The dates that new episodes were first shown in the UK on ITV

[James Martin]

Just checked the old thread.  Neighbours did air on BBC One for both showings, with rolling news inbetween.

But in short I'm willing to bet that Thatcher's resignation is the missing link here, now we've narrowed the dates down it's just too obvious for it not to be.  The only thing that would scupper it is if the lunchtime showing still went out, as that wouldn't make the Top 30.  At the time, ITN's lunchtime news went out at 1pm.  It's not impossible that the lunchtime showing went ahead with the evening showing scrapped in certain regions for an extended 5:40.

There only appears to be the Ten available on YouTube.

It's interesting to note a distinct lack of news programmes from that day in the chart.

[CaptainHulk]

On 19/11/2018 at 01:37, James Martin said:

Sorry it's taken me a while to get here - don't come on too often these days.

Here's what I know:

- 1222 was shown only at lunchtime.  Notably it was quite a key episode, in which Pippa and Michael's baby, Dale, dies from SIDS.

- I got my wires crossed with the World Cup and regional re-editing but there was a site (Home & Away uncut, now not online) which stated Central and Yorkshire played out different edits of an episode during France '98, possibly because a particular region couldn't put the evening showing out.  However, France vs Italy 100% knocked out the evening showing, and you'll see from the listings ITV had another match that night and therefore a couple of things got dropped to make the next game on time.  There was an extended recap before Monday's episode, but that's all I know.

- Border, STV and Grampian almost certainly didn't show the evening episode on 10 June 1998.  Brazil were playing Scotland in the World Cup, and whilst primarily this was shown UK-wide on BBC One, the Scottish ITV regions also took this match.

What were the reasons for the other two lunchtime-only airings?

Onto the missing episode:

Looking at that Top 30, there was a theory that Home & Away on 22/11/90 failed to make the Top 30 due to people watching the news on the other side; we know that CBBC was moved to BBC Two for the day.  The listings there are for ITV - is there a figure for the news on that day on BBC One which would back up or disprove that theory?  However, what we don't know for sure is whether or not Neighbours got switched.  However, given that was the only show between CBBC and the 6 O' Clock News, I'm inclined to wager that Neighbours went out on BBC Two also.

The only other possibility is an episode skip for the inauguration of Bill Clinton on Wednesday January 20 1993, which would have been around 5pm our time.  There's also the Budget, which used to be an afternoon affair, but I'm pretty sure those regions that had the show at 5:10 just moved it to 6:30.

You want Neighbours stuff, try genome.

[Martin2013]

Another one to add is on Friday 7th May 1999 at least one showing was pulled in the HTV Wales region due to the coverage of the Welsh Assembly Elections.

I have a recording of the episode shown the following Monday and it started with an extended recap before the opening titles.

I know it was Five rather than ITV but can anyone recall exaclty what happened to H&A on 9/11 and in the aftermath of the London Bombings?

I seem to recall the lunchtime showing on Five being pulled on 7/7 but can't recall what happened with the evening showing. The lunchtime showing of Neighbours definatley got pulled altogether that day and the evening showing ended up being on BBC2.

I'm pretty sure the lunchtime showing of Neighbours got pulled in the aftermath of the failed bombing on 21/7/2005 but can't recall what happened to H&A.

If anyone knew exactly what happened to the programme on these dates I'd be interested to here.

 

 

[James Martin]

The HTV pre-emption was lunchtime.  They dropped everything from the end of GMTV up to the start of CITV.  The evening showing went ahead, according to the Guardian listings.

Both Home and Away and Family Affairs went ahead on 9/11, but bookended by rolling news.  Lunchtime Neighbours was on BBC1, evening on BBC2.  Crossroads was pulled off air mid lunchtime showing, the evening showing was on ITV2, which virtually nobody had access to.

On 7/7 the lunchtime showing was dropped, but in this era the evening showing was the premiere, lunchtime was a repeat of the previous day.

21/7 I couldn't tell you as I was on air at Rugby FM, and the local train station got evacuated as well as the false alarm in London!  An interesting day!

[James Martin]

Just yo pointlessly bump this, I've had a quick look at the Liverpool Echo archives - the three dates you mention got a lunchtime only airing all have evening showings billed.  It's only 3/11/93 that seems to be lunchtime only.

On the subject of the Ireland v Romania pre-emption; I see Just For Laughs is scheduled which has droppable filler written all over it.  I'd wager that Home and Away still went ahead - if it didn't make the ITV Top 30 that week we know it didn't.