"I’m trying to remember what viewers outside London actually saw instead of the many Thames programmes that were pre-empted during the 1984 disputes. Probably American dramas/comedies or repeats of UK shows?"
Hello, my first post and I joined to contribute an answer. In the Anglia region on the first Thursday of the 1984 Thames dispute the whole evening from 7:30pm to 10pm was to be supplied by Thames. Anglia kept it simple and played the film, "The Man Who Would Be King". I remember they had at least one break in transmission due to a playout problem. I also never made it to the end of the film and never seen it since.