Southern Independent Television

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thecaretaker
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Mar 2022 24 01:09

Southern Independent Television

This is a project I had been working on for some time (14 years). When I was a lad, I couldn't wait to get home from school to watch children's programmes. In those days, TV didn't open up (start) until 4pm. Most of the day you had a testcard and music. At 10 to 4, I'd sit in front of the television waiting for it to open up and for programmes to start. You also had to give the TV set a little time to warm up.

Southern TV had what was called a start-up sequence which came on just before programmes started.

The music used for the start-up was called Southern Rhapsody and was composed by Richard Addinsell. However, the recording used for the Southern TV start-up wasn't by Richard Addinsell own orchestra. Apart from a few poor quality reel to reel video tape recordings taken from original broadcasts (VHS hadn't been invented then), I didn't think I'd ever learn who originally played the music or hear it again as I remembered it. But eventually, after approx 14 years of searching, I finally discovered that the original orchestra used for the original start-up sequence was The Eric Winstone Orchestra. Amazingly, back in the 60's, Southern TV allowed a record company to include the Southern Rhapsody music on an record album of other start-up music and thankfully, a copy of it survived all these years later, where I was able to purchase a copy of the original track and include it in my start-up simulation as I remember it as a child.

The music is so evocative of the South, with the sea around Southampton where the first Southern TV studios were built and of Cowes on the Isle of Wight home of sailing boats. You can almost smell the salt spray as the cymbals clash against the rocks. In other parts you get a real feel for the rural country life around the New Forest where Jack Hargrave's did so much of his filming for Out Of Town. It is simply a masterpiece.

It used a 'testcard' called the Picasso testcard which I have recreated.

Now anybody local, might remember, just before the start-up sequence ended, a short clip of film was used showcasing local landmarks in the Southern area. Again, only wobbly poor quality clips of this film exist. But I have managed to clean up a clip good enough to add to the end of the sequence. Finally, I added the Southern TV animated logo to open in time with the music and as a last measure, I recreated the Southern TV clock.

Amazingly, the copyright owner of the music has permitted the music to be used in my Youtube High Quality version of the Southern Start-Up sequence without me getting a copyright strike.

It's not 100% perfect by any means, but it's much better than any other attempt to recreate it that I have seen.

For any young members out there, When I was a boy, TV was in Black and White only, was transmitted using VHF 405 lines on a device called a Cathode-ray tube. The TV was a giant lump of furniture that held pride of place in the corner of the room. It got turned off when visitors called and if you wanted to change channel (there were only 2 channels) you had to get off your bottom and walk over to the set to turn a knob. [Big grin.png]

I hope you enjoy it.



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gregincardiff
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Mar 2022 24 08:19

Re: Southern Independent Television

Think you must be a bit longer in the tooth than me. I grew up in Southampton and remember Jack Hargraves in out of town and how about Ollie Kite. Good times if not the best of times.
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grumpy1
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Mar 2022 24 08:24

Re: Southern Independent Television

Amazing job CT, bought back a few memories seeing the landmarks as they were especially Brighton pavilion. As a young child growing up in the mid 60's can just about remember Jack Hargreaves in Out of town, he always seemed so relaxed and laid back a true country gent. [Like.png]
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Keyolder
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Mar 2022 24 09:45

Re: Southern Independent Television

I'm so old I remember when televisions had an almost round 9 inch screen and ran on gas, you had to light the pilot light [Wink.png]
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it... [Crazy.png]
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EBJ
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Mar 2022 24 13:11

Re: Southern Independent Television

Ours was London but loved the Jack Hargreaves programmes "Say what you will the country side is still", saw him once in a horse market sale in a West London market, Southall. Also remember when the tv went off at night "The Epilogue" would be the last programme on and then the screen went blank except for a white dot that got smaller and smaller and finally disappeared, most people rented a tv set back in my young days and god there was hell to lay if it went wrong and the tv rental company did not have a loan one to give you. [Mad.png]

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thecaretaker
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Mar 2022 24 15:43

Re: Southern Independent Television

I watched an ITN News from 1981 (I'm so sad). But it was almost identical to our current news. Ronald Reagan was issuing sanctions against Russia.

A British fire was worried how that would effect their contract with Russia to supply the pipework for a giant gad pipeline to Europe.

They showed film of refugees being dropped off in coaches arriving in England, mainly children (just like those from the Ukraine) but this time they were Vietnamese Boat people.

I thought 40 years on... we haven't learnt any lessons [Angry.png]

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