170-556: Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as ' Southern Television Limited ' and the title 'Southern Television' was consistently used on-air throughout its life. However, in 1966, during the application process for contracts running from 1968, the company renamed itself 'Southern Independent Television Limited',
340-600: A Filmed Playhouse drama entitled The Last Reunion , a preview programme called Coming Shortly , an episode of the American crime drama Highway Patrol and a networked opening night programme entitled Southern Rhapsody , starring Gracie Fields and the Lionel Blair Dancers, televised from the station's studios in a converted cinema in the Northam area of Southampton and the ocean liner Caronia , which
510-496: A Gothic mansion in Surrey belonging to Lord Ashcombe , and they began a romantic relationship. Blyton's marriage to Pollock was troubled for years, and according to Crowe's memoir, she had a series of affairs, including lesbian relationships with one of the children's nannies and with Lola Onslow, an artist who illustrated Blyton's 1924, titled The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies . In 1941, Blyton met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters,
680-551: A 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. Its illustrator, Enid's schoolfriend Phyllis Chase collaborated on several of her early works. Also in that year, Blyton began writing in annuals for Cassell and George Newnes , and her first piece of writing, "Peronel and his Pot of Glue", was accepted for publication in Teachers' World . Further boosting her success, in 1923, her poems appeared alongside those of Rudyard Kipling , Walter de la Mare , and G. K. Chesterton in
850-564: A 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. Following the commercial success of her early novels, such as Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (1937) and The Enchanted Wood (1939), Blyton went on to build a literary empire, sometimes producing fifty books a year in addition to her prolific magazine and newspaper contributions. Her writing was unplanned and sprang largely from her unconscious mind ; she typed her stories as events unfolded before her. The sheer volume of her work and
1020-440: A London surgeon with whom she began a serious affair. Pollock discovered the liaison and threatened to initiate divorce proceedings. Due to fears that exposure of her adultery would ruin her public image, it was ultimately agreed that Blyton would instead file for divorce against Pollock. According to Crowe's memoir, Blyton promised that if he admitted to infidelity, she would allow him parental access to their daughters; but after
1190-610: A Noddy jigsaw series featuring cards appeared from 1963, with illustrations by Robert Lee. Arrow Games became the chief producer of Noddy jigsaws in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Whitman manufactured four new Secret Seven jigsaw puzzles in 1975 and produced four new Malory Towers ones two years later. In 1979, the company released a Famous Five adventure board game, the Famous Five Kirrin Island Treasure. Stephen Thraves wrote eight Famous Five adventure game books, published by Hodder & Stoughton in
1360-641: A Treasure Island (1942), Five on Kirrin Island Again (1947) and Five Go Down to the Sea (1953). Capitalising on her success, with a loyal and ever-growing readership, Blyton produced a new edition of many of her series such as the Famous Five, the Five Find-Outers and St. Clare's every year in addition to many other novels, short stories and books. In 1946, Blyton launched the first in
1530-511: A central service under the STV brand. The company had several disputes with ITV plc in the late 2000s and early 2010s over network programming. STV aimed to broadcast more Scottish programmes at peak times and so removed several key ITV plc programmes from their schedule in July 2009 including The Bill , Midsomer Murders and Lewis . Despite STV's explanation of expense, ITV plc were angered by
1700-515: A child. According to Blyton's daughter Gillian, the inspiration for the magic tree came from "thinking up a story one day, and suddenly she was walking in the enchanted wood and found the tree. In her imagination, she climbed up through the branches and met Moon-Face, Silky, the Saucepan Man and the rest of the characters. She had all she needed." As in the Wishing-Chair series, these fantasy books typically involve children being transported into
1870-442: A children's science programme also featuring Hargreaves along with Fred Dinenage , Bunty James (later replaced by Marian Davies) and Jon Miller ; Freewheelers , a children's spy series; Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years and Worzel Gummidge , starring Jon Pertwee as the eponymous walking scarecrow . Southern Television also produced a programme aimed at the farming community, presented by Mark Jenner, Farm Progress
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#17327801600582040-411: A considerable amount of syndicated unscripted US programmes in daytime during the 90s, such as Judge Judy and The Jerry Springer Show . By 1996, ITV had been quiet with US series in primetime, particularly as Channel 4 and Sky One increased the competition for securing the most popular US dramas and sitcoms. However, that summer, ITV debuted the primetime soap Savannah , in a 9pm Friday slot. It
2210-493: A couple of hours after midnight, replacing gambling broadcasts: the time between the news and the shopping is usually kept for re-runs, with ITV repeating its primetime entertainment shows, films, or sports programming from ITV4. ITV continues with its regular scheduled programming after the shopping service finishes at around 3am with showbiz news bulletin FYI Extra and repeats, many of which have on-screen BSL signing for
2380-400: A dedicated CITV programming block now broadcasting on ITV2 every morning, from 2 September 2023. Schools programming on the network began in 1957 in some regions and expanded as more regions began broadcasting. It was a contractual obligation for some ITV companies to broadcast schools programming, and this was initially broadcast as part of the normal scheduling. The programmes were moved into
2550-403: A few minutes, with my portable typewriter on my knee – I make my mind a blank and wait – and then, as clearly as I would see real children, my characters stand before me in my mind's eye ... The first sentence comes straight into my mind, I don't have to think of it – I don't have to think of anything. In another letter to McKellar, she describes how in just five days she wrote
2720-400: A final farewell smile from those Southern people who've become to many of you, true friends, it's goodbye from us. Afterwards, the camera panned to show many of the on-air talent and company executives standing solemnly as their names were displayed on-screen and the "Southern Fantasia" (composed especially for the show by Jonathan Burton, and performed earlier on in the programme) was played in
2890-618: A following that readers asked Blyton if they might form a fan club. She agreed, on condition that it serves a useful purpose, and suggested that it could raise funds for the Shaftesbury Society Babies' Home in Beaconsfield, on whose committee she had served since 1948. The club was established in 1952, and provided funds for equipping a Famous Five Ward at the home, a paddling pool , sun room, summer house, playground, birthday and Christmas celebrations, and visits to
3060-471: A form of escapism. Brandon Robshaw of The Independent refers to the Blyton universe as "crammed with colour and character", "self-contained and internally consistent", noting that Blyton exemplifies a strong mistrust of adults and figures of authority in her works, creating a world in which children govern. Gillian noted that in her mother's adventure, detective and school stories for older children, "the hook
3230-479: A happily married and devoted doctor's wife. After discovering she was pregnant in the spring of 1945, Blyton miscarried five months later, following a fall from a ladder. The baby would have been Darrell Waters's first child and the son for which they both longed. Her love of tennis included playing naked, with nude tennis "a common practice in those days among the more louche members of the middle classes". Blyton's health began to deteriorate in 1957, when, during
3400-529: A light-touch regulator, the ITC ; companies became able to purchase other ITV regional companies and franchises were now being awarded based upon a highest-bidder auction, with few safeguards in place. This heavily criticised part of the review saw four operators replaced, and the operators facing different annual payments to the Treasury : Central Independent Television, for example, paid only £2,000—despite holding
3570-721: A little wooden boy from Toyland, first appeared in the Sunday Graphic on 5 June 1949, and in November that year Noddy Goes to Toyland , the first of at least two dozen books in the series, was published. The idea was conceived by one of Blyton's publishers, Sampson, Low, Marston and Company, who in 1949 arranged a meeting between Blyton and the Dutch illustrator Harmsen van der Beek . Despite having to communicate via an interpreter, he provided some initial sketches of how Toyland and its characters would be represented. Four days after
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#17327801600583740-451: A lucrative and large region—because it was unopposed, while Yorkshire Television paid £37.7 million for a region of the same size and status, owing to heavy competition. Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. By 2004, the ITV network
