ITV in 1988: Granada 

16 February 2023 tbs.pm/77508

Granada print logo

GRANADA TELEVISION

NORTH-WEST ENGLAND

Granada TV Centre, Manchester M60 9EA
Tel: 061-832 7211
Albert Dock, Liverpool L34AA
Tel: 051-7009393
White Cross, Lancaster LA1 4XQ
Tel: 0524 688
36 Golden Square, London W1R 4AH
Tel: 01-734 8080

Directors David Plowright (Chairman); Alex Bernstein (Deputy Chairman); Andrew Quinn (Managing Director); Harry Coe (Financial Director); Prof. John Ashworth; Lord Evans of Claughton; Donald Marker (Director of Public Affairs); Alastair Mutch (Company Secretary); Nick Phillips (Sales Director); Simon Towneley; Vivien Wallace (Chief Executive, Granada International).

Programme Board Steve Morrison (Director of Programmes).
Commissioning Executives: News and Current Affairs: Ray Fitzwalter, Andrew McLaughlin; Drama: Michael Cox, Steve Hawes; Features, Arts, Education: David Boulton, Rod Caird; Entertainment: Stephen Leahy, David Liddiment; Sport: Paul Doherty.

Officers Stuart Avison (Head of Design and Location Services); Carolyn Bartlett (Head of Casting); Roger Beck (Head of Film); David Black (Head of Presentation); Barbara Blyth (Head of Music); Tony Brill (General Manager); Jules Burns (Head of Programme Services); Richard Ellis (Chief Engineer); Alan Gilbert (Chief Accountant); Gerald Hagan (Head of Scripts); David Highet (Head of Public Affairs); Mandy Patchett (Manager, Personnel); Don Raw (Head of Technical Operations); Stephen Reid (General Manager, Liverpool); Jo Rigby (Head of Programme Planning); Ian Ritchie (Head of Production Services); Ray Sale (Regional Sales Manager); Brenda Smith (Head of Studio and Lightweight Operations); Richard Wilson (Manager, Labour Relations).

Studio and Technical Facilities Granada is Britain’s longest-established Independent Television company. The first Granada programme was transmitted from the Manchester TV Centre on May 3, 1956. Now Granada’s facilities include four main TV studios ranging in size from 2,400 to 7,000 sq.ft., a 15,000 sq.ft, production stage (Stage One) capable of seating audiences of 1,000 for televised entertainment and sports events, and an historic Victorian warehouse converted into a modern production centre. A new visitors’ tour facility opens in 1988. Granada has Britain’s most up-to-date computerised regional daily news operation centred on Liverpool. Electronic news-gathering (ENG) crews from Liverpool, their satellite base at Lancaster, and the Manchester TV Centre, can set up their kerbside news studios anywhere in Granadaland and be on the air instantly. Granada is a leading participant in the British Satellite Broadcasting consortium awarded the IBA’s satellite TV franchise from 1989, and shareholders in Super Channel, providing a pan-European TV service.

Programmes REGIONAL: Granada Reports offers a seven-days-a-week North-West perspective on local, national and international news stories from the Liverpool News Centre and computer-linked newsrooms in Manchester, Lancaster and London. The Week In View takes a Friday lunch-time look at the week past and the week ahead. You’re Telling Us! gives North-West viewers a voice. Celebration covers the lively world of non-metropolitan arts. Music Alive brings the best of the region’s music. Quartet covers masterclasses by the Lindsay String Quartet. This England captures on film the diversity of life in Granadaland. Down To Earth looks at life on the land. Greenprint documents a five-year ecological experiment in the region’s environmentally sensitive areas. State of the Region analyses the North-South divide. New North celebrates regional innovations and enterprise. Members Only gives MPs their own free comment slot. Flying Start runs business enterprise and job creation competitions in the region’s four principal counties. Scramble helps the less fortunate help themselves. This Is Your Right with its Asian edition Aap Kaa Hak, is TV’s longest-running citizens’ advice bureau of the air. Billboard offers voluntary organisations a platform.

