2 - Birth of TSW
The Birth of TSW By the time that its judgement day had arrived, Westward’s relationship with its regulators had broken down irreversibly. The IBA sprung no surprises when it announced that the franchise for the South West region had been taken away from Westward. The only surprise was that it had been granted to Television South West, the rookie of the two pretenders. West Country Television (not to be confused with the similarly named winning contractor in 1991) had been the favourite to be Westward’s replacement, but in granting the licence, the IBA has taken a chance to inject a breath of fresh air into the south-west.
Television South West (or TSW for short) was a newly created company set up by programme-maker Kevin Goldstein-Jackson. At only thirty-three, Jackson was one of the youngest managing directors within ITV. Despite his youth, Jackson had put together an extremely strong and mature application for the region.
Kevin Jackson was undoubtedly an eccentric. The addition of Goldstein to his name came as an indication of his solidarity with Israel. His rise to prominence was despite a fairly lacklustre childhood. His education consisted of attending a secondary modern school in Buckinghamshire, after missing out on the change to go to a grammar school. Branded a failure by the Headmaster of the school, he nevertheless managed to get accepted into Reading University, where he earned a degree in Philosophy and Sociology. Proving his early mentors wrong again, he successfully gained a M.Phil. Degree in Law at Southampton University.
Awards for journalism follow in the early seventies, as Jackson provides articles for a wide range of publications. This was to be augmented by the production of around a dozen books by the late seventies. His first break into television casts him in the role of assistant producer for the Hong Kong television company, HK TVB. This is followed by a jump up the ladder to a position as Head of Film for the Dhofar Region Television service in Oman. This rapid rise eventually led Jackson back to England, and he settled into a role as an assistant to the Head of Drama at the Norwich-based ITV company, Anglia. He married Jenny Mei Leng, the daughter of a Malaysian diplomat, and fathered a daughter, Jenkev (an amalgam of Jenny and Kevin), on the way.
In terms of image, Goldstein-Jackson appears the very last person you would cast as the head of a television company. On his first appearance to Westward’s London headquarters, Harry Turner, later to replace Jackson as MD of the company, recalls that the receptionist at the time was vary about sending the newcomer up, as she thought he looked more like a window cleaner. Turner’s description of the new boss as “like an unpressed bag of laundry” appears to cast Jackson as a kind of new-age Columbo, short and crumpled, never without a Tesco’s carrier bag to carry his files around, and a perpetual sporter of loose and baggy clothing.
Despite this unconventional look, Jackson was brilliantly clever. Turner summed him up as “a wildly unpredictable but outstandingly clever scruff with tiny feet”. Although TSW was founded by Jackson along with Jonathan Harvey, an artist who later became an arts consultant for the company, it was Jackson’s drive, ambition and most of all, vision, that won TSW the franchise for the South West. From explaining his ideas to the IBA, to ensuring money was available and the correct personnel were hired, Jackson was involved in it all. The fact that TSW won the franchise, over the heads of the incumbent and a very strong, more traditional application, is tribute to the enthusiasm and determination of Kevin Goldstein-Jackson.
The IBA was well known for its tendency to shy away from controversial ‘characters’. Even so, it could not dispute the quality and bold vision of Jackson's application. In any case, the alternative would be to reinstall Westward as the holder. This would have been an impossible situation for the IBA. The result was TSW's appointment to the role of regional ITV contractor for the South-West. Kevin Goldstein-Jackson’s intention was to create an innovative, but inherently local service as a replacement for Westward.
TSW unofficially took over Westward at the end of August 1981, but maintained both the identity and style of Westward until the official takeover on New Year’s Day, 1982. One of Westward’s most popular presenters, Ian Stirling, presented one of the first handovers at 9:25am that morning, bedecked in a new light-grey sweatshirt labelled with the company’s new logo.
The logo had been created from an amalgam of designs that had come from a competition that Westward (already controlled by TSW) ran in the autumn of 1981. It consisted of three layered sets of two green semi-circles positioned at 135 degree angles from each other. The green circles were meant to represent the lush green hills and moors for which the area was most known. The station ident showed the logo bursting out from two drops of blue water representing the vast expanse of coastline surrounding the south-west. However, the logo attracted many nicknames reflecting on the green semi-circles, chiefly Kermit’s Bras (after the green frog puppet of ATV’s then popular show, The Muppet Show).
The new company did not have an easy induction. Its fragile start was compounded by a truly awful opening night party, which was broadcast live across the region. The hour-long studio-based show was hosted by comedian Lennie Bennett and featured some of the strangest dance sequences ever seen. Indeed, scenes of a dancer skidding into a waiting camera graced Denis Norden’s Alright on the Night series. It also suffered, as did Westcountry after it, from the immense goodwill that Westward had gathered during its tenure.
Westward Diary, Westward’s teatime news programme had been the mainstay of the company’s output. TSW’s replacement, Today South West, attempted to introduce a little modernity into the format. While it kept the wisdom and experience of Westward Diary’s anchorman, Kenneth McCleoud, it also added a second anchor in the form of a young woman, Kerry Swain, who looked young enough to be Ken’s granddaughter. The partnership appeared uneasy from the start, and, within the first month, the new female presenter had left the programme, leaving Kenneth McLeoud solely in charge again.