3910-529: A magazine that typically included the re-telling of legends, myths, stories and other articles for children. That same year, she was given her own column in Teachers' World , entitled "From my Window". Three years later, she began contributing a weekly page in the magazine, in which she published letters from her fox terrier dog Bobs. They proved to be so popular that in 1933 they were published in book form as Letters from Bobs , and sold ten thousand copies in
4080-427: A magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, pixies and other mythological creatures. Blyton's first full-length adventure novel, The Secret Island , was published in 1938, featuring the characters of Jack, Mike, Peggy and Nora. Described by The Glasgow Herald as a " Robinson Crusoe -style adventure on an island in an English lake", The Secret Island was a lifelong favourite of Gillian's and spawned
4250-603: A medley of songs sung by Lillian Watson and performed by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta under conductor Owain Arwel Hughes . The show's presenter and long-serving continuity announcer Christopher Robbie , signed off from Southern Television with these words: Goodbye songs from Lillian Watson because ... it's goodbye time. We said at the start that we'd come to celebrate, and I think we have. We've enjoyed remembering, and I'm sure you won't forget. So, with
4420-575: A mini-bus for disabled children at Stoke Mandeville Hospital . Blyton capitalised upon her commercial success as an author by negotiating agreements with jigsaw puzzle and games manufacturers from the late 1940s onwards; by the early 1960s, some 146 different companies were involved in merchandising Noddy alone. In 1948, Bestime released four jigsaw puzzles featuring her characters, and the first Enid Blyton board game appeared, Journey Through Fairyland , created by BGL. The first card game, Faraway Tree, appeared from Pepys in 1950. In 1954, Bestime released
4590-494: A minute. There were no closing or shut-down announcements, no suggestions for viewers to switch off their television sets, nor even the customary playing of the national anthem. At 12:45 am the transmitters were shut down, putting a permanent end to Southern's broadcasts after 24 years. Exactly 8 hours and 40 minutes later, Television South began broadcasting in Southern's former region. Southern Television's programme archive
4760-737: A monthly political programme, most non-news regional programming in the English regions was dropped by ITV plc in 2009, although it continues in Wales and the Channel Islands, as well as on STV and UTV and ITV Border in Scotland from 2014 to cover mainly Scottish politics whilst ITV Border in England broadcast network programming . On 14 January 2013, ITV plc regional news programmes titles were discontinued in favour of more generic branding under
4930-455: A new consortium with fresh ideas and bold plans that were different from Southern Television's proposals. Southern's response from the IBA was met with anger and disbelief by its board of directors. Although the IBA gave its standard reason for its decision that the competitor offered greater investment and a better mix of programmes, it was suggested the station's non-local ownership may have swayed
5100-422: A parents' meeting at her daughter's school, during which a young librarian had repeated the allegation, Blyton decided in 1955 to begin legal proceedings. The librarian was eventually forced to make a public apology in open court early the following year, but the rumours that Blyton operated "a 'company' of ghostwriters" persisted, as some found it difficult to believe that one woman working alone could produce such
5270-485: A public service broadcaster, the ITV network is obliged to broadcast programming of public importance, including news, current affairs, children's and religious programming as well as party election broadcasts on behalf of the major political parties and political events, such as the Budget. The network also needs to produce accessible output containing subtitles, signing and audio description. In exchange for this programming,
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5440-468: A publisher, with Winston Churchill , which may have reawakened the trauma Pollock suffered during World War I. With the outbreak of World War II, he became involved in the Home Guard and also re-encountered Ida Crowe , an aspiring writer 19 years his junior, whom he had first met years earlier. He made her an offer to join him as a secretary in his posting to a Home Guard training center at Denbies ,
5610-417: A round of golf, she started to feel faint and breathless, and, by 1960, she was displaying signs of dementia . Her agent, George Greenfield, recalled that it was "unthinkable" for the "most famous and successful of children's authors with her enormous energy and computerlike memory" to be losing her mind and suffering from what is now known as Alzheimer's disease in her mid-60s. Worsening Blyton's situation
5780-489: A segment for broadcast during the day in the 1960s, under the banner Independent Television for Schools and Colleges and from 1987 were broadcast on Channel 4 in the ITV Schools on Channel 4 segment. In 1993, this segment became Channel 4 Schools and later in 2000 4Learning . These strands of programming consisted of schools programming from all the ITV companies or from independent sources. The schools strand itself
5950-515: A shed in the garden to discuss peculiar events in their local community. Blyton rewrote the stories so they could be adapted into cartoons, which appeared in Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1951 with illustrations by George Brook. The French author Evelyne Lallemand continued the series in the 1970s, producing an additional twelve books, nine of which were translated into English by Anthea Bell between 1983 and 1987. Blyton's Noddy , about
6120-462: A sign language service within the broadcast as part of its quota and licence requirements. ITV's strong daytime line-up helped by programmes such as This Morning , Loose Women , Dickinson's Real Deal and game shows Tipping Point and The Chase are very popular, achieving the highest audience share during the daytime slot. In recent years the network has tried to use formats that ITV Studios own outright (whether they have originated in
6290-509: A special issue of Teachers' World. Blyton's educational texts were influential in the 1920s and 1930s, with her most sizable being the three-volume The Teacher's Treasury (1926), the six-volume Modern Teaching (1928), the eight-volume Pictorial Knowledge (1930), and the four-volume Modern Teaching in the Infant School (1932). In July 1923, Blyton published Real Fairies , a collection of thirty-three poems written especially for
6460-514: A strong moral framework, so she encouraged them to support worthy causes. In particular, through the clubs she set up or supported, she encouraged and organised them to raise funds for animal and paediatric charities. The story of Blyton's life was dramatised in Enid , a BBC television film featuring Helena Bonham Carter in the title role. It was first broadcast in the UK on BBC Four in 2009. Enid Blyton
6630-536: A studio in Dover , to serve the eastern part of its region. The studio was opened in 1961, after the ITA 's VHF Dover television transmitter went into operation the year before. The studio on Russell Street was mainly used for regional news production although some non-news programmes including the long-running rural affairs series Farm Progress , feature series and documentaries such as Elusive Butterflies and Dougalling and
6800-476: A teacher. Blyton was introduced to the children at the nursery school and, recognising her natural affinity with them, enrolled in a National Froebel Union teacher training course at the school in September 1916. By this time, she had nearly terminated all contact with her family. Blyton's manuscripts were rejected by publishers on many occasions, which only made her more determined to succeed, saying, "It
6970-514: A teaching certificate with distinctions in zoology and principles of education; first class in botany, geography, practice and history of education, child hygiene, and classroom teaching; and second class in literature and elementary mathematics. In 1920, she moved to Southernhay, in Hook Road Surbiton , as nursery governess to the four sons of architect Horace Thompson and his wife Gertrude, with whom Blyton spent four happy years. With
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7140-526: A title which was used until 1980 when the company reverted to its original corporate name. Southern Television ceased broadcasting on the morning of 1 January 1982 at 12:43am, after a review during the 1980 franchise round gave the contract to Television South . When the Independent Television Authority (ITA) advertised for applicants to run the south of England station in 1958, Southern Television beat eight other applicants for
7310-420: A vehicle for the serialisation of Blyton's books. Her first Naughty Amelia Jane story, about an anti-heroine based on a doll owned by her daughter Gillian, was published in the magazine. Blyton stopped contributing in 1952, and it closed down the following year, shortly before the appearance of the new fortnightly Enid Blyton Magazine written entirely by Blyton. The first edition appeared on 18 March 1953, and
7480-480: A volume of work. Blyton felt a responsibility to provide her readers with a positive moral framework, and she encouraged them to support worthy causes. Her view, expressed in a 1957 article, was that children should help animals and other children rather than adults: [children] are not interested in helping adults; indeed, they think that adults themselves should tackle adult needs. But they are intensely interested in animals and other children and feel compassion for
