was a hammer blow to ITV and UK cultural life and it's still suffering.

Ironic the current PM's only real job was marketing Thames' successor, Carlton TV.

Fucking Tory scum.

[HallofWisdom]

I didn't realize they went under, that's too bad. Here in the US, some of the best programs (we spell it like that here) were Thames shows.

[Stompgal]

The only face I could recognise in the montage was Mr Bean. That was one of my favourite programmes produced by Thames alongside Rainbow, Learn With Sooty and Button Moon.

[NPA1001]

Ahh Rumpole, Minder... the days when ITV made great comedy-dramas, before shit like I'm a celeb and all those Simon Fuckin Cowell shows came to dominate the airwaves.

[howellfilm]

Why doesn't someone bring Thames back?

[AnthonyUK]

Carlton-a talent for mindnumbing shite!

[ACTIVEBIRDBRAIN]

1:41 The GREAT BENNY HILL! Benny Hill Made Thames TV & They FIRED Him! Desitions Like That Led to thier Demise. They give him 1 second of tribute to him in thier farewell. That's the gratitude they give in thier FAREWELL Singn-off. Long Live BENNY HILL on DVD and RIP in this world till the next. As for THAMES TV, you get what YOU got. Never even missed you!

[barrieuk]

What Tory created : the Television Act 1954 Tory destroyed : the Broadcasting Act 1990.

[AnthonyUK]

ITV1 the brighter side(to slash your wrists to!) LOL

[GSNLiveFree4All89]

For those wanting to see the good part of this skip to the song starting at 0:30.

1:55 Thames. A talent for television. Ain't it the truth my brother. :)

[shirleygibson]

The Tourists SUCK! But We Like Dusty Springfield Or Alan Greystone Better.

[shirleygibson]

The Tourists "I only want to be With You" was a cover Of The Petula Clark HIT In January 1963.

[dwibs93]

well Carlton had great idents, but other than that i don't know much about Carlton because i was in the Central region at the time and we did have the carlton idents in 1999

[44032]

A lot of Amercians think they saw somehting on "the BBC" when they actually saw it on Thames.

[patryk1023PL]

i've know from Thames Television ONLY BENNY HILL!

[idle44]

If you look at the programme montage at the end, and then, compare it with ITV today you have to say it has gone 'Tits-up'. Now 'the Bill' has gone and we lost 'Foyles War' when it stil had two years to run, all I can say is- thank God for GOLD, DVD and home recorded VHS collections.

[fraserkatie]

I miss Thames! The words at the end say it all, it was "A Talent For Television"!

[thedre4mmaster]

A talent for television indeed.

[Qtmas]

whos the man smoking a cigarette at 0:41?

[GBCOne]

Sir Laurence Olivier

[identlover]

Are you sure..? I thought it was Dick Emery..?

[philculmer]

@GBCOne Looks like Larry, but I think it's actually Dick Emery

[TheMasterNo6]

Thames was an awesome franchise holder in its day. Shame Thatcher and the ITC decided-based on the 'death on the rock' world in action documentary that it had to be hung out to dry. No wonder now ITV is a piece of crap now, thanks Thatcher, the ITC and the rest of the twats that ruined things....RIP Thames, sorely missed.

[AidanLunn]

From a comedian (Benny Hill) dressing up as a policeman.

[AidanLunn]

No. Thames Television gets *replaced* by Carlton. That's a very different thing from "becomes".

[christian2006morris]

The demise of Thames TV was a disgrace and has led to the destruction of ITV as any kind of a credible popular broadcast network.

Even from the hardest, most mercurial perspective, if they were going to knock off Thames, they should have bolstered TVS because they were a newcomer but very well respected producer. Culling both was insane and ITV has paid dearly for it.

Karma.

[IntellectualAmy]

I agree with you there. All the great stations: WestWard, Southern, Border, Anglia, ATV, Thames....just memories now :(

[Poshswagger]

The demise of Thames TV is one of the worst things ever to happen in Britain. I really mean that.

[sucksicksock]

Richard Johann Dunn, television executive: born 5 September 1943; managing director, Pearson Television Holdings 1993-95; CBE 1995; executive director, News International Television 1995-98; married 1972 Jigga Gaynor (two sons, one daughter); died Windsor, Berkshire 4 August 1998.

Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell is to make a keynote speech at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. The takes place from 27 to 29 August. The Richard Dunn Memorial Interview will take place on 28 August.

