The history surrounding this famous company is too great to list here. However I can tell you a small snippet of what the company did over the years. 30th July 1968 was the start for the newly formed ITV company, with ABC and Rediffusion experience put together to form a super-company. Over the years the London week-day contractor became famous for many, many programmes, some of which like The Bill and This Is Your Life do continue. In 1991, Thames lost out in a fiercely fought franchise battle with Carlton Communications plc. Was it the right decision? Well, Thames is now part of RTL, one of THE largest television production companies in the world, and for Carlton..... we'll leave that one for you to make up your minds. I wonder what would have happened if Thames did get the Channel 5 license in full in 1990?
During this period, Thames had two main idents, the above was initially used from Television House, and a "FROM THAMES" animation from Teddington studios. The idea was to make a distinction between Rediffiusion & ABC staff-produced programmes, under the one brand. However by August '69, both idents were used from both production houses.
This one is down forever in ident history. No more needs to be said about this ident, except it was used for many, many years, and we can't forget about the Kenny Everett efforts neither! Two versions above from the 70's, the first features a rippled mirror to mirror the top half of the animation in a river style format. In the second version, the rippled effect is replaced by a standard mirror.
A night-time version of the famous ident, brought in to use from 1980.
With the imminent arrival of the IT\* generic idents, Thames very quickly grasped upon the situation to celebrate their 21st Anniversary
Thames joined the IT\* generic scheme using these idents, firstly in conjunction with their 21st Anniversary logo in 1989, then as a main ident in 1990. The IT\* ident was then re-edited to incorporate Thames' new logo in late 1990.
Thames' last ident as an ITV broadcaster, with a touch of melancholy to the ident jingle.
Away from ITV, this logo continued with the company as an independent broadcast for a few later years, until the start of Channel 5, a company Thames were bidding to run in 1990. Other THAMES related sites With many thanks for the use of RealVideo material from James Edwards (TV World), Steve Yates (TV50), Steve Hackett (TV Ark). Last Updated: December 22, 2018 |
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