Howard Thomas
Encyclopedia
Howard Thomas CBE
(c.1909—6 November 1986) was a Welsh
-born British
radio producer
and television
executive.
. While doing that job, he taught himself to write newspaper articles and short plays. When some of these articles were published, he managed to get a job in the firm's advertising department. That job enabled Thomas to mix with advertising agents and through networking he obtained a position with F John Roe, one of Manchester's advertising agencies.
He moved to the London
agency F C Prichard Wood and Partners, and he continued to write articles, having a London entertainment column in the Manchester Evening Chronicle. This column was spotted by the London Press Exchange and he was hired by them as a copywriter.
commercial packages for companies including Cadbury's
. These packages, usually of music or variety acts interspersed with subtle commercials for the sponsor, were then placed on Radio Luxembourg
and similar longwave
broadcasters who could be heard in the UK.
In this position he came to the attention of the BBC
, and he began to submit scripts and programme ideas to them while continuing to work for the international commercial broadcasters. However, at the outbreak of World War II
, the commercial broadcasters closed and the advertising market contracted. Thomas kept his post at London Press Exchange, but effectively had no work to do. He attempted to fill time by writing books about the blackout and writing more articles for newspapers, and also worked for Publicity Films Limited producing
public information film
s.
and National Programme
stations and replaced them with a single national station, the Home Service
(now BBC Radio 4
).
This move was criticised as it led to boredom amongst the listeners during the Phony War
, who were also faced with cinemas and sporting events being closed "for the duration" and the loss of the competition to the BBC.
As the Phony War ended, the BBC decided to introduce an entertainment-based national radio station, primarily for the men under arms. The new service, the Forces Programme
hired many new producers from the former commercial agencies, including Howard Thomas.
and barrage balloon
emplacements. Both jobs featured very little action and therefore the BBC felt that 'lively' entertainment had to be provided for the crews.
Under Thomas, the programme developed into a miscellany of variety, talk, music and comedy, using whatever talent was available near the evacuated Variety Department's studios in Bristol
. On occasion this was no talent at all, and Thomas later told of an edition made up of him and his co-producer playing "Shove ha'penny
", which had the side effect of reintroducing the game to the population.
, the Variety Department moved to Bangor
in north Wales. However, feeling that opportunities for variety
would be limited there, Thomas engineered a move back to London.
In London he spotted singer Vera Lynn
in a stage show. He created a radio programme for her called Sincerely Yours, Vera Lynn where she sang popular tunes of the time, read out letters from servicemen and introduced entertainers.
The show was a hit, both with the forces and the country at large, although the senior officers of both the British Army
and the Royal Navy
strongly objected to the sentimental and "soppy" music and presentation. Nevertheless, the show helped turn the song "We'll Meet Again
" into one of the best selling pieces of music throughout the war. The show also cemented Vera Lynn's title of "forces' sweetheart" and ensured that she would remain, as of 2006, something akin to a national treasure in the UK.
To assuage critics of Sincerely Yours, Thomas introduced the programme I Am John Bull, featuring military marches and "strong" music. The programme was not successful.
Howard Thomas began a programme named Shipmates Ashore aimed at this audience. The programme was set in a Merchant Navy club and quickly became an effectively real club, with free beer and "companionship" for visiting merchant seamen. The show featured a mixture of music, singing, comedy and information (in the form of a "ship's newspaper") as well as providing a platform for discussion of issues of interest to the sailors. The programme was presented by Doris Hare
.
, The Brains Trust
was a simple mixture of light panel game
entertainment and heavier discussion of items of scientific, legal, medical and social importance. At that time, there was much discussion in the UK about the shape of the world and the country after the war, which reached its peak with the Beveridge
Report and the 1945 landslide election
of Attlee's
Labour
government.
The programme featured Professor Cyril E. M. Joad
, previously rejected for radio for his strange speaking voice; the writer and zoologist Julian Huxley
; and the loud and entertaining Archibald Bruce Campbell. The programme first aired under the title Any Questions? and drew a small audience and few questions. However, within a few weeks it had caught the zeitgeist of the nation, gaining an audience of 11½million. The series was extended from a run of 12 episodes into an open-ended series that ran into the 1950s.
