ATV Productions

Background

This is the production arm of Associated Television.

Contents

1st Logo (October 1955-1970)	2nd Logo (February 17, 1956-1959)	3rd Logo (November 1969-December 31, 1981)

1st Logo (October 1955-1970)

Logo: We see the 1955 ATV logo with the text "An" and "Production" above and underneath it respectively.

Variants:

A variant has "PRODUCTION", replaced with "TELERECORDING".
An early variant used from 1958-1960 had the logo arranged alongside a "Z" made from several dots, with "PRESENTS" or "Production" at the other end. "An" can be seen with "Production" as well.
From 1960-1962, it had the logo without any letters, but with "An" in the top space, "ATV" in the middle, and either "Production" or "Outside Broadcast". This was either on a black background or in-credit.
On Johnnie Ray Sings and a June 18, 2023 airing of The Larkins episode "Home Win" on Talking Pictures TV, all of the letters are inside the middle eye. Likewise, the closing to said programme has "An" and "Production" in the top and bottom spaces respectively.
On a 1963 Beatles performance, the following credit was added underneath:

by arrangement with
BERNARD DELFONT

On Noddy and the Moon, the words "MADE FOR" in a Dom Casual font appears above the logo. A copyright stamp reading "©COPYRIGHT MCMLV ASSOCIATED TELEVISION LTD." is shown underneath.
On George and the Dragon, the logo is inverted.
On A Tale of Two Streets, "PATHFIDER" was added above "PRODUCTION".
On Twelfth Night, the background is brown and the logo is gold.
On The London Palladium Show, "A" was omitted and the logo is gold.
On a 2007 print of This is Tom Jones, the copyright notice reading "(C) 2007 Tidy TV, LLC All Rights Reserved" appears below.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the programme.

Availability: Ultra rare, as many ITV programmes were destroyed, lost, or generally hard to find on home media.

It can be found on The Golden Shot (a late 90's print kept this logo), The London Palladium Show, A Tale of Two Streets, among many other ATV original programmes.
Some of them can be found through archival sites or BFI Player.
The 1960 variant can be seen on The Last Night of the Crazy Gang albeit the Outside Broadcast variant.
It also appears on a May 7, 2023 UK airing of The Larkins episode "Strictly Commercial" on Talking Pictures TV as well.

2nd Logo (February 17, 1956-1959)

Logo: A still version of the 1956 schedule ident where "PRODUCTION" replaces "PRESENTS" and "An" is placed above "A".

Variant: A telerecording variant exists; not only is "PRODUCTION" replaced with "TELERECORDING", but "AN" was moved over to the left-most bar and the ATV logo was shifted downward.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the programme.

Availability: Ultra rare. It was presumed extinct until very recently.

Appears on The Johnnie Ray Show and Should Every Picture Tell a Story?, respectively.
The telerecording variant was seen on the former.
The "PRODUCTION" variant was also recently discovered at the end of an April 30, 2023 UK airing of The Larkins episode "Ale and Farewell" on Talking Pictures TV.

3rd Logo (November 1969-December 31, 1981)

Logo: The 1969 ATV logo is within a white rectangle. Underneath it is the stacked text "COLOUR PRODUCTION"

Variants:

An in-credit version exists, showing the logo in custom colours.
- On Supercar, "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" and the full company name is shown above and below the logo.
On Outside Broadcast programmes, "COLOUR PRODUCTION" is replaced with with "OUTSIDE BROADCAST".
Sometimes, the logo is on a black background.
Starting from 1975, the logo has a copyright date added below and it, alongside the copyright stamp, became gold.
On Tiswas, the endcap replaces "COLOUR" with "TISWAS" in a different colour. The colour palette is also somewhat randomised from time to time, even having a variant shifting from blue to pink barring the green text.
- Another variant where the logo is white on a red background also exists.
On Crossroads episodes from 1984 and 1986, the endcap is in black and white, this is due to the fact that both episodes were originally broadcast in colour, but the videotapes that they were stored on were wiped by ATV shortly after broadcast, and those shows only survived via 16mm telerecordings.

Technique: For the most part, none. One of the Tiswas variants has the logo changing colours.

Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the programme or none.

Availability: Rare.

Can be seen on any British programmes produced by ATV during this time.
A good source on which to find this on home video is the 1981 Magnetic Video of the Rudolf Nureyev version of Giselle.
It can also be found on the DVD releases of Crossroads released by Network DVD.
It also appears at the end of Challenge airings of the 1981 series of Bullseye, which is then followed by the 1999 Carlton International logo.
The in-credit variant can be also found on the Kaye Ballard episode of The Muppet Show on Disney+, and surprisingly, disc one and Peter Ustinov episode on German DVD releases of The Muppet Show, despite all of the ATV and ITC logos from both UK and US versions being wiped and cut by Disney. The former was likely the result of the episode featuring a unique ending which did not facilitate the typical edit of replacing the final shot of Zoot playing his saxophone.

ATV Productions

Central Productions

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