Trident? Who are Trident? 

11 July 2023 tbs.pm/79279

May 1979 print advertisement

Oscar… …Wilde

If you draw a line across the Wash, along the Pennines, and south of the Tweed, what have you got?

Ah… sheep, cricket bats, chitterlings – whatever they are…

Correct. What else?

Give up.

Give UP? Very well, I’ll tell you. Trident Television.

Never heard of it.

Never heard of Yorkshire Television? Never heard of Tyne Tees Television? Never heard of Flambards, Emmerdale Farm, The Sandbaggers, Whicker’s World, Face the Press, The Paper Lads, What Fettle!?

What what?

As I was saying, Trident Television is Yorkshire and Tyne Tees. The stations that gave you Leonard Rossiter in “Rising Damp”, Alan Ayckbourn’s “Just Between Ourselves”, soccer with Jack Charlton showing his footwork… science with Magnus Pyke waving his arms… showjumping with Harvey Smith-er-waving.

D’you mind if we have a bit of hush. I want to watch “In Loving Memory”” Which side’s it on?

ITV… Yorkshire Television… part of Trident. Ever heard of it?

No.

Might as well talk to a brick wall.

June 1979 print advertisement

Julius… …Caesar

Have you noticed what an unerring touch those Trident companies seem to have with drama?

To be perfectly…

I don’t just mean the great set pieces like “After Julius”…

But surely…

I mean the whole Thespian scene, from children’s plays like “The Paper Lads” to series like “Emmerdale Farm” and “Flambards?

But surely…

Comedy – like”Thundercloud”… “In Loving Memory”… “Rising Damp.” All Trident.

But sure…

Shaw, did you say? Certainly. I expect you’re thinking of “A Village Wooing” – with Judi Dench and Richard Briers. Masterly.

But surely that was Yorkshire wasn’t it? Or was it Tyne Tees?

Full marks!

Trident IS Yorkshire and Tyne Tees. Everyone knows THAT…. It’s all the way from the Wash to Berwick-on-Tweed. No small area, no small name.

Well, they’re not getting their name across to me.

Why don’t they advertise?