Teddington Studios Biography

Under the new set-up Thames produced its major Light Entertainment Drama, Situation Comedies and Children's output at Teddington. The Euston complex housed mainly Current Affairs, Documentary and religious output, together with Presentation and Master Control departments. The settling down of the new London companies was to take longer than had been anticipated; London Weekend in particular being plagued with top-level management upheavals and lack of money in the first two years or so. In 1968 studios 2 and 3 had new EMI four-tube colour cameras installed, studio 1 following a year later. These proved to be extremely popular. In the videotape area the old RCA TR22 machines were changed in 1968 for new VR 2000 Ampex video recorders. In practice it had been found that the old RCA machines could not be operated reliably by remote control, the picture would slip out of lock and the electronics needed regular setting up to keep them within standard broadcast tolerances. In September 1969 colour arrived for the ITV Network. During the year the number of colour sets in the home increased from 100,000 to 270,000. The introduction of colour was the biggest technical change to ITV since it began. Lord Aylstone, Chairman of the ITA performed the switching on ceremony. At Teddington Brian Scott was responsible for the colourisation during 1967/8 which took in building and equipment. Around 1970 Thames Television had the opportunity to purchase 'The Angler's' pub next door for £60,000. The chance was not taken as it was felt the price was too high.

The first major documentary series that Thames produced was a massive26 part epic The World at War, each episode running 50 minutes and made on film in the cutting rooms at Teddington. This huge undertaking featuring the Second World War was acclaimed by the public and sold around the world. A fifty strong team spent nearly four years preparing it. Throughout the seventies Thames put a steady stream of situation comedies through Teddington: Dear Mother... Love Albert, with Rodney Bewes, For the Love of Ada, with Irene Handl and Wilfred Pickles, And Mother Makes Three, with Wendy Craig, Bless This House, with Sidney James and Diana Coupland, Love Thy Neighbour, which tackled the subject of race relations, with Jack Smethurst, Man About the House and George and Mildred, both with Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy, and Robin's Nest with Richard O'Sullivan, all these shows being performed before an invited audience. Viewers who had become addicted to Callan were treated to further episodes with Thames producing them this time. In 1972 a new detective series made an appearance, Van der Valk, based on the books written by Nicholas Freeling. Barry Foster took the title part. Early series were recorded at Teddington with film sequences shot on location in Holland edited in to the taped material at the post-production stage. Later in the decade Thames film making subsidiary Euston Films made several series wholly shot on 16mm film. By now videotape had virtually wiped out live television for anything other than current affairs, sports and some chat shows. Nevertheless children’s programmes originating from Teddington frequently went out live to the network.

Phase four building began in 1973 taking in 'A' block, the scenic area and the multi story car park, which was the last to be completed in 1975. 1974 began with widespread industrial unrest and the Government imposed a 10.30pm curfew on TV transmission A three day working week was introduced following industrial action by power engineers, miners and train drivers. A new Master Control Room which had been completed at Teddington in 1973 could take over from the Euston facility in an emergency. A voice-over booth was also added. These facilities were designed by Gunter Karn. In 1974, Churchill Centenary Year, the actress Lee Remick came to Teddington to make the distinguished drama series Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill. Further historic series followed: Napoleon and Love with Ian Holm and Billy Whitelaw, Timothy West was crowned Edward the King, which topped the ratings and was voted Best Drama series of 1975 by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. And in 1978 Edward & Mrs. Simpson; BAFTA acclaimed it best drama series of the year with Edward Fox best actor for his portrayal of the King. Mention should be made of two unusual series from the mid-seventies, both musicals. Rock Follies and Rock Follies of '77, the story of three girl rock singers determined to find stardom. Charlotte Cornwell, Julie Covington and Rula Lenska played the girls. The series were later the subject of legal proceedings when it was alleged that the writer, Howard Schuman, had taken the characters from another writer. Neither series was repeated after its initial run.

1979 was ITV's blackest year. In the late summer technicians began an eleven week strike, blanking the screens in all regions except the Channel Isles. The issues were about pay and the introduction of new technology - lightweight cameras for news gathering which used video tape. This was called Electronic News Gathering (ENG) and would have replaced film in news programmes. As it turned out this was to be the last time ITV experienced a national strike.

A new round of franchise applications were advertised in 1980 by the IBA with few exceptions most of the established companies had their licence renewed with effect from January 1982. During the years 1980/81 Thames once again built a new videotape area, this time equipping it with an entirely new tape format manufactured by Ampex called C format. This used tape only one inch wide as opposed to the old quadruplex machines using two inch wide tape. Between 1980/5 each of the three studios was equipped with new RCA TK 47 colour cameras. These were not generally liked by the cameramen as they could not see round them. In 1985/6 Calrec sound mixing desks were fitted in each of the studio control rooms. These used digital control of analogue modules. In the mid-1980s electronic techniques for editing video tape had become more sophisticated and the use of film at Teddington began to slowly decline. At this time the Broadcast Division of Panasonic launched the M2 tape format which used tape half an inch wide housed in a cassette looking similar to the VHS domestic format. The man responsible for the introduction of this was Ewart Needham and initially editing suites were built at Euston especially for the M2 format. At the end of the decade M2 use was implemented at Teddington, editing suites being built where the film cutting rooms had once stood.

During the mid eighties period Thames took the opportunity to use the new format for a new drama series to be shot entirely on Location. In addition post production would also be carried out close by as opposed to being studio based. The TV unions finally accepted the new technology which could no longer be ignored if the programme companies were to remain financially viable. The series in question, The Bill, has proved to be hugely popular and is still in production at the time of writing. The introduction of new working practices on this series was a watershed. Subsequently Thames went on to make Andy Capp, a series depicting the cartoon character from the Daily Mirror. It was made on film at the nearby Twickenham Film Studios and starred James Bolam as Andy Capp. At the time some of the stages at Teddington were lying idle so the decision was taken to shoot one of the episodes on stage two.