Westward Television

On 28 December 1980, while the ITV network was showing Drake's Venture (Westward Television's two-hour filmed drama to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, starring John Thaw), ITN interrupted a commercial break to announce ATV was to undergo major changes and Southern and Westward had not had their licences renewed by the IBA; the south-west franchise was awarded to TSW (Television South West).

Following the loss of its franchise, Westward's management decided to sell up quickly, and the company (including its staff, premises and programme library) was purchased by TSW, early in 1981, for £2.38 million. TSW continued using the Westward name and symbol on screen until 31 December 1981; thereafter, it was re-branded on screen as TSW.

A special programme, 20 Years of Westward, was broadcast on 21 December 1981[9] to look back on the company's achievements. It was presented by Roger Shaw, and recorded in front of a studio audience. Hastings Mann's Westward Ho![10] was used as the theme music. Studio guests included Angela Rippon, Kenneth MacLeod and Sheila Kennedy. There were filmed contributions from Alan Freeman, Jan Leeming and David Vine and many clips of Westward programmes were shown. The special programme ended with a message from Peter Cadbury, in which he wished TSW well.

Unlike the other ITV stations that lost their franchises in this round, Westward (having been run by successor TSW since August 1981) opted to hand over at midnight on 31 December 1981. On that evening they broadcast the first 25 minutes of Scottish Television's Hogmanay show live, and then cut away just before midnight when Roger Shaw appeared on camera in a traditional dinner jacket seated at an antique wooden desk, surrounded by staff wearing formal suits and holding film reels and 2-inch videotapes. He closed Westward Television with this announcement:

Many thanks to our friends at Scottish Television, north of the border. Well, it's very nearly the end of 1981 and, for Westward Television, it's the end of its franchise to provide an independent television service for the south-west. So as we wish you a happy new year from Westward, it's also goodbye and thank you for all your support and kindness over the past 20 years. But a New Year's Eve is also a time for looking ahead and, as Dr. Samuel Johnson said, 'New things are made familiar and familiar things made new.' So as we say goodbye from Westward in 1981....

TSW then began with a short video clip of a champagne bottle being opened, accompanied by the short audio version of the station ident "That's Soul, Write". Shaw then re-appeared wearing a modern suit, no longer in a dinner jacket and now in a modern chair, surrounded by staff wearing TSW T-shirts and holding 2-inch videotapes. This was clearly to remind viewers of a new modern era as well as a new look. Shaw made the first announcement on TSW:

...let's say welcome to 1982 from your new television station, Television South West, with the promise of a full-bodied blend of the new and the familiar. And from all of us here on duty in these first few seconds of 1982, a happy new year from and with TSW. And to get the new year off to a good-humoured start, we have a brand new comedy with Peter Cook and Mimi Kennedy in The Two of Us.

This was followed by the full version of TSW's ident. One or both of the in-vision announcements had been pre-recorded due to the rapid change of outfits.

The comedy programme was followed by further continuity, an epilogue, weather and shipping forecast and closedown (with the national anthem) - all with TSW branding. However, when the screen finally faded to black at approximately 12:40am on 1 January 1982, Shaw made a final out-of-vision courtesy announcement and managed to mention the now-defunct Westward one last time, saying 'from all the staff here at Westward - good night'.

No recordings of the end of Westward Television were known to exist until 2012 (the 30th anniversary of the end of Westward), but then a full video recording of the evening, including the segment of STV's wiped Hogmanay show, was recovered by the classic television organisation Kaleidoscope. Parts of the recording were featured at a Kaleidoscope event[11] and at that year's Missing Believed Wiped at the British Film Institute.

Westward Television had a dual policy for its local programming: it produced a wide range of programmes of particular interest to the south-west's rural and agricultural communities, whilst simultaneously producing programming designed to stimulate its audience's interest in new areas.

