Editing Television Wales and the West (section)

==History==

===Launch===
Television Wales and the West opened transmission at 4:45 pm on 14 January 1958 with a live, 15-minute opening ceremony by station chairman [[Edward Stanley, 18th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby]], programming director Sir [[Ifan ab Owen Edwards]] and Alfred Francis. The master of ceremonies was chief continuity announcer, Bruce Lewis.

At 6:00 pm, ''Youth Wants to Know'', a children's interview programme produced by [[Granada Television]], became the first programme to be broadcast by TWW. In the programme, Lady Megan Lloyd George and Raymond Gower fielded questions from Welsh school children. Following ''Youth Wants to Know'', [[ITN]]'s early evening news at 6:30 pm was read by Huw Thomas from TWW's studios at [[Pontcanna]].

The main opening programme came at 7:00 pm with ''The Stars Rise in the West'', a filmed special introduced by ''[[It's That Man Again]]'' regular [[Jack Train]]. The programme, produced in association with ITN, featured appearances from [[Ralph Richardson]], [[Stanley Baker]] (later a founder of TWW's successors, [[ITV Wales & West|Harlech Television]]), [[Naunton Wayne]], [[Donald Sinden]], [[Tessie O'Shea]], [[Donald Houston]], [[Petula Clark]], [[Tommy Cooper]] and [[Ralph Reader]]. [[Harry Secombe]] also appeared in a short film clip, performing ''[[Nessun Dorma]]''.

===Takeover of WWN===
Another company, [[Wales West and North Television]] (WWN), originally held a separate franchise licence for a much larger but, critically, less densely populated part of Wales, and broadcast under the on-screen name of ''Teledu Cymru''. In January 1964, WWN became the only ITV company to fail financially.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/oct/07/citynews.ITV|title=Timeline: ITV 1955-today|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=October 7, 2003|website=The Guardian}}</ref> TWW was required to take over the franchise of its neighbour, which it ran as a separate service under the banner ''Teledu Cymru, TWW Network for Wales''. The two franchises were merged into a single Wales and West franchise.

===Franchise loss===
Partly because its regional programming was so well regarded it came as a great shock when TWW lost its franchise in the 1967 franchise review, in favour of the [[ITV Wales & West|Harlech Consortium]], whose bid promised a glittering future of star-filled entertainment and quality documentaries.

No reason was given for the dismissal (as is common practice for franchise changes) but it was believed that TWW's decision to keep its corporate headquarters in London and not move them to within the region was a significant factor. A darker explanation proffered at the time was that it was "government revenge" against the broadcaster's major shareholder the ''[[News of the World]]'' newspaper, which had printed a series of critical articles about the then [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Harold Wilson]]. This does appear unlikely as although the ITA was answerable to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] it was a wholly independent body.

Despite there being many months left on the contract, TWW quit its franchise early in protest, selling the last five months to Harlech for £500,000 even though the new company was not yet ready to start broadcasting at the time. Following the intervention of the [[Independent Television Authority|ITA]], a temporary service was set up — [[Independent Television Service for Wales and the West]], broadcasting from the old TWW Pontcanna studios in Cardiff, and staffed by former TWW workers, until Harlech (soon renamed "[[ITV Wales & West|HTV]]") was ready to take over its franchise early, on 20 May 1968.

===Closure===
Much of the station's closing night was made up of in-house produced output including ''Live Like A Lord'' (a music and comedy show with mainstay TWW personality [[Ivor Emmanuel]] and [[Clive Dunn]]), [[Teenybopper|teenybopper music show]] ''Discs a Go-Go'' (with future [[Radio Caroline]]/United DJs presenter [[Tony Prince]])<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uniteddj.com/members/tony-prince-royal-ruler-2/|title=Tony Prince - Royal Ruler}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/music-on-film-and-tv/discs-gogo/|title=Discs-A-GoGo &#124; Nostalgia Central|date=16 June 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403757/|title=Discs a Go-Go (TV Series 1961–1968) |work=IMDb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://radiotoday.co.uk/2018/04/mike-read-launches-united-djs-radio-online/|title=Mike Read launches United DJs Radio online|date=April 2, 2018}}</ref> and ''Sing Me A Fantasy'' (a musical film). The feature programme of the night was TWW's penultimate production, ''All Good Things'', a late night variety special presented by [[Bernard Braden]] and featuring amongst others, [[Tessie O'Shea]], [[Stan Stennett]], Ivor Emmanuel, [[Manfred Mann]], [[Clifford Evans (actor)|Clifford Evans]], [[Anita Harris]] and [[Morecambe & Wise]]. The programme was preceded by an introduction from company chairman Lord Derby.

Having felt desperately hard-done-by the ITA, and in the fits of a corporate tantrum, the company showed their final display of anger by closing down with ''Come To An End'', a reflective epilogue with John Betjeman, who had made several films for the station, paying tribute to the personnel, programmes and achievements of TWW (which Betjeman affectionately referred to as ''Tellywelly'').

Ironically recorded at the Granville Theatre in London, Betjeman closed the epilogue and the station with these words:

''The new firm, Harlech, which will be centred in Cardiff, must build up its own personality. Tellywelly, you had a warm, friendly and inspiring one. Like many others, I'm very grateful to you. I'm sorry to see you go. It's like the death of an old friend.''

As Betjeman walked out of the theatre and the credits rolled, the camera tilted up to the "EXIT" sign on the wall, and TWW ended its transmission for the last time.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Graham |first1=Russ J. |title=Come to an end |url=https://transdiffusion.org/2015/07/26/come-to-an-end/ |website=Transdiffusion |access-date=30 January 2024|date=26 July 2015}}</ref> An interim service, [[Independent Television Service for Wales and the West]], managed by TWW on behalf of the incoming Harlech Television, replaced it.