Local history

Yorkshire Television has been the ITV contractor for the Yorkshire franchise since its successful bid back in 1967 - incidentally, one of the less-serious bids was from comedian Ken Dodd with his proposed channel, Diddy TV!! Up until 1974 the area covered was primarily the three Ridings of Yorkshire and associated areas served by the Emley Moor television transmitter, but  following a re-organisation in 1974, the transmission area was extended to include Humberside, Lincolnshire and parts of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and North and West Norfolk, served by the Belmont transmitter.

Rising Damp

Yorkshire Television's studios were erected on slum clearance land purchased from the council on Kirkstall Road. Construction started in early 1967 and by the middle of the following year Studios One and Two were equipped for transmission (Studios Three and Four were completed by early 1969).

The studio was officially opened by the Duchess of Kent on the 29th July 1968, and went on air on the same day. It was the first purpose-built colour television production centre in Europe and cost over £4 million to build and equip (the equivalent of approximately £50million today).

The Beiderbecke Trilogy

The company's yellow chevron logo and distinctive ident theme became familiar to many as the company produced a range of programmes from kids shows like Animal Kwackers, Junior Showtime and My Parents Are Aliens; through dramas like Flambards, Harry's Game, Heartbeat (and its spin-off The Royal), The Beiderbecke Trilogy and A Touch Of Frost; to the quiz shows such as 3-2-1 and Winner Takes All, and sitcoms like In Loving Memory, Duty Free, Only When I Laugh, Oh No! It's Selwyn Froggitt and probably ITV's finest-ever comedy - Rising Damp.  

In 1972 when the restrictions on daytime broadcasting were relaxed, it launched the soap opera Emmerdale Farm, which is still broadcast today (with the shorter title of Emmerdale).

The company invested heavily in outside broadcast facilities and was a large contributor to ITV Sport, responsible primarily for covering northern-based race meetings as well as the main football teams in the region - although accusations of a bias towards Leeds and West Yorkshire in general weren't helped in 1991, when extended highlights of Sheffield Wednesday's League Cup Final triumph over Manchester United was offered to all ITV regions yet Yorkshire decided in their wisdom to stick with the billed programme: War Of The Monster Trucks!!

Richard Whiteley

Its main news show, Calendar was a cornerstone of its schedules from day one, initially presented by Jonathan Aitken,  but soon to be dominated by the figure of Richard Whiteley, who from 1982 onwards combined the role with presenter of Countdown on Channel 4 - which was also recorded at Kirkstall Road. Whiteley was thus christened "Twice Nightly Whiteley" and was known to give a lascivious grin when asked as to whether the nickname was based purely on his TV work!

A series of reconstructions of the ITV network increasingly left Yorkshire TV at a loose end, no longer the powerhouse it once was, despite maintaining several regular productions.

In March 2009, ITV plc announced that the Leeds Studios were to be downsized in an effort to save costs following a reported loss of £2.7 billion for 2008. About 150 jobs will be lost. Popular shows like Heartbeat and The Royal will finish but the Calendar studios will remain open. However, effectively the studios have been mothballed as the other regular series produced by Yorkshire, the soap opera Emmerdale, has its own facilities separate from the main complex.