TVARK is non-commercial and a non-profit-making website. Our server costs are funded by our team members. TVARK launched on the 8th November 1998 – back in the dial-up era as one man’s hobby, called “Television Ark”. Over the years as the site has grown, our team remain passionate about TV as well as those who’ve brought clips from their own collections of off-air television recordings. With donations from other videotape collectors the site now has over 40,000 vintage recordings.

TVARK is an online TV museum. The site is intended as a tribute to the work of television presentation and graphics, and to preserve a slice of our social history. Through images and video clips, we present those modest little chunks of television that are never repeated: idents, programme promotions, opening title sequences, public information films, commercials, daily start-ups and closedowns, break bumpers and station clocks. Each item is accompanied by a short written analysis and review.

TVARK is above all an educational resource. It is popular at home and abroad, used by teachers and students in schools and colleges. It is also recognised by people within the TV industry. Our archives are frequently used by industry professionals, who find their own master copies of programmes have been wiped over the years. We have supplied information and clips for broadcast documentaries, presentation & news programmes, as well as broadcasting websites. Our archives are deemed so valuable that we have worked with several TV companies to assist them with archiving material. Recent examples include:

• Donating SkyTV/BSB material to the The National Media Museum for an exhibition about the origins of satellite TV
• Providing footage to ITV Channel for a documentary about the ITV strike of the 1970s
• Archiving project with LWT in preserving continuity
• Archiving project with BBC in preserving local news
• Providing BSkyB with archive footage for the History of Sky Movies and 20 Years of Sky Sports
• Helping Promax in 2010 with some early footage for a talk about the history of the TV trailer
• Providing ITN and BBC with news footage for the Edinburgh TV Festival ’04
• Providing BBC with footage of vintage Christmas BBC1 & BBC2 idents for a festive comedy series in 2007
• Clips and information for BBC documentaries such as “Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe”
• Assisting S4/C archives
• Providing archive to BBC North West Tonight for their 50th Anniversary programme in 2018

We receive positive feedback from TV researchers, producers, presenters, designers, art colleges, teachers, media students as well as those who relish the obvious nostalgic values of the site. Visitors to the site often comment that browsing the pages brings alive happy memories from their childhood TV viewing. They enjoy reviewing old adverts and TV shows, with their once well-known catchphrases and theme tunes, which would otherwise be consigned to oblivion. We work very hard to create accurate descriptions of our content. TV personalities and presenters, production teams, film crews and even retired broadcasting employees have all made contact, to pass on their memories, insights, gossip and otherwise unknown information about the clips we feature. Many pages have been authorized by TV companies and permission has been given to use their material, these include:

• Granada Archives
• ITN Source
• Scottish TV – for schools programmes
• S4/C – for schools programmes
• Moving Image Communications Ltd – for TV-am
• The South West Film & TV Archive – for TSW and Westward material
• British Film Institute – for Public Information Films
• Warner Brothers – for WBTV

We hope TVARK gives as much pleasure to you, as it has to us.

Special Thanks

TVARK wouldn’t be possible without your recording donations, thank you to everyone who has contributed, especially those who have contributed their entire collections. An extra special thanks to the following people:

Hardi Bales-Stutes • Steve Barnes • Andrea Harper • Mike Jones • Stuart Allen • Kenny Ellaway • Andrew Emmerson • Ashley Sowerby • Colm O’Rourke • Robert Barrett • Jean-Claude Tackaert • Chris Howles • Andrew Wood • Francois Frappe • Maureen Carney • Mike McGonagle • Dave Baldwin • Oliver Ashmole • Alison Proudfoot • Remember VHS • Damien Tyson • Thomas Pitt • Steve Salter • Hans Olav Nyborg • Jason Robertson • Damien Tyson • Eva, Stuart and Fiona Grainger • Susan Collins • Lesley Blackett • Anne Thirkell • David Steven • Gwendoline Chopping • Lawrence Dormer • Mia Webb-Contreras • Ian Jacklin • Jayne Russell • Wesley Downs • Derek Howells • Jamie Murray • Sarah Burge

Our SPARK teletext service also benefits from donated contributions, especially the regular input of Alistair Cree, Christopher Tsangari, E Quondam and Gordon Donaldson. Also, Nikki and Bunty are hosting our Mastodon account and Nikki’s done some nice teletext portraits for Dan Alborough’s soap Rex Road (page 132).

