First Night on Meridian1st January 1993
Michael Palin explores the Meridian region with the aid of Network South East and gives us a sneaky peak into some of the programmes coming on Meridian over the first few months.
7 Days21st November 1993
Phillip Hornby presents Meridian's Sunday political programme. This programme lasted over a decade, Carol Barnes had presented a series or two. The final series changed its name to Dispatch Box before ITV moved its political programmes to Thursday evenings.
Ambulance1993
Fly-on-the-wall documentary series following the ambulance service in Portsmouth. The first of many series to follow emergency services in the region.
Produced by Studio Z for Meridian.
Eye of the Storm1993
Children's drama serial. Father and daughter Tom and Nell Frewen patrol the coast on an ecology watch from their converted trawler `Eye of the Storm'.
Produced by Childsplay for Meridian.
Harnessing Peacocks1993
Serena Scott Thomas stars as Hebe who been cast out by her family after a teenage pregnancy. She pays for her son's school fees by cooking for old ladies and sleeping with a small syndicate of adoring men (the peacocks).
I Can Do That1993
Andy Craig presents this programme that gives viewers the chance to try out a job they've always wanted to do.
Late Night Live1993
This set of titles is from the pilot edition of entertainment programme Late Night Live with John Leslie and Anna Sowbrey. Nick Jackson is provides his uniquly over-excited voiceover.
Southern Gold1993/1994
Fred Dinenage presents the first of several Meridian programmes to pillage the archives of ITV in the South. The first series in 1993 focused on Southern Television's archives while a second series in 1994 also dipped into the TVS archives.
TV Weekly1993
One of the few programmes to be carried over from TVS. Eamonn Holmes took over presenting duties for the final series, the programme never officially ended but went on an eternal break when a new programme called Vanessa began.
Production of the series was taken over by independent producer, Topical Television.
The Time The Place1993
The set of titles used by the topical debate show when it came live from Southampton.
Originally the programme moved about via every ITV company but by 1993 the programme mostly came from Anglia with one or two programmes a week coming from London or Southampton. Occassionaly elsewhere.
Three Minutes1993
Three Minutes was Meridian's long running filler programme, lasting - you guessed it - three minutes. Depending on the day of the week the programme would either tell a viewers story, a community issue, charity appeal, entertainment listings or Crimestoppers.
Wizadora1993
One of Meridian's most popular children's series about a young female Wizard and her puppet friends.
Zzzap!1993
Neil Buchanan came up with an idea to create a comic book for the TV and Meridian gave him the opportunity to do it in Zzzap! Which proved to be one of CITV's most popular programmes of the 1990s.
The Big Race Special1993 Nicky Campbell presents this series following a 15,000 mile overland drive from London to New York.
Dogs With Dunbar1994
Dogs with Dunbar, Dr Ian Dunbar to be precise about it. The programme featured reports about dogs on TV and throughout the programme Dunbar would assist the assembled dog owners with various behavouir problems.
Produced by Veronica Charlwood who had presented It's A Dog's Life for TVS and if I'm not mistaken also voices the Spiller's sponsorship at the start of the titles.
Doing It Up1994 The late Pattie Coldwell and husband Tony Kerner presented this DIY series from their own home, a 200-year old cottage which they renovated on screen.
Several series' later in 1999 they'd finished the job and so the final series was very different with Julie Peasgood presenting and the challenge being to make over various places in the town of Alton, Hampshire.
Freescreen1994
Public access TV at its finest. Meridian (or was it Meridian's security guard??) gave over 30 minutes of airtime at about 5am to viewers who could send videos in for transmission. In later years the programme was heavily made up of films from Three Minutes.
Keep It In The Family1994
Fred Dinenage gives us a rare glimpse at the rest of his family in this special series to celebrate the international year of the family.
The Village1994
A fly-on-the-wall documentary series about the village of Bentley in Hampshire. Originally broadcast on Radio 4, the TV series ran on Meridian between 1993 and 2001 and was one of the longest running regional documentary series in the country. Later also repeated on BBC 2.
What's My Line?1994
Emma Forbes moved from Live and Kicking to presenting this remake of the classic guessing game. Previous presenters included Eamon Andrews and Angela Rippon.
White Goods1994 Comedy Drama about two gameshow contestants whose greed increases as they win more and more prizes.
Without Prejudice?1994
Kevin Devine presents this regional investigation series exploring cases of discrimination in the region.
Screen Challenge1995
The regions young film directors comepete to gain the title of most promising director in this series presented by former That's Life! presenter Bill Buckley.
Shine on Harvey Moon1995
Meridian briefly revived this Marks and Gran comedy from the 1980s produced by SelecTV, the cable company which had a stake in Meridian.
Summer Getaways1996
Summer Getaways was Meridian's own travel series mixing reports about holiday's abroad with places to visit within the region. This series is presented by the BBC's former Holiday presenter Anne Gregg. Later series were presented by Jenny Hull.
Who Am I?1996
Tony Slattery presents this guessing game where a panel have to determain a famous person by asking questions - originally shown as part of the regional 'Take 7' series of gameshows.
WOW1996
WoW or Watch Out Weekend was produced by the Media Merchants for Meridian and continued the tradition of saturday morning shows being broadcast live from the Maidstone Studios - except for the second show when a power cut struck and the audience and presenters had to haistly move to the carpark for the rest of the show.
World of Sailing1996
Nick Knowles worked on several of Meridian's sailing programmes including this one, World of Sailing.
40 Years of ITV in the South30th August 1998
The 40th Aniversary of Southern Television going on air was marked with a special programme looking back on four decades of television in the South, who else could present this but Fred Dinenage.
International Festival of the Sea1998
The International Festival of the Sea arrived in Portsmouth in 1998 and Meridian produced this special programme live from the event.
Meridian Match1998
Andy Steggall presents the local football highlights from a cunningly disguised Meridian Tonight set.
A Year To Remember2002
Another Meridian series delving into the archives, so who could they get to present? Of course! Fred Dinenage.
Ridge Riders2002
Nick Knowles gets on his bike with other guests as they ride along the Ridgeway - Britain's oldest road. The programme's folk-song soundtrack was later released seperatly and a special programme celebrating the music of the series was also produced.
10 Years2003
Meridian reached a milestone decade in 2003 which gave them a reason to make a programme dipping into the archives. They got Fred Dinenage to host it.As of 2009 there are no longer any regional, non-news programmes in England.