TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

Pop on Thames Television

30th July 1968 - 31st December 1969

Granny takes a trip to the Euston Road

TV Times announced on the cover of its July 27th - August 2nd 1968 edition "ITV's new era begins this week", but it didn't shout about it. It really should have.

Bizarrely making its debut on a Tuesday, probably something to do with the previous incumbent's contract date, Thames against all odds carved its own furrow, with minimal borrowing from it's ancestors Rediffusion and ABC when it came to presenting pop. Ready Steady Go and Thank Your Lucky Stars had gone almost two years' before and hadn't really been replaced with anything as good as new. In fact, Thames never had its own weekly pop show as such, but the first few eighteen months showed itself as an watchful curator of everything Carnaby Street and Swinging London, albeit still in black and white for the first fifteen months or so.

And straight away, on the first day, we were in gear. Sooty had a new resident guest, Gerry Marsden, while its twice weekly children's magazine show Magpie had a theme by The Spencer Davis Group.

This wasn't just London, it was like we were in the West End with Tommy Cooper, The Bachelors, Liberace and others all providing top notch entertainment in the first few weeks.

Several old shows were adopted by the new channel, so Opportunity Knocks and Do Not Adjust Your Set had new idents stuck on at the beginning, but they were pretty much the old shows. In fact, Thames inherited more than just a few shows. The keys to ABC's old Teddington Lock and Rediffusion's Kingsway studios were given to them, but they would eventually open their own new small studios up by Euston train station soon after.

Identity wise Thames had the most iconic, but still faintly weird and worrying ident in ITV's history. Looking like they had somehow resurrected the city's landmarks from drowning it was accompanied by a brassy calling card, Salute To Thames by Johnny Hawksworth. Despite the woeful 1989 ITV branding Thames managed to reclaim its history with an updated take on its ident in 1990, but by then it was too late.

These shows weren't just made by Thames. As they rightly claimed in its very early days, they were From Thames.

1968

The Sooty Show featuring Scouser Gerry Marsden now without his Pacemakers might have seemed an odd choice for a new London-based station, but his cheek and charm were perfect, while the monochrome paisley of Magpie's theme tune and opening graphics meant that were were in good hands. Several of the light entertainment shows like The Bachelors' Night Out, Max Bygraves and Liberace shows whiffed a bit of ABC, in fact several shows were actually old previously untransmitted ABC shows re-badged as Thames, but we knew what Thames meant and its geography, so it didn't really matter. On 20th August Frankie Howerd Meets The Bee Gees was broadcast. Another ABC left-over, this was was recorded in colour and was intended to be shown on Thames' opening night on 30th July but kept back. The 10th September edition of Magpie caught Mary Hopkin at Apple with her producer Paul McCartney, while the 3rd October saw the first of six episodes of cult children's show The Tyrant King, with three amateur teenage sleuths looking for clues in a psychedelic, but still grubby London. Bubblegum gods Kasenetz-Katz visited Magpie on 15th October, while The Cheerful Insanity of Giles Giles & Fripp paid Eamonn Andrews a visit on 17th October, and while we're on the nutty end of the stick The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown said hello to Eamonn on 31st October. Hit-making one-man-band Don Partridge popped up on Magpie on 5th November, while returning stars The Casuals and Mary Hopkin re-visited Opportunity Knocks on 6th November. Mike & Bernie Winters were also transferred from ABC and welcomed Tiny Tim on their first Thames show on 13th November. There was also room for soul and jazz on the Eamonn Andrews show on 14th November with Inez & Charlie Foxx and Julie Driscoll. The Casuals were back at Thames for The Eamonn Andrews Show on 21st November promoting their new 45 Toy, while Herman's Hermits, Heath Hampstead and The Peddlers popped in on 28th November. During that month Magpie's Pete Brady holds up what looks like a square bit of white cardboard. It is and it isn't. "I'm holding the new Beatles albums, and it's still warm in my hand." Thames would have a "healthy" relationship with EMI over the years, and the record was sent by courier over from their Hayes pressing plant a short distance away. On Christmas Day The Bonzos return for a Do Not Adjust Your Set special, and Mary Hopkin was back on Opportunity Knocks the same day. The last day of the year rounds off Thames' perfect debut with an appearance by new British group Yes on Magpie, months before they signed with Atlantic.

1969

A slow start to the new year but The Scaffold find themselves on Eamonn Andrews' Show on 23rd January, but the Bonzos get us back on track with the new series of Do Not Adjust starting 19th February, and Magpie continues with Pete's Pops, Pete Brady's weekly look at the pop scene. Thames' daily early evening news show Today hosts The Who on 28th March, probably to talk about Tommy, while John & Yoko talk about themselves on 1st April, returning two days' later. Scaffold were back, this time in a Speight Of Speight on 5th May. The Shadows' Hank Marvin appeared on Frankie Howerd at the Poco A Poco on 7th May, and singer-songwriter Peter Sarsdedt on Today 29th May. Manfred Mann (the bloke) appears on Today 5th June to explain that Manfred Mann (the group) were splitting, and the 13th June Today welcomes James Taylor, promoting his Apple album, while bubblegum funsters The Ohio Express drop by on 17th June. Cilla and Alan Price both turn up for Mike & Bernie's Show on 7th July. What looks like a farewell show That Was Today That Was saw Liverpool's answer to The 5th Dimension Arrival through the door on 11th July. The Orange Bicycle park themselves at Mike & Bernie's Show on 11th August. The Bonzos continue with Do Not Adjust Your Set while Sooty plays host to both Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin during the summer. Today turns heavy on 17th September with guests Deep Purple, but Opportunity Knocks restores the balance with newcomers Pickettywitch on 20th October. A well documented (by the BBC) appearance on Today by rocker Gene Vincent occurred on 7th November, albeit a day late.

Thames would continue reflecting the current pop scene, but only briefly from now on, despite its affiliation with it owner EMI. Acts would continue to appear on various Mike & Bernie Winters vehicles, Today would have odd pop guests, much to their regret in December 1976, Magpie let go of Pete Brady so goodbye to Pete's Pops, but Opportunity Knocks still provides regional pop bands like Nottingham's Paper Lace and Liverpool's The Real Thing. The real surprise was in its children's department. In 1970 Ace Of Wands debuts, created by Trevor Preston who had worked on Thames' The Tyrant King. It involved a magician, Tarot, played by Michael Mackenzie, whose psychic gifts make him an ideal sleuth. It was the theme however, that stuck in everyone's head. Released on a Parlophone 45 in July 1970 Andy Bown's Tarot can justly make its case as one of the first true Glam Rock 45s. Radio One's David Hamilton appeared as a continuity announcer for many years, as did, albeit briefly, Richard Skinner, later to appear as the chart master on Whistle Test in the early 80’s.

Thames, some say, unfairly lost its franchise in the early 90s shake-up of ITV, but is remembered more than its successor is forgotten.