[sucksicksock]

I was shocked today 24th Aug 08 to read an article that spoke highly of Mr Dunn - One of the most respected Tv Chiefs. who sadly passed away age 54 in 2002.

I this video Mr Dunn thanks the viewers & stars of Thames TV.

I thankyou Mr Dunn, god bless - rest in peace.

[sucksicksock]

I apologise for the arse who has no regard for anyone but his own sad life. Have respect nerd

[KevCityboy]

I have got respect actaully. I didn't know he died

[sucksicksock]

Thankyou, I apologise for the mis understanding KevCityBoy.

The only rreason I was shocked, was that my cousin used to work at Thames & for four years was Mr Dunns personal secretary. She took it quite bad, Happy New Year Kev.

Sincerely

Michael - London

[sucksicksock]

Im sorry that KevCityBoy has no respect, after all his a boy.

[AlanHilter]

By the way, if anybody knows how to get hold of copies of "Death on the Rock" or the other 'difficult' documentary called either "Death of a Princess" or "Murder of a Princess" please let me know. Cheers.

[AlanHilter]

I can forgive many people for most acts. But the bastardisation of the ITV service in 1992 I cannot.

To think a service like Thames was replaced by Carlton. Not for nothing were they (and still are by some) known as "the 'C' word in television".

[ooeyb]

i think they got axed because thames went too far with their 'Murder on the Rock' docu about the SAS shooting of terrorists. It's sad, really sad that regional tv idents dont really exist anymore. Maybe we should start a petition to bring them back. TV was so much better back then...

[AnthonyUK]

Thames was and is a good company and it should NEVER have gone. Now it's Talkbackthames/SYCO tv owned by RTL Group Luxembourg.

[VirgilB01]

What Happened to that network! In the US I remember great programs like "The Benny Hill Show", "Are you being served" "Mr Bean" and others. How in the world could that network go down with programming like these?!

[GBCOne]

AYBS was the BBC but the other two were Thames.

[VirgilB01]

Ok,that's right..But still how in the world could they lose there licences..The BBC didn't buy these networks? That's like Here in America some one buying NBC or CBS with all of their news network and programs. These networks costs billions of US dollars, and you have to be very,very rich and powerful to do that?

[GBCOne]

It went something vaguely like this.....commercial TV companies had to bid against each other. Too low a bid or too high a bid may have resulted in losing the bid. Throw into that a "quality threshold" which was a token nod to not dumbing down too much. The whole thing was a lottery. It was a system introduced by the Margaret Thatcher government.

I'm sure someone could explain it more fully.

[VirgilB01]

Man! what a messed up system you have over there in the UK. That's one of the many things that led to the demise of the Maggie Thatcher Govt. If President Bush did something like that here in the US the American people would have his head! What a shame!

[TheKid965]

The, as you say, "messed up system" now no longer really resembles what it was even here. These days, ITV is ITV wherever you go in Britain; the only remaining links to individual regions are to be found in local newscasts, and even at that there's been great effort expended to make sure it all looks the same - generic, bland, and with as little local flavor as possible.

Here in America, it's about like what CBS and Fox have tried to do with their corporate-mandated in-house looks...

[TheKid965]

Let's call it what it was: In a nutshell, Thames produced a documentary highly critical of the Thatcher government, to the point where some in Maggie's inner circle considered it borderline treasonous. The "blind auction" nonsense was more or less specifically designed to screw Thames out of their franchise; that three other franchises (including the Thatcher-friendly TV-am) also ended up on the outs appears to have been done just to make it look good.

That's how I understand it, anyway...

[identlover]

I never knew that. It all kinda makes sense now. V sad indeed.

[donjabroni]

That's true, but I could say that TVS had it coming. They owned MTM productions and lost a lot of money from it and was at the point of bankruptcy, so they overbid and lost anyways.

Such a shame since it was a good station.

[TheKid965]

That is a good point about TVS. Even if the system wasn't out to screw Thames, TVS would probably still have lost their franchise.

I've noticed a pattern here, though... the companies that took over for the losers (Westcountry, Meridian, GMTV, and the infamous Carlton) are generally regarded as among the weakest regional ITV holders ever, while the four that fell (TSW, TVS, TV-am, and Thames) are ranked among the best. And ITV's never been anything approaching that good ever since.