One of the best known programmes was Treasure Hunt, a game show presented by Kenneth Horne and Keith Fordyce, among others, which ran for 14 years and at one stage featured Jethro as the pirate co-host.[16]

By 1969, Westward had more than 100 correspondents across the region, reporting newsworthy local events, and eight film cameramen who would travel the region gathering footage and compiling reports. The flagship programme was Westward Diary, which began as a regional magazine programme broadcast three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) between 6:15 pm and 7 pm. Originally, there were three presenters – Barry Westwood, Reginald Bosanquet and Kenneth MacLeod – who rotated on a weekly basis. The regional news was contained in a separate ten-minute Westward News bulletin, broadcast every weekday at 6.05 pm, and subsequently supplemented by afternoon and late-night bulletins.

Westward Diary was soon merged with Westward News, to become what was known at the time as a 'regional news magazine', and was broadcast every weekday between 6.00 pm and 6:30 pm. Kenneth MacLeod was asked to present the new programme permanently. The news would be read by the duty announcer, so MacLeod's role on the Diary was not as a newsreader but a presenter holding the whole package together.

The weeknightly Westward Diary had two halves, separated by a commercial break. The first half concentrated on the regional news, whereas the second half included other items of interest to local viewers. A number of experts would visit to present regular features: Ted Tuckerman would present a fishing spot called Tight Lines, Jon Miller (the zoologist, and also presenter of Southern Television's How) would present a spot about nature, architect David Young would examine local architecture of interest, and Topline Broadhurst would present regular gardening spots. There was a regular spot called Help! for charity and voluntary groups; a slot called Pick of the Post in which viewers' letters would be read; and the popular Picture Puzzle, in which viewers had to try to guess the location shown in a photograph taken somewhere in the South West).

Westward staff returned to work a few days before the end of the ITV national strike of 1979. Kenneth MacLeod had to present Westward Diary in what looked to viewers like almost total darkness, as the union permitted only the house lights to be switched on in the studio.

In the early 1970s, A Date With Danton was a stand-alone weekly programme that provided a round-up of local arts and entertainment events. This later became a spot entitled "What's On", in Friday's edition of Westward Diary. The Friday edition of Sports Desk was a stand-alone programme in the early '70s, but this too became part of the Diary towards the end of the decade. To accommodate this, the length of Friday's edition of Diary was extended to an hour, and it occasionally featured a live studio audience. Westward was one of the first ITV regions to broadcast a late-evening regional news bulletin (Westward Late News).[17]

The local weather forecast in Westward Diary, with an emphasis on specialist information for fishermen and farmers, was given by a popular local personality, Graham Danton, who presented several programmes for Westward, including Holiday Times, an events listings programme aimed at people holiday-making in the region, and Late With Danton, a consumer programme.

On April Fools' Day, 1973, Westward broadcast a film about the village of Spiggot, which had boycotted decimalisation and were still using pre-decimal currency. Many viewers wrote to Westward in support of the villagers' stance, oblivious to the date the film was broadcast.

An early programme for young people was Spin Along, a regional pop music programme presented by disc-jockey Alan Freeman. The first edition was broadcast on Tuesday 12 September 1961 at 6:15pm, in place of Westward Diary.[18] A second series began on 24 September 1962 and moved to 7pm.[19]

Another local music programme was Move Over Dad. In November 1963[20] The Beatles had to be smuggled into Derry's Cross through a tunnel to record an interview with continuity announcer Stuart Hutchison for the programme, due to the number of fans outside the studios.

Other 60s music programmes included Pop And Leslie[21] and The Westward Beat Competition from 1964. The Westward Beat Competition had a panel of judges that included Brian Epstein and Dick Rowe and was won by The Rustiks.[22]

In 1969, Angela Rippon joined Westward from BBC South West, as a producer of children's and women's programmes; she also produced a monthly show during the summer of 1972 which laid claim to being the first "Open Access" TV show for young people in the UK. This was called The Show Without A Title, and was the brainchild of the station's then Programme Controller Terry Fleet. The monthly show was presented by members of an editorial team that included David Rodgers, who later went on to become a familiar Westward TV staff presenter. Angela Rippon was the programme's Editor, with Roger Gage being its director. The show's run (which was broadcast at 5.20pm on Fridays after being pre-recorded in Studio One on the preceding Wednesday) was short-lived. A year later, in 1973, another series aimed at young people called Young Eyes took to the Westward TV airwaves; this was co-presented by Andy Price and the actress Lesley Manville. David Rodgers was again one of the regular contributors.

