ITV in 1988: Scottish 

9 March 2023 tbs.pm/77522

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SCOTTISH TELEVISION

CENTRAL SCOTLAND

Cowcaddens, Glasgow G2 3PR
Tel: 041-332 9999
7 Adelaide Street, London WC2N 4LZ
Tel: 01-836 1500
The Gateway, Edinburgh EH17 4AH
Tel: 031-557 4554
Suite 306, Sunlight House, Quay Street, Manchester M3 3JY
Tel: 061-834 7621

Directors Sir Campbell Fraser (Chairman); *William Brown, CBE (Managing Director and Deputy Chairman); *Alan Chilton (Director of Sales); Ferdi Coia (Director of Facilities); *Hugh Henry (Chairman and Chief Executive, Airtime International); *Gus Macdonald (Director of Programmes); *Alan L Montgomery (Finance Director); Sir Kenneth Alexander; Gavin Boyd, CBE; Revd Robin D. Buchanan-Smith; Mrs Dorothy Dunnett; Charles A. Fraser, CVO, DL; Gavin Laird.

* Members of the Executive Board

Executive Board Shaun Clamp (Controller of Engineering); Don Kinloch (Company Secretary and Finance Controller); John Loch (Controller, Public Relations); Brian MacLaurin (Controller, Press Relations); Robert McPherson (Controller of Education, Religion and Children’s Programmes and Edinburgh Controller); Colin S. Waters (Controller of Personnel and Industrial Relations).

Management Group and Officers Peter Alexander (Head of Design and Graphics); John Baxter (Personnel Administration Manager); Ken Blackie (Controller of Programme Development); Arthur Blake (Head of Music); Andrew Crummey (Sales Manager, Scotland); John Dunlop (Chief Engineer); Brian Durkin (Head of Presentation); Russell Galbraith (Controller of Sport); Douglas Hall (Industrial Relations Manager); Ian Johnstone (Contracts Officer); Robert Love (Controller of Drama); Ian McDonald (Technical Facilities Manager); Sean Magee (Assistant Controller of Facilities); Liz Moriarty (Head of Programme Administration); George Neilson (Studio Facilities Manager); Douglas Odam (Chief Accountant); Michael Paterson (Assistant Head of Education); John Paton (Personnel Administration Manager); Sandy Ross (Controller of Entertainment); David Scott (Controller of News and Current Affairs); Cameron Slater (Head of Programme Planning); Geoff Smith (Administration Manager); Peter Smithson (General Sales Manager); Michael Trotter (Head of Programme Sales); John Warren (Head of Business Development); Rod Williams (General Sales Manager).

Staff. 811

Education Advisers Frank Adams; Wolesely Brown; Leslie Clark; Andrew Currie; Julia Durkin; Dr Ethel Gray, CBE; Joseph Hendry; Dr Elizabeth Leonard; Richard MacGregor; A.W. Miller; A. Nicholson; George Paton; Ivor Sutherland; J. I. Wallace; Douglas Weir; A. F. Whyte; plus representatives of the Convention of Scottish Legal Authorities.

Religious Advisers Revd Douglas Alexander; Ann Allen; Professor Tom Carbery; Revd Tom Connelly; Revd Maxwell Craig; Mary Cullen; Fergus Macdonald; Brian Marjoribanks; Lizz Spence; Canon Kenyon Wright.

Technical Facilities Glasgow: studio ‘A’ of 6,200 sq.ft, has permanent seating for an audience of 200. Studio ‘C’ of 3,600 sq.ft, is used principally for the production of day-to-day news, features and sports programmes. Scottish Television’s outside broadcast facility comprises two OB units, a remote camera unit and an OB caption unit, plus three ENG units backed up by two ENG editing suites. The company’s Research and Development department continues to be at the forefront of the industry’s drive for greater technological refinement.

Edinburgh: The 4,500 sq.ft, four-camera studio centre includes rehearsal rooms and a remote control news studio with permanent links to the main complex in Glasgow.

Sales and Research Advertisers are offered a complete marketing service. Research, statistical and marketing information for the Central Scotland transmission area is available from sales offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Manchester.

Programmes Scottish Television programmes are distinctively Scottish including those networked on ITV and C4. Indeed, these network programmes are increasingly important in showing all aspects of Scotland to the rest of the UK. The results of the 1987 General Election confirmed that Scotland can be different, a country which still sustains its own distinct forms of law, education, religion, politics, culture and sport.

Among networked programmes, the two Taggart series proved so popular that a film for television was also produced. The 104 episodes of Take the High Road have become a keystone of the afternoon schedules on ITV. Extras, a one-hour comedy for C4, showed the series side of life in a Glasgow massage parlour. In the Sunday family slot, our six-part film series Shadow of the Stone told the story of a young girl possessed by an ambition to sail. Also for family viewing, another series of The Campbells was completed.

Factual programmes networked on C4 included a feature documentary on Glasgow’s great designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh with Kara Wilson and her husband Tom Conti in Dreams and Recollections. In Scotland, factual programming increased significantly in 1987. More resources helped Scotland Today win a larger audience than its rival BBC early evening magazine. More Scottish News bulletins were incorporated in the new daytime schedules. The current affairs series Scottish Report included two international investigations of alleged war criminals in Britain. The new political series Scottish Questions and Scottish Assembly prepared the way for full and distinguished coverage of the Election in Scotland.

Crime Desk was revamped and Scottish news teams contributed to the network special Emergency 999. Community service ads have been introduced and the Christmas Helpline service dealt with thousands of calls for advice. Our Aids Campaign was commended in two major broadcasting awards.

Two men in raincoats stare into the distance, both soaking wet

Mark McManus as Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart (right) and James MacPherson as Detective Sergeant Mike Jardine on the trail of a killer in Taggart.

Educational series included Take a Good Look; You Can Manage and Let Yourself Go for Scottish schools and an adult education series Easy for the network.

The work of Gaelic speaking playgroups was supported in the series Trang Trang and the future of Celtic culture was raised in a documentary Tartan Past, Chequered Future and in coverage of the Mod.

Religious series in 1987 included Cross Current; Come Wind: Come Weather; Chapter and Verse; Tell the Story; Late Call; Songs of Celebration and a twelve-part series for C4 Gods of War. A special Papal Mass was broadcast live to the joy of the large Catholic community in Scotland.

In sport, Scottish Television offered exclusive coverage of boxing, tennis, athletics, shinty, golf and the Women’s World Netball Championships. Football is of course the main attraction in the weekly magazine Scotsport.

In arts and entertainment, The Hogmanay Show broke with old style entertainment and featured young talents from a new generation of Scottish entertainers. Burns Night was marked by two programmes: Tree of Liberty and Burns – In Search of the Auld Sangs. A troupe of handicapped youngsters performed Homer’s epic in a moving documentary An Edinburgh Odyssey.

The 30th birthday of Scottish Television was celebrated with a month of specially-made productions. What’s on Channel Ten, Hen? recalled Scottish TV’s early pioneering years. Birthday celebrations began in spectacular style with a broadcast by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra live from Edinburgh to Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and Scotland. The Edinburgh Festival was fully covered by Festival Live; Festival Cinema and the anarchic fringe review, Acropolis Now.

The Terry Neason Show featured the best of young Scottish talents in a late-night series. Traditional musicians got their opportunity in the series Aly Bain and Friends. The special demands of a ‘National’ region and the ambition to get more Scottish Television productions on network television, encouraged creative co-operation with Scottish independent production companies which promises further advances in the future.

 

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