ITV Night Time (Northern) - 1988-2002

Overnight programming on ITV is much newer concept than the channel itself. It was phased in across various regions in the late 80s and originally aimed to show good programming for insomniacs and shift workers, but in reality the viewership is so small they've only ever been able to fill it with low quality and cheap imports and sell very little, if any, advertising space. Most of the regions, as it was still a regional decision at launch, also took one of two services provided by Granada or London to keep down costs. An idea which may not seem out of place with how the network is centralised nowadays, but which was quite unusual for the late 80s. It led to a system where the branding during the night would differ from the branding during the day, and was the first place a nationally branded ITV look surfaced. This system would last until daytime continuity was also centralised in London in October 2002 at which point the branding in use throughout both day and night remained consistent. The page below covers the Northern service, as seen on Tyne Tees.

Nighttime - 1989

The main programming throughout the night, was originally branded with the name 'NightTime' - Creative names evidently were not a priority. This version was from the Granada provided service, as was taken by Tyne Tees.


Nighttime Next - 1989

A next slide from the Night Time era.


Nighttime Advert - 1989

A break filler advert, leading on to an ident. This one is designed entirely for showcasing some of the horror films on Nighttime. Anyone of a weak disposition may find this file frightening, particularly those with an aversion to cheap MSPaint-like blood effects.


Nighttime (Promo) - 1989

Another short promotion for Granada's Night Time service. No expenses spared here - 15 seconds of movie footage is redubbed with a Night Time logo crudely overlaid. Normally trailers like this would have been used as short fillers during the overnight service itself, however here it had actually made it out into a primetime Saturday night junction on Granada. With them producing the overnight service, they were probably more inclined to trailer it during their daytime hours.


Nighttime (Sunset) - 1990

One of a set of different images used throughout the night. The sun would be seen at different phases depending upon what time of the night it went out. This one for example was used earlier into the service, and showed the sun setting. Anyone like to hazard a guess where these were filmed?


Nighttime (Sunrise) - 1990

Getting on into the early hours of the morning now, and the sun is rising again.


Nighttime - 1991

A slightly later Night Time ident, which remained in use for the rest of the 'Night Time' era and well beyond Tyne Tees' taking of the service. What better way to help keep all those insomniacs awake a little longer too than showing a load of slightly possessed eyeshots!


Nighttime - 1991


Nighttime - 1991

A static version of the logo used as an ident again here. Granada were nothing if not inconsistent with their use of the presentation package on their overnight service.


Nighttime Promo - 1991

Played many times to fill space in the junctions and showing clips from much better shows than they usually tended to air comes this promo from the Night Time service in 1991 promoting them as the 'Right Time'. Continuity would regularly be thrown over the end of this promotion before jumping in to the next programme.


Nighttime Next - 1991

Several slides promoting shows coming up on Night Time, but none of which align or seem to match how they've done fonts.


Nighttime (Menu) - 1991

Some very precise timings on a Night Time menu, as we get a rundown of that night's schedule. Broadcast at the very start of the overnight service from Granada.


The Hitman & Her - 1991

Produced by Granada Television and shown by most of the ITV overnight services from 1988 through to 1992, The Hitman & Her featured Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan touring nightclubs of the UK to stick a camera in front of people there. In this edition from 1991 they return to Mr Smiths in Warrington, which had also been the location for the very first edition in 1988.


Nighttime Next - 1991


Nighttime Break - 1991

As it was no easy task finding someone to spend money advertising in the dead-of-night slots, many of the programme breaks didn't show adverts. Nowadays they tend to be filled either by PIFs or general ITV Promotions, but in days of past a slide with music would be played out. The idea was that Granada would provide the musical interlude along with cuedots, and then the regions could overlay their ads over the feed, similar to how they had done for Channel 4 during the 80s. Tyne Tees abandoned selling adspace for a period in the early nineties, letting the raw feed play out in most cases. A bit of an upbeat track for this one, just to make sure you're still all awake.


Nighttime Break - 1991


Nighttime Break - 1992

Another breakfiller from 'NightTime' in 1992.


Nighttime Break - 1992

Another example of a break filler from the Granada originated Night Time service.


Nighttime Break - 1992

Another holding slide (for the reasons mentioned above you got this a lot on Tyne Tees), only this time with a slightly more upbeat feel. Just what you want in the break of the Morning News (the part bumpers for this also included).


Nighttime Break Menu - 1992

From Thursday April 2nd 1992 (if you're interested), the same music continues over the next later break (Granada must have had a limited selection to hand that night). Only this time, the usual back soon slide has been replaced with a rundown of the night's programmes. Of course who decided scheduling this to play out after the break after The ITN Morning News (and thus the whole night of programmes) had just finished is best kept quiet. In true Bullseye style, "This is what you could have just watched..."


Nighttime (Coming Up) - 1992

A static slide, in a similar setup to the next slides, advertising programmes coming up both next week on Night Time and after the news update.


Nighttime (Next) - 1992

Text showing in multiple places onscreen for this next slide from the Granada Night Time service. Well when you've such a small audience, why worry about consistency?


Jobfinder - 1992

Jobfinder was so much simpler in the good old days. Just a caption generator playing out a selection of pages from Oracle, with some music over the top, occasionally interspersed with some 80s photos. Just incase being unemployed was putting a set with a teletext decoder out of the viewers reach...


Night Shift - 1992


Night Shift (Shorter) - 1993

A shorter version of the Night Shift ident from Yorkshire, this time with the ending 'Night Shift' logo missing and instead the name of the next programme shown. And it's in Stereo you know! The shared Night Shift service wasn't too last ultimately, with Yorkshire reverting to using the standard Tyne Tees or Yorkshire branding throughout the night in the mid nineties, a practice which continued through to 1998.


Jobfinder - 1997


ITV Nighttime - 1998

In 1998, after the takeover by Granada, these two joined into the London based service, clearly still being kept light on the generic ITV branding at this stage. No visible name is printed on screen; Instead the ident features a sort-of-disco, showing people made up of coloured lights.


ITV Nighttime - 1998

A brief clip of another disco dancing ident.


ITV Nighttime - 2000

In 1999, When the second ITV Generic look was brought in, nighttime programming was changed to match - The only difference being the lack of regions. By this time, all Granada and Carlton regions were taking this same service, even if they occasionally put optouts in.


ITV1 Nighttime - 2001

When the ITV1 rebranding came about in August 2001, a massive change was also made to the nighttime look. Coincidentally at the time of this capture 'regional' ITV1 Granada stations had a generic ITV1 Xmas ident, whereas national ITV1 was still using the hearts; further proof that what Granada put out that year was not a network creation but a specific choice of them not to include region names as they were testing the water ahead of the full national rebrand. This was to be the last time daytime and nighttime branding would differ on the ITV plc regions. The advent of national continuity during the day from October 2002 saw the same idents being fed out from London all day.


ITV Night Time (Next) - 2001

Throughout the night, next slides took on the same hearts branding as the local pres in many regions was using, albeit only with references to the 'ITV1' brand.


ITV1 Night Time (Next) - 2001

ITV's heart-branded overnight slides received a similar small tweak to add the '1' numeral after August 2001, although the style of the presentation remained otherwise the same. Here a slide promoting Forever, Next... if you follow!


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