Historical details of Central and other ITV Companies

Around the same time ITV also tried another Network Soap "Night and day" I think that was WAY ahead of its time. Carlton also tried Network Shortland street. So if you lived in West, HTV, central or London you were getting up to 3 daytime soaps. Of course ITV were trying to fill the slot since Home and away moved channels.

With High Road try most, Central was the last English station to take it until 2001. Border kept it till 2002 and UTV till 2004.

Night and Day was a lot like the 2003 Crossroads IIRC. Lots of flashbacks and dream sequences. It had a catchy theme tune at least

Sung by some ozzy bird, I wonder what happened to her

As in here: http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forums/post880422/#post-880422 ITV were wonder around trying to fill the slot.
Both new Croassroads were crap pure and simple, and to make believe it was link in some way to the older format is wrong of ITV that is why Kathy Staff left.


IF only we had something like this....

Crossroads Mk1 = original version
Crossroads Mk2 = Motorway Title Sequence
Crossroads Mk3 = Kings Oak era
Crossroads Mk4 = 2001 version
Crossroads Mk 5 = The overly camp version

After seeing all version of Crossroads when it was revived in 2001 I had high hopes for it, but firstly the title sequence was completely wrong and it was wrong tp bring back some of the older "staff" although it was appropriate to bring back Jill and Adam. What made it even worse was Jill's daughter storyline - she was then she wasn;t then another actress comes along to play her real daughter etc etc etc it was just pure pathetic and then to kill Jill off was a bad mistake. But saying that by the end of the Mk4 run it was getting better and was building it audience (remember, at the time, Crossroads was one of the highest rated programmes for any channel during the daytime!!!). What didn't help was the continuing change of time, number of episods - like News at When no one knew when it was on. But when it finished I would have moved it to a 630 slot and build the audience to Emmerdale and then Coronation Street - and would have created competition for the younger audience with regards to Hollyoaks.

Don't even mention Mk5 - that will be the sole reason as to why no other version will ever be made - ITV effectively murdered any possible future franchise or revival of the soap with those few episodes.

Crossroads and Night & day were ITV first attempt to revive UK daytime soaps since Take the High Road and Families - 2 soaps that should never had been cancelled when they were (by the Network). Although London Bridge and Revelations (which used the old Families set) could have been good replacements.

IF they were to bring back a UK daytime soap then why not revive the old General Hospital as a 30 minute daily soap and show it before, or after The Chase.

Talking of which I could see a remake of Families but as a 9pm once a week series (not all year long but between 13 and 20 episodes) as the storylines back then could easily transfer through to todays drama - i.e. adultery, incest, drugs, murder, jealousy etc etc etc

A remarkable feat for UTV as High Road finished in 2003. Unless they had episodes stockpiled which took them into 2004.

Border took High Road until the end, IIRC.

Yes a mistake was made and your right about high road in Border area.

Central Television and Westcountry kept the series until Friday 24 May 2002, I wonder if there did in fact finish the series since STV held back episodes aswell as filming of the series had stopped in 2001?

UTV didn't always show High Road every week so there was a lag of around a year or maybe more, by 2004 it was being flung out at random times on Sunday afternoons. I believe they finished the series, though.

Might interest some:

Night and Day was really good, but it was never going to work as a daytime show. The late-night version however was excellent, and should have been given more of a chance than it was.

There may be some truth in the argument about there not being a market for a networked daytime soap. Home & Away, for example, really isn't pulling in the numbers at all on C5 these days.

Sorry . . . wasn't sure where else to put this random post . . .

Retro Tyne-Tees elements used in Sunday's Vera drama. I think the archive report (shown on a projection screen) was supposed to be 10 years old, but had a nice TTTV logo from the 80s

http://i41.tinypic.com/2uxtzew.jpg

That is fab. I want that mic flag!

Thing is, look at Home & Away as an example as to when it is shown.

H&A lunchtime edition is same time BBC News and Loose Women and think about the time it starts - neither on the hour or half past the hour! Evening is scheduled same time as BBC News or ITV Regional News or even Eggheads so has no chance of building an audience. What, also, didn't help H&A was the gap between ITV showing it and Channel 5 showing which lost quite a lot of viewers who may have stuck with the if there had been no gap. Then there is Neighbours which has relatively kept its audience because there was no gap and it kept the virtually same time slots.

If anything I believe it would be better if the lunchtime editions were shown at either 12 to 1 or 1230 to 130 and using Neighbours as a lead-in, whilst in the evening, why not have H&A at 5pm thus viewers then have a coice of either Pointless, The Chase or the Aussie Hour (although Ch5 will never beat the viewing figures on ITV or BBC1)

Doctors does well for the BBC
Even the drama repeats do well for ITV

If anything a daytime soap should not be fluffy but just like any other prime-time drama and people will watch given the correct time-slot!