Southern Television

Southern Television - Southampton (Channel 11)/ Dover (Channel 10)
Transmissions started on 30th August 1958, ending in 1981 when TVS snatched their franchise.
Some Southern TV Programmes
Old Vic plays
Southern after one year
1960 Southern TV summer schedules 1960
1960 Southern TV TAM ratings
Southern programmes: August 30th 1958
August 19th 1959 . . September 1st 1959
August 14th 1961 . . April 10th 1963
September 14th 1963 . . August 19th 1965
September 19th 1965 . . October 5th 1968

The Southern ITV area was a sprawling mass along the south coast from Weymouth along to Southend, a town which was a mecca for the TV enthusiast as London ITV, Southern and Anglia could all be picked up there. In fact Southern could be received as far away as Newbury, Lyme Regis and The Channel Isles also! Main studios were at Northam Southampton in a converted cinema, with a separate newsroom at Dover eventually increasing local news coverage.

First General Manager- CD Wilson. Head of Outside Broadcasts- Berkeley Smith. Among those who later became more widely known outside the region were station announcers Meryl O'Keefe and Julian Pettifer as well as newscaster Martin Muncaster. Also, Programme director Anna Lett in Feb 1959 married Chris Chataway. And Tony Hancock's brother, Roger, worked for Southern for a time as Personal Assistant to Programme Controller Roy Rich.
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Some Local Southern Progammes
Clive Lythgoe appeared on the opening night, introducing the station's theme music, Southern Rhapsody. His series The Lythgoe Touch was for a while the longest running musical series of its type, perhaps its most famous producer being Peter Frazer-Jones.
Bandleader Eric Winstone was associated with the company during its first year.
Lunchtime programmes for the remainder of the year included "Flotsam's Follies", "Take Forty" and "Three's Company," all featured singer John Harvey.
Jack Hargreaves rose to national prominence with his weekly confidential chat Out of Town. It used to send me to sleep. After being curator of the Piscatorial Museum in London (!) he was invited to present the fortnightly Gone Fishing directed by George Egan in May 1959. "Such was the interest" that from August it became a weekly feature on Fridays at 6.35pm. Surprise surprise, Barbara Hargreaves, wife of JH, then joined Farm in the South!
Sea War was an acclaimed 13 part documentary made in conjunction with Rank, detailing the role of the Royal Navy in the war.

Southern Programmes on Opening week that lasted at least the first two years were-
Southern Heritage introduced by George Egan with script and narration by Willoughby Gray.
Sports Club produced by Terry Yarwood. Danny Blachflower was one resident compere. Colin Inglebuy-Mackenzie (captain of the Hampshire cricket team) took over in the autumn of 1960, by which time the programme had celebrated 100 editions.
Come Gardening and of course
Southern's own agricultural effort Farm in the South.

Other shows with familiar faces were ex-BBC Marguerite Patten who hosted the Thursday Your Ideal Home. And well known comedy writer Alan Melville had his own nicely titled show Melvillainy late on Sunday evenings. And celebrated radio man Leslie Mitchell also appeared in Southern programmes.
Like most stations, Southern had their own talent spotting show. Easy to produce, the butt of complaints from professionals, theirs was Home Grown. Eric Winstone was the first compere, music came from the Ted Taylor Quartet. After six eliminating heats, in which winners were adjudged by viewers' votes, the finalists were faced by a panel of judges, including Roy Rich, Southern's Programme Controller and Eric Winstone, Musical Director. Directed by their stalwart Terry Yarwood, winners of the first series were The Brooks Brothers, who subsequently obtained a record contract (New Century Artists). They made a return appearance in the series on November 3rd 1960. BBC's Peter Haigh was a presenter of a later series. The show made some sort of history when it became the first regionally produced programme to make it into the Regional TAM Top Ten ratings.
Also, in common with other regional tv companies, Southern ran their own beauty competition. Titled Southern Belle, the 1960 final was shown on September 21st, made at Butlin's in Bognor Regis. MacDonald Hobley was the host (the automatic choice for the job) and also appearing in this show were Alfred Marks, The Jones Boys, Roger Carne, and The Brooks Brothers, with music supplied by Eric Winstone and his Band. TV direction was by Bill Perry.
Of Southern's admags, perhaps the most interesting was Value for Money with Gerald Campion as resident compere using a script by Bob Kellett. Campion of course was celebrated for his portrayal as Billy Bunter, so was the main theme FOOD?!
Jim Dale hosted the thrice weekly 30 minute Take it Easy, a variety feature. With a script by Dick Vosburgh, singers featured included Janie Marden and Joyce Clark. Other regulars in this series which ran for eight months in 1959/60 were the Malcolm Mitchell Trio and Dany Clare. The final programme was on Wednesday 16th March 1960.
Jim moved on to The Lunchtime Show which began on Wednesday March 30th 1960 and then ran thrice weekly, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 1.05pm. It included regularly weekly items by Julie Harris on fashion, Roy Rich as a DJ in an On Record spot, and the ubiquitous Gerald Campion, on food of course. Musical backing was provided by The Art Jones Quartet. Special guests included Max Geldray (March 30th), Shirley Sands (April 6th and 13th), Victor Soverell (April 20th), puppeteers Joan and Paul Sharratt (April 27th), Russ Conway with his new recording Lucky Fives (May 4th) while Nat Gonella also appeared this week, Rosemary Squires (May 11th), Ray Allen (May 18th) and Terry Burton (May 25th), Mike Preston (June 15th-17th), Tim Field and Dean O'Brien (June 22nd-24th), Allan Bruce (June 29th week). July 1960 guests included Valerie Masters, Victor Feldman, Eddie Falcon and Shirley Norman.
Probe chaired by Fenton Bresler, and directed by Berkeley Smith, "gives local residents the opportunity to vent their feelings on the way they are governed." The first programme aired on Monday May 25th 1959 at 6.25pm, and was from Bournemouth asking the vital question, "Does Bournemouth give a square deal to its visitors- and to its residents?" Southampton and Yeovil were the next locations and after that, towns would queue up to get some publicity. However Shaftesbury, Dorset, Town Council took a stand and in December 1959 voted against allowing cameras near them, "these programmes are not an advertisement but are just a means of taking the rise out of a town." Berkeley Smith defended the series, stating, "this is a debate in public rather than a public debate, which we believe will produce a controversial, lively and entertaining programme." Canterbury Council's General Purposes Committee in 1960 recommended this city should not participate either, but an offer from Southern Television of Ł500 to the municipal controlled Marlowe Theatre seems to have swayed the council's debate and on a majority vote, the proposal that they take part in Probe was agreed.
Quizzes included Snakes and Ladders hosted by the well known Kenneth Horne, who chaired several offerings from Southern TV, including the children's quiz Full Marks.