However, the popularity of the programme, dealing as it did with matters of controversy and politics, caused complaints of left-wing
bias from within the BBC and from commentators outside. The BBC attempted to modify the format of the programme to avoid this but also sought to avoid damaging the shows popularity. With military criticism of Sincerely Yours, general complaints about the bawdy humour in Shipmates Ashore and political criticism of The Brains Trust, the BBC sought a scapegoat and pressured Howard Thomas to leave. In 1944, he resigned.
as head of British Pathé
, the newsreel
and film company.
Thomas relaunched the ailing Pathé Gazette as Pathé News, began hiring new camera operators and pioneered the switch to colour film
. He also arranged for the Pathé archives, then of little or no intrinsic value to the company, to be indexed and properly preserved for future use.
audiences. Frustrated at his inability to convince the Associated British Picture Corporation
that it should either expand into production of popular feature film
s or bid for one of the new commercial broadcasting licences offered under the Television Act 1954
by the Independent Television Authority
(ITA), Howard Thomas began to look for roles in the new ITV
companies that were being started.
He was offered the job of General Manager of Kemsley-Winnick Television, the new weekend contractor for the midlands and north of England
. However, before he could take up the job, Lord Kemsley pulled out of the company and the contract lapsed.
The ITA made a last-ditch attempt to get the Associated British Picture Corporation involved in commercial television as a replacement for Kemsley-Winnick. The board of the company was finally convinced to try, and signed a contract with the ITA on 21 September 1955 to form Associated British Cinemas (Television) Limited
to take over the contract.
Howard Thomas was appointed as managing director of the company and hired Sydney Newman
and Brian Tesler as his controllers of drama and light entertainment respectively.
), the previous weekend splits in the three central regions of London, the midlands and the north of England would be altered. The London split would change to Friday evenings (rather than the self-contained weekend it had previously been) and the midlands and the north would be redivided into three whole-week regions. ABC's contract area would therefore cease to exist.
Howard Thomas had planned for ABC Television to apply for the extended London weekends contract (with an application for the Midlands seven-day contract as a stand-by). However, the appearance of a consortium of major figures from the BBC and Rediffusion
under the leadership of David Frost
made this difficult. The London Television Consortium (later London Weekend Television
) won the contract, and the ITA was left with no place for ABC.
The ITA's solution was to ask ABC and Rediffusion to merge to form a new company. They specified that ABC would have a slim majority of the shares, and that the managing director would be Howard Thomas. In practice, the merger proved impossible due to outside interests held by both parent companies. Instead, the parent companies formed a joint company called Thames Television Holdings Limited
(trading as Thames Television), which took over the staff of ABC in Teddington
and a minority of staff from Rediffusion. Management and on-screen talent was mainly provided by ABC.
Thames retained the London weekdays licence until 31 December 1992.
When Howard Thomas reached this age, Thames Television Holdings (the company that held the shares in Thames formerly held by the now-defunct Associated British Picture Corporation) promoted him from Thames Television to become chairman of Thames Television International - then a subsidiary of Thames but previously known as EMI Films
and, before that, the remains of the former ABC owner Associated British Picture Corporation.
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in 1967.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(c.1909—6 November 1986) was a Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
-born British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
radio producer
Radio producer
A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. There are two main types of producer. An audio or creative producer and a content producer. Audio producers create sounds and audio specifically, content producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
executive.
Early career
Thomas began his career typing invoices for a firm of wire-drawers in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. While doing that job, he taught himself to write newspaper articles and short plays. When some of these articles were published, he managed to get a job in the firm's advertising department. That job enabled Thomas to mix with advertising agents and through networking he obtained a position with F John Roe, one of Manchester's advertising agencies.