[NWOConspiracyGroup]

@GBCOne - Thames was killed off by the Conservative government after they broadcasted a revealing program called Death On The Rock's. They did a program called this week but that particular edition exposed the horrors of the British army in Gibraltar. Thames being a fine station produced a quality truthful program which led to its demise thanks to powers in high places. Carlton & Granada's merger was pre-planned to wipe out people like Thames for good.

[callwithcurrentconti]

@GBCOne I'd like to add to this - the new regulations allowed for Channel 4-like publisher-broadcasters who didn't need to have their own production base. This, of course, benefitted (and I am loath to type this out) Carlton who won the auction straight (and pretty much any non-incumbent.)

[SKCUK1]

Thames was the backbone of British TV. A complete violation that this bastion of excellence was ever considered to be part of the lunacy that was franchise sales. Thames TV will always be missed. You just have to look at the car crash that is ITV to see what they lost.

[juliabollocks]

Well said. We all miss you Thames TV

[nach0king]

Well said, sir.

[bluesbrother37]

WE SURE DO!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dantheman2funny]

Thames, I salute you!

[robchin2222]

Carlton TV? The beginning of the end for quality!

[FabFM]

yes, but just think years later it would get even worse, as every region lost it's identity. Today there is one generic ITV identity. So much for regional TV! I don't think this would have ever happened have Thames, TSW, TVS and TVAM not lost their franchises!

[treffynnon19]

Such a dignified exit as a broadcaster. It was probably a testament to Thames that all but one of the ITV stations broadcast their farewell programme. Thames is still with us as a production company, you just have to look a bit closer to find it.

[AidanLunn]

Just in case anyone is wondering what the exception ITV region was, it was TVS who were broadcasting their own goodbye programme.

[25AUG1968]

Such an illustrious history unjustly disregarded thanks to the Tories and the ITC. Thames had a "talent for television" which Carlton clearly did not. Now we have ITV plc, which is mostly just wall to wall excrement of the highest order. Mike S.

[Tripp1993]

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!

[Tripp1993]

PLEASE put up the Thames Television -Carlton Television clip! Do it for me! The seconds aren't

dull IHMO!

[GBCOne]

The clip is now up.

[Tripp1993]

What was the change-over of Thames TV to Carlton TV?

How did it happen? An ITN News report?!

[25AUG1968]

tripp1993, What was the changeover of Thames TV to Carlton TV? A disaster for British TV and how did it happen?, well, a few words - Thatcher, Gibraltar, Shoot To Kill Policy and Thames having the audacity to tell the truth. Oh yes, and the IRA. Year? 1988. Programme? This Week - Death On The Rock. Mike S.

[bluesbrother37]

I'm not convinced, otherwise Thames would never have been allowed to show the documentary.

[AidanLunn]

bluesbrother37, they showed it without knowing what the consequences would have been

[Tripp1993]

Can I see this with the start of Carlton TV?

[GBCOne]

Carlton's first few seconds are really rather dull IMHO and that's why I didn't put a clip up. It's merely one of the old character idents with a town cryer telling you what channel you're watching. If there's enough call for it, it might put it up.

[bidanton]

How ironic it is that Thames did indeed, have a talent for television, as the promo says, and yet it was replaced minutes later by the vapid Carlton.

This proves the ITC wrong-that Thames was much better than Carlton at making programmes-as most of us knew already!

[hcvang]

@bidanton the ITC?

How terrible.... I remember Thames Television's logo as an icon of my childhood. Allo Allo... Mr Bean... and Carlton owns these now, do they? Bummer.

Imagine... a television channel that makes it's own programming like the good old days... would never happen now, unfortunately. Wouldnt mind one or two of those

[KevCityboy]

What an appropriate song! The single worst day in TV history in my opinion 1st Jan 1993. Carlton ruined it!

[Britkiller]

Kevcity boy how gay are U. the only blue in Manchester is the Athletics.

[KevCityboy]

Fuck off you stupid little boy!

[fraserkatie]

A sad time! Thames was a great station network! Rip Thames, I miss you lots!

[KevCityboy]

Hear hear! I want it back!

[Britkiller]

Ya want the tellitubbies back on everyday a simple show for a mental giant like kevcityboy. He is king of all chavs. Biggest gold chains anyone has ever seen were spotted on him at a city game. But bieng a council dwellar the Burberry was bootleg. Fucking poor cunt.

[KevCityboy]

You're the cunt you fuckin idiot!