7650-405: Is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is branded as STV . It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition, eliminating what had been the monopoly of BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of
7820-526: Is a Christian parable along the lines of John Bunyan 's The Pilgrim's Progress (1698), with contemporary children as the main characters. In 1943, she published The Children's Life of Christ , a collection of fifty-nine short stories related to the life of Jesus , with her slant on popular biblical stories, from the Nativity and the Three Wise Men through to the trial , the crucifixion and
7990-520: Is either dismissed or explained". Watson further notes how Blyton often used minimalist visual descriptions and introduced a few careless phrases such as "gleamed enchantingly" to appeal to her young readers. From the mid-1950s, rumours began to circulate that Blyton had not written all the books attributed to her, a charge she found particularly distressing. She published an appeal in her magazine asking children to let her know if they heard such stories and after one mother informed her that she had attended
8160-425: Is not owned or operated by one company, but by a number of licensees, which provide regional services while also broadcasting programmes across the network. Since 2016, the fifteen licences are held by two companies, with the majority held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc. The network is regulated by the media regulator Ofcom who is responsible for awarding the broadcast licences. The last major review of
8330-453: Is now defunct, with no particular branding segment used. ITV was originally very reliant on broadcasting American series, with westerns such as Gunsmoke and Rawhide in particular being considerable successes for the network during its earlier years. Action drama The Fugitive and sci-fi anthology The Twilight Zone were also broadcast by various regions in the early 1960s, with Batman and I Dream of Jeannie shown later on in
8500-656: Is partly the struggle that helps you so much, that gives you determination, character, self-reliance –all things that help in any profession or trade, and most certainly in writing." In March 1916, her first poems were published in Nash's Magazine . She completed her teacher training course in December 1918 and, the following month, obtained a teaching appointment at Bickley Park School, a small, independent establishment for boys in Bickley , Kent. Two months later, Blyton received
8670-470: Is sometimes said to be a compass (with the directional station name and the fact that the bottom point on the logo is longest suggesting a compass pointing south in the direction of Southern Television's service area); however, the general consensus is that it is a star, named after the Southern Star and because Southern Television's final transmission showed the logo zooming off into the night sky. For
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#17327801600588840-528: Is the strong storyline with plenty of cliffhangers, a trick she acquired from her years of writing serialised stories for children's magazines. There is always a strong moral framework in which bravery and loyalty are (eventually) rewarded". Blyton herself wrote that "my love of children is the whole foundation of all my work". Victor Watson, assistant director of Research at Homerton College, Cambridge , believes that Blyton's works reveal an "essential longing and potential associated with childhood", and notes how
9010-567: The ITV News title with the region listed as the subheading. However some "heritage" brand names were retained including Calendar , Granada Reports and Lookaround . On 28 June 2014, ITV News Cymru Wales returned to its historic name of Wales at Six . The network broadcasts children's programming under the CITV (Children's ITV) strand. Children's programming was originally provided during weekday afternoons and weekend mornings, however following
9180-543: The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra , with Addinsell himself conducting. The first presenter on air was continuity announcer Meryl O'Keefe (later to become a BBC announcer); her first on-air announcement was followed by an outside broadcast link-up fronted by Julian Pettifer (later a war correspondent) and a regional news bulletin read by Martin Muncaster. Other opening night programmes included
9350-500: The Broadcasting Act 1990 , it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time: BBC1 , BBC2 and Channel 4 . ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies that provided regional television services and also shared programmes among themselves to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers,
9520-713: The Enid Blyton Magazine , it attracted 100,000 members in three years. Such was Blyton's popularity among children that after she became Queen Bee in 1952, more than 20,000 additional members were recruited in her first year in office. The Enid Blyton Magazine Club was formed in 1953. Its primary objective was to raise funds to help those children with cerebral palsy who attended a centre in Cheyne Walk , in Chelsea, London, by furnishing an on-site hostel among other things. The Famous Five series gathered such
9690-583: The ITV News brand. ITN has long been respected in the news industry as a source of reliable information and news, and as a result the service has won many awards for their programmes, the latest being in May 2011 when News at Ten was named best news programme by the Royal Television Society and BAFTA . The ITV National Weather forecast was first broadcast in 1989, using data supplied by
9860-746: The Independent Television Authority (ITA, then IBA after the Sound Broadcasting Act) to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London, the Midlands and the North of England, with separate franchises for Weekdays and Weekends. The first ITV service to launch was London's Associated-Rediffusion on 22 September 1955, with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches,
10030-539: The Malory Towers series of six books based around the schoolgirl Darrell Rivers, First Term at Malory Towers , which became extremely popular, particularly with girls. The first book in Blyton's Barney Mysteries series, The Rockingdown Mystery , was published in 1949, as was the first of her fifteen Secret Seven novels. The Secret Seven Society consists of Peter, his sister Janet, and their friends Colin, George, Jack, Pam and Barbara, who meet regularly in
10200-459: The Met Office , and was presented by a number of weather forecasters. The forecasts are sponsored with the sponsor's message appearing before and after the forecast. The forecasts are made immediately after the main national news bulletins. Prior to the creation of the national forecast, each regional company provided its own regional forecast. The regional forecasts today are incorporated into
10370-580: The Secret series . The following year Blyton released her first book in the Circus series and her initial book in the Amelia Jane series, Naughty Amelia Jane! According to Gillian, the main character was based on a large handmade doll given to her by her mother on her third birthday. During the 1940s, Blyton became a prolific author, her success enhanced by her "marketing, publicity and branding that
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#173278016005810540-462: The Unwind slot, but this was eventually phased out and replaced with the aforementioned news and information service. This overnight programme service is very different to what used to be shown on the network in the years after 24-hour broadcasting was introduced - this included new entertainment, imports, sports and other information programmes, and, in some regions, a job finder service, however due to
10710-906: The Unwind with ITV sequences to fill small pieces of time before this. Teleshopping on ITVBe starts at 01:00 and continues until 07:00. There are some occasions when other coverage means this cycle of programmes get misplaced, for example a live event overnight, such as the Super Bowl or the Oscars , both of which ITV started airing in 2024, or, over Christmas, failing to sell Teleshopping slots, meaning more repeats, films and long Unwind sequences are used as filler instead. Overnight, STV broadcasts an overnight rolling news and information service, mixing reports from STV News and other information-based services, instead of ITV's shopping slot and Unwind . Due to STV opt-outs, this service can start later than or earlier than ITV's teleshopping. STV originally simulcast
10880-774: The resurrection . Tales from the Bible was published the following year, followed by The Boy with the Loaves and Fishes in 1948. The first book in Blyton's Five Find-Outers series, The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage , was published in 1943, as was the second book in the Faraway series, The Magic Faraway Tree , which in 2003 was voted 66th in the BBC 's Big Read poll to find the UK's favourite book. Several of Blyton's works during this period have seaside themes; John Jolly by
11050-441: The 1930s until the 1950s, the BBC refused to broadcast her stories because of their perceived lack of literary merit. Her books have been criticised as elitist, sexist, racist, xenophobic, and at odds with the more progressive environment that was emerging in post-World War II Britain, but updated versions of her books have continued to be popular since her death in 1968. She felt she had a responsibility to provide her readers with
