ABC Weekend TV
ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one of the "Big Four" companies that between them produced the majority of ITV networked programmes during this period.
For the American anthology for children, see ABC Weekend Special.Type
Region of television network
ABC
- 18 February 1956 in the Midlands
- 5 May 1956 in the North
- Winter Hill
- Emley Moor
- Lichfield
- Membury
- Scarborough
28 July 1968
Associated British Cinemas (Television) Limited
405-line black and white
English
- As ITV franchisee:
- Granada Television (North West)
- Yorkshire Television (Yorkshire)
- ATV (Midlands)
- As company:
- Thames Television
Originally created as Associated British Cinemas (Television) Ltd, ABC was one of a number of commercial television companies established during the 1950s by cinema chain companies, in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television, which was taking away their cinema audiences. In this case, the parent company was the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) — owner of ABC Cinemas — which initially did not wish to become involved with the new broadcasting system, but was persuaded to do so by the Independent Television Authority (ITA) and the manager of its Pathé News subsidiary Howard Thomas, who became the new company's managing director.
ABC operated two franchises, one in the Midlands, which was the fourth ITA franchise to go on air, in 1956, and the other in the North of England, which was the sixth franchise to go on air, later the same year. It lost both its franchises in 1968, but merged with another franchisee to form Thames Television, which held the London weekday franchise for 24 years.
From 1967, ABC's sister company, ABC Television Films, used the name Associated British Corporation on its exports to the US, such as the last two series of The Avengers.
History[edit]
Formation[edit]
When Kemsley-Winnick, one of the consortia that had been awarded two franchises in the new Independent Television network in 1954, collapsed, the ITA approached ABPC to step into the breach. The Corporation agreed to assume the franchises to broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays to the Midlands and the North of England. The contract agreeing to do so was signed on 21 September 1955, the day before Independent Television (ITV) began in London.
This left the new ABC five months to begin broadcasting in the Midlands, the service beginning on 18 February 1956.[1] Soon afterwards, it was also up and running in the North; it began broadcasting in the North West on 5 May 1956,[2] and in Yorkshire on 3 November 1956.[3] It was aided in part by the failure of the original contractor; Kelmsley-Winnick had ordered over £1 million (equivalent to £33.1 million today)[4] of production equipment from manufacturer Pye, which it sold to ABC at a much-discounted price.[5]
The following who have served as announcers for ABC Weekend TV include:
Programming[edit]
Networked programmes from ABC included the drama series Police Surgeon, The Human Jungle, Undermind, Redcap, The Avengers, the Armchair Theatre series of single plays, the Habatales cartoons, the popular shows Thank Your Lucky Stars, Opportunity Knocks, Big Night Out, Doddy's Music Box and Oh Boy!, Tommy Cooper's shows Cooperama and Life with Cooper, the children's science fiction serials Emerald Soup, Target Luna and its sequels Pathfinders in Space, Pathfinders to Mars and Pathfinders to Venus, and the gritty drama series Callan and Public Eye (both of which continued as Thames productions after 1968). ITV's first weekly series devoted to the arts, Tempo, was introduced by ABC, as was its first hidden camera show, Candid Camera, and its first attempt to challenge the BBC's dominance of television sport, with World of Sport. ABC also introduced British television's first late night chat show, The Eamonn Andrews Show[15] and, together with ATV, British television's first regular weekly series of adult education programmes.[16]