ITV's censoring of the show

[Martin2013]

If anyone is able to answer I'd be interested to find out, did ITV censor the show purely because the content was deemed unsuitable for the slot the programme was shown in or was some of it done as a means of saving time?

Have heard tales of ITV editing storylines in H&A but at the same time leaving intact similar storylines in other ITV shows or even other CITV shows. 

Were there many examples of this happening?

 

 

[nenehcherry2]

I read somewhere once that the censoring upped a gear from Jan 93 when Carlton took over the London weekday licence from Thames (the previous UK rights owner). And, by ITV Network Centre rules, became the regional franchisee responsible for compliance of all networked shows NOT produced by any of the ITV regions. Apparently, there were only ever five scenes removed prior to episode 1003 (when that change happened).

My friend has confirmed that Carlton were fussier about timings of shows going out then Thames were, so it's highly likely a lot of the cuts were excuses to simply make more revenue. Don't forget, this coincided with the time that all the ITV regions started to merge and acquire gradually into one company with Carlton very much leading that process.

To be fair, there was very little to edit in the 93-mid 95 (UK pace) period since the show was pretty tame in those years. But the later 95-00 period was far racier with gun sieges, arson attacks, train deaths etc, so Carlton (ITV PLC was pretty much almost there by that point) could justify using content as an excuse in those latter years. By 2000, some episodes were getting as short as 15 minutes because of all the cuts.

Edited January 7 by nenehcherry2

[James Martin]

Generally it was for content, but occasionally also done for time as well.  But yes, editing did step up significantly in the Carlton era.  I think there were also more regions putting the show out at 5:10pm after 1993 as a lot of regions, especially the new entrants, pivoted to having hour-long regional news magazines between 6pm and 7pm.  Before then, 6pm or even 6:30pm was used quite heavily.  Most regions were on 5:10pm by the time the enitre network settled on 5pm in March 1999.

[CaptainHulk]

2 hours ago, James Martin said:

Generally it was for content, but occasionally also done for time as well.  But yes, editing did step up significantly in the Carlton era.  I think there were also more regions putting the show out at 5:10pm after 1993 as a lot of regions, especially the new entrants, pivoted to having hour-long regional news magazines between 6pm and 7pm.  Before then, 6pm or even 6:30pm was used quite heavily.  Most regions were on 5:10pm by the time the enitre network settled on 5pm in March 1999.

5:05 specifically for Carlton/Thames.