Westcountry Life
"Westcountry Life" promos filled airtime between programmes. These inserts showed people at work and play throughout the South West region.
Trail: Moving Story1994
Starring Warren Clarke as removal man Bamber, this drama series appeared to sink without trace.
Winter Stars promo1995 What glorious days before the NPU! This promo showcases the famous names lined up to entertain viewers during those long, cold nights.
Trail: Rugby World Cup1995 At a time when Westcountry's presentation department was at its busiest, Bruce Hammall heralds the immiment arrival of the Rugby World Cup in South Africa. The ident for the tournament can be seen here.
Breakdowns1995 and 1996
All is not well in Weatherfield...we've lost the Street! Announcer Chris Langmore apologises and plays some music. Note the photo which dates from before 1990.
One year later, Corrie suddenly rewinds on air. Probably some klutz up in Manchester! This time Peter Griffin fills in; we join the chaos just before the rewind. Note the new style of caption.
Westcountry trails1997
From early in 1997, local promos for An Audience with Alf Garnett, and The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna.
Diana Menu31.08.1997 News was broadcast for much of the day following the Princess of Wales' death. Hence continuity was few and far between, but Peter Griffin popped up that evening to inform us about changes to the schedule.
Holding Slides1997
Programme slides were still popular with broadcasters until very recently; Channel 5 even had them! From a truly corporate design in 1993, Westcountry gradually changed the look of its captions to fit in with each season's promotional graphics. These are from late 1997; check out the Coronation Street breakdowns for earlier examples.
Trail: British Comedy Awards1997 Despite having been swallowed up by Carlton at the end of 1996, Westcountry would retain independence in its on-screen style for the next three years. Corporate ITV trails were rare in the mid-1990s as the individual licensees (or their parent companies) produced their own promotional material. This is how Westcountry advertised the British Comedy Awards just before Christmas 1997.
Westcountry Advertising Promo1999 A traditional South West backdrop is used to encourage people to sell on Westcountry. Ironically, this recording was made just hours before the rebrand to Carlton.
Programme slides
TSW and Westward never made use of the corporate programme slide, opting instead to use unbranded stills from the originating companies most of the time. However, Westcountry fully embraced the concept from the word go, with many different styles used between 1993 and 1999.