Meet the TVARK Team

Chronologically, we’re Steve Hackett, Mark McMillan, Stuart Kenny, Hayden Walker, Martin Duhig, Pete Fagan and Dan Alborough.

Press

We have been recognised by the UK national press and many national and local radio stations. You’ll also find links to TVARK from many major websites including:

• BBC Cult TV
• BBC Top of the Pops 2
• BBC TV in the 40’s
• BBC North West Tonight
• The British Film Institute
• The Sci-Fi Channel

We’ve also been featured on several radio stations, as you can listen to below…

Press Logos

Please feel free to use our logos for promotional purposes.

TVARK Web History

Here’s how we used to look online…

TVARK is dedicated to Simon Luxton & Valerie Lovell Hackett

Have you spotted an error? Do you know a missing transmission date of a video?

For all types of questions or comments, please email: admin@tvark.org

If you would like to make a video contribution please read our Contribute FAQ page.

When contacting us with digital contributions, please note: email with contributions attached is not considered safe and will be deleted. Instead, please provide a link to your files via Mega, WeTransfer, DropBox, OneDrive or iCloud. We appreciate your contributions but cannot provide follow-up regarding their inclusion in TVARK. Contributions will be independently verified for suitability. Posting of contributions to TVARK is not guaranteed.

What kind of material does TVARK want?

We would like vintage examples of television presentation and programme opening title sequences. We also welcome entire Betamax or VHS collections from schools and colleges or people looking to skip old collections found in lofts. For physical media contributions, please contact us to make arrangements.

What physical media formats do TVARK accept?

We accept VHS (PAL or NTSC) • BETAMAX (PAL) • DVD-R / DVD+R (PAL or NTSC) • MINI DV (PAL) • DVCAM (PAL) • DVCPRO (PAL) • BETA SP (PAL) • DIGIBETA (PAL) • HDCAM • N1700 • V2000 • U-MATIC

What digital media formats do TVARK accept?

Pretty much anything, in the absolute best quality and largest file size available to you. We would prefer “Vobs” from disc-based digital media, however we can accept most other file formats – for standard-definition PAL video, these need to be interlaced at 25fps and of a minimum size of 720×576 or 768×576 … we can do a test clip if required.

Will my tape/DVD be returned?

Sorry no; we haven’t the resources to roundtrip physical media.

Can I contribute information instead of tapes?

Yes! We welcome comments, please share your knowledge with us! Especially if you worked on a TV show or would like to correct occasional mistakes or perhaps add more-specific dates.

What’s new? Everything!

For our 25th anniversary we’ve completely rebuilt TVARK. We’ve re-thought the lot, moved to a new server and built – from the ground up – a proper place for our decades of work. Along the way we’ve taken care to preserve the familiar TVARK experience that so many told us they missed. Returning visitor or first-timer, we’re immensely grateful that you’ve come to have a look.

Most won’t notice any change to the graphic design of the site and we were keen to keep it ourselves. Everything beneath its surface is new nonetheless. The world has taken to living in its phones since we established our style, so the rebuild introduces a TVARK that’s just as lovely under your thumb as it is on a laptop.

You’ll find thousands of new posts waiting for you, now that we’re back. Quite early on in our rebuild video uploads to the site resumed. Our VHS warriors have kept themselves busy as the new site rose round them.

The team has also been stepping up in terms of research. For the new clips especially, detailed data is laid out right below each video on the new site. Added to that, a load of effort has been put into improving the metadata on the forty thousand videos posted in years past.

Another modern adaptation is our use of AI upscaling to magick extra detail into some of the older clips. TVARK now has the nicest-quality examples of classic telly you’ll find anywhere and the number of finessed clips just keeps going up. We can’t keep our hands off our own vids and that’s no bad thing!

Our teletext service SPARK has remained online during construction, as have our social media posts to Facebook, X and Instagram. We’ve begun posting to Mastodon, Bluesky and Threads as well, while everyone waits for the current social media free-for-all to settle down. We also found time to launch our new TVARK Forum, when our friend Rob Francis closed his popular TV Live forum. With all those services ticking along, we’ve never really been away.

The latest new thing on TVARK is our fully-built Talent section. It’s got loads of pages of biographical details for the creatives behind the clips, including offsite links to their own online offerings. Of a few features planned for the old site, Talent is the one we chose to carry forward. It’s allowed us to better focus on our core content and our mission to reliably deliver it.

