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London Weekend Television (LWT) was (and for legal formalities still is; see below) the ITV contractor for London and the South East, Friday 7:00pm (1968-1982)/5:15pm (1982-2002) to Monday, 5:59am.
1968: Exit ATV, Enter LWT
The station took over from ATV on 2 August 1968 (ATV continued broadcasting to the Midlands until 1981). ATV's weekend franchise had covered Saturdays and Sundays only; when LWT came on air it was also awarded Friday night from 7 PM, which meant there was an on-screen handover from Thames Television at 6:59pm. In 1982 LWT's hours were extended to begin at 5:15pm.
When Carlton Television took over from Thames in 1993 the times were retained, but since Carlton hired its broadcast facilities from LWT the on-screen handover no longer involved switching between different studios.
LWT Programming
The station's output was limited, producing an average of 50 hours programming a week. However LWT had a disproportionate effect on post-war British Television, as a number of high-flying media personalities including John Birt, Michael Grade and Greg Dyke were all "LWT Boys".
David Frost was an original director of LWT, and he presented a late-night chat show in the station's early years. Another chat show host who made his debut on LWT was Russell Harty.
Other notable early shows included We Have Ways of Making You Laugh, a sketch show starring Frank Muir (it was the first program scheduled to be aired on LWT, but industrial action that occurred during the preceding week blacked it out early into the first show); the children's fantasy Catweazle; and several sitcoms, including On the Buses, Please Sir!, Me and My Girl and Mind Your Language. The channel also created the comedy clips format with It'll Be Alright on the Night and the much derided Game for a Laugh that spawned You've Been Framed.
Because it was a weekend station LWT's output tended to concentrate on more lightweight material than Thames and Carlton, but it did produce a number of successful drama shows. Within These Walls, a prison drama starring veteran actress Googie Withers, seems to have inspired the later Australian soap opera Prisoner. Lillie was based on the real-life story of Lillie Langtry (Francesca Annis reprised the role from ATV's Edward the Seventh). But by far the station's most successful drama was Upstairs, Downstairs, a successful attempt to produce a costume drama comparable in scale to the BBC's The Forsyte Saga. (The BBC repaid the compliment with The Duchess of Duke Street).
Major programmes on LWT included most of the ITV Saturday night lineup including Play Your Cards Right, Blind Date, You've Been Framed, long-running and successful drama series London's Burning and their arts strand The South Bank Show. LWT also owned 50% of London News Network Limited, producers until February 2004 of the news programmes London Today and London Tonight. Regional news for London is now produced by ITN. LWT was acquired by Granada Group plc (now ITV plc) in 1994.
2002: The Final Weekend - LWT signs off
The drive to created a unified ITV meant that, on 27 October 2002, LWT's famous 70s blue-white-red river ident heralded a new LWT programme for the very last time, an edition of The South Bank Show. The ident had been freshly animated in 16:9 by Dave Jeffery and Rory Clark. The programme was followed by a celebratory montage of LWT presentation across the years assembled by senior ITV presentation producer Gareth Randall, with continuity announcers Glen Thompsett and Trish Bertram appearing "in-vision" to toast the departing station. That morning LWT had broadcast a 1970s-style startup sequence between ITV Nightscreen and the ITN early morning news bulletin. The sequence even included a mid-'70s station clock and a programme menu, all faithful recreations in Macromedia Flash.
When LWT handed over to Carlton Television (as it had always done) the ITV1 brand was on-air with the new team of ITV1 Network Continuity Announcers for the very first time. Former Meridian Broadcasting announcer Paul Seed was the first Network voice.
The following Friday, LWT became known as ITV1 (London Weekends), with only the ITV1 logo appearing before programmes. This meant that there was no distinction between LWT and its London weekday neighbour Carlton Television (ITV1 London). The LWT logo continued to appear at the end of its programmes however until 31 October 2004. From 1 November 2004, LWT's productions carried a Granada London logo instead. Since January 2006, productions that are made by Granada Productions in London carry the ITV Productions endcap.
See also
External links
- itv.com - ITV London
- The Ultimate LWT Website (unofficial) History of London Weekend Telvision and downloadable video clips.
- LWT's animated black and white logo, 1969 (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
- LWT's first animated colour logo, 1970 (Requires Macromedia Flash version 6 or later).
- Animated LWT "River" logo of 1971 (Requires Macromedia Flash version 6 or later).
- Animated LWT logo of 1978 (Requires Macromedia Flash version 4 or later).
- London Weekend Television on TV Ark
"London Weekend Television"