How you can still tune into the golden age of TV after more than six decades

Ashton historians and authors Philip and David Williams channel our thoughts back to an era of TV like no other...

ITV’s Coronation Street, the world’s longest-running TV soap according to Guinness World Records, will mark its 60th anniversary milestone on December 9. Leading up to the occasion ITV have been screening special shows, published an anniversary book and launched new products. 

The anniversary week itself will see three storylines reach their conclusions while triggering events that will take the show into 2021. 

However, as ITV celebrates 60 years of Coronation Street it is also interesting to look back at television in the north from that era.

Commercial television in Britain was initially carried out by separate companies with the country being split into regions each having its own local identity, like TWW, Southern, ATV, Rediffusion, Grampian and Tyne Tees to name but a few. Granada Television based in Manchester and founded by Sidney Bernstein, was to become a major force in British television. Having gained the franchise for the north of England - which initially also covered Yorkshire - the company opened Britain’s first purpose-built TV studios. In modern times, in order to compete with satellite TV and to produce programming for international markets, all the surviving ITV regional companies in England and Wales were acquired either by Granada or Carlton Television. Culminating in 2002 by Granada effectively taking over Carlton with a controlling merger to operate as the single entity - today’s ITV plc (ITV studios).

However, when Granada TV launched Corrie back in 1960 the Manchester-based company had only been broadcasting to the North West for around four years having made its first transmission in May 1956.

It is interesting to recall that for the first 12 years of its life Granada only operated Monday to Friday. With the weekend franchise for the north of England (and the Midlands) at that time being held by ABC Television.

This company was established by the Associated-British Picture Corporation, who already owned the ABC chain of cinemas and also produced films at their Elstree Studios. ABC established three TV studios, with one serving the Midlands housed in the former ABC Astoria cinema, Aston, Birmingham. While in Manchester another former ABC cinema, the Capitol at Didsbury, was similarly converted. Aware that performers may be reluctant to travel out of London, ABC also acquired the old Warner Brothers Studio at Teddington which was duly converted for TV use. In Manchester one of ABC’s most celebrated continuity announcers was David Hamilton - nick named ‘Diddy David’ by Ken Dodd due to his small stature - in 1963 David conducted one of the first TV interviews with The Beatles for ABC.

ABC soon made a name for itself and produced a wide range of programming and memorable shows. The company propelled Mike and Bernie Winters into the big time with a show called Big Night Out which was recorded in Didsbury. It presented first class entertainers and was an instant success, especially in the north. Mike and Bernie followed this up with another ratings winner Blackpool Night Out. Other comedians with shows from ABC included Ken Dodd with Doddy’s Music Box, Tommy Cooper in Life with Cooper and diminutive Lancashire comedian and eternal schoolboy Jimmy Clitheroe in the sit-com Just Jimmy. 

Then there was Police Surgeon which starred Ian Hendry as Dr Geoffrey Brent which was a forerunner to ABC’s bigger hit The Avengers. Hendry was the initial star of The Avengers but after leaving the show Patrick Macnee, as John Steed, took the lead role. He was soon to be joined by able assistants including Honor Blackman as Kathy Gale and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel (and later Linda Thorson as Tara King). Not only was The Avengers a huge success in Britain but was also an international money spinner for the company with the show airing on US prime time TV – and is still shown regularly worldwide today. 

ABC also pioneered the televising of single plays with the anthology series Armchair Theatre starring a full roster of British talent. Other shows included Candid Camera, the British version of an American imported formula introduced by Bob Monkhouse where clever hoaxes were played on unsuspecting victims and their various reactions recorded by hidden cameras. Another popular programme hosted by Bob Monkhouse was Mad Movies in which he presented clips from the era of silent cinema with stars like Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Early pop music shows aimed at the teenagers also came from ABC including Oh Boy! and Thank Your Lucky Stars, along with British television’s first late night chat show The Eamon Andrews Show. Andrews was also the first anchor for World of Sport introduced by ABC as competition to the BBC’s Grandstand. 

Still remembered by many will be Opportunity Knocks which began on ABC TV in July 1964. An early precursor to Britain’s Got Talent where, in the days before everyone had a phone, the public voted by post. An initial indication to the popularity of the acts was given by the studio audience’s applause registered on the clapometer - a simple decibel meter, with the show’s host Hughie Green reminding viewers “Remember, the clapometer is just for fun…. And I mean that most sincerely, folks.”

Summer months saw Holiday Town Parade presided over by MacDonald Hobley… this is a programme we recall from our childhood if only for its opening theme tune which went something along the lines of…. ‘Beat the drum… here they come… it’s Holiday Town Parade… Make a date, don’t be late for Holiday Town Parade!’ followed by a boom, boom on the big bass drum. 

Besides a slew of favourite entertainers, the show also featured contests to find Britain’s TV bathing beauty, TV fashion queen and a male Adonis ‘muscle man’. Other shows made by ABC included Red Cap, Callan, The Human Jungle and Dial 999.

For those who like to indulge in a bit of television nostalgia it is now possible to spend an evening being entertained by ABC just like we were in the 1960s thanks to the streaming service offered by Network Distributing. 

The service, which was launched earlier in the year, offers TV fans a unique experience where TV meets streaming with a selection of time travel Nights In.

Available via watch.networkonair.com, nostalgia lovers, old and new, have the opportunity to rent specially curated Nights In and collected series from ABC Television, with many programmes not having been seen since their original broadcast.

Nights In consist of four to six hours of exclusively curated programming, including specially recorded new linking material from original ABC continuity announcer David Hamilton, along with clips and contemporary advertisements.  

David Hamilton recalled: “In October 1960, I made my television debut as an announcer for ABC TV at the Didsbury studios in Manchester.  

“In those days there were only two TV channels - BBC and ITV.  ABC, the weekend contractor in the North and Midlands, had a blockbuster schedule and people went to work on Monday mornings talking about the programmes they had all seen the night before, something that couldn’t happen today - truly a golden era of television”.

The first Night In, titled ‘Welcome once again to Manchester’ includes:

• Here’s David Nixon – Episode 1

• Dial 999: The Great Gold Robbery

• Opportunity Knocks (originally broadcast July 31, 1965)

• Big Night Out (originally broadcast July 6, 1963)

• The ABC of ABC: The channel’s 10-year anniversary special, (unseen since 1966)

• Armchair Theatre: A Very Fine Line

• Surprise Bonus Show

So, that’s the first of Network’s Nights In from the 60s, which can be streamed along with other Nights In and television episodes at watch.networkonair.com, a must for anyone wishing to occupy themselves in television of a bygone era.

With changes made in 1967 by the Independent Television Authority, the weekend franchises in the North of England and the Midlands were abolished.

ABC merged with London’s Rediffusion to form Thames Television, with ABC having the controlling interest. Granada TV now took on the full seven-day broadcasting contract for the North West but saw its region split with Yorkshire now being served by new company Yorkshire Television.

Today the identities of the former ITV companies are confined mostly to the local news programmes like Granada Reports. Which has reports on the 60th anniversary of Coronation Street. So, with that and the words of past Granada continuity announcers Jim Pope, Charles Foster and Colin Weston ‘Don’t forget to switch off your TV set.’

Philip and David Williams are authors of ‘For Your Delectation and Delight’ a history of the music halls and theatres of Ashton, and ‘Flickering Memories: From Fleapit to Multiplex – a history of the cinemas of Ashton-under-Lyne.’ Both books are available from Hari Market Newsagent, Ashton Market Hall, or via www.hoydpublishing.co.uk