11220-460: The 1980s. The first adventure game book of the series, The Wreckers' Tower Game , was published in October 1984. On 28 August 1924, Blyton married Major Hugh Alexander Pollock , DSO (1888–1971) at Bromley Register Office, without inviting her family. They married shortly after his divorce from his first wife, with whom he had two sons, one of them already deceased. Pollock was an editor of
11390-521: The 4th place for the most translated author. She wrote on a wide range of topics, including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery, and biblical narratives. She is best remembered for her Noddy , Famous Five , Secret Seven , the Five Find-Outers , and Malory Towers books, although she also wrote many others, including; St. Clare's , The Naughtiest Girl , and The Faraway Tree series. Her first book, Child Whispers ,
11560-540: The 50th anniversary of Southern Television's first transmission with special reports on Thames Valley Tonight and Meridian Tonight (South and South East editions) alongside a half-hour programme presented by Fred Dinenage . In 2022, Renown Pictures/Talking Pictures TV put many of the programmes from their Southern TV archive onto their TPTV Encore streaming service. Programmes uploaded to TPTV Encore include Runaround , Rogue's Rock and Tell Me Another . ITV (TV network) ITV , legally known as Channel 3 ,
11730-454: The 60,000-word book The River of Adventure , the eighth in her Adventure Series , by listening to what she referred to as her "under-mind", which she contrasted with her "upper conscious mind". Blyton was unwilling to conduct any research or planning before beginning work on a new book, which coupled with the lack of variety in her life according to Druce, almost inevitably presented the danger that she might unconsciously, and did, plagiarise
11900-667: The 75% limit as possible. The group cut the number of regional news programmes offered from 17 in 2007 to 9 by 2009, resulting several regions being merged to form one programme, including the Border and Tyne Tees regions, the Westcountry and West regions and the removal of sub regional programming, with some regions only represented by pre-recorded segments. Sub-regions were restored in 2013. STV Group plc owns two franchises, covering central and northern Scotland, through subsidiary companies STV Central and STV North, broadcasting
12070-717: The Adventure series, The River of Adventure , and her seventh Secret Seven novel, Secret Seven Win Through . She completed the sixth and final book of the Malory Towers series, Last Term at Malory Towers , in 1951. Blyton published several further books featuring the character of Scamp the terrier, following on from The Adventures of Scamp , a novel she had released in 1943 under the nom de plume of Mary Pollock. Scamp Goes on Holiday (1952) and Scamp and Bimbo , Scamp at School , Scamp and Caroline and Scamp Goes to
12240-538: The Channel 3 franchises was in 1991, with all operators' licences having been renewed between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2014 without a further contest. While this has been the longest period that the ITV network has gone without a major review of its licence holders, Ofcom announced (following consultation) that it would split the Wales and West licence from 1 January 2014, creating a national licence for Wales and joining
12410-553: The Clown and Bom and the Rainbow (1959) and Bom Goes to Magic Town (1960). In 1958, she produced two annuals featuring the character, the first of which included twenty short stories, poems and picture strips. Many of Blyton's series, including Noddy and The Famous Five, continued to be successful in the 1960s; by 1962, 26 million copies of Noddy had been sold. Blyton concluded several of her long-running series in 1963, publishing
12580-591: The Dover studios were closed in 1983 and demolished a year later. The site is now a car park. Unique in ITV and reflecting the area's maritime history the company converted a Second World War motor torpedo boat into a floating outside broadcasting unit named Southerner . There were regional offices in Maidstone , Dorchester , Brighton and Reading . There were also sales offices at Stag Place, London and Oxford Street, Manchester . Southern Television's logo
12750-499: The ITA awarded more franchises until the whole country was covered by fourteen regional stations, all launched by 1962. The network has been modified several times through franchise reviews that have taken place in 1963, 1967, 1974, 1980 and 1991, during which broadcast regions have changed and service operators have been replaced. Only one service operator has ever been declared bankrupt, WWN in 1963, with all other operators leaving
12920-760: The ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of the EPG of all providers. Since the launch of the platform in 1998, all of the ITV licensees have received gifted capacity on the digital terrestrial television platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc owned ITV2 , ITV3 , ITV4 and ITVBe in their region. UTV and STV (formerly Scottish Television and Grampian Television ) previously broadcast their own services – UTV2 in Northern Ireland and S2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, when they adopted
13090-538: The ITV network's history goes back to 1955, many regional franchisees changed over the years. Some of the most important names in the network's past – notably Thames , ABC and ATV – have no connection with the modern network. The origins of ITV lie in the passing of the Television Act 1954 , designed to break the monopoly on television held by the BBC Television Service . The act created
13260-744: The ITV plc channels. Despite this, STV was given a broadcasting licence for what would become the STV2 channel in 2013, however this was short-lived and the channel closed in 2018. The broadcasters all make use of the Digital 3&4 multiplex, shared with Channel 4 . CITV launched in March 2006 (closed September 2023). ITV Encore launched in June 2014 (closed May 2018) and ITVBe launched in October 2014. ITV Box Office launched in February 2017 (closed January 2020). On 13 September 2022, ITV confirmed that during
13430-564: The Noddy series, Noddy and the Aeroplane , in February 1964. In May of the following year, she published Mixed Bag , a songbook with music written by her nephew Carey, and in August she released her last full-length books, The Man Who Stopped to Help and The Boy Who Came Back . Blyton cemented her reputation as a children's writer when in 1926 she took over the editing of Sunny Stories ,
13600-709: The Round Table , Tales of Ancient Greece and Tales of Robin Hood were published in 1930. In Tales of Ancient Greece Blyton retold 16 well-known ancient Greek myths, but used Latin rather than Greek names and invented conversations between characters. The Adventures of Odysseus , Tales of the Ancient Greeks and Persians and Tales of the Romans followed in 1934. The first of twenty-eight books in Blyton's Old Thatch series , The Talking Teapot and Other Tales ,
13770-469: The Sea (1943), a picture book intended for younger readers, was published in a booklet format by Evans Brothers . Other books with a maritime theme include The Secret of Cliff Castle and Smuggler Ben , both attributed to Mary Pollock in 1943; The Island of Adventure , the first in the Adventure series of eight novels from 1944 onwards; and various novels of the Famous Five series such as Five on
13940-545: The UK with their Lifted Entertainment company or have come from production companies they own abroad), though some popular programme formats like The Masked Singer have still been acquired from other companies abroad. Currently ITV are behind the formats for Dancing on Ice , The Voice UK (the format originally coming from their Dutch production company) and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! , while forthcoming music game show Walk The Line has been co-developed by Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment and ITV. Since
14110-608: The Zoo (1954) were illustrated by Pierre Probst. She introduced the character of Bom, a stylish toy drummer dressed in a bright red coat and helmet, alongside Noddy in TV Comic in July 1956. A book series began the same year with Bom the Little Toy Drummer , featuring illustrations by R. Paul-Hoye, and followed with Bom and His Magic Drumstick (1957), Bom Goes Adventuring and Bom Goes to Ho Ho Village (1958), Bom and
14280-486: The air Southern showed many foreign-language films in its Friday Late, Late Show , including as many as eight by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and others by Werner Herzog , Andrzej Wajda , Wim Wenders , Federico Fellini and many more. The station's original studios were in a converted cinema, the Plaza, in Northam, Southampton . With the advent of colour in 1969, the company moved to purpose-built new studios next door to
14450-435: The balance against it. Further speculation may have been the company's conservative nature and with a new decade just dawned, the south of England in time would be a radically different area. It was felt that Southern Television's application was more of the same tried and tested formula, over time would not have reflected the possibilities for the area. Another possibility was the incumbent's complacency: its original application
