The Media Archive for Central England is the public screen archive for the East and West Midlands. An independent charity and company based at the University of Lincoln, MACE acquires, catalogues, preserves and makes widely available moving image materials that inform our understanding of the diverse cultures and histories of communities between the Lincolnshire coast and the Welsh border.
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A Midlands News Day
With major stories cropping up right across the Midlands can ATV's news team get the programme out on time?
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Overview
It's a slow day in the Birmingham newsroom of ATV - a man living in a pig sty in Leicestershire has news potential but is soon forgotten as reports of a serious express train crash reach the editor. This fascinating insight into how the news was put together in 1963 is a world away for anyone familiar with modern media - sound is ordered up from the stock library and the film is all cement-spliced by hand. Pat Cox is the news reader who remains calm throughout.
This appears to have been a promotional item and not intended for broadcast. The featured news stories did not occur on the same day and were in fact items from throughout 1963. There is slight artistic licence in the helicopter section in that the cameraman involved in the crash was Frank Harding while he is referred to as John Robbins in the film. In 1963 Midlands News was produced by ATV from an office on Edmund Street in Birmingham and then broadcast from Alpha Television in Aston, a facility that ATV shared with fellow Midlands broadcasters ABC. In 1969 ATV moved into a purpose built studio on Broad Street in the city and Alpha was closed. Pat Cox had been the presenter of Midlands News since it began in May 1956.
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