Another popular long-running programme featured a puppet rabbit, Gus Honeybun, who appeared with the duty announcer who read out birthday greetings to the region's children: The story went that Gus was found wandering Dartmoor by a Westward Outside Broadcast unit. Children could request that Gus waggle his ears, wink, stand on his head, count their age in "bunny-hops", or turn off the lights. Gus's behaviour tended to be excellent for Roger Shaw, but for Judi Spiers and Iain Stirling he could be rather unpredictable. Gus was retained by TSW when they took over the franchise.

On Sunday mornings, Westward aired Look and See, a five-minute religious slot for the under-8s broadcast from the continuity studio. Its presenters included Norah Thomas, Jill Mapson, Pat Webber and Ann Davey. As with most other ITV companies, the station also produced a nightly Epilogue under the title of Faith for Life, produced largely from the continuity studio.

In 1980, Westward produced Maggie's Moor, a seven part networked children's drama series about a young girl living on Dartmoor during the Second World War. It starred Tamar le Bailly as Maggie[23] and was produced and directed by John King,[24] the father of wildlife photographer and presenter Simon King, who featured as "The Buzzard Boy" in Episode 5.[25]

Agriculture was an important industry in South West England during Westward Television's franchise. Approximately 80% of land in South West England is in agricultural use (19.6% of England's total).[26] Westward TV had an Agricultural Advisory committee chaired by R. G. Pomeroy[27] to advise the company on its agricultural output. For nine months of the year, Westward broadcast Farming News[28] (later retitled Farm and Country News[29]) on Sunday lunchtimes presented and edited by Peter Forde.[30] Westward also produced an adult education series aimed at farmers called Acres For Profit.

One of the new daytime weekday programmes introduced through the relaxation of broadcast hours was About Britain. This strand was made up of half-hour documentaries contributed by each of the ITV regions covering interesting aspects of their respective regions.

In 1973 the Countryside Commission opened the South West Coast Peninsula Walk from Minehead in Somerset to Swanage in Dorset via Land's End. Westward Television asked Diary reporter Clive Gunnell to walk the new route and film his journey.[31]

Clive was a Londoner. He had begun his television career as a props man at Associated-Rediffusion, where he first met Kenneth MacLeod.[32] He had already walked the new Two Moors Walk from Plymouth to Lynmouth and filmed his journey for Westward Diary. This had proved popular and led to the new series Walking Westward.[31]

Clive Gunnell set off from Weston-super-Mare rather than Minehead, and his journey took many series to complete. It took five series before he reached the south coast.[31] Westward used a selection of Clive's films as part of their contribution to About Britain,[33] and due to its network exposure Walking Westward remains one of Westward Television's best remembered programmes. Fifteen-minute sections of Clive Gunnell's walk along the Cornish coast were broadcast by the US Public Broadcasting Service as curtain raisers to the BBC's original version of Poldark in PBS's Masterpiece Theatre series.

Clive Gunnell also made documentaries about inland areas that were also contributed to About Britain. In 1977 his documentary To Tavistock Goosie Fair[34] won "Most Outstanding Regional Production of 1977".[35] In 1980 he began work on a series of six films on Dartmoor called Dartmoor.[36] Some of these films were featured in the About Britain strand in 1981.[37]

Like About Britain, Doing Things was a series of half-hour filmed documentaries contributed by the various ITV regions and broadcast in the early afternoon. It was broadcast in 1973–74 and looked at hobbies.[38] Westward Television contributed Beachcombing, a film presented and directed by Clive Gunnell, to this series.[33]