14620-685: The blind boys and girls, and for the spastics who are unable to walk or talk. Blyton and the members of the children's clubs she promoted via her magazines raised a great deal of money for various charities; according to Blyton, membership of her clubs meant "working for others, for no reward". The largest of the clubs she was involved with was the Busy Bees, the junior section of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals , which Blyton had actively supported since 1933. The club had been set up by Maria Dickin in 1934, and after Blyton publicised its existence in
14790-678: The book department in the publishing firm George Newnes, which became Blyton's regular publisher. It was he who requested her to write a book about animals, resulting in The Zoo Book , completed in the month before their marriage. They initially lived in a flat in Chelsea before moving to Elfin Cottage in Beckenham in 1926, and then to Old Thatch in Bourne End (called Peterswood in her books) in 1929. Blyton's first daughter, Gillian ,
14960-686: The book with the exception of "Pretending", which had appeared earlier in Punch magazine. The following year, she published The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies , illustrated by Horace J. Knowles, and in 1926 the Book of Brownies . Several books of plays appeared in 1927, including A Book of Little Plays and The Play's the Thing with the illustrator Alfred Bestall . In the 1930s, Blyton developed an interest in writing stories related to various myths, including those of ancient Greece and Rome ; The Knights of
15130-436: The books she had read, including her own. Gillian has recalled that her mother "never knew where her stories came from", but that she used to talk about them "coming from her 'mind's eye ' ", as did William Wordsworth and Charles Dickens . Blyton had "thought it was made up of every experience she'd ever had, everything she's seen or heard or read, much of which had long disappeared from her conscious memory" but never knew
15300-481: The boundaries" in her books, and encompassed a range of genres even in her short stories. In a 1958 article published in The Author , she wrote that there were a "dozen or more different types of stories for children", and she had tried them all, but her favourites were those with a family at their centre. In a letter to the psychologist Peter McKellar, Blyton describes her writing technique: I shut my eyes for
15470-400: The breakfast service. All licences listed here were renewed until the end of 2024. Licences in England and Wales were held by the individual regional ITV plc owned companies prior to November 2008. The appointment to provide national news for Channel 3 is also subject to approval by Ofcom. This appointment has been held by ITN since the channel's inception, and has also been approved through
15640-504: The colour red acted as a "mental stimulus" for her. Stopping only for a short lunch break, she continued writing until five o'clock, by which time she would usually have produced 6,000–10,000 words. A 2,000 article in The Malay Mail considers Blyton's children to have "lived in a world shaped by the realities of post-war austerity", enjoying freedom without political correctness, which serves modern readers of Blyton's novels with
15810-474: The company Darrell Waters Ltd to manage her affairs. By the early 1950s, she had reached the peak of her output, often publishing more than fifty books a year, and she remained extremely prolific throughout much of the decade. By 1955, Blyton had written her fourteenth Famous Five novel, Five Have Plenty of Fun , her fifteenth Mary Mouse book, Mary Mouse in Nursery Rhyme Land , her eighth book in
15980-496: The consortium before the station went on air. This led to Associated Newspapers and Rank increasing their stakes to 37.5% each, and D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd taking the remaining 25%. Southern Television was the ninth ITA franchise to launch, beginning transmissions on 30 August 1958 at 5:30 pm with the first playing of Southern Rhapsody , the station theme which was used to begin each day's transmission until 31 December 1981, written by composer Richard Addinsell and performed by
16150-675: The contract. Its initial shareholders were Associated Newspapers , the Rank Organisation and the Amalgamated Press , each holding one third of the company. Associated Newspapers was allowed to remain a shareholder in Southern, only on the condition that it sold its remaining 10% stake in Associated-Rediffusion to avoid owning parts of two ITV companies; the Amalgamated Press dropped out of
16320-399: The creation of ITV Network Limited (and given Channel Television is now owned by ITV plc), it has been replaced by an affiliation system. Approved by Ofcom, this results in ITV plc commissioning and funding the network schedule, with STV and UTV paying a fee to broadcast it. All licensees have the right to opt out of network programming (except for the national news bulletins), but, unlike
16490-456: The day of Monday 19 September, the day of the state funeral for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II , all programming schedules on ITV's digital channels will be scrapped, with the main ITV News coverage being shown live and uninterrupted on every channel. This was the first time ITV decided to do this, with the company keeping their digital channels' schedules mostly as advertised in the run up to
16660-560: The deaf community. Replacing the information-based ITV Nightscreen slot in 2021 was Unwind With ITV , programming produced in association with the Campaign Against Living Miserably . At around 4am each night this mindfulness programme shows calming shots of natural landscapes and relaxing animations for around an hour, with versions of the footage also seen on ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. These three channels continue programming until around 02:30, sometimes using
16830-400: The decade. Due to the varying schedules of many ITV regions, acquired content was not broadcast by some franchises. By the 1970s, most ITV regions were airing the likes of Hawaii Five-O , Happy Days , and The Brady Bunch . 1972 also saw the beginning of ITV's daytime programmes at lunchtime, a slot that would become associated with the many Australian soap operas that were broadcast in
17000-436: The decision, as a recent schedule change had made The Bill central to their programming, and broadcast the programmes on ITV3 as well to ensure Scottish viewers could see the programmes. On 23 September ITV plc was reported to be in the process of suing STV for £20 million, as ITV felt dropping the shows constituted a breach of network agreements; STV subsequently counter-sued ITV plc for £35 million. The dispute
17170-525: The direction her stories would take. Blyton further explained in her biography that "If I tried to think out or invent the whole book, I could not do it. For one thing, it would bore me and for another, it would lack the 'verve' and the extraordinary touches and surprising ideas that flood out from my imagination." Blyton's daily routine varied little over the years. She usually began writing soon after breakfast, with her portable typewriter on her knee and her favourite red Moroccan shawl nearby; she believed that
17340-510: The divorce, he was denied contact with them, and Blyton made sure he was subsequently unable to find work in publishing. Pollock, having married Crowe on 26 October 1943, eventually resumed his heavy drinking and was forced to petition for bankruptcy in 1950. Blyton and Darrell Waters married at the City of Westminster Register Office on 20 October 1943. She changed the surname of her daughters to Darrell Waters and publicly embraced her new role as
17510-411: The end of 2024. For over 60 years of ITV, its homegrown programmes have become among the best remembered as well as being extremely successful. Before the 1990s, nearly all of the content for the channel was produced by the fifteen franchise licensees: the regional companies. However, following legislation in the Broadcasting Act 1990 imposing a 25% quota for commissioning of independent productions,
17680-485: The end of their runs. A heavy emphasis on action, fantasy and science fiction series was also placed by ITV during this 1980s, with The A-Team , Buck Rogers in the 25th Century , and Airwolf being broadcast by the network, as well as the likes of Baywatch and SeaQuest DSV by the 1990s. ITV also picked up a glut of older-skewing CBS dramas through that period, including Murder, She Wrote and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman . In February 1989, in tandem with
17850-471: The ending of productions such as World in Action ( Granada Television ), This Week ( Rediffusion London / Thames Television ), First Tuesday ( Yorkshire Television ), Network First , Survival ( Anglia Television ), and Weekend World ( LWT ) and their replacement with populist shows such as Tonight . News at Ten was also axed in 1999, although it was reinstated in 2001. In December 2009,
18020-560: The existing site, built on land reclaimed from the River Itchen . The studios at Northam were sold on to TVS in 1981, and sold again by TVS to Meridian Broadcasting in 1992. Meridian relocated to a much smaller office building in Whiteley in 2004, and the site at Northam was sold to developers. The studio complex was demolished in 2010. Blocks of flats have now been erected on the site. The company also ran production offices and
18190-542: The family had moved to a semi-detached house in Beckenham , then a village in Kent . A few months after her birth, Enid almost died from whooping cough but was nursed back to health by her father, whom she adored. Thomas Blyton ignited Enid's interest in nature; in her autobiography she wrote that he "loved flowers and birds and wild animals, and knew more about them than anyone I had ever met". He also passed on his interest in gardening, art, music, literature, and theatre, and
