What was your favorite regional ITV station growing up?

Yorkshire, Granada, Grampian and Ulster never had animated front caps, did they ?

Yorkshire had an animated black and white front cap, and then later the Liquid Gold ident. I believe Granada had an animated front cap shortly after launch which was quickly withdrawn. Grampian had a number of animated front caps, and Ulster had its rotating telly on a stick.

If they weren't axed until 1988, they should have. YTV's Liquid Gold ident was in use by then. And what about this Ulster logo?

EDIT: Looks like someone else responded while I was typing.

Anyway, yeah, looks like it was just Granada and Border - and at least Granada had upgraded to a CG version even if it was still not animated.

Oh my goodness. The Ulster one looks like it was done on a Friday afternoon, just before everyone knocked off home. I hope they remembered to remove the star filter before using the camera again for the regional news bulletin ?

The Granada one was CG but didn't look it, as they were still using the one with flat colours for network output at the end of 1987. Although Border did do something similar around this time (not sure if it came in in 87 or 88 ). Ulster were still using the art card for frontcaps in 1987 for some network programming (not that it was seen very often).

Wasnt the animated Ulster one supposed to only be used regionally for a couple of weeks in 1980, then someone at the company decided to keep it for the next decade?

Still frontcaps seem to have been a 1970s thing mainly -- Grampian, STV, UTV, Border, Tyne Tees, Granada, Yorkshire, Anglia, Southern and possibly Channel all used them for at least some programmes (even when they had animated idents in many cases) during this period. Then they went out of fashion in the 80s.

I thought the short-lived approach taken by YTV/STV/Central/Anglia in 1989 of using an animated endcap was a better idea, and should have been allowed to continue. This is common practice in many countries anyway and allowed these companies to show their branding network-wide.

Did YTV use an animated endcap? The only pre-generic shows I've seen of theirs from 1989 still only have a static one. They were still putting the Liquid Gold frontcap on shows until the generic ident launched though, even if it wasn't broadcast. It's there on the DVDs of Home To Roost (which wasn't actually broadcast until after the generic ident came in, but presumably made before) and The New Statesman, for example.

Never seen any examples from Anglia either, though I think the only 1989 show I've seen of theirs is Knightmare anyway (which has an animated Broadswoard endcap, but the static, 1989 generic Anglia endcap).

Yup, the 21st anniversary YTV ident was animated, and used for a couple of months. Anglia did also used an animated endcap, it was their usual one with a different jingle, but I only saw it a couple of times during the summer of 1989.

There's an example on YouTube somewhere of a YTV programme put out just after the ITV generic stuff started where they put the "YTV Production for ITV" caption out live, but the music of the 21st anniversary ident plays out underneath it, only to be faded out a couple of seconds in.

Speaking of Anglia's generic endcap, I believe they were the only one of the 15 who did not use the standardised version from day one, using their own corporate typeface instead. This would not be replicated by other companies until (I believe) 1992 when Tyne Tees launched their silver look.

I guess it's just that none of the shows that used it have been repeated or released on DVD. I presume it must have appeared on Emmerdale Farm, but the 1989 episodes of that (before it became Emmerdale) haven't been shown since original broadcast, or released on DVD.

Amazingly there’s a clip on TV Ark of a YTV liquid gold animated ident from 1987-89 for Channel 4 use. I doubt Channel 4 used animated end caps often but clearly YTV had one in the can.

I'm sure in 1982 when TVS repeated a series of Worzel Gummage the programmes were shown with a static Southern front cap? Naturally when shown originally on Southern they had the regular animated front cap. Perhaps a compromise, what was left of Southern TV wanted their credit, but no way would TVS have wanted the iconic jingle?

Yeah, this is what they used.


Three versions. One without extra branding, one that said "for ITV" and one that said "for Channel Four".

They didn't change it until the hearts were introduced, at which point a blue United endcap was used.

It's a bit before my time but as largely a 90s kid, not seeing much of the other companies' presentation in my home region added to the mystic; especially going on holiday to parts of the country for the first time.