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Current Affairs Arrives on Commercial Television

Author: Patricia Holland
Category: News and Weather programs
Created: 2005-12-29
Modified: 2006-01-12
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"This Week" The first weekly current affairs series on ITV...

End of a Monopoly

The series was produced by Associated-Rediffusion (A-R), one of the new companies licensed by the ground breaking Television Act of 1954. This ended the BBC's monopoly of television broadcasting and created space on the air waves for a channel funded by advertising. In the words of the Daily Mail's critic, Peter Black, the coming of a commercial channel meant that British broadcasting was "wrenched"...violently out of the orbit it had swung in for thirty years". ITV was set up with a regional structure and A-R had gained the plum job of broadcasting to the London region on weekdays. It was also one of the four major companies which controlled the national network. From the autumn of 1956, This Week was networked at 9.30 every Friday evening, and its reach expanded across the UK as the ITV network was built up.

The First Producer

This Week's first Producer and the only woman ever to run the series was Caryl Doncaster, recruited from the BBC's documentary department. She described her aims in the following way "This Week will be a programme of stories behind the news worldwide?. It won't be all political. There will be a bit of everything in it, including humour and glamour. It won't be highbrow because we want a wide audience? with everything geared to the commercial element we cannot afford programmes that do not pull their weight in viewer strength".

So at first the series was a light-weight magazine, which mixed serious journalism with more frivolous items, but by the early 1960s it was making tough, journalist-led thirty-minute single-item programmes, which tackled domestic and international subjects, topped and tailed by a stirring theme tune ? the Intermezzo from Sibelius's Karelia suite. The change was partly due to competition, both with Panorama, the BBC's main current affairs series, and World in Action, launched with much panache by ITV's Manchester-based company, Granada, in 1963. But it was also due to pressure from the body which regulated the ITV network - Independent Television Authority (ITA). The Authority (from 1972 known as the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)) monitored the companies' performance and reviewed their licences. As part of a public service system, the ITV companies were expected to produce programmes which were serious and informative as well as entertaining ? and in 1962 they had been heavily criticised for falling short of this aim by the Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting.

Quality Journalism

As the 1960s progressed, This Week, under a series of editors committed to quality journalism and well-crafted television - Peter Morley and Cyril Bennett, followed by Jeremy Isaacs, then Phillip Whitehead went from strength to strength, with programmes on domestic social issues - touching on taboo topics such as abortion, sexuality and racism as in Desmond Wilcox's 'Negro Next Door' (19th August 1965); and overseas report - such as Llew Gardner's portrait of Colonel "Mad Mitch" Mitchell which charted the dying days of colonialism, as he and his Highland regiment tried to impose their rule on one of Britain's last colonies ('Aden: The Last Post' (7th August 1967).

Even so, in 1968 the ITA judged that Rediffusion (as Associated-Rediffusion was now known) was not fulfilling its remit, and forced the company to merge with ABC Television to form a new company. Thames Television, with its evocative logo of the London skyline - St Paul?s, Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, all rising up out of the river- was born of that forced marriage. However, the new company allowed This Week to continue, under the same editor, Phillip Whitehead.

Reporting on World Events

It was a traumatic time in world events. The series was covering campaigns against racial segregation in the United States, together with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy; in Vietnam there was the Tet offensive and the impending invasion of Cambodia; in Africa, the Biafra war; while in the Middle East the aftermath of the Six Day War was unfolding. The space race was speeding up, there were the US moon landings, and in Europe came the 'Prague Spring' as Czechoslovakia tried to shake off Soviet rule. This Week covered the euphoria and its brutal suppression, in a series of powerful and closely observed programmes.

In 1967 the ITA had given some protection to current affairs on ITV, by mandating that the main series should be broadcast across the network at peak viewing times. World in Action was to be broadcast on Mondays and This Week on Thursdays.

The Golden Age

By the 1970s This Week had entered what many described as its "golden age". Thames Television was prospering, and in early 1971 there was a change in the financial arrangements; the ITV companies would now be taxed on profits rather than advertising revenue. This meant that it was in their interest to plough more money into their programmes. In the words of that acute observer, Peter Fiddick, "Corporate cash and the creative drive [were caught] on the same upswing'. It was an invaluable context for the flowering of This Week.

A Forum For Political Debate

Throughout the 1970s, the series continued to probe into the background of the broad news agenda from domestic poverty to the Middle East, from issues of health and education to industrial relations, as the National Union of Mineworkers challenged Edward Heath's Conservative government in 1972 and 1974 ("The Miners' Last Stand" 20.1.1972). It became a major forum for political debate particularly at election times, with regular interviews with major politicians and party leaders.

Hard Hitting Reports

A new generation of reporters had joined the programme, including Jonathan Dimbleby and Peter Taylor. Jonathan Dimbleby?s interest in development issues, and his reports from Africa, and particularly the appalling famines across the northern regions, drew attention to parts of the world which had hardly impinged on the Western media. 'The Unknown Famine' (18th October 1973) raised an estimated �1.5 million in aid to Ethiopia. Peter Taylor came to specialise in Northern Ireland. His programmes traced the conflict as it developed from Bloody Sunday in 1972, giving an insight into the mindsets of the Unionists, the Catholics and the British army. His probings into the difficult areas of terrorism, paramilitary organisations and policing led to many confrontations with the regulator (IBA), and accusations of interference and censorship. His meticulous investigation into the alleged torture of detainees in a Belfast detention centre led to the cancellation of an entire programme and a blank screen as the technicians union, the ACTT, refused to transmit the comedy show put forward as an alternative (8th June 1978).

