60 years of telly from Tyne Tees
STATION SET TO MARK LANDMARK BIRTHDAY
IT’S 60 years since curious television viewers in the North East switched on their sets to watch the unveiling of a new channel called Tyne Tees.
At 5pm on January 15, 1959, it went on air - a full three years after independent, commercially-driven TV was launched in London.
Now there would be the luxury of two channels to tune into - BBC and Tyne Tees.
In the subsequent six decades, Tyne Tees would produce landmark shows and launch the careers of big-name TV personalties.
Back in 1959, the opening programme saw the Duke of Northumberland formally announce the arrival of the new station.
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, MP for nearby Stockton-on-Tees for two decades, was also interviewed.
A live variety show, The Big Show, featured a local singer, Eileen Brannan, who filled in at the last minute after Dickie Henderson fell ill and couldn’t travel to Newcastle.
This local content was followed by an episode of the American police series Highway Patrol, and an evening of light entertainment programmes, including I Love Lucy and Double Your Money.
There were the expected openingnight glitches. The following day’s Chronicle noted: “Tyne Tees had some technical troubles, especially with sound and continuity from live TV to recordings. But this will, I expect, be ironed out in future productions.”
Meanwhile, when a nervous sports presenter asked Sunderland manager Alan Brown what his team’s chances were in the FA Cup, the reply was: “None. We were knocked out some time ago!”
But Tyne Tees was up and running. The success of the station was important for many reasons.
The late North East newsreader Mike Neville, who would become a huge figure on both Tyne Tees and the BBC, suggested the launch of Tyne Tees enabled local people to hear local accents and dialects on television for the first time.
For many years, the station broadcast from studios in a converted warehouse in City Road, Newcastle. If you happened to be enjoying a drink in the next-door Egypt Cottage pub, you were quite likely to be propping up the bar alongside a famous face from local or national television.
Since July 2005, ITV Tyne Tees has broadcast from smaller studios in Gateshead.
Across the decades, the station has produced a host of shows, documentaries and series that would be shown across the ITV network.
In the early years one of the best known offerings was The One O’Clock Show, a 40-minute variety show broadcast on weekdays. It ran for over 1,000 editions until 1964.
From the late 1970s, Tyne Tees produced series such as The Paper Lads, Quest of Eagles, Barriers and Andy Robson, and in the mid-1980s, the game shows Crosswits and Chain Letters.
Pop shows The Geordie Scene, Check It Out and Razzmattazz, presented by Lyn Spencer, plus the hugely popular Super Gran were big hits with younger audiences.
And football fans enjoyed North East action in the popular Sunday afternoon highlights show, Shoot, which ran from the early ‘60s until the early ‘80s.
But it was perhaps the station’s involvement in a series of superb Catherine Cookson adaptations in the 1990s, and the production of the all-new, in-your-face music show The Tube, in the early ‘80s, which represent the pinnacle of Tyne Tees’ output.
Presenter Ian Payne is one of the station’s best-known faces. He says: “To have been a member of the Tyne Tees family for nearly half of its life and for more than half of mine continues to be a great honour.
“It means so much to all of us, past and present, that North East viewers continue to welcome us into their homes as friends every day. There have been so many highlights and laughs - on-screen and off!
“Pam Royle and I can’t wait to host our 60th year celebration programme tomorrow - it’ll be an emotional show, bursting with pride. So many of us have grown up with Tyne Tees telly.”
Meanwhile, Head of News, Michaela Byrne said: “The Tyne Tees name is an iconic one and of course it is synonymous with the region.
“All of us in the current day ITV Tyne Tees are very proud to work here and we are really passionate about doing our best to report on events in the North East and to show the vibrancy of the region. We are looking forward to celebrating the 60th anniversary of Tyne Tees tomorrow and have some terrific coverage planned to celebrate it.”
Happy birthday to Tyne Tees. Here’s to the next 60 years.