ITV regions debate

[Humphrey Hacker]

Another question: why were Carlton so despised? I wasn't around during their time so I'd love to know

For all Carlton's faults, they were good at two things:  1) making money, and 2) branding (aside from their first stab at it).  The Carlton 1999 presentation package was beautiful and still looks good today - little else has probably touched it in the presentation stakes.

And yes they made absolutely sod all themselves (farming the whole lot out to indies I believe) until they swallowed Central whole in the 1990s and then suddenly found themselves with more production resources and sites and whatever else than they knew what to do with.  So it came to pass, Central was downsized and ultimately reduced to a pokey little office in Gas Street.

I’ll add a third although slightly OT. They gave Dave Allen a couple of more series.