London Weekend Television is the British ITV television network franchise holder for London and the South East at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5:15pm (prior to 1982 at 7:00pm) to Monday mornings at 5:59am. London Weekend Television is now known on air as ITV1, and ITV1 London verbally in accordance with regional programming. The company is now managed with Carlton Television as a single entity, ITV London. The London Weekend licence continues to be held by London Weekend Television Ltd, part of ITV plc.
1968 - 1969
The very first London Weekend Television ident, accompanied by a charming robotic jingle.
1969
With the launch of colour transmissions, a new ident was ordered. It featured an oval disc revolving to reveal the London Weekend name, still in a very gentle manner.
1970 - 1978
In 1970, London Weekend introduced its famous river ident. The ribbon design is meant to represent the meander of the River Thames. The ident was very popular amongst viewers and was often affectionately spoofed by comedians.
1978 - 1986
London Weekend became the snappier LWT in 1978 but the much loved river ident remained in use, albeit with a different conclusion to accommodate the ‘T’ and a rerecording of the original soundtrack.
Launched in 1982, LWT’s first electronically generated ident was used alongside the river ident but only in the LWT region.
1986 - 1989
Despite its continuing popularity, the river ident was beginning to show its age and in 1986 it was consigned to the history books. In its place, 2 new idents were launched, labelled Genesis and Solari. In Genesis (top), the LWT logo would fade onto the white background whilst in Solari (bottom) the logo entered via a blinds effect.
1989 - 1992
LWT, along with most other ITV regions, decided to play ball and duly adopted the ITV '89 generic look. But it distinctly lacked the ‘weekend's here' feeling which past LWT idents had in abundance and was dropped at the earliest opportunity.
This is how the break-bumper looked. It was used from the launch of the ITV Generic look until 1994
1992 - 1994
LWT showed the ITV Network Centre how an ident should be done with its rip-roaring follow up to the lacklustre 1989 ident, launched in 1992. The striped logo takes centre stage with an awesome form up accompanied by a fantastic reworking of David Dundas’ ‘ITV Logo’ soundtrack used in the 1989 ident. It was an ID which truly announced that the weekend had arrived.
1996 - 1999
A few eyebrows were raised when LWT (now owned by the notorious GMG) modified its famous logo in 1996 but no-one seemed to mind when they saw the station’s new ident. A triumph for CGI animation, individual pieces of the new LWT logo blast into the air before coming together to form the famous franchise name. Once again, the action was complimented perfectly by a superb, punchy soundtrack.
1998
LWT turned 30 in 1998, and so to celebrate, they commisioned this special ident. Sadly, it would be the last anniversary celebrated by LWT, as you will discover later...
1999
Here we go again. The delayed second wave of generic ITV idents were adopted by LWT in November 1999 and were immediately derided by all, especially when they were compared to the excellent Carlton Heart idents of the time...
2000-2002
…But the blue Hearts didn’t last for long. After intense lobbying from announcers and viewers GMG backed down and allowed LWT to use a much more appropriate ident for weekend broadcasting, the red and blue LWT Videowall.
This is LWT... London Weekend Television
By 2001, Carlton and Granada owned all of the franchises in England and Wales, and in 2002 took the decision to unify the playout and branding of all of the companies to become ITV1, with regional references used only in accordance with regional programming. LWT marked its final day on air with a series of tributes to LWT's past, beginning with an authentic startup routine leading into the ITV Morning News.
All elements of the startup were recreated in Macromedia Flash and in the 16:9 aspect ratio. Later that day, a recreation of LWT's famous River ident would lead into The South Bank Show, which would be the last programme broadcast under the LWT name. The show was followed by a final signoff featuring continuity announcers Glen Thompsett and Trish Bertram appearing 'in-vision' to toast the departing station, and a celebratory montage of LWT presentation across the years, assembled by senior ITV presentation producer Gareth Randall.
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