He moved to the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
agency F C Prichard Wood and Partners, and he continued to write articles, having a London entertainment column in the Manchester Evening Chronicle. This column was spotted by the London Press Exchange and he was hired by them as a copywriter.
Commercial radio
At London Press Exchange, Thomas worked in the commercial radio section, at first writing, then producingRadio producer
A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. There are two main types of producer. An audio or creative producer and a content producer. Audio producers create sounds and audio specifically, content producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature...
commercial packages for companies including Cadbury's
Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury is a confectionery company owned by Kraft Foods and is the industry's second-largest globally after Mars, Incorporated. Headquartered in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom, the company operates in more than 50 countries worldwide....
. These packages, usually of music or variety acts interspersed with subtle commercials for the sponsor, were then placed on Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
and similar longwave
Longwave
In radio, longwave refers to parts of radio spectrum with relatively long wavelengths. The term is a historic one dating from the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered to consist of long, medium and short wavelengths...
broadcasters who could be heard in the UK.
In this position he came to the attention of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, and he began to submit scripts and programme ideas to them while continuing to work for the international commercial broadcasters. However, at the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the commercial broadcasters closed and the advertising market contracted. Thomas kept his post at London Press Exchange, but effectively had no work to do. He attempted to fill time by writing books about the blackout and writing more articles for newspapers, and also worked for Publicity Films Limited producing
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
public information film
Public information film
Public Information Films are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the UK. The US equivalent is the Public Service Announcement .-Subjects:...
s.
BBC radio
On the outbreak of war, the BBC had closed its existing two Regional ProgrammeBBC Regional Programme
The BBC Regional Programme was a UK radio network which operated from the end of the 1920s until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.-Foundation:...
and National Programme
BBC National Programme
The BBC National Programme was a BBC radio station from the 1920s until the outbreak of World War II.-Foundation:When the BBC first began transmissions on 14 November 1922, the technology for both national coverage and joint programming between transmitters did not exist – transmitter powers were...
stations and replaced them with a single national station, the Home Service
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
(now BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
).
This move was criticised as it led to boredom amongst the listeners during the Phony War
Phony War
The Phoney War was a phase early in World War II – in the months following Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940 – that was marked by a lack of major military operations by the Western Allies against the German Reich...
, who were also faced with cinemas and sporting events being closed "for the duration" and the loss of the competition to the BBC.
As the Phony War ended, the BBC decided to introduce an entertainment-based national radio station, primarily for the men under arms. The new service, the Forces Programme
BBC Forces Programme
The BBC Forces Programme was a BBC radio station which operated from 7 January 1940 until 26 February 1944.-Foundation:Upon the outbreak of World War II, the BBC closed the existing BBC National Programme and BBC Regional Programme, combining the two to form a single channel known as the BBC Home...
hired many new producers from the former commercial agencies, including Howard Thomas.
Ack Ack Beer Beer
Thomas's first assignment was to produce the programme Ack Ack Beer Beer, an entertainment and variety programme for anti-aircraftAnti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
and barrage balloon
Barrage balloon
A barrage balloon is a large balloon tethered with metal cables, used to defend against low-level aircraft attack by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker's approach more difficult. Some versions carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up...
emplacements. Both jobs featured very little action and therefore the BBC felt that 'lively' entertainment had to be provided for the crews.
Under Thomas, the programme developed into a miscellany of variety, talk, music and comedy, using whatever talent was available near the evacuated Variety Department's studios in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. On occasion this was no talent at all, and Thomas later told of an edition made up of him and his co-producer playing "Shove ha'penny
Shove ha'penny
Shove ha'penny , also known in ancestral form as shoffe-grote ['shove-groat' in Modern English], slype groat ['slip groat'], and slide-thrift, is a pub game in the shuffleboard family, played predominantly in the United Kingdom...
", which had the side effect of reintroducing the game to the population.
