Westward Television

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Westward Television was the first ITV franchise holder for the South West of England from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its region, until public boardroom squabbles led to its franchise not being renewed by the IBA. Westward launched the career of many broadcasters who became well known nationally, won numerous awards for its programming, and heavily influenced its successor, TSW.

Contents

1 Company History
2 Studios and Offices
3 Local Programming

3.1 News and Current Affairs
3.2 Children

4 Network programming
5 Programme Journal
6 Franchise loss
7 External links
8 See also

Company History

Peter Cadbury, Chairman of Westward Television, pictured on Hello From Westward. This was the first Westward production, shown on its first day of broadcasting. Next to him is Westward's symbol, the Golden Hind.

The company's first chairman was Peter Cadbury, who had left the board of Tyne Tees Television in order to bid for the south-west franchise. Cadbury named the company after the golf course at Westward Ho!, in Devon, where he played. Ironically, Westward Ho! was the part of Westward's region that found reception most difficult, until the construction of the Huntshaw Cross relay transmitter in 1968. Westward's region was surrounded on three sides by the sea, and that was strongly reflected in Westward's output and its symbol - a silver model of the Golden Hind.

Studios and Offices

Based at purpose-built studios at Derry's Cross in Plymouth, with a London office (sited at various locations including New Bond Street, Marble Arch and Sloane Square) and a sales office in Bristol.

The Derry's Cross studios were designed by the architects Treadgold and Elsey, who had previously designed the TWW Studios at Pontcanna, Cardiff and Arno's Court, Bristol.

During Westward's tenure, Derry's Cross boasted three studios. Studio 1 was 2,500 sq ft, Studio 2 was 400 sq ft and used for news, sport and interview programmes and an announcer's studio was located beside Master control.

Local Programming

Westward Television's black and white symbol, showing the VHF channel numbers of Stockland Hill (Channel 9) and Caradon Hill (Channel 12)

Westward's small size and the structure of ITV (which, at the time, deliberately made it hard for small- and medium-sized ITV companies to contribute to the network) meant it produced comparatively little output for the network. Instead, Westward concentrated on regional programming.

From 1968 until the end of Westward's life, the ITA/IBA gave Westward a target of providing 6.5 hours of new regional programming a week; Westward always exceeded this target.

Westward 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.

News and Current Affairs

By 1969, Westward had more than 100 correspondents across the region informing Westward of newsworthy local events and eight film cameramen who would travel the region gathering news.

Westward's flagship programme was Westward Diary, which began life as a regional magazine programme that broadcast three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) between 6:15pm and 7pm. 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 bulletin called Westward News, which was broadcast every weekday from 6.05pm-6.15pm.

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 6.00pm and 6:30pm. Kenneth MacLeod was asked to join Westward and present the new weekday programme permanently. The news would be read by the duty announcer, so MacLeod's role on the Diary was not that of a newsreader, but of a presenter holding the whole package together.

The five-day-a-week 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 and guess the location shown in a photograph taken somewhere in the region.

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

In the early '70s, 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 had become part of the Diary towards the end of that decade. To accommodate this, the length of Friday's edition of Diary was extended to an hour.

The local weather forecast in Westward Diary (with an emphasis on information useful to 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 holidaymaking in the region) and Late With Danton (a consumer programme).

Westward was one of the first ITV regions to broadcast a late evening regional news bulletin (Westward Late News).

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.

Children

An early programme for young people was Spin Along, a regional pop music programme presented by Alan 'Fluff' Freeman. Other 60s music programmes included The Westward Beat Competition (the judges included Brian Epstein and Dick Rowe) and Pop And Leslie.

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

In 1969, Angela Rippon joined Westward from BBC South West, as a producer of children's and women's programmes; she also produced two series of the children's programme Young Eyes presented by David Rodgers.

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. Gus was retained by TSW when they took over the franchise.

Network programming

Initially, Westward had an arrangement with ABC Weekend Television (ABC) to provide its network programming. As Channel Television took its network feed from Stockland Hill, this obliged Channel to affiliate to ABC. These 'affiliate' arrangements lasted until they were abolished in the 1964 franchise round. Westward also had an arrangement with Associated TeleVision (ATV), to play out any networked Westward programmes onto the ITV network.

Westward's contributions to the network were very rare at first, mainly consisting of one-off programmes and editions of the Morning Service (later renamed Morning Worship).

On January 19, 1972, there was a relaxation on the restrictions of broadcast hours that had been set by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. This allowed regular daytime programming on weekday afternoons, and weekday morning programming during out-of-school term time. These extra off-peak hours gave smaller ITV companies a chance to provide some networked or part-networked programmes. By the mid '70s, Westward had taken advantage of this opportunity by finding a small niche producing adult education programmes for the ITV network. These included the series Westcountry Fayre (cookery), Freeze! (freezing food) and Keep Britain Slim (slimming).

One of Westward's network productions was Walking Westward, Clive Gunnell's marathon series in which he walked around the entire coastline of the south-west.

Programme Journal

Initially, Westward published weekly programme listings in its own programme journal, Look Westward. The first edition cost 5d, and featured a special article by Westward board member Daphne Du Maurier. Many Westward personalities, such as announcer Sheila Kennedy, contributed articles to Look Westward.

However, as part of the 1968 franchise round, the ITA created Independent Television Publications (ITP), and Westward's weekly listings would be obliged to appear solely in the Westward edition of the national listings magazine TV Times, which was published by ITP.

In 1971, ITP launced a junior version of TV Times called Look In, which featured weekly listings of Westward programmes for younger viewers (including Gus Honeybun), along with listings for the other ITV regions.

Franchise loss

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 broke into a commercial break to announce that 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 galleon on screen until 31 December 1981, before it was replaced at midnight by the hills and river of TSW.