Thames Television strike start-up | Tuesday 23 October 1984
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- Опубликовано: 10 окт 2015
- From the www.transdiffusion.org/ archives...
Thames starts the day in a slightly different way, with management operating the equipment and a selection of "in the can" programming with nothing available from the network as the technicians walk out.
This strike/dispute, and the one earlier that year in August, had odd implications in Northern Ireland.
Ulster Television seemed largely unaffected, apart from not being able to show Thames' programmes, but it was in Channel Four in Northern Ireland where it DID affect things.
During that would have been Thames' franchise period in London during the week, during these strikes, there were no adverts on C4 in NI: we had the familiar 'follows shortly' captions and music.
However, once London Weekend Television had taken-over in London, commercials - not always filling the breaks - resumed on C4 in NI. Then they disappeared again on Monday - until the dispute ended.
There must have been some sort of bespoke arrangement between Thames & UTV for selling advertising in NI - though what it was & how it would have operated, I do not know.
The electricians' at ITV were a regular source of industrial action in the 1980s: this dispute, one at Granada, another more national one that saw programmes being screened (where possible) in semi-darkness, TV-am, etc. Then there was another one at Ulster in 1987 that either blanked-out or dramatically reduced programmes for two weeks' around Easter 1987, because a technician was on sick-leave - & UTV had put a private detective firm on him, only to discover that he was doing work on a pub that he owned. Again, there were no adverts on C4 in Northern Ireland for the duration of that dispute, & eventually only 4-5 hours' of imports & UTV re-runs & brief local news headlines for 4-5 hours' per evening until the dispute was settled.
I can remember Thames starting one morning with Philip Elsmore appearing in-vision, talking for a bit, then a phone ringing and the sound being pulled down and him taking a fairly animated phone call on air in-vision before programming started. I've always wanted to ask him about that. I suspect that it was what they refer to in radio as 'The Batphone' where management had a hotline to the studio that was answered as a priority, but I have wondered if he was maybe even talking directly to the engineers to see if they were going to cue up the first programme or not.
Between strikes and transmitter breakdowns there were a lot of outages in the Thames area, particularly for those of use who used the Crystal Palace transmitter. They had their own card during what I guess would be a relay outage that was just a picture of a transmitter. I have hunted around online but never seen an image of that.
I also remember that season of Danny Kaye films. They are probably the first films I sat through and watched.
I remember the strike started during either a Tuesday or Wednesday night. Name that Tune was being transmitted, then didn’t return after a commercial break. The Thames Ident slide was shown, with Peter Marshall apologising for the breakdown in programmes. Then some music played for a while. About 30 minutes or so later, an apology caption was displayed with an explanation as to the loss of programmes. Then we had the late start to Thames each day as the dispute rumbled on, with management putting out it’s own service. Thames and the unions never saw eye to eye it has to be said.
I remember that when I was 7 in 1984.
11:59 is when the announcement happened
Oi! Thames management, there's an apostrophe in Diff'rent Strokes :-)
Maybe that's what Willis was always talkin' 'bout :)
It's how they spell it. Nothing to do with Thames
With strikes like these, no wonder Margaret Thatcher and Carlton saw poor Thames as easy prey.
I always wonder how the schedule was on a Friday when it was like that, whether it was worth coming on air for three and a half hours...
Wonder no more ruclips.net/video/9moPsMWuSU8/видео.html
that thames ident before the film was so washed out
I've just posted my thoughts on this, but I'd imagine it had been siting in the can on standby for breakdowns, emergencies etc. for some years prior.
Thames might be on strike, but Peter Marshall is still a smoothy...
Nice record at the start!
Presumably nothing can be taken from the network as it could trigger a network-wide walk out?
Fascinating to hear the little heard "full" version of the Thames theme if nothing else! The logo looks very washed out, suggesting it had been in the can for breakdowns, emergencies and the like for a few years prior. In fact, to get really picky, although it's obviously a much elaborated version of the basic fanfare, the opening familiar bit sounds more like the older take of the theme used some years prior to '84.
I've read that the operators of the Telecine also were on strike. Probably a rather unexperienced operator from the typing-pool wasn't completely up-to speed. Because the house on the left and big Ben does see rather sharp and with a lot of colour it's probably a bit of clipping, causing the rest looking rather washed-out.
Further watching of the announces made me think the tape is rather worn. It's probably a VHS played back on an old machine.
@transdiffusion what are sympathy strikes and also why are they illegal today in the UK?
This was the same year as the miners strike
Man, Thames workers seemed to strike at the drop of a hat! What was the reason that time?
+Tim Mischka Unsure, but it's worth remembering that it takes two to tango - poor industrial relations are the fault of management as much (if not more than) the workers, and Thames's management were very crappy when it came to industrial relations. The unions were belligerent too - an unholy mix - but both sides were usually at fault.
I remember this strike, and for some reason as a young boy it quite scared me, as if there had been some sort national disaster and emergency broadcasting was in place!!
But does management *know how* to operate equipment?
Tuesday 23rd October, what year was this?
+Jamie Murphy 1984, we're 99% sure.
A couple of days before I was born? Wow!
+Jamie Murphy You can fairly confidently tell people that Thames was on strike on the day you were born. Except if you were born after 5.15pm on Friday, on Saturday or on Sunday, of course!
+John King This was a local strike at Thames only. TV-am ran as normal but at 9.25am handed over to nothing in London except a caption apologising for the interruption to programmes. Thames management scraped this service together to run as you see it - no live programmes, nothing from the network. The dispute would've been with technical staff or electricians and sadly was not unusual at Thames, which had appalling industrial relations during its entire existence, in marked contrast to both ABC and Rediffusion.
+John King Yes, ITN went out as normal to everyone else. But the technicians at ITN refused to supply the programmes to Thames in sympathy with the strikers. (Actually, it's more complicated than that - ITN's output went through Thames as normal but Thames declined to show it in London as the technicians at ITN would've pulled the entire broadcast if they did). That's also why ITV network programmes were not available to Thames.
This type of "secondary action" or "sympathy strike" is now illegal in the UK.