Weird old title sequences: ITC shows (1950s)

5 April 2012 Rob Buckley Classic TV, UK TV, Weird old title sequences 1 Comment

ITC – Lew Grade’s production company – dominated ITV schedules for the best part of two decades. Starting out in the 1950s, it wasn’t until the late 70s that ITC eventually closed its production business.

To list every single ITC show would take forever (or a quick link to Wikipedia and even that’s incomplete), so instead, I thought I’d give you a few of the best title sequences from the best shows that ITC came up with in the 1950s, including the iconic The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (with William Russell from Doctor Who), The Buccaneers with Robert Shaw, Ivanhoe with Sir Roger Moore and The Invisible Man with… well, they never gave his name…

Now, in a lot of cases, ‘best’ ain’t saying much. They’re all of a muchness, quite brief and don’t have proper themes (since in most cases those used to run over the end credits). You’ll have to wait until I hit the 1960s before they start to get good. But they’re a little bit of history and just watching a sponsors logo will give you an idea of how much TV has changed in 60 years.

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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