TSW learnt quickly from its mistakes, however. By carrying forward some of Westward’s most popular presenters and by adding some of its own such as Merryn Howe, the station soon became a central part of westcountry life. The company had realised the strong loyalty factor that its predecessor had drawn from its audience, and, as a result, had taken on virtually all of Westward’s staff.
Like Westward, TSW built its success on a number of slightly eccentric characters. Each of these was afforded extensive exposure, particularly during continuity slots. These slots were given special emphasis, providing an ideal opportunity for individual characters to shine.
The unique spirit of Westward lived on, not only through the re-employment of these westcountry eccentrics, but also with the presence of Gus Honeybun. Gus was a rabbit puppet with an attitude. Gus’s job was to present the region's thrice-daily birthday show for children. In retrospect, the puppet's only purposes in life seemed to be to jump up and down in response to children’s birthday cards and to provide a foil for the human presenters. This became a further way of promoting the station’s young stars, giving them their chance to become part of westcountry life. To survive Gus Honeybun’s Magic Birthdays was to pass your initiation rites as a presenter. Gus became a cult figure, gaining nation-wide status due to the area’s strong tourist industry. Often parents who were on holiday in the area would send in their requests for Gus.
Some of the local presenters appeared to relish this informal time sitting beside a stuffed animal. Judi Spiers was the first of a long line of presenters to start ridiculing and hitting the rabbit. The strength of feeling towards the inanimate carrot-wielding soft-toy was such that many local parents called in to protest at the violence that was being inflicted on the animal. Nothing could beat, however, the sight of Judi Spiers having to deal with that rabbit and Ian Stirling or David Rogers hidden in front of her desk lobbing stuffed vegetables and balloons around. In later years the scene was repeated when the new generation of presenters, Sally Meen (later to co-host the BBC’s Generation Game and, ironically, Carlton’s Food Channel), Ruth Langsford (the Really Useful Show and This Morning) and David Fitzgerald(Sky News and Radio Devon) would regularly appear to literally knock the stuffing out of the puppet. Not all of TSW’s announcers enjoyed the rabbit however. Veteran presenter, Roger Shaw, apparently despised the spot. Not that it ever showed.
Relating with the community in this way gave TSW its unique place in regional broadcasting history. Its replacement, Westcountry Television, was extremely slow to pick up on this simple fact. It took on less than half a dozen TSW staff members, and failed to employ Gus Honeybun, replacing him with a dreary straight-to-camera programme called Birthday People. The criticism it received as a result was unmatched by any other ITV company.
Kevin Goldstein-Jackson soon became bored with the managing director’s role, and left the company in 1985 at the age of 36. Although Jackson had successfully set up Television South West, he had never inspired his staff in the way his successor, and predecessor, had done. His personality made him Harry Turner, TSW's Director of Sales, suggested that “Kev is to personal magnetism what Margaret Thatcher is to nude roller-skating”. It was Turner that replaced him, and continued to concentrate on the station’s strong regional success.
It was soon clear that Turner was one of the old guard of television moguls - a Lew Grade of the South West. He had joined Westward as a junior sales executive in 1962, and progressed to Sales Director nine years later. TSW employed him in the same capacity when Westward collapsed shortly before the 1982 franchise round. Staggeringly erudite from his 28 years as a salesman, Harry appeared to know everyone in the business. Although his views were not always popular, most people found it difficult not to like this larger-than-life character. To some it appeared that Turner ran the company for personal recreation, but to Harry, running the station had to be fun to be worth doing. He often complained about the new style of television chief, of which he found the prime ITV example to be Leslie Hill of Central Television. Both men maintained long-running battles throughout the eighties. Turner regularly complained that the ‘grey suits’, accountants with no background in television or sales, such as Hill, were in danger of taking over control of ITV. Turner could be quite a visionary.
TSW broke with tradition with an attempt to enter into mainstream networked television with Where There’s A Will, a crime based drama starring Patrick McNee. This set the company back around half a million pounds, and was something of which Turner was immensely proud. Unfortunately, the ITV cartel did not see it that way, and declined to add it to the network schedules. After two years of heckling by Turner, the ITV schedulers gave way and gave it a network premier. As a network slot had not been specified however, many regions failed to show it until late at night. TSW had to write off the cost of the pilot, and in the future avoided trying to break into the network fraternity.
As the company approached the end of its first decade, the board of TSW could justifiably be proud of its success. It was handicapped by being the fourth smallest region with an advertising reach of less than 2 million people and around 0.7 million households. Despite this, it was a profitable one, able to please both advertiser and viewer. It had also not been reckless with its profits. This was in marked contrast to many other ITV companies, including its predecessor, Westward, who had tasted disaster with its Air Westward venture. The company even boasted a strong audience reach. TSW was a success story but could it survive the changes that were approaching in the industry?