This Week was pushing at the limits and often became highly embarrassing to the authorities. There was pressure on the company, and on the editor of the time, David Elstein, to be less provocative; Northern Ireland became the programme's breaking point ? as it would be again with 'Death on the Rock' ten years later.

This Week - Comes Off the Air

In August 1978 This Week was taken off the air, and Thames's main current affairs series was relaunched as TVEye with Mike Townson in charge. Townson?s approach was more populist in nature. He argued that programmes should be 'story led' to engage the audience, rather than 'issue led', following the interests of the journalists. The change in emphasis was part of a wider shift in company policy - and also in national political ideology, as Margaret Thatcher, elected as Conservative Prime Minister in 1979, began to push towards a de-regulated, market based economy.

There were accusations of sensationalism and trivialisation, but TVEye did not bring a huge change in production style. The programmes continued to cover the current affairs spectrum, with powerful overseas reports from Cambodia, Iran, Poland and Africa from reporters Julian Manyon and Peter Gill, as well as domestic issues, such as rising unemployment ('Tees Street isn?t working' 28th November1985). Mike Townson was to be the longest serving editor of Thames's main current affairs series, remaining with TVEye throughout its eight-year run (September 1978 - July 1986).

This Week Returns

In 1986, Thames new Managing Director, Richard Dunn, invited David Elstein back to Thames as Director of Programmes and suggested that he should re-launch This Week. 'Nothing could do more to restore our status than to replace our current flagship with something more like a battleship or cruiser'? he wrote. To emphasise the change, the Karelia music was brought back in a newly recorded version --with more drums.

The new editor was Roger Bolton, and he was to preside over This Week's most notorious programme. Many have argued that 'Death on the Rock' (28th April 1988), so outraged was Margaret Thatcher, that it brought about not only the death of Thames Television and of This Week, but also of the broadcasting regulator itself, the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The programme challenged the official version of the foiling of a bomb plot and the killing of three IRA members by British soldiers of the undercover SAS in the British territory of Gibraltar. It outraged the government by daring to raise questions about the legality of their tough and covert- measures against terrorism.

It is, of course, an oversimplification to argue that a single programme brought about a change in policy towards television ?even though it probably contributed to the mood. In any case, with its high-spending, stroppy unions, and a regulatory body which had power to intervene in market decisions, ITV certainly did not fit Margaret Thatcher's model of an efficient industry. The multi-channel era, heralded by new satellite and cable channels, was in any case bringing new competitors, and it was clear that the companies would soon loose the monopoly on advertising which had underpinned their prosperity and confidence.

A New Broadcasting Act

In 1990 a new Broadcasting Act decreed that the Independent Broadcasting Authority should be replaced with an Independent Television Commission, a regulator with a 'light touch' and reduced powers. Instead of awarding the broadcasting franchises to the companies which offered the best mix of programmes, the Commission was required to run an 'auction' for the airwaves, and television companies were asked to put in a financial bid for the right to broadcast. This was the measure that many thought was designed to punish companies that had made life uncomfortable for politicians by making programmes with priorities other than audience appeal, and it gave rise to new questions about the role of current affairs as part of a broad public service commitment.

This Week Comes to an End

By the beginning of the 1990s, Thames Television was producing a wide range of programming in all genresand This Week, under its last, energetic editor, Paul Woolwich, was broadening its audience appeal with investigations and campaigns ?such as dirty tricks by British Airways and unsafe train doors ('Violating Virgin' 27th February 1992; 'Blood on the Tracks' 21st May 1992). But a company which owned several studios and employed a workforce in all branches of production, could not compete financially with a company which commissioned programmes from small independent producers, and, when the "auction" was held, Thames lost out to Carlton for ITV?s London weekday franchise.

It marked the end of This Week's eventful 36 year life, and the final programme punned with death. The regular Christmas edition on poverty and homelessness was reported by Margaret Gilmour and followed the bleak funeral of a man who had lived and died on the streets ('Dying for a home' 10th December 1992).

More than a decade after the end of This Week, challenging questions about the role of current affairs on a commercial channel remain. Such programmes inevitably attract smaller audiences than entertainment programmes. But the need to involve the audience has arguably added a creative tension over the history of programmes such as This Week. The idea and practice of a public service system has implied cross fertilisation and a situation in which the 'populas'? and the 'serious' constantly challenge each other. As the history of This Week has shown, this delicate balance has been achieved by strong regulation which has created a climate in which the commercial companies too, have recognised their public service responsibility. Circumstances are very different now, as channels and television formats proliferate - but we all have an interest in ensuring that the core values are not lost.

Patricia Holland

References:

Patricia Holland is author of the book: "The Angry Buzz, This Week and Current Affairs Television" ISBN 1 84511 051 X

Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Peter Denton: This Week crew on location in Divis Flats, West Belfast, January 1974. Crew from left to right David Crozier(Sound recordist), Peter Taylor (reporter), Teddy Adcock (camera), David Gill (director).

A printable version of this article is contained in the pdf below.

Pdf's
This Week ITV.pdf

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