I think it must have been a casualty of the Carlton side of the merger as Leeds and Manchester did much better out of it.
Geography would have been a factor, as it is with the BBC moving to a Salford-London model
A combined ITV doesn't need big production centres in every city in England and Wales so the number had to be reduced. They're never going to get out of London, and Manchester has their longest running show. Birmingham and Nottingham are between the two, at the edge of the catchment area of both.
I suspect Leeds would have had a similar fate had it not been for Emmerdale, the other problem Central had was that it didn't have any long running programmes at the time... Inspector Morse was probably the biggest show they had and that wouldn't have helped
Yes, Manchester and Leeds were relatively okay due to long-established soaps ensuring ITV were always going to need a presence in both cities. I am surprised that the Leeds transmission facilities for the northern ITV regions are still going though.
Got to add to that this whole 'second city' project of trying to make Manchester a London for the North is another factor. part of which was the basis for the BBC decamp to Salford. This will have encouraged ITV that a presence in Manchester is more sensible than anywhere else outside of London. Yes, it blows for Birmingham but try being in Liverpool's shoes. It's ten times worse.
:-(
A former member
Leeds has gone the same way, what else bar News and Emmerdale is made in Leeds? STV Studios have gone the same way, if STV needs big studio its just cheaper to hire the BBC Scotland studios next door!
Maidstone has only kept going because its full of independent productions, and close to London, even STV had an office in that place.
For one reason or another Central long running series all come to an end during the 1990s, and nothing really replaced them. A Lot of Gameshows were made in Notts are now in Kent house or Maidstone. Remember Broad street was closed down because the building had "concrete cancer" and a lot of the stuff was moved to Nottingham, while the schools went to Ch4.
Nottingham was still very very busy with stuff even up till 2002? Crossroads, Peak Practices, Kavanagh QC, Barbara, Family Fortunes. Nottingham was home to the Carlton Cables channels including Carlton food which had a lot of studio shows.
In 2002 it all come to a head, everything just seems to disappeared, it was just before the merger that's the strange thing about this. ITV Digital may have more to do with this than anything else.
Nottingham should have never closed down. I do understand ITV does not need alots of studios but really...
Leeds has gone the same way, what else bar News and Emmerdale is made in Leeds?
As I say it was reprieved by Emmerdale. ITV also has a playout facility there, but that could go anywhere
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Nottingham should have never closed down. I do understand ITV does not need alots of studios but really...
As I said above, it's problem I suppose was that it's not far from London and not far from Manchester.... why did they need a third studio centre between the two. Central by name, central by nature!
Leeds has gone the same way, what else bar News and Emmerdale is made in Leeds?
Loads of archive fact ent shows through the Shiver department there, Countdown still based there, much of the ITV archive is based there.
Decent number of indies in Leeds as well.
Leeds has infact become the Maidstone of the north? I did hear ITV were planning to more the archive out the building but I take it now been dropped? Central Archive is split between Manchester and Leeds?
:-(
A former member
Was Des O conner tonight made in Nottingham or Brum? Did it just say in London? plus why was the first series or Bruce's Price is Right made by Central but then transferred to Yorkshire?
Was Des O conner tonight made in Nottingham or Brum? Did it just say in London? plus why was the first series or Bruce's Price is Right made by Central but then transferred to Yorkshire?
The original Price is Right (Leslie Crowther version) was produced by Central, then many years later it was resurrected by Yorkshire. I'd imagine Central's rights to the format had expired or something.
With regards to Central, a lot was rested on Crossroads being a success. It wasn't, so the production base was pretty redundant.
Des, Its seems the Commissioning Company: Central Independent Television, with Thames making it ...... but ...... Central did make a few episodes in 1993, but I take it, all were done in London? It seems "Wish you were here" also seems to have went to Central in 1993 but Thames still made it
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With the creation of a dedicated ITV Sport network unit, Central also played a significant part in networked sports output under the leadership of Gary Newbon. The station produced nearly all of ITV's football coverage - including the FA Cup, UEFA Champions' League, the FIFA World Cup - 94, 98, 02, the UEFA European Championship, 96, 00, 04 and Premier League highlights, as well as extensive live regional coverage of Football League matches involving Midlands clubs during the 1990s. The station also played its part in coverage of key European athletics meetings and world championship boxing with The Big Fight Live as a long standing Saturday night fixture. In 2004, the department was moved to London and merged with the London News Network's operations to form ITV Sport Productions