Retrovision – remember 1979?
The year began amid the Winter of Discontent, with tens of thousands of public workers striking across Britain due to Labour’s cap on pay rises to control inflation. Those who worked in television also expressed their grievances with an all-out one-day strike at the BBC on December 22, 1978, resulting in blank screens and exclusivity for ITV. Worse was to come though when on August 10 the entire ITV network shut down for 11 weeks due to a technician strike, leaving viewers with a blue caption apologising for the lack of programmes. The strike concluded with a victory for the unions and is estimated to have cost ITV £100 million in lost revenue.
DELAYS AND DIVORCE
With no ITV and printers also on strike, viewers had little idea of what programmes to expect when the channel returned. One new series that suffered from the lack of pre-publicity was Minder; starring Dennis Waterman as ex-jailbird Terry and George Cole as entrepreneur Arthur Daley. Very few watched, and it took two years before the series figured in the ratings, but unlike many of Daley’s dodgy deals it all came good and during its 15-year run it was one of ITV’s biggest ratings winners. On February 19, BBC2 welcomed back its muchawaited ratings winner with the second and final series of Fawlty Towers. The first series of six episodes had been repeated three times since 1975 and sold to 45 TV stations in 17 countries. John Cleese and Connie Booth had began writing the second series in 1976, but there had been many interruptions – not least their divorce.
BORN TO SUCCESS
Unfortunately, the series itself endured an interruption when the recording of the final episode was delayed due to industrial action, leaving viewers to wait six months for ‘Basil the Rat’. Just as the country was becoming attuned to having its first female Prime Minster in Margaret Thatcher, another formidable lady was making her conservative views heard. Audrey FforbesHamilton (Penelope Keith) was To the Manor Born in BBC1’s new sitcom. Recently widowed, she is forced due to death duties to sell her home Grantleigh Manor. The buyer, much to her dislike, is nouveau riche millionaire Richard DeVere (Peter Bowles). Grantleigh Manor was, in reality, Cricket House located in Cricket St Thomas, Somerset and at the time was owned by the fatherin-law of the series’ creator and writer, Peter Spence. The seventh and final episode of series one attracted more than 23 million viewers, making it the most watched prerecorded programme of the Seventies.