History Box: Rediffusion 22/11/67

REDIFFUSION: 22 NOV 1967

Back almost six decades in television history this month, to the last knockings of the original ITV lineup. By November 1967 Rediffusion know they’re done for as a station, forced into a business arrangement making them junior partners with ABC in an all-new ITV franchisee. Still, the show must go on, and here’s the lineup for Wednesday 22nd November.

Unusually, there’s some proper programming scheduled for the morning, in the shape of the RAC Rally. Or half an hour’s worth, anyway, which was still pretty impressive at the time - “the fullest coverage ever of a motoring event in this country” according to the listing. Courtesy of ATV (after much persuasion), with cameras and commentators stationed at “the remotest corners of the route and from Rally HQ itself”.

Even Tony Bastable is there! What’s more, although the listing doesn’t mention it, this was the first use of in-car cameras in this country! So all in all it must have really hurt when the damn thing didn’t happen after all. There was a foot and mouth outbreak, you see, and the whole thing was cancelled at almost literally the last minute, so of course the TV Times didn’t know about it. Instead some of the drivers held what amounted to a friendly race at the Bagshot training grounds just so ATV didn’t feel like they’d wasted their money. Whether that was the same day or not I don’t know.

But that was only planned to be half an hour’s worth of coverage anyway. Got to get the schools programmes out on cue. No videos in those days, of course; the teachers had to wheel the wooden-clad set in on time to watch it live. Hence the five minute gaps not only existing as a buffer zone but being listed in the TV Times. Today’s schools programming spans solid subjects like French and History along with social lessons like banking and Ken Russell films apparently. Kids have to learn about Ken Russell sooner or later.

That comes in two bursts before and after lunch before TV takes a nap at hometime. We return at 4.45 for actual kids shows - a full on proto-Children’s ITV, even, all the way up to nearly six. Starting with Rediffusion’s own Playtime, with Gwyneth Surdivall, Jenny Naden and the toys. Basically the Play School format, with similar stuffed toys and dolls. No Hamble, though, which is a plus.

After that, Junior Sportsweek, “a teenage sports magazine”, presented by no less than Billy Wright, the former England and Wolves captain, fresh from discovering he had no future in management and moving into punditry, presenting and even becoming Head of Sport at ATV (who made this programme), continuing into the early years of Central. As for the programme, like the listing says: news, features, quizzes and personalities. And even more Tony Bastable.

Finally for this children’s slot, a bit of adapted drama from Granada. The Flower of Gloster was a fairly obscure book

about canals by E. Temple Thurston, which has actually been out of print for nearly 30 years when this show happened. Bill Grundy, who was working at Granada at the time, was a fan and produced an extremely loose adaptation, which changed it from a first-person account of Thurston himself travelling down Britain by narrowboat to a story about two children having to deliver a boat down half the British canal network. The show was pretty popular at the time and may even have helped prevent canal folk from going extinct. Grundy sponsored a reprint of the book a year later, and it even came out on DVD via Network.

After that, the traditional ITN evening news, which doesn’t end on a nice round-numbered time, making the listings look weird the next hour. At six-nine, Crossroads! Then only three years old and providing Reg Watson with the experience that helped build his legend when he went back home a few years later. In today’s episode, Lawrence Dean says something critical to George Pallister. Okay. Also a young Stephen Rea shows up as the pre-Shughie chef Pepe Costa. Episode written by Don Houghton, but probably doesn’t include parallel universes, alien mind parasites or volcanic armageddon. The episode would almost certainly have been better if it had.

At six-thirty-three, Hogan’s Heroes. A lot of good American television never made it to these shores; this did. Today’s episode: Hogan’s attempt to disable an anti-aircraft battery is disrupted by someone actually competent showing up. Almost certainly doesn’t play out anything like as dramatically as the listing suggests, and not just because it’s a sitcom.

The apparent centrepiece of the evening is the hour-long drama The Informer, starring sad-faced Ian Hendry as a disbarred lawyer making ends meet as, yes, a police informer. May have been quite good; it’s almost impossible to say as all but two episodes are long since wiped. Including this one. And given how vague the listing is it’s almost impossible to figure out what happens in it. It is written by Michael J. Bird, later infamous for a string of incomprehensible surrealist mediterranean-set miniseries in the eighties and 90s involving Greek Gods, Templars and telepathy, so it could be about anything really.

After that, an episode of University Challenge with Bamber Gascoigne about which there is almost nothing to say, followed by a Partly Political Broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party. It’s interesting to see that listed in the TV Times, printed a week in advance, because on the 18th of November - the Saturday beginning the week covered by this issue - Harold Wilson’s Government gave up and devalued the pound. The “pound in your pocket” speech which tried and failed to reassure the public was broadcast the following day. I’m sure they were hoping this scheduled broadcast would involve better news, but in the event it probably consisted of James Callaghan on his knees sobbing down the lens for forgiveness. Maybe not.

Scheduled after that is the efficiently titled “Cinema”, a magazine

programme about farming. No, obviously not, it’s basically the format of the BBC’s film programme ten years early. And ten minutes shorter than usual on this occasion, assuming the PPB did go out.

After that, Leonard Parkin, Andrew Gardner and Reggie Bosanquet are at the helm of the News at Ten, and the subject of devaluation probably dominated the following episode of The Frost Programme as well. This was Dr David’s first “serious” show, as well as his first ITV show, consisting of hardcore interviews with the likes of Oswald Moseley and Ian Smith, live from Rhodesia itself. Let’s hope he’s got an economist handy for today’s episode.

Forty-five minutes later, International Football highlights! A shockingly late showing for a relatively important match, part of the Home International tournament, which was still a pretty big deal in British football. However, television and the national game hadn’t really established the kind of relationship they’d enjoy even ten years later - the FA were still bearish on live matches, lest they affect ticket sales, so even a fairly high profile game like this one, with the world champions England against a dark horse Northern Ireland, didn’t go out live and only appeared in highlights right before midnight. Despite the presence of George Best, England won 2-0 with goals by Hurst and Bobby Charlton.

Finally, the usual closedown religious think-piece, with the ominous title of Dialogue With Doubt. Bernard Levin demands of Father Peter de Rosa an answer to the question: “DOES CHRISTIANITY MAKE SENSE TODAY”? Which seems a pretty involved topic to resolve in five minutes before closedown, but maybe they managed it. Who knows.

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