VMPhil post_id=3135 time=1617647879 user_id=1043 Wrote:If Question Time was at the Barbican immediately after the news, then presumably Sissons didn’t present the entire extended Nine?
Michael Buerk presented the Nine that night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPyiqtKhCAk
As well as Question Time and the Six, I think Peter Sissons also presented the programme earlier that week on the result of the first ballot in the leadership contest as it's him whose talking to John Sergeant in the famous moment when Thatcher appears behind him unexpectedly to announce she was going to put herself forward to the second ballot.
Ah, of course. I’ve completely confused the Six and the Nine.
Inspector Sands post_id=2998 time=1617613443 user_id=1003 Wrote:James Martin post_id=2993 time=1617612364 user_id=872 Wrote:Couple of questions...
I seem to recall Channel 4 running slides over The Journey and Just A Minute during their schools presentation, explaining the situation. I've got distinct memories of us watching a programme at school and that happening. Does anyone recall?
I was in school that day and remember that the class I was doing at the time were unaware of the news, however some others in my form, who were in a different class not only knew but had watched the coverage instead of their geography lesson. If Channel 4 had put up a caption then that might explain how their teacher knew - maybe he saw it on C4 when it was on for schools and then turned over. Although I don't actually remember us ever watching anything live from schools, maybe he was just watching TV before lessons.
Seems a bit of an odd thing to do, I imagine there were a few happy teachers that morning
In 1990, the primary school I attended was a mix of live and VHS (with some LaserDisc, curiously!) - live stuff was generally viewed in "the small hall" and the taped stuff was in "the studio" - a small room with tiered seating and a projector screen - this is where the LD player lived. In this case I remember it was in said "studio" last period on Monday afternoon, which our year group had that time each week - which would make it 26/11 - so this would have been taped from Thursday morning.
This was 30+ years ago, but I recall a slide saying "(PROGRAMME NAME) follows shortly..." and then "Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is to resign..." and then some other stuff. This would be instead of the roto but you still heard The Journey.
I remember it being a big thing at the time as, being just six years old, we'd not known anything
other than a lady prime minister and found it very strange to have a man in the role!
The only reason I can think of is some programmes were being taken off-air to accomodate an extended Channel 4 News, and I doubt many school sets were Teletext equipped and so this would be the only way to get the message out.
I doubt this, but did Schools programmes on BBC Two get canned in order to take pre-empted BBC One content?
Steve Williams post_id=3113 time=1617643092 user_id=1326 Wrote:That evening illustrates the problems Northern Ireland had with the regional news at 5.35 and Neighbours at 6.30, I dunno when they'd have shown Neighbours.
If they knew the Six was going to be extended they’d show Neighbours at 5:35 and put Inside Ulster at 6:40 (or whenever) but if it was a last minute thing I seem to remember them showing it at lunchtime the next day meaning that one episode was shown twice on two consecutive lunchtimes with the next episode shown just once.
James Martin post_id=2993 time=1617612364 user_id=872 Wrote: What did ITV do? Over on Home and Away forum Back To The Bay a few years ago, a couple of users were trying to collate the TX dates of episodes in the UK but there seemed to be no record of whether or not either showing went out on November 22nd. We know they went to ITN at 09:55 but there's not much else of the day on YouTube. (I understand both showings of Neighbours went out on BBC One, bookending rolling news, which as we know displaced CBBC.
ITV ran rolling coverage all morning from what I can recall. I was in an A-level media studies class at the time, and the lesson was promptly ditched so we could watch it, with the teacher declaring that the next prime minister would be... Douglas Hurd.
Hard to emphasise just how big an event this was and how turbulent the previous few weeks had been - while that ITN newsflash slide was a bit of a spoiler, there'd been an element of will she/won't she for a day or two before that. If you've got Britbox, the ninth series of Spitting Image began during this time and gives you a very good flavour of what was going on.
(My first post over here, hello!)
Did CITV go on air that day? Home and Away makes the Top 30 for every day that week except Thursday which leads me to think both showings were binned.
A huge amount of coverage compared to when May left (Cameron's departure a direct result of a bigger news story, Blair's was planned) although the choosing of her successor went all the way of course, whereas previous PMs taking over mid-term (Major, Brown and May) won "by default."
Ref. BBC One NI, as said above both showings of Neighbours bookended the news coverage, so it's likely NI would have shown it at 5:35 with Network.
It's so much more open these days compared to how it was - e.g. now speeches and live announcements are expected, hence we get things like Theresa's 'Country I love..' moment.
James Martin post_id=3187 time=1617663176 user_id=872 Wrote:I remember it being a big thing at the time as, being just six years old, we'd not known anything other than a lady prime minister and found it very strange to have a man in the role!
Oh yes it was massive, I was 14 and hadn't known another Prime Minister. Recently its been a revolving door
Quote:The only reason I can think of is some programmes were being taken off-air to accomodate an extended Channel 4 News, and I doubt many school sets were Teletext equipped and so this would be the only way to get the message out.
It wasn't some emergency or disaster that everyome needed alerting about. If C4 did mention it then it would be as a pointer in the same way that non-reactive channels do the same now when there's a major story.
Unlike today there wasn't the expectation that all news must be known by everyone straight away. If you didn't find out a major news story until you got in the car after work and put the radio on then you didn't mind.