Sincerely Yours, Vera Lynn
With Bristol now a victim of the BlitzThe Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, the Variety Department moved to Bangor
Bangor, Wales
Bangor is a city in Gwynedd, north west Wales, and one of the smallest cities in Britain. It is a university city with a population of 13,725 at the 2001 census, not including around 10,000 students at Bangor University. Including nearby Menai Bridge on Anglesey, which does not however form part of...
in north Wales. However, feeling that opportunities for variety
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
would be limited there, Thomas engineered a move back to London.
In London he spotted singer Vera Lynn
Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Lynn, DBE is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops...
in a stage show. He created a radio programme for her called Sincerely Yours, Vera Lynn where she sang popular tunes of the time, read out letters from servicemen and introduced entertainers.
The show was a hit, both with the forces and the country at large, although the senior officers of both the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
strongly objected to the sentimental and "soppy" music and presentation. Nevertheless, the show helped turn the song "We'll Meet Again
We'll Meet Again (song)
"We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song made famous by British singer Vera Lynn with music and lyrics written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles ....
" into one of the best selling pieces of music throughout the war. The show also cemented Vera Lynn's title of "forces' sweetheart" and ensured that she would remain, as of 2006, something akin to a national treasure in the UK.
To assuage critics of Sincerely Yours, Thomas introduced the programme I Am John Bull, featuring military marches and "strong" music. The programme was not successful.
Shipmates Ashore
The BBC Forces Programme provided distinct programming for each of the armed services. However, the Merchant Navy, not being classed as an armed service and under the patronage of the Ministry of Labour, was not included.Howard Thomas began a programme named Shipmates Ashore aimed at this audience. The programme was set in a Merchant Navy club and quickly became an effectively real club, with free beer and "companionship" for visiting merchant seamen. The show featured a mixture of music, singing, comedy and information (in the form of a "ship's newspaper") as well as providing a platform for discussion of issues of interest to the sailors. The programme was presented by Doris Hare
Doris Hare
Doris Hare MBE was a Welsh actress, best known for her appearances as "Mum" in the popular sitcom On the Buses alongside Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis....
.
The Brains Trust
As conceived by Howard Thomas and Douglas CleverdonDouglas Cleverdon
Douglas James Cleverdon was an English bookseller and radio producer, in both fields associated with numerous leading cultural figures in the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
, The Brains Trust
The Brains Trust
The Brains Trust was a popular informational BBC radio and later television programme in the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 50s.- History :...
was a simple mixture of light panel game
Panel game
A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait.....
entertainment and heavier discussion of items of scientific, legal, medical and social importance. At that time, there was much discussion in the UK about the shape of the world and the country after the war, which reached its peak with the Beveridge
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge KCB was a British economist and social reformer. He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945.Lord...
Report and the 1945 landslide election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
of Attlee's
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government.
The programme featured Professor Cyril E. M. Joad
C. E. M. Joad
Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad was an English philosopher and broadcasting personality. He is most famous for his appearance on The Brains Trust, an extremely popular BBC Radio wartime discussion programme...
, previously rejected for radio for his strange speaking voice; the writer and zoologist Julian Huxley
Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
; and the loud and entertaining Archibald Bruce Campbell. The programme first aired under the title Any Questions? and drew a small audience and few questions. However, within a few weeks it had caught the zeitgeist of the nation, gaining an audience of 11½million. The series was extended from a run of 12 episodes into an open-ended series that ran into the 1950s.
However, the popularity of the programme, dealing as it did with matters of controversy and politics, caused complaints of left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
bias from within the BBC and from commentators outside. The BBC attempted to modify the format of the programme to avoid this but also sought to avoid damaging the shows popularity. With military criticism of Sincerely Yours, general complaints about the bawdy humour in Shipmates Ashore and political criticism of The Brains Trust, the BBC sought a scapegoat and pressured Howard Thomas to leave. In 1944, he resigned.
British Pathé
On leaving the BBC, Howard Thomas joined the Associated British Picture CorporationAssociated British Picture Corporation
Associated British Picture Corporation , originally British International Pictures , was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970...
as head of British Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
, the newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
and film company.
