ITV Telethon

[Rob]

https://twitter.com/SkillageSteve/status...7149971464

[Steve Williams]

From my Radio Times collection...





Sorry for the preponderance of Stuart Hall there. As you can see, the news was included within the programme, and overnight there was quite a lot of pre-recorded fare, including a film which I remember was voted for by readers of the TV Times. You can see there's a service on Sunday morning but they continue through the God slot. That Disney Club sequence, as I say, was clearly pre-recorded, there was always a kids bit in the morning, in 1988 Gaz Top presented it and I remember being shocked in 1990 when Andy Crane appeared to announce he was joining Motormouth! I remember the Blind Date bit was sponsored by Safeway and they mentioned all the kids were kids of Safeway employees, this in the very earliest days of sponsorship.

The other Telethon connection there is that Give A Little Bit by Supertramp, as seen on The Chart Show, was re-released as the official Telethon single, but it failed to chart.

[Steve Williams]

https://twitter.com/SkillageSteve/status...7149971464

Thank you Rob!

The other item of interest from that day is that I remember reading that series of Haggard had been on the shelf for absolutely ages, I think it was made in 1990, and by the end of the run they were flinging it out on Sunday afternoons.

[Torpido1]

Thanks for that anyone able to offer anything else

[Humphrey Hacker]

Think of Telethon as one long nationally networked programme with sweeps around the regions. Not "opt-out" as such,

There were frequent opt outs throughout the Telethons, about 10 minutes every hour or similar. They were similar to the ones that CiN used to do with each region presenting their own little Telethon from an OB or their studios.

As you say London had its own bits presented mainly mainly by presenters only really known in London - Danny Baker, Emma Freud etc One was from the Connaught Rooms in Holborn which stuck in my head for some reason and it was only years later when I used to go into the pub opposite that I realised where it was. Hays Galleria was another location it came from.

I remember for one of them, possibly 1990 being on holiday in York during the a Telethon weekend and being fascinated but the hotel TV having both Yorkshire and Tyne Tees and being able to see both their Telethons. Yorkshire being the better one. All I remember is that it was presented by Richard Whiteley presenting from a lecturn with the Yorkshire chevron logo on it, think it had an audience. Tyne Tees' was very dull in comparison

In "Himoff" Richard Whiteley wrote about during the first national Telethon in 1988 he wore a different jacket every opt-out to promote Yorkshire linen and that at the end of the broadcast he was apparently carried shoulder high out of the studio only to suffer from depression later on. 2 years later as soon as that telethon ended he flew straight to the Algarve only to feel depressed there.

The energy and mental strength that are needed to present long-form live broadcasts must be immense and that feeling of coming down afterwards must be horrible.

[CameronYoung]

In "Himoff" Richard Whiteley wrote about during the first national Telethon in 1988 he wore a different jacket every opt-out to promote Yorkshire linen and that at the end of the broadcast he was apparently carried shoulder high out of the studio only to suffer from depression later on. 2 years later as soon as that telethon ended he flew straight to the Algarve only to feel depressed there.

The energy and mental strength that are needed to present long-form live broadcasts must be immense and that feeling of coming down afterwards must be horrible.

I remember watching a documentary about him (Might've been "Richard Whiteley: Television Man") and he said exactly that - during it, it's the highest of highs and as soon as it finishes, you just come crashing down. I do wonder what specifically about it causes you to come crashing down.

[nwtv2003]

Whiteley pretty much said that on the documentary about his career. His words were that it was an American presenter who had hosted telethons previously said that you’ll go from being on the highest high to lowest low.

Thanks to [mention]Steve Williams[/mention] for uploading the Radio Times listings from the 1992 Telethon. I hadn’t seen the full 92 listings before now. Considering that all three Networked Telethons were around when VCR’s were widely available, there is surprisingly little amount of Telethon material online.

[James Martin]

Gosh, parts of the 1992 Telethon really were phoned in weren't they, such as the film overnight? With four of the franchises on death row by that point I suppose it was inevitable. It's stated in Morning Glory that TV-AM had by that point gone into "What are you gonna do, revoke the franchise?" mode hence all they offered up was the cartoon strand (although as I've said before you've got to remember Ian Jones clearly didn't like TV-AM or specifically Bruce Gyngell.)

[deejay]

There's this from Granada's Telethon 1990, which can only be described as "of it's time"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoSYdPvsUi8

[Andrew]

I’m amazed at all those regional opt outs, basically every half an hour except overnight, certainly not an after thought. It must have been a massive undertaking for the smaller regions like Border, Channel and Grampian

[Andrew]

Talking about the early days of sponsorship, look at this item from the ITV Telethon with subtle sponsorship in the Rovers. I think this is what people thought product placement would be like
https://youtu.be/FvrE3ebcNm8

[Steve Williams]

Gosh, parts of the 1992 Telethon really were phoned in weren't they, such as the film overnight? With four of the franchises on death row by that point I suppose it was inevitable.

In terms of the time given over to pre-recorded material it probably wasn't too different to most other charity events - at this time Comic Relief would quite frequently devote a lot of time to classic comedy clips, or showing the first half of a show (I remember they did it with Dad's Army) and then refusing to show the second half until they'd received more money. And even thought it was the Telethon, it was three o'clock in the morning so the number of people watching was likely to be pretty tiny.

You could of course always set your watch by what Asp was wearing, who'd start off in a dinner jacket, then change after a few hours to a normal suit, then jacket and jeans, then by the morning he'd be in a jumper, and then work his way back up again so he was back in a dinner jacket at the end.

[James Martin]

Here's a highlights package, if you can call it that, of YTV's contributions in 1992 - presented by Twice Nightly himself.

Trigger warning: I should advise that this clip contains "him" - dancing with Richard like two drunken uncles at a wedding.

https://youtu.be/vvN4f4-y424

[Inspector Sands]

Regarding the protests against the ITV Telethon, here's an article featuring many of the people who took part:
https://medium.com/@theNDACA/block-telet...117b03825a

And some more background:
https://www.able2uk.com/news/tv/when-dis...v-telethon

[RDJ]

What the overnight output during Telethon looked like can be found here:

https://youtu.be/Pxj4lkxLSsU

Just programmes linked with a sting and the odd appeal. I don’t think Michael Aspel made many appearances during the early hours.

There was a clip of the 92 Telethon of protestors invading the Telethon studio and Michael having to quickly hand to a VT. But it seems to have long gone from YouTube.