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Two interesting articles about Granada. I'm sure there's many more out there.
GRANADA
Because someone had to win.
Russ J Graham
On reflection, this is probably the most obvious choice for number one in our top ten of ITV companies of all time.
After all, Granada won. Once the dust had cleared following the attempt to collapse the system in 1993, there was only one possible company that would end up running almost all of ITV.
Central was better in presentation but ironically too far from the centre; Carlton had more money but simply didn't understand television at all in any way; Yorkshire and Meridian were never serious competitors. Only LWT could have challenged for the leadership of ITV, despite their lonely weekend contract. But Granada solved that by buying LWT first.
So Granada comes first for having come first. But this is only half the story. For the rest of the story we have to examine the Granada of old - the Granada before the dreams of ITV plc spoilt the party.
For the Granada of old was always atypical. An atypical company run by atypical businessmen producing atypical programmes with an atypical eye on its atypical region.
This was a company that started in cinemas, like ABC and (sort of) Southern; but it chose the region furthest from their cinema base rather than in the heart of it.
The men in charge of the company were hard-bitten, driven business tycoons who were proudly members of... the Labour Party, and later vocal Labour peers.
The ITV contract required them to make network programmes to inform, entertain and educate; Granada did this, but added an extra step: its programmes would also provoke. Everything it produced would have an edge to it. Comedies with a social point to make. Documentaries designed to inflame. Entertainment that left a message behind. Current affairs that turned a sideways eye on their subjects.
So its programmes were never what you would expect from a bald description in the TVTimes. In describing its output, critics and historians alike would resort to describing everything as being in some way "gritty". It was a word meant for Granada - conjuring up unexpected and unpleasant grains in the middle of something light and frothy, or the insertion of extreme discomfort into something that was suggested to be merely mildly diverting.
Above all else, Granada was the first regional-network company. It set-up shop in Manchester and immediately became part of it. Later we, and the IBA, would expect this. But in 1955/6, it was clear that the "network" companies weren't expected to have a regional presence - after all, they could be moved to another region at any time (they thought they would never be removed completely, but exile to Norwich or Newcastle was a potent unspoken threat).
But Granada became the north. For a decade, the term "Granadaland" moved up to vie with "the Northcountry" as the term used in the south to describe any godforsaken sooty towns over 2 hours away by train. For the people of the north, at 13 million the biggest of all the regions, they became citizens of Granadaland. ABC on weekends had trouble differentiating itself from ATV Midlands because the two were both light; with no effort at all, ABC was different from Granada simply by not being Granada.
When Granada were given the 7-day contract it craved, in return for giving up the territory east of the Pennines, it became even more northern. Freed of serving the distant and depressed Ridings, it could become the Manchester-is-capital-of-the-world station. One day it woke up to Liverpool and moved some operations there for a while; but Granada's heart belonged to Manchester and Greater Manchester's heart belonged to Granada's Quay Street HQ.
The atypicality extended to their on-air identity. It was colourless and, well, gritty, compared to ABC. In fact, compared to everyone else. Its continuity was designed to be a bridge between the programmes, nothing more, nothing less. Those that broke that mould, like Colin Weston, were loved only by the viewers, not by the management. Granada's identity was its programmes, not its idents and announcers.
This worked well when the programmes were second to none.
Now Granada owns almost all of ITV; its presentation standards apply to the network in the whole of England and Wales. So the presentation has not changed: it is functional and lets the programmes speak for themselves. The difference is that the programmes are now terrible rubbish.
The exceptions are probably those programmes still made by Granada in Manchester. They still speak of the quality of Granada and provide a link to that which is now past.
ITV plc has announced it wants to close and demolish the Quay Street studios
http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/itv50/companies/01/
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Granada (pan-North)
By Kif Bowden-Smith
Granada TV, then with a contract that covered the whole of the North from Monday to Friday, was the big company most concerned with its regional identity.
This was out of step with the other major network providers A-R, ATV and ABC, who were keen to present themselves as national broadcasters, operating out of one region but speaking to the nation as a whole through networking arrangements.
Granada by contrast actually ‘adopted’ their region with a devotion that no other company managed. The company itself had its own roots in London and the south east, where the Granada Theatres cinema chain was at its strongest. In going for a provincial television contract the Bernstein brothers became enthusiastic, adopted northerners.
Like A-R, Granada was keen to present an air of respectability. It was clear that many early TV moguls had been rattled by the parliamentary opponents of commercial television and their predictions that the result would be vulgar. Britain in the post war period was still had an antipathy to naked commercialism.