Thomas relaunched the ailing Pathé Gazette as Pathé News, began hiring new camera operators and pioneered the switch to colour film
Color photography
Color photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors, which are traditionally produced chemically during the photographic processing phase...
. He also arranged for the Pathé archives, then of little or no intrinsic value to the company, to be indexed and properly preserved for future use.
ABC-TV
By the 1950s, it was becoming clear that television was eroding the size of cinemaMovie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
audiences. Frustrated at his inability to convince the Associated British Picture Corporation
Associated British Picture Corporation
Associated British Picture Corporation , originally British International Pictures , was a British film production, distribution and exhibition company active from 1927 until 1970...
that it should either expand into production of popular feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s or bid for one of the new commercial broadcasting licences offered under the Television Act 1954
Television Act 1954
The Television Act 1954 was a British law which permitted the creation of the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom, ITV....
by the Independent Television Authority
Independent Television Authority
The Independent Television Authority was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" , the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom...
(ITA), Howard Thomas began to look for roles in the new ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
companies that were being started.
He was offered the job of General Manager of Kemsley-Winnick Television, the new weekend contractor for the midlands and north of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. However, before he could take up the job, Lord Kemsley pulled out of the company and the contract lapsed.
The ITA made a last-ditch attempt to get the Associated British Picture Corporation involved in commercial television as a replacement for Kemsley-Winnick. The board of the company was finally convinced to try, and signed a contract with the ITA on 21 September 1955 to form Associated British Cinemas (Television) Limited
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
to take over the contract.
Howard Thomas was appointed as managing director of the company and hired Sydney Newman
Sydney Newman
Sydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s...
and Brian Tesler as his controllers of drama and light entertainment respectively.
Thames Television
In 1966, the ITA announced that the pattern of broadcasting for Independent Television was to change from 1968. All contractors would be required to reapply for their contracts, and, though there would be one more contract available than before (for YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
), the previous weekend splits in the three central regions of London, the midlands and the north of England would be altered. The London split would change to Friday evenings (rather than the self-contained weekend it had previously been) and the midlands and the north would be redivided into three whole-week regions. ABC's contract area would therefore cease to exist.
Howard Thomas had planned for ABC Television to apply for the extended London weekends contract (with an application for the Midlands seven-day contract as a stand-by). However, the appearance of a consortium of major figures from the BBC and Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion, London, was the British ITV contractor for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 1954 and 29 July 1968. Transmissions started on 22 September 1955.-Formation:...
under the leadership of David Frost
David Frost (broadcaster)
Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE is a British journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and daytime TV game show host best known for his two decades as host of Through the Keyhole and serious interviews with various political figures, the most notable being Richard Nixon...
made this difficult. The London Television Consortium (later London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
) won the contract, and the ITA was left with no place for ABC.
The ITA's solution was to ask ABC and Rediffusion to merge to form a new company. They specified that ABC would have a slim majority of the shares, and that the managing director would be Howard Thomas. In practice, the merger proved impossible due to outside interests held by both parent companies. Instead, the parent companies formed a joint company called Thames Television Holdings Limited
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
(trading as Thames Television), which took over the staff of ABC in Teddington
Teddington
Teddington is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park...
and a minority of staff from Rediffusion. Management and on-screen talent was mainly provided by ABC.
Thames retained the London weekdays licence until 31 December 1992.
Retirement
The Independent Broadcasting Authority set a limit on the age of managing directors of ITV companies, specifying that they retire at the age of 75.When Howard Thomas reached this age, Thames Television Holdings (the company that held the shares in Thames formerly held by the now-defunct Associated British Picture Corporation) promoted him from Thames Television to become chairman of Thames Television International - then a subsidiary of Thames but previously known as EMI Films
EMI Films
EMI Films was a British film and television production company and distributor. The company was formed after the takeover of Associated British Picture Corporation in 1968 by EMI....
and, before that, the remains of the former ABC owner Associated British Picture Corporation.
Family
Howard Thomas married Hilda in 1934 and they had two daughters, Rosemary and Carol.He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in 1967.