18360-570: The fictional Whyteleafe School. The first of her six novels in the St. Clare's series, The Twins at St. Clare's , appeared the following year, featuring the twin sisters Patricia and Isabel O'Sullivan. In 1942, Blyton released the first book in the Mary Mouse series, Mary Mouse and the Dolls' House , about a mouse exiled from her mousehole who becomes a maid at a dolls' house. Twenty-three books in
18530-662: The fields of sports coverage and drama productions, and it continues to schedule national news in primetime. Breakfast Television programmes have been broadcast on ITV at breakfast since 1 February 1983. It was initially run by an independent contractor - TV-am , and later GMTV - until GMTV Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. Historically, ITV aired breakfast programmes from 6am until 9.25am but ITV extended this to 10am on weekdays on 6 January 2020. and now broadcasts two breakfast programmes on weekdays - Good Morning Britain and Lorraine . Good Morning Britain keeps viewers up to date with all
18700-668: The fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc , which runs the ITV1 channel and the UTV channel – now branded as ITV1, and STV Group , which runs the STV channel . The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 broadcasting licences for every region except for central and northern Scotland, which are held by STV Group. Today, ITV plc simply commissions
18870-497: The final edition of ITV's long-running arts programme, The South Bank Show was broadcast. ITV's primetime schedules are dominated by its soap operas, such as the flagship Coronation Street and Emmerdale . At the start of the 21st century, ITV faced criticism for including a large amount of "reality TV" programmes in the schedule, such as Celebrity Fit Club , Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Love Island . In its defence, ITV does continue to show its major strengths in
19040-551: The final two minutes. When the piece came to a climactic end, the lights on the set were gradually turned off, for the last time, fading to the Southern Television Colour Production slide which dissolved into the station's logo, spinning away into an animated starry sky. The acoustic guitar jingle played for what would be the final time with a deep extended echo, and the screen slowly and silently faded to black, remaining that way for close to
19210-657: The first four jigsaw puzzles of the Secret Seven, and the following year a Secret Seven card game appeared. Bestime released the Little Noddy Car Game in 1953 and the Little Noddy Leap Frog Game in 1955, and in 1956 American manufacturer Parker Brothers released Little Noddy's Taxi Game, a board game which features Noddy driving about town, picking up various characters. Bestime released its Plywood Noddy Jigsaws series in 1957 and
19380-640: The first week. Her most popular feature was "Round the Year with Enid Blyton", which consisted of forty-eight articles covering aspects of natural history such as weather, pond life, how to plant a school garden and how to make a bird table. Among Blyton's other nature projects was her monthly "Country Letter" feature that appeared in The Nature Lover magazine in 1935. Sunny Stories was renamed Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories in January 1937, and served as
19550-450: The five were involved with "unmasking hardened villains and solving serious crimes", although the novels were "hardly 'hard-boiled' thrillers". Blyton based the character of Georgina, a tomboy she described as "short-haired, freckled, sturdy, and snub-nosed" and "bold and daring, hot-tempered and loyal", on herself. Blyton had an interest in biblical narratives and retold Old and New Testament stories. The Land of Far-Beyond (1942)
19720-504: The funeral (with a few amendments for cancelled sporting events on ITV4) and all royal coverage being on their main channel. ITV plc owns thirteen of the fifteen franchises and broadcasts to England, Wales, southern Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland through its subsidiary company ITV Broadcasting Limited. The company also owns the breakfast television licence , which as of January 2020, broadcasts across
19890-633: The incoming TVS as "Portakabin TV" and mocking TVS for choosing Maidstone as a production base in the newly enlarged dual region—despite the fact that Southern Television itself had already purchased a site at Vinters Park in Maidstone for a planned studio complex, which it would have built had it retained its franchise. Southern Television sold the land on to TVS at a considerable profit. Southern Television's final programme And It's Goodbye From Us ended at 12:43 am on New Year's Day 1982. The programme closed with
20060-491: The introduction of colour transmissions because this still provided a good contrast on black and white TV sets. This ident, occasionally supplemented by a subsequent caption stating, 'The Station that serves the South', lasted until the company ceased transmission in 1982. In addition to these idents, a clock was used featuring a blue background and Southern legend, and for introducing links between programmes, in-vision continuity
20230-400: The jingle was altered to nine notes on a guitar a few years later, and then the background was revealed to be blue in 1969 with the introduction of colour (blue was the background colour of the ident as used in black and white; being shot with black background and white star would have given too much contrast and overexposed the camera). This ident with blue background colour was maintained after
20400-434: The last books of The Famous Five ( Five Are Together Again ) and The Secret Seven ( Fun for the Secret Seven ); she also produced three more Brer Rabbit books with the illustrator Grace Lodge: Brer Rabbit Again , Brer Rabbit Book , and Brer Rabbit's a Rascal . In 1962, many of her books were among the first to be published by Armada Books in paperback, making them more affordable to children. After 1963, Blyton's output
20570-472: The latest news, sports, features and weather, whilst Lorraine predominantly focuses on celebrity interviews, recipes, fashion and showbiz. Until 27th August 2023, the service would show a simulcast of the CITV channel, but since that service has closen has shown a mix of repeated programming whilst the CITV service that still exist broadcasts at breakfast time on ITV2 (which has the CITV block), ITV3, ITV4 and ITVBe from 7am show other repeats some of which provide
20740-568: The launch of the CITV channel in 2006, all children's programming, with the exception of the weekend ITV Breakfast slot, were relocated from the ITV line-up to the CITV channel in 2007, a move which was challenged by Ofcom in April 2007. In 2023, ITV announced that CITV would cease broadcasting as a linear channel, and would be replaced by ITVX Kids , a streaming media service which launched in July 2023. The CITV channel closed on 1 September 2023, with
20910-729: The local Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Music in Camera . From 1972, Southern Television broadcast up to two operas from Glyndebourne each season, some of which have since been issued on DVD. The Southern Television archive passed to Primetime who were later acquired by Australian company Southern Star, which later sold it to Renown Pictures, which shows some of the content on its own channel Talking Pictures TV , including Southern soap opera Together ; amongst other old film libraries that Renown owns, Euroarts own Southern's music output including its Glyndebourne operas. In its last three years on
21080-550: The magazine ran until September 1959. Noddy made his first appearance in the Sunday Graphic in 1949, the same year as Blyton's first daily Noddy strip for the London Evening Standard . It was illustrated by van der Beek until his death in 1953. Blyton worked in a wide range of fictional genres, from fairy tales to animal, nature, detective, mystery, and circus stories, but she often "blurred
21250-420: The main regional news bulletins, and in the summer months, includes a pollen count. Currently only new episodes of long-form news and current affairs programmes like Exposure , Peston and On Assignment are being scheduled after News at Ten , with the latter title only appearing on a monthly basis, typically on the last Tuesday of the month. The channel broadcasts a partnership teleshopping service for
21420-496: The meeting, Blyton sent the text of the first two Noddy books to her publisher, to be forwarded to van der Beek. The Noddy books became one of her most successful and best-known series, and were hugely popular in the 1950s. An extensive range of sub-series, spin-offs and strip books was produced throughout the decade, including Noddy's Library , Noddy's Garage of Books , Noddy's Castle of Books , Noddy's Toy Station of Books and Noddy's Shop of Books . In 1950, Blyton established
21590-404: The mid-1960s to the familiar star shape against a black background and accompanied by a jingle featuring a cacophony of noises. This shape formed from a circle, with the diagonal lines moving out and joining the circle and the horizontal and vertical lines being drawn last, with the name added last. This ident remained with the station until the end of its existence with some modifications; firstly
21760-448: The network as a result of a franchise review. Separate weekend franchises were removed in 1968 (with the exception of London) and over the years more services were added; these included a national breakfast franchise from 1983 onward—operating between 6:00 am and 9:25 am—and a teletext service. The Broadcasting Act 1990 changed the nature of ITV; the then regulator the IBA was replaced with