Respectability was the name of the game but in the case of Granada, it was to be based on a solid, gritty Northern model. The music chosen as station signature tune and used for the first twelve years of daily start-up routines was almost jolly, but retained a strong regional flavour. By the standards of today the piece sounds almost ‘end of the pier’ in tone. It would not have seemed so at the time.
This music, commissioned by Sidney Bernstein from the almost unknown Tony Lowrie, captured what Granada was about like no other piece could have done. Gritty, northern, yet jolly and light hearted – the spirit of the firm distilled into one phrase – ‘from the North, this is Granada’ – which appears throughout, as the closing notes of every line in the main theme. The first strain of the march uses ‘G-R-A-N-A-D-A, Granada …’
Our visual example comes from 1958, when the first black and white image of the Granada symbol had given way to a newer style using various shades of grey. This was to bring some variety to an originally dull monochrome image.
At five and a half minutes, this piece exceeded ITA guidelines on length of ‘registered start-up music’ and was used with special permission of the regulator. The original instructions that accompanied the commission to the composer may have been faulty, as the pause for announcement appears to have been placed too early for permitted switch to symbol, and so after a short period of use at that point, the opening remarks were moved to a later and musically less satisfactory position in the piece.
In visual terms the symbol ‘form up’ was not at a true climax point, the result of an unsatisfactory compromise over the timing of the daily ‘Authority announcement’.
At the notional date of this start-up, the company was using the wording ‘Granada Television’ on screen in daily start-ups, but not actually saying the word ‘television’ in sound. This was standardised soon after, with the dropping of the word ‘television’ from the caption.
Granada was the only company of the major network providers to identify the region it came from on their screen trademark. The phrase ‘from the North’ became famous, though occasionally seemed out of place on Granada productions from London.
The clock, seen over the final notes of the march, was one of the glories of Granada Television. An actual clock face with a cloud background was created, the image was not electronically overlaid. The original version had serif numbering, although the typeface was later changed to a sans-serif style.
One bad habit was for the welcoming announcer to talk over the final seconds of the music, as the clock ticked up to five, listing the first children’s programmes to be seen that evening.Vision On
http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/visionon/granada-north.php
More on Granada from EOM.
http://www.eyeonmanchester.com/inde...ars_ago/granada_television_launch_3_may_1956/
Two interesting articles about Granada. I'm sure there's many more out there.
GRANADA
Because someone had to win.
Russ J Graham
On reflection, this is probably the most obvious choice for number one in our top ten of ITV companies of all time.
After all, Granada won. Once the dust had cleared following the attempt to collapse the system in 1993, there was only one possible company that would end up running almost all of ITV.
Central was better in presentation but ironically too far from the centre; Carlton had more money but simply didn't understand television at all in any way; Yorkshire and Meridian were never serious competitors. Only LWT could have challenged for the leadership of ITV, despite their lonely weekend contract. But Granada solved that by buying LWT first.
So Granada comes first for having come first. But this is only half the story. For the rest of the story we have to examine the Granada of old - the Granada before the dreams of ITV plc spoilt the party.
For the Granada of old was always atypical. An atypical company run by atypical businessmen producing atypical programmes with an atypical eye on its atypical region.
This was a company that started in cinemas, like ABC and (sort of) Southern; but it chose the region furthest from their cinema base rather than in the heart of it.
The men in charge of the company were hard-bitten, driven business tycoons who were proudly members of... the Labour Party, and later vocal Labour peers.
The ITV contract required them to make network programmes to inform, entertain and educate; Granada did this, but added an extra step: its programmes would also provoke. Everything it produced would have an edge to it. Comedies with a social point to make. Documentaries designed to inflame. Entertainment that left a message behind. Current affairs that turned a sideways eye on their subjects.
So its programmes were never what you would expect from a bald description in the TVTimes. In describing its output, critics and historians alike would resort to describing everything as being in some way "gritty". It was a word meant for Granada - conjuring up unexpected and unpleasant grains in the middle of something light and frothy, or the insertion of extreme discomfort into something that was suggested to be merely mildly diverting.
Above all else, Granada was the first regional-network company. It set-up shop in Manchester and immediately became part of it. Later we, and the IBA, would expect this. But in 1955/6, it was clear that the "network" companies weren't expected to have a regional presence - after all, they could be moved to another region at any time (they thought they would never be removed completely, but exile to Norwich or Newcastle was a potent unspoken threat).