SPORT – everything from soccer to bowls.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: World In Action investigates on Mondays and What The Papers Say (C4) reviews the British press on Fridays. What The European Papers Say, on ITV and for Super Channel.

ARTS: The Trojans – documentary on Opera North and Welsh National Opera’s co-production of the Berlioz epic (C4). Prometheus – Vladimir Ashkenazy, John Ogdon and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Scriabin’s music-and-light show. Andalucian Serenade follows the Liverpool Phil, to Granada, Spain. Festival of Non-Metropolitan Arts – the best of ITV’s regional arts coverage. View From Mount Westall – bicentenary celebration of Australia’s first landscape artist.

DRAMA SERIES: Small World, adapted in six parts by Howard Schuman from David Lodge’s novel, is a story of love in a university setting. Len Deighton’s Game Set and Match, a 13-part film shot in Mexico, Berlin and the UK, is the story of a British agent enmeshed in intrigue on both sides of the Iron Curtain. After The War was written for television by Frederic Raphael, author of The Glittering Prizes. To celebrate the Sherlock Holmes centenary, Granada’s first 35mm and stereophonic movie for television is The Sign Of Four filmed on location in Malta, London, Yorkshire, Norfolk and Manchester. The second series of The Return of Sherlock Holmes will comprise ‘Silver Blaze’, ‘The Devil’s Foot’, ‘Wisteria Lodge’, and ‘The Bruce Partington Plans’ at one hour each and a two hour screenplay of The Hound of The Baskervilles.

SINGLE FILMS: The Magic Toyshop is an ‘adult fairy-tale’ by Angela Carter about a young girl trapped between fantasy and reality in her uncle’s puppet theatre. Every Breath You Take is basest on a script by Nell Dunn about the emotional effect of a mother when her 12-year-old son is diagnosed as diabetic.

FEATURES: All Our Yesterdays, presented by Bernard Braden. Socially Unacceptable, a Channel 4 series presented by Ray Gosling about changing attitudes towards human behaviour. Jobwatch continues its exploration of training and employment. Plants For Fire, Village Roadshow and Gardeners’ Calendar make up Channel 4’s gardening programmes. Making It follows a year in the life of a young professional conductor and The Audition recorded a dance competition for aspiring youngsters. Pravda a tells the inside story of the world’s largest circulation newspaper. Ten Quid Tourists is the story of people who take advantage of cheap faces to emigrate to Australia. Voices From The Kalahari records the extra contribution made by an American family to the survival of the vushmen in South West Africa. Disappearing World films will continue to chart the head-on collision of rural communities around the world with the 20th century. Trading Place looks at the state of Europe, using commerce and trade as its starting point.

LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT QUIZZES: The Krypton Factor. Gordon Burns presents television’s toughest quiz as it enters its 11th season. Busman’s Holiday, the occupations and travel quiz; Connections, Sue Robbie’s lateral thinking daily quiz; and Runway, a new ‘dirty tricks’ and general knowledge daily quiz.

VARIETY: Kate & Ted’s Show. Talented sister and brother Kate and Ted Robbins sing, dance and laugh their way through their first comedy series. The Funny Side. Starring members of the public, great British Institutions come under scrutiny in this new series. The Grumbleweeds. The manic five star in their own series. Special Session. Dynamic new bands recorded live in concert.

SCHOOLS: Chemistry in Action provides an important package of resource material for GCSE. Geography’s Place and People looks at Egypt and the Netherlands, as well as Britain. History in Action provides unique raw material. Picture Box, Your Living Body and Geography Today continue to be used in a large number of schools. An important new series, The Countryside, comprises 14 programmes for 9- to 11-year-olds.

 

A camera crew film two men stood in front of a multilingual "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR" sign

Filming in West Berlin for Game Set and Match, Len Deighton’s epic spy story.

 

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