21930-527: The network between 6:00 and 10:00am each morning using the Good Morning Britain (previously Daybreak ) and Lorraine names. The company broadcasts a centralised service under the ITV1 brand. In Northern Ireland, ITV used the UTV brand name as the name of the channel until April 2020. The group also owns ITV Studios , the production arm of the company and formed from an amalgamation of all
22100-526: The network launching its national weather forecast, and as part of a new early evening lineup which involved the shortening of Children's ITV, Australian soap Home and Away was acquired by ITV, particularly to compete with the success of rival Australian soap opera Neighbours on BBC One. ITV also broadcast Beverly Hills, 90210 beginning in early 1991, in the same Saturday teatime slot that Baywatch had occupied, although some episodes were broadcast in later time slots. It moved to Sky One beginning with
22270-511: The network schedule centrally; programmes are made by its own subsidiary ITV Studios and independent production companies. Regional programming remains in news and some current affairs series. In Northern Ireland, ITV plc used the brand name UTV as the name of the channel, until the ITV channel was rebranded as ITV1; it is still, however, used for local programming shown there. This was the name used by former owner UTV Media (now known as News Broadcasting ). ITV plc bought UTV in 2016. Although
22440-476: The network started, Independent Television News Limited (ITN) has held the contract to produce news for the ITV network, with 30-minute national news bulletins currently broadcast at 1:30 pm , and 10:00 pm, and an hour-long bulletin at 6.30pm. These bulletins were broadcast under the ITN brand from 1955 until 1999, when a new network identity reinforced the ITV brand, resulting in the new bulletins being broadcast under
22610-531: The newly expanded schedule, including The Sullivans and The Young Doctors . By the 1980s, more were added to the schedule, such as Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice . In primetime by the 1980s, ITV was broadcasting the likes of Hill Street Blues (which ITV began showing just one week after its debut on NBC in the United States) and L.A. Law . It was also early in the decade when Australian evening soap opera Prisoner: Cell Block H
22780-408: The newly separated West region to Westcountry Television , to form a new licence for the enlarged South West of England region. All companies holding a licence were part of the non-profit body ITV Network Limited, which commissioned and scheduled network programming, with compliance previously handled by ITV plc and Channel Television . However, due to amalgamation of several of these companies since
22950-498: The nightly Epilogue (known for years as Guideline ) were also produced from Dover. During Southern's tenure as the ITV franchise broadcaster, the company strived to produce dedicated opt outs for the east of the region – the first British television service of its kind. Southern's South East news team in Dover produced separate bulletins for the area as an opt-out into the Day by Day programme each weeknight. A dedicated South East bulletin
23120-517: The number of programmes from independent production companies not connected to the traditional ITV network, has increased rapidly. Notable examples include Talkback Thames (one half of which, Thames Television , was itself a former ITV franchisee), producers of The Bill and co-producers of The X Factor , and 2waytraffic , producers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? . From the late 1990s, ITV's long-standing commitment to strong current affairs and documentary programming began to diminish with
23290-460: The opening pages of The Mountain of Adventure present a "deeply appealing ideal of childhood". He argues that Blyton's work differs from that of many other authors in its approach, describing the narrative of The Famous Five series for instance as "like a powerful spotlight, it seeks to illuminate, to explain, to demystify. It takes its readers on a roller-coaster story in which the darkness is always banished; everything puzzling, arbitrary, evocative
23460-670: The pair often went on nature walks, much to the disapproval of Enid's mother, who showed little interest in her daughter's pursuits. Enid was devastated when her father left the family shortly after her 13th birthday to live with another woman. Enid and her mother did not have a good relationship, and after she left home, Enid gave people the impression that her mother was dead. Enid did not attend either of her parents' funerals. From 1907 to 1915, Blyton attended St Christopher's School in Beckenham, where she enjoyed physical activities and became school tennis champion and lacrosse captain. She
23630-544: The pantomime. By the late 1950s, Blyton's clubs had a membership of 500,000, and raised £35,000 in the six years of the Enid Blyton Magazine' s run. By 1974, the Famous Five Club had a membership of 220,000 and was growing at the rate of 6,000 new members a year. The Beaconsfield home that was set up to support was closed in 1967, but the club continued to raise funds for other paediatric charities, including an Enid Blyton bed at Great Ormond Street Hospital and
23800-846: The piano, which she mastered well enough for him to believe she might follow in his sister's footsteps and become a professional musician. Blyton considered enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music , but decided she was better suited to becoming a writer. After finishing school, in 1915, as head girl, she moved out of the family home to live with her friend Mary Attenborough, before going to stay with George and Emily Hunt at Seckford Hall , near Woodbridge , in Suffolk. Seckford Hall, with its allegedly haunted room and secret passageway, provided inspiration for her later writing. At Woodbridge Congregational Church, Blyton met Ida Hunt, who taught at Ipswich High School and suggested she train there as
23970-454: The previous system, will receive no fee refund for doing so. Therefore many do not opt out due to pressures from the parent company or because of limited resources. Prior to the affiliate system being introduced, STV would frequently (and sometimes controversially) opt out of several popular network programmes – such as the original run of the first series of Downton Abbey – citing the need to provide more Scottish content to its viewers. As
24140-512: The production departments of the regional licences they own. The company produces a large proportion of ITV's networked programming (around 47%, but previously as high as 66% according to some reports ), with the rest coming primarily from independent suppliers (under the Broadcasting Act 1990, at least 25% of ITV's total output must be from independent companies). ITV plc hopes to increase the amount of in-house programming to as close to
24310-442: The production of TVS programmes and sell them back to TVS outright at the end of 1981. The handover was tinged with acrimony on behalf of Southern's management, which appeared to take its anger at the decision out on TVS rather than the IBA, who made the actual choice. In Southern Television's final productions, Day by Yesterday , And It's Goodbye From Us , a song was featured, composed and performed by Richard Stilgoe , deriding
24480-417: The purposes of this article, the logo will be referred to as a star, to reflect what it is most popularly called. Southern Television's first identity featured an art deco style star which zoomed into screen before the bottom point extended downwards with varying tones. This was replaced in the early 1960s with a white rotating star against a black background against a drumroll jingle. This was again altered in
24650-522: The region were also broadcast to the Dover transmitter only, via the presentation control area at the Southampton studios. Dover-based presenters and reporters included Mike Field, Jeff Thomas, Malcolm Mitchell, Tim Brinton , Simon Theobalds, Arnie Wilson, Jill Cochrane, Derek Williamson, Pat Sloman, David Haigh (editor of Scene South East ), Donald Dougall and Mike Fuller. The Dover studio directors were David Pick and Maurice Harper. The floor manager
24820-591: The series were produced between 1942 and 1964; 10,000 copies were sold in 1942 alone. The same year, Blyton published the first novel in the Famous Five series , Five on a Treasure Island , with illustrations by Eileen Soper . Its popularity resulted in twenty-one books between then and 1963, and the characters of Julian, Dick, Anne, George (Georgina) and Timmy the dog became household names in Britain. Matthew Grenby, author of Children's Literature , states that
24990-746: The shortage of area schools, neighbouring children soon joined her charges, and a small school developed at the house. In 1920, Blyton moved to Chessington and began writing in her spare time. The following year, she won the Saturday Westminster Review writing competition with her essay "On the Popular Fallacy that to the Pure All Things are Pure". Publications such as The Londoner , Home Weekly and The Bystander began to show an interest in her short stories and poems. Blyton's first book, Child Whispers ,
25160-643: The small audience this was phased out and replaced by more relaxed and niche programming. Before 24-hour broadcasts, ITV's franchises simply closed down and restarted the following morning with ITV Morning News , followed by breakfast TV. The regional ITV companies are required to provide local news as part of their franchise agreement together with local weather forecasts, with the main local bulletin at 6pm and regional bulletins located after each national news programme. In addition to this, traditionally ITV companies would provide other regional programming based on current affairs, entertainment or drama. However, apart from