But Granada became the north. For a decade, the term "Granadaland" moved up to vie with "the Northcountry" as the term used in the south to describe any godforsaken sooty towns over 2 hours away by train. For the people of the north, at 13 million the biggest of all the regions, they became citizens of Granadaland. ABC on weekends had trouble differentiating itself from ATV Midlands because the two were both light; with no effort at all, ABC was different from Granada simply by not being Granada.
When Granada were given the 7-day contract it craved, in return for giving up the territory east of the Pennines, it became even more northern. Freed of serving the distant and depressed Ridings, it could become the Manchester-is-capital-of-the-world station. One day it woke up to Liverpool and moved some operations there for a while; but Granada's heart belonged to Manchester and Greater Manchester's heart belonged to Granada's Quay Street HQ.
The atypicality extended to their on-air identity. It was colourless and, well, gritty, compared to ABC. In fact, compared to everyone else. Its continuity was designed to be a bridge between the programmes, nothing more, nothing less. Those that broke that mould, like Colin Weston, were loved only by the viewers, not by the management. Granada's identity was its programmes, not its idents and announcers.
This worked well when the programmes were second to none.
Now Granada owns almost all of ITV; its presentation standards apply to the network in the whole of England and Wales. So the presentation has not changed: it is functional and lets the programmes speak for themselves. The difference is that the programmes are now terrible rubbish.
The exceptions are probably those programmes still made by Granada in Manchester. They still speak of the quality of Granada and provide a link to that which is now past.
ITV plc has announced it wants to close and demolish the Quay Street studios
http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/itv50/companies/01/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Granada (pan-North)
By Kif Bowden-Smith
Granada TV, then with a contract that covered the whole of the North from Monday to Friday, was the big company most concerned with its regional identity.
This was out of step with the other major network providers A-R, ATV and ABC, who were keen to present themselves as national broadcasters, operating out of one region but speaking to the nation as a whole through networking arrangements.
Granada by contrast actually ‘adopted’ their region with a devotion that no other company managed. The company itself had its own roots in London and the south east, where the Granada Theatres cinema chain was at its strongest. In going for a provincial television contract the Bernstein brothers became enthusiastic, adopted northerners.
Like A-R, Granada was keen to present an air of respectability. It was clear that many early TV moguls had been rattled by the parliamentary opponents of commercial television and their predictions that the result would be vulgar. Britain in the post war period was still had an antipathy to naked commercialism.
Respectability was the name of the game but in the case of Granada, it was to be based on a solid, gritty Northern model. The music chosen as station signature tune and used for the first twelve years of daily start-up routines was almost jolly, but retained a strong regional flavour. By the standards of today the piece sounds almost ‘end of the pier’ in tone. It would not have seemed so at the time.
This music, commissioned by Sidney Bernstein from the almost unknown Tony Lowrie, captured what Granada was about like no other piece could have done. Gritty, northern, yet jolly and light hearted – the spirit of the firm distilled into one phrase – ‘from the North, this is Granada’ – which appears throughout, as the closing notes of every line in the main theme. The first strain of the march uses ‘G-R-A-N-A-D-A, Granada …’
Our visual example comes from 1958, when the first black and white image of the Granada symbol had given way to a newer style using various shades of grey. This was to bring some variety to an originally dull monochrome image.
At five and a half minutes, this piece exceeded ITA guidelines on length of ‘registered start-up music’ and was used with special permission of the regulator. The original instructions that accompanied the commission to the composer may have been faulty, as the pause for announcement appears to have been placed too early for permitted switch to symbol, and so after a short period of use at that point, the opening remarks were moved to a later and musically less satisfactory position in the piece.
In visual terms the symbol ‘form up’ was not at a true climax point, the result of an unsatisfactory compromise over the timing of the daily ‘Authority announcement’.
At the notional date of this start-up, the company was using the wording ‘Granada Television’ on screen in daily start-ups, but not actually saying the word ‘television’ in sound. This was standardised soon after, with the dropping of the word ‘television’ from the caption.
Granada was the only company of the major network providers to identify the region it came from on their screen trademark. The phrase ‘from the North’ became famous, though occasionally seemed out of place on Granada productions from London.
The clock, seen over the final notes of the march, was one of the glories of Granada Television. An actual clock face with a cloud background was created, the image was not electronically overlaid. The original version had serif numbering, although the typeface was later changed to a sans-serif style.
One bad habit was for the welcoming announcer to talk over the final seconds of the music, as the clock ticked up to five, listing the first children’s programmes to be seen that evening.Vision On
http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/visionon/granada-north.php
More on Granada from EOM.
http://www.eyeonmanchester.com/inde...ars_ago/granada_television_launch_3_may_1956/
