is an (LWT).
Thames became the personification of commercial public-service television, with a strong mix of drama, current affairs and comedy. Thames Televsion's famous logo and particularly its old ''
Ident '' which featured its logo along with an accompanying
Fanfare remain widely recognisable to this day.
In
1967 the
Independent Television Authority (ITA) decided to create a joint company owned by
Associated British Corporation (ABC), which had previously held the weekend franchises in the North and Midlands, and the London weekday company
Rediffusion, London . The company would be 51% owned by ABC and 49% by Rediffusion. This joint company was awarded the London weekday franchise. Rediffusion was not happy with the arrangement but were not given an alternative by the ITA.
After some discussion as to the name of the new company — some directors favoured ABC London, while others suggested Tower Television to reflect the Post Office Tower and the Tower of London — the company was named Thames Television after the
River Thames . This name had been considered and later rejected by
London Weekend Television .
On
30 July 1968 Thames began broadcasting to London from Monday mornings until its handover to London Weekend Television at 1900 on Fridays. (In
1982 this was changed to 1715, much to Thames displeasure).
Thames was originally based in Rediffusion's former headquarters,
Television House , until the opening of the newly-built
Thames Television House on
Euston Road in the early
1970s .
An early success was the comedy show ''
Do Not Adjust Your Set '' - nominally a children's show, but actually an important forerunner of ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus ''.
Other important Thames shows include ''
This Week '', ''
TV Eye '', ''
The World At War '', ''
Callan '', ''
The Naked Civil Servant '', ''
Rumpole Of The Bailey '', ''
Strike It Lucky '', ''
Rock Follies '', and ''
The Benny Hill Show '' (Thames' most successful show, that was sold to many countries around the world). Thames produced a number of sitcoms including ''
Father, Dear Father '', ''
Bless This House '' starring
Sid James , ''
George And Mildred '', ''After Henry'', ''Never the Twain'', and ''
Love Thy Neighbour '', with its controversial take on racial issues. Less well known is its adaptation of ''
Andy Capp '' starring
James Bolam . It also produced the children's show ''
Magpie '', intended as a rival for ''
Blue Peter ''. Thames became a significant contributor to the ITV network and its shows (most notably ''The World at War'' and ''The Benny Hill Show'') became worldwide award-winning successes. Unusually for a commercial broadcaster it also produced lavish versions of Gilbert & Sullivan's ''
The Mikado '' and Shakespeare's ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream ''.
In the early
1970s , Thames established a subsidiary production company,
Euston Films , which produced many of Thames' highest-profile contributions to ITV network programming. These included ''
The Sweeney '' (
1975 -
78 ), ''
Minder '' (
1979 -
94 ) and ''
Quatermass '' (
1979 ).
The loss of its broadcast franchise in 1992 may have been influenced by its documentary ''
Death On The Rock '', part of the current affairs strand ''
This Week ''. The programme questioned the authority of British troops who shot and killed a group of suspected
Provisional IRA members who were allegedly planning a
Terrorist attack on a British military base on
Gibraltar . The documentary was regarded almost as an act of treason by many
Tory politicians.
Margaret Thatcher 's government ordered that the new ITV franchises be determined by
Silent Auction . The amount Thames offered for its franchise was significantly less than the money offered by other companies, leading many commentators to speculate that Thames had fallen victim to a government vendetta.
Another factor was the aborted takeover of Thames by
Carlton Communications in
1985 when
EMI (which had taken over ABC some years previously) and
BET (the parent company of Rediffusion) decided to sell. This was blocked by both Richard Dunn,
Chief Executive of Thames, and by the
IBA . Thames then had a management buyout and were floated on the
Stock Exchange . This led Carlton Communications Chief Executive Michael Green to complain to Margaret Thatcher, which in turn may have led to the
Broadcasting Act 1990 , which replaced the IBA with the
Independent Television Commission , which rebid the ITV licences.
Thames was replaced by
Carlton Television at midnight on
December 31 ,
1992 /
January 1 ,
1993 .
After
1992 Thames continued to produce programmes for the ITV network and other UK and international broadcasters, a notable example being the long-running
Police drama ''
The Bill ''. The company changed hands a number of times. It was owned by
Pearson Television , which is now
Fremantle Media , part of the
RTL Group . Fremantle also acquired
TalkBack Productions and merged the two companies under the new name in 2001. Thames as a separate entity no longer exists.
