Hope it's alright to start a thread based on probably the UK's best movie channel for archive films and old programmes mainly in Black & White.
Over the past year or 2, they aired Runaround which hasn't been aired since the 1980's, Sunday Night at the London Palladium which hasn't aired since the 90's on Channel 4, and loads of films which hasn't aired on TV since it was aired on BBC2.
Their best strand in my opinion is the Saturday Morning Pictures, loads of amazing content on there, Popeye, Superman, Radar Men from the Moon, and I enjoyed most of their CFF films that they shown.
I really enjoyed their Christmas programming this year, CFF's The Christmas Tree was my favourite of them all.
That Popeye thing is both disturbing and bizarre...
ITV Region: ITV News Central
BBC Region: BBC Midlands Today
Yes I can see it now. The DOG on the Popeye "episode" isn't even in the same place as the frontcap/endcap, its slightly out and its far too sharp for what is a SD channel.
Assuming the rest of the clip is genuine though, its a relatively decent segment presented in the style of the rest of the channel.
(the perils of YouTube and unlabelled mocks/recreations/whatever!)
It's also nice they sometimes use original threatrical trailers for programme trailers.
I'm not sure the ASA would approve "Dominoes on Steroids".
Just working my way through Noel Cronin's book "Reel to Real – A Life in Film", the TPTV owner/founder for anyone who doesn't know. He mainly worked on distribution of TV shows to the ITV companies and the BBC in the UK.
One story I didn't know was about Thames TV trying to poach "Dallas" from the BBC, and how there was a gentleman's agreement not to poach international content between ITV and the BBC. Interesting stuff.
A good read for anyone interested in the workings of TV at that time, I've not reached the TPTV founding yet in the book.
ITV Region: ITV News Central
BBC Region: BBC Midlands Today
The Dallas saga was pretty much a carbon copy of the Neighbours thing that would happen years later(only with much less drama in the case of Neighbours)- the BBC didn't want to pay the asking price so while they were haggling somebody else (Thames in the case of Dallas) stuck their oar in and jiggled it about, upsetting Bill Cotton at the time who had become managing director of the BBC by that point.
Except in the case of Dallas, Thames lost out, because the IBA became involved and stuck their own bigger and more powerful oar in as it were.
The book talks about how Thames got a very expensive deal for Dallas that included the series "Highway to Heaven", which they didn't desperately want but was included (and wasn't exactly considered "must see" TV). When the other ITV companies objected to gazumping the BBC, worried that they would now be subject to the BBC outbidding them for US shows they had, Thames had to sell Dallas back to the BBC. They had to sell it back to the BBC for the original price, as I remember from the book. Thames lost significant money on every episode.
Or viewed another way, they just paid a fortune for "Highway to Heaven"!
Also detailed are the people at Thames who were then fired for trying to do this.
Interesting stuff.
