Thames Television - Closing Ceremony

Closing Ceremony

Carlton Television were the London franchise winners and took over from Thames at 12 midnight on the night of the 31st December 1992, Thames final programme as a broadcaster a compilation of highlights from the station's output entitled The End of the Year Show – aired in most ITV regions of the with Television South being the main exception, since they had their own farewell show's Goodbye to All That. The programme ended with a clip from a 1978 Morecambe & Wise special as the closing credits played. After the closing credits came a congratulatory message:

Thames Television wishes to thank not only all the artistes who appeared in this programme, but also all those who participated in its first 25-years.

After the programme, Thames signed off with a farewell announcement by chief executive Richard Dunn:

Having saluted our talented artists, I would like, if I may on your behalf, to thank all of those thousands of men and women who have worked so creatively behind the cameras to bring you the best television we could and we would like to thank you, our viewers. It has been a privilege to serve you. And for now, from all of us, at Thames, past and present, we wish all of you, a Happy New Year.

Following the announcement, a long montage of Thames' very best programmes through an edited-for-time version of The Tourists' cover of "I Only Want to Be with You" with of montage, variants of which were also aired in the last days of the station's broadcasts, comprised clips of notable Thames programmes, and included short segments of some of the station's previous idents and ended with a modified version of the ident used at the time and an announcer reading the tagline to shown mostly on Thames final week:

THAMES, A Talent For Television.

Final programmes of the Independent Television News (ITN) broadcast a special report with Dermot Murnaghan entitled Into The New Year at 12 midnight when the chimes of Big Ben first struck, transmissions switched from Thames' headquarters in Euston Road in London to the London News Network playout centre on the South Bank at the end of the bulletin until transmission was switched to Carlton Television.

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