25330-410: The speed with which she produced it led to rumours that Blyton employed an army of ghost writers , a charge she vehemently denied. Blyton's work became increasingly controversial among literary critics, teachers, and parents beginning in the 1950s due to the alleged unchallenging nature of her writing and her themes, particularly in the Noddy series. Some libraries and schools banned her works, and from
25500-561: The subterfuge to her and her publisher, with the result that all six books published under the name of Mary Pollock – two in 1940 and four in 1943 – were reissued under Blyton's name. Later in 1940, Blyton published the first of her boarding school story books and the first novel in the Naughtiest Girl series, The Naughtiest Girl in the School , which followed the exploits of the mischievous schoolgirl Elizabeth Allen at
25670-623: The third season. ITV reshuffled its daytime schedules in the Autumn of 1993, and just a few months prior, Central began broadcasting the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street . The revamp saw more ITV companies pick it up, with Scottish Television the only region to reject the series outright. Central also broadcast the Australian soap opera Echo Point around the same time, although no other franchises picked it up. ITV also aired
25840-523: The year prior. It saw nowhere near the same levels of success, and was dropped by the network after just three episodes. It later resurfaced in late night before moving to BBC One in 2000. Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer , whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been translated into ninety languages. As at June 2019, Blyton held
26010-465: Was John Heather and the production assistant was Gillie Slaven. During the transition from Southern TV to TVS, two production secretaries were appointed, Gwenneth Hughes and Denise Hood. After Southern lost its franchise to TVS, the studios were used to produce the successor's regional news programmes for the South East — Coast to Coast and TVS News . Once TVS's studios in Maidstone were opened,
26180-458: Was a considerable success for ITV's standards, and it became the highest rated new American series of that year. Despite this success, ITV moved the show for its second season, no longer networking the series and moving to late night slots. ITV tried again at broadcasting an American drama series in September 1997, with the ABC legal drama The Practice , which ran in the same slot that Savannah had
26350-491: Was a mere 16 pages long. Tactfully the IBA invited Southern Television to re-submit, this time asking the company to go into more depth with its plans. TVS spent months trying to persuade Southern to sell its studios until they relented. TVS was forced to use portable office buildings (popularly known as Portakabins, a brand name) in Southern's car park as a temporary measure until its day of broadcast on 1st January 1982. Southern reluctantly agreed to lease its studios to TVS for
26520-427: Was also broadcast after News at Ten . More well known to South East viewers was Scene South East , a weekly magazine programme introduced on 9 October 1964 as Friday on Ten (so named due to its transmission on VHF Channel 10), and which replaced Day by Day on Friday nights. Its popularity led to the introduction of a shorter Scene Midweek programme on Wednesdays from 1977 onwards. Local commercials specific to
26690-549: Was berthed in Southampton docks . Regular programmes produced by Southern Television included the regional news magazine Day by Day , presented by Cliff Michelmore , Christopher Peacock, Barry Westwood , Peter Clark, and long-serving weather forecaster Trevor Baker ; Out of Town , a countryside programme introduced by Jack Hargreaves , who would later join Southern Television's board of directors; How ,
26860-472: Was born on 11 August 1897 in East Dulwich , south London, United Kingdom, the eldest of three children, to Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a cutlery salesman (recorded in the 1911 census with the occupation of "Mantle Manufacturer dealer [in] women's suits, skirts, etc.") and his wife Theresa Mary ( née Harrison; 1874–1950). Enid's younger brothers, Hanly (1899–1983) and Carey (1902–1976), were born after
27030-418: Was born on 15 July 1931, and after a miscarriage in 1934, she gave birth to a second daughter, Imogen, on 27 October 1935. In 1938, she and her family moved to a house in Beaconsfield , named Green Hedges by Blyton's readers, following a competition in her magazine. By the mid-1930s, Pollock had become a secret alcoholic, withdrawing increasingly from public life —possibly triggered through his meetings, as
27200-438: Was bought by ITV, and was broadcast after News at Ten . By 1982, Channel 4 had launched, and despite originally being related to ITV, it competed against its parent network to screen popular American programmes such as St. Elsewhere and Cheers , although the latter did receive a single ITV broadcast as part of a night showcasing Channel 4 programmes. Both Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law had moved from ITV to Channel 4 by
27370-417: Was broadcast at around 10:30 on Sunday mornings. A late-night epilogue was introduced by Roger Royle . Alongside 'Trevor the Weather', weather forecasts were also presented by Cyril Ockenden. Generally, the company produced more networked children's programmes than shows for adults, scoring a particularly strong seller internationally with an adaptation of Enid Blyton 's The Famous Five . Also worth noting
27540-420: Was ended in 2011 with STV agreeing to pay ITV plc £18 million. The signing of the new affiliation deal has resulted in STV paying a flat fee for all networked programming, and so to drop any programmes is unlikely due to the large costs involved. There are fifteen regional licences, covering fourteen regions (there are separate weekday and weekend licences for the London region), and one national licence for
27710-470: Was far ahead of its time". In 1940, Blyton published two books – Three Boys and a Circus and Children of Kidillin – under the pseudonym of Mary Pollock (middle name plus first married name), in addition to the eleven published under her name that year. So popular were Pollock's books that one reviewer was prompted to observe that "Enid Blyton had better look to her laurels". But Blyton's readers were not so easily deceived and many complained about
27880-427: Was generally confined to short stories and books intended for very young readers, such as Learn to Count with Noddy and Learn to Tell Time with Noddy in 1965, and Stories for Bedtime and the Sunshine Picture Story Book collection in 1966. Her declining health and a falling off in readership among older children have been put forward as the principal reasons for this change in trend. Blyton published her last book in
28050-423: Was not keen on all the academic subjects but excelled in writing and, in 1911, entered Arthur Mee 's children's poetry competition. Mee offered to print her verses, encouraging her to produce more. Blyton's mother considered her efforts at writing to be a "waste of time and money", but she was encouraged to persevere by Mabel Attenborough, the aunt of school friend Mary Potter . Blyton's father taught her to play
28220-442: Was owned by five companies, of which two, Carlton and Granada had become major players by owning between them all the franchises in England, Wales, the Scottish borders and the Isle of Man. That same year, the two merged to form ITV plc with the only subsequent acquisitions being the takeover of Channel Television , the Channel Islands franchise, in 2011; and UTV, the franchise for Northern Ireland, in 2015. The ITV network
28390-428: Was published in 1934, the same year as Brer Rabbit Retold ; (Brer Rabbit originally featured in Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris ), her first serial story and first full-length book, Adventures of the Wishing-Chair , followed in 1937. The Enchanted Wood , the first book in the Faraway Tree series , published in 1939, is about a magic tree inspired by the Norse mythology that had fascinated Blyton as
28560-408: Was sold to Southern Star Group and then Renown Pictures ; the names "Southern Television Ltd", "Southern Independent Television" and "Southern Television", and the star device idents used between 1958 and 1981, all transferred to Art Attack and Finger Tips producer Nic Ayling in 2004. Southern Television now trades as an independent production company. In August 2008, ITV Meridian commemorated
28730-430: Was the children's programme The Saturday Banana , hosted by Bill Oddie (then one of The Goodies ) which saw the placing of a 20-foot-high (6.1 m) fibreglass banana outside the studios, supported by its peeled 'skin'. Southern also produced the children's game show Runaround which was hosted by Mike Reid . The broadcaster was known for its enlightened classical music broadcasting, including studio concerts by
28900-421: Was utilised often. Continuity announcers included: The 1980 Independent Television franchise round required Southern Television to re-apply to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to continue to broadcast to the South and South East of England from 1982. Applications from rival companies were highly competitive. On the 28th December 1980, Southern Television lost its franchise to Television South (TVS),
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