Quote:I doubt this, but did Schools programmes on BBC Two get canned in order to take pre-empted BBC One content?
No they weren't, and why would they be? The schools schedules were set in stone as lessons were planned round them and recordings timed. I don't think they were considered actual airtime, especially not on C4 where they were ITV Schools.
As mentioned, Kilroy did make it to air as did half of People Today. There is a recording of Scene Today (AKA Pebble Mill) in the archive I think, maybe that went out before the news, or was delayed and shown in the afternoon I don't know. Possibly they recorded it to use bits in future programmes as the guests were there anyway
Inspector Sands post_id=3222 time=1617693018 user_id=1003 Wrote:Unlike today there wasn't the expectation that all news must be known by everyone straight away. If you didn't find out a major news story until you got in the car after work and put the radio on then you didn't mind.
Indeed. For many of those, 'where were you when you heard... . . ' questions, my answer is the same, 'pulling out of my parking space after work'
Do we know whether Neighbours was on BBC 1 or 2 that day? CBBC was on 2 so perhaps neighbours was too?
Or did it go out on 1 to give the news team a break to prepare for the Six?
Markymark post_id=3224 time=1617694963 user_id=1078 Wrote:Indeed. For many of those, 'where were you when you heard... . . ' questions, my answer is the same, 'pulling out of my parking space after work'
My mum used to commute to work on the train and said she often found out the news from the evening newspaper billboards at the station.
It caught her out once when she saw one that said 'Kennedy Shot' and she assumed it was one from a few years earlier that somehow been forgotten about.... but no it was the other Kennedy!
Inspector Sands post_id=3227 time=1617695219 user_id=1003 Wrote:Markymark post_id=3224 time=1617694963 user_id=1078 Wrote:Indeed. For many of those, 'where were you when you heard... . . ' questions, my answer is the same, 'pulling out of my parking space after work'
My mum used to commute to work on the train and said she often found out the news from the evening newspaper billboards at the station.
It caught her out once when she saw one that said 'Kennedy Shot' and she assumed it was one from a few years earlier that somehow been forgotten about.... but no it was the other Kennedy!
I remember the Falklands invasion. It was the last day of term at Sixth Form. I'd had a few jars at lunchtime, and staggered through the front door mid afternoon. My mum was stood there, and announced the news.
First thing I did was find the family World Atlas to look up exactly where the Falklands were. (Rumour has it most of Mrs T's cabinet had to do the same 8-) )
Night Thoughts post_id=3196 time=1617666887 user_id=1484 Wrote:Hard to emphasise just how big an event this was and how turbulent the previous few weeks had been - while that ITN newsflash slide was a bit of a spoiler, there'd been an element of will she/won't she for a day or two before that. If you've got Britbox, the ninth series of Spitting Image began during this time and gives you a very good flavour of what was going on.
Yes, and I remember Smash Hits doing a feature asking various people what they were doing at exactly 11am on 1st November, and among the pop stars and telly people, they also got answers from Buckingham Palace and Dowing Street, and captioned the latter as "Margaret Thatcher - Prime Minister (though seemingly not for much longer)" and indeed by the time the issue came out she'd gone.
James Martin post_id=3187 time=1617663176 user_id=872 Wrote:I doubt this, but did Schools programmes on BBC Two get canned in order to take pre-empted BBC One content?
As mentioned, the schools programmes would have been irremovable in those days. It's not like now when everything gets shoved over to BBC2 at the drop of a hat, even Pointless repeats - the only thing they'd have moved over was the afternoon CBBC because it was considered important to keep that on. Everything else would just get dropped.
Markymark post_id=3230 time=1617695923 user_id=1078 Wrote:Inspector Sands post_id=3227 time=1617695219 user_id=1003 Wrote:Markymark post_id=3224 time=1617694963 user_id=1078 Wrote:Indeed. For many of those, 'where were you when you heard... . . ' questions, my answer is the same, 'pulling out of my parking space after work'
My mum used to commute to work on the train and said she often found out the news from the evening newspaper billboards at the station.
It caught her out once when she saw one that said 'Kennedy Shot' and she assumed it was one from a few years earlier that somehow been forgotten about.... but no it was the other Kennedy!
I remember the Falklands invasion. It was the last day of term at Sixth Form. I'd had a few jars at lunchtime, and staggered through the front door mid afternoon. My mum was stood there, and announced the news.
First thing I did was find the family World Atlas to look up exactly where the Falklands were. (Rumour has it most of Mrs T's cabinet had to do the same 8-) )
It seems impossible now that the radio news was the most immediate way that people found out about anything newsworthy during the day, and the morning and evening papers would be what had happened the previous night or that morning.
The TV just gave the 20 or 30 minutes of the important events of that day in a consise manner.
Then there was CEEFAX or ORACLE which had the newsflash option you could enable.
I know that there are now generations who have only known and expect constant 24 hour TV news, but has it improved life at all?
commseng post_id=3245 time=1617701297 user_id=1125 Wrote:I know that there are now generations who have only known and expect constant 24 hour TV news, but has it improved life at all?
Being from a generation that has lived through the era without 24/7 news, and then the one with, I can't think how my life has been particularly enhanced by the latter (or diminished for that matter)