ITV in 1988: Grampian 

9 February 2023 tbs.pm/77506

GRAMPIAN TELEVISION

NORTH SCOTLAND

Queen’s Cross, Aberdeen AB9 2XJ
Tel: 0224 646464
29 Glasshouse Street, London W1R 5RG
Tel: 01-439 3141
6 Manor Place, Edinburgh EH3 7DD
Tel: 031-226 3926
Albany House, 68 Albany Road, West Ferry, Dundee, DD5 1NW
Tel: 0382 739363
23/25 Huntly Street, Inverness IV3 5PR
Tel: 0463 242624

Directors Sir Iain Tennant, KT (Chairman); Dr Calum A. MacLeod (Deputy Chairman); Donald Waters (Chief Executive); Robert L. Christie (Director of Television); The Lord Forbes, KBE, DL, JP; Douglas F Hardie, CBE, JP; Dr Fiona. J. Lyall; Angus Stewart Macdonald, CBE, DL; Alistair S. F Mair MBE, Sir George Sharp, OBE, JP; Neil R. Welling (Sales Director).

Officers Sandra Arnold (Education Officer); Edward Brocklebank (Head of Documentaries); Graham Good (Company Secretary); Richard Gow (Area Sales Manager); Alistair Gracie (Head of News and Current Affairs); Elizabeth Gray (Personnel Officer); Brian Hay (Chief Accountant); Marian Hepworth (Community Education Officer); John Hughes (Production Executive); Eric M. Johnstone (Production Services Executive); Christopher Kidd (Sales Controller); David Leslie (Property Services Officer); Gladys McLeish (Administrative Services Officer); Michael J. McLintock (Publicity and Promotions Executive); Alan Pacitti (Senior Transmission Controller); Alec Ramsay (Chief Engineer); John Robertson (Senior Technical Supervisor); John R. Stacey (Sales Administration Manager); Pat Swinborn (Programme Planning Officer).

Religious Advisers Revd Michael Crawford (Church of Scotland); John M. MacLeod; Father Andrew Mann (Roman Catholic); Provost Donald Howard (Episcopalian); Revd Hamish Fleming (Church Of Scotland); Revd E. Shegog (IBA); Brian Marjoribanks (IBA); Mrs Helen M. Macfarland.

Schools Advisory Committee David Adams (Principal of the Northern College of Education); L. Ollason Brown (Educational Institute of Scotland); Nisbet Gallacher (HMI Chief Inspectorate); Cllr. Hamish Watt (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities); Cllr. Jack MacArthur (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities); George MacGregor (Educational Institute of Scotland); Brian Marjoribanks (IBA); Robert B. Murdoch (Educational Institute of Scotland); Mrs Sheila Denoon (Educational Institute of Scotland).

Staff Total members of staff: 326.

Sales and Research Grampian’s service to advertisers is centred in sales offices in London, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness and Edinburgh, where a young professional team offers the benefits of advertising in one of Britain’s most prosperous areas.

Studios ABERDEEN: Two studios of 800 sq. ft. and 2,000 sq. ft. are at present in service, with a central technical area serving ITV, Channel 4 and production studios. Dedicated transmission facilities consist of: two Cintel Mk 3 telecines; two RCA TCR 100 2in. cart. VTRs; one Quantel DLS 6OOO Electronic Slide Store. A 350 sq. ft. presentation studio with colour cameras is available for continuity. In addition the following equipment is available in support of production operations; one Ampex BPR2, four Marconi MR2Bs with Datatron Super Tempo Editing Suite; one Cintel Mk 3 telecine; one Quantel DLS 6000 Electronic Slide Store; one RCA TR600 2in. Quad VTR; one RCA TCR 100 2in. cart. VTR; one NEC E-Flex; one Quantel DPB 7000/1 Paintbox. There is a modern suite of control rooms servicing the studios which operate three RCA TK47 colour cameras. Two Outside Broadcast vehicles are in use: Unit One equipped with four Ikegami cameras, a 24 channel Neve sound desk and a CDL vision mixer is supported by Unit Two equipped with two Sony BVH 2000 1in. VTRs. Unit Two, which has an integral 10KVA VA mains generator, can be fitted with two Ikegami HL79 cameras and simple sound facilities to act as an independent production unit. One production film unit and two ENG units are based in Aberdeen. These are supported by eight film and ENG edit suites and sound dubbing facilities. DUNDEE: Dundee is served by Albany House, an electronic studio centre with a 450 sq. ft. interview studio containing a remote-controlled colour camera electronically linked to Aberdeen, two reporters and an ENG unit. INVERNESS: Served by a studio centre on the banks of the River Ness containing a 420 sq.ft, studio with remote-controlled colour camera linked to Aberdeen, and a reporter and ENG crew.

Programmes Britain’s most northerly Independent Television company, Grampian Television serves a population of 1.23 million viewers in an area which stretches from Fife to Shetland. It producers a wide range of programmes reflecting the diverse interests and needs of its audience.

With the help of studios and mobile crews in Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness, the area’s news and current affairs, leisure, and consumer matters as well as weekly reports on developments in the fishing and farming industries are featured at 6 p.m. in North Tonight. The lunchtime North News followed by Afternoon Headlines and late evening North Headlines also help to keep Grampian viewers informed. Wider political, economic and industrial issues in Scotland are covered weekly in Crossfire.

Light entertainment includes A Musical Journey featuring songs from musicals and shows recorded against Scotland’s most beautiful scenery. Top comedy trio Scotland the What? present their favourite songs and sketches, the New Year is welcomed in traditional style in A Happy Hogmanay! and talented young musicians have their television debut in A Touch of Music.

The children’s quiz series Pick a number tests contestants’ knowledge of pop music, while three champions compete for the title of ‘The World’s Strongest Man’ in Pure Strength.

At Aberdeenshire’s Craigievar Castle top shepherds and their dogs compete for the Grampian Television trophy in The Grampian Sheepdog Trials, while trials of a different kinds are dramatised when common legal problems come to court in the advice series That’s The Law.

Documentaries include The Blood is Strong for Channel 4, contrasting the success of Gaelic Scots emigrants abroad with the decline of their homeland. A Dundee engineer is The Man Who Wants to Change the World with his remarkable invention, and American publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes returns to his Aberdeenshire roots in another documentary. Robbie Shepherd goes Out and About to meet interesting people in six north Scotland towns while Jackie Stewart hosts a second charity clay pigeon shooting competition for his former motor racing colleague’s in Gunfire at Gleneagles.

Sixth formers from Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness question experts on a range of controversial subjects in Sixth Sense, and sewing expert Leila Aitken shows how to make attractive items for pleasure and profit in Pin Money.

The weekly current affairs programme Crann Tara provides items of interest for Gaelic viewers while younger viewers can enjoy the Saturday morning magazine Siudan.

In the religious discussion series Church and Change leading clerics and theologians debate contemporary issues faclng the church, while First Thing and Reflections provide a word of comfort, morning and evening.

Local sport features prominently on Grampian with repeats in the nightly magazine and magazine broadcast coverage of football, curling, ice-hockey, darts, bowling, squash, shinty, swimming, indoor hockey and boxing.

A Grampian Television documentary crew films American millionaire Ellice MacDonald watching a clarsach (harp) player at the Clan Donald Centre, Skye, for a Channel 4 series The Blood is Strong about Gaelic Scots.