It’s a huge relief to have a television museum that suits the resources available to manage it. It’s still a lot to do on a non-profit budget and it’s doubtless added new quirks to any hiding in our older content. Please reach out and contact us if you spot anything out of place. We welcome all your feedback as we welcome you in to enjoy the brand new TVARK!

Last Updated: 1st July 2022.

Definitions

“Website” – means TVARK, found on the internet at https://tvark.org

“GDPR” – means the General Data Protection Regulation.

“Responsible Person” – means Steve Hackett, Owner of TVARK and TVARK.org

“Register of Systems” – means a register of all systems or contexts in which personal data is processed by the Website

1. Data Protection Principles

The Website is committed to processing data in accordance with its responsibilities under the GDPR.

Article 5 of the GDPR requires that personal data shall be:

Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals;

Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes;

Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed;

Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay;

Kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed; personal data may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes subject to implementation of the appropriate technical and organisational measures required by the GDPR in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals; and,

Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

2. General Provisions

This policy applies to all personal data processed by the Website.

The Responsible Person shall take responsibility for the Website’s ongoing compliance with this policy.

This policy shall be reviewed at least annually.

The Website shall register with the Information Commissioner’s Office as an organisation that processes personal data.

3. Lawful, fair and transparent processing

To ensure its processing of data is lawful, fair and transparent, the Website shall maintain a Register of Systems.

The Register of Systems shall be reviewed at least annually.

Individuals have the right to access their personal data and any such requests made to the Website shall be dealt with in a timely manner.

4. Lawful Purposes

All data processed by the Website must be done on one of the following lawful bases: consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task or legitimate interests (see ICO guidance for more information).

The Website shall note the appropriate lawful basis in the Register of Systems.

Where consent is relied upon as a lawful basis for processing data, evidence of opt-in consent shall be kept with the personal data.

Where communications are sent to individuals based on their consent, the option for the individual to revoke their consent should be clearly available and systems should be in place to ensure such revocation is reflected accurately in the Website’s systems.

5. Data Minimising

The Website shall ensure that personal data is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.

6. Accuracy

The Website shall take reasonable steps to ensure personal data is accurate.

Where necessary for the lawful basis on which data is processed, steps shall be put in place to ensure that personal data is kept up to date.

7. Archiving / Removal

To ensure that personal data is kept for no longer than necessary, the Website shall put in place an archiving policy for each area in which personal data is processed and review this process annually.

The archiving policy shall consider what data should/must be retained, for how long, and why.

8. Security

The Website shall ensure that personal data is stored securely using modern software that is kept-up-to-date.

Access to personal data shall be limited to personnel who need access and appropriate security should be in place to avoid unauthorised sharing of information.

When personal data is deleted this should be done safely such that the data is irrecoverable.

Appropriate back-up and disaster recovery solutions shall be in place.

9. Breach

In the event of a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data, the Website shall promptly assess the risk to people’s rights and freedoms and if appropriate report this breach to the ICO (more information on the ICO website).

Last Updated: 8th November 2023. Please read these Terms and Conditions (“Terms”, “Terms and Conditions”) carefully before using the tvark.org website (the “Service”) operated by TVARK (“us”, “we”, or “our”).

Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. These Terms apply to all visitors, users, and others who access or use the Service.

By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the terms, then you may not access the Service.

Content

You may access our Service and freely consume Content for your educational and personal use subjected to restrictions set in these terms and conditions.

Our Service allows you to share via our social media links on the media posts, information, text, images and videos. You are responsible for the Content that you post on or through the Service, including its legality, reliability, and appropriateness.

Content of a Sensitive Nature

Some of the images and videos on our Service contain individuals or organisations that have been convicted of criminal offences. Whilst we do not wish to cause offence or hurt to any person(s) who were affected by their actions, we feel it would be erroneous of us to remove the items as they form part of the cultural history that the Service curates. We also feel that removing these said items would be unfair on other members of the cast and behind-the-scenes crew who worked on them.

Prohibited Uses

You must not:

• Copy, rip or scrape content from the Service to republish on other video-based services e.g. YouTube, DailyMotion etc. By doing this, it breaks our agreements in place with broadcasters, talent and private contributors and will harm the Service from adding new content.
• Sell, rent or sub-license material from the Service.
• Reproduce, duplicate or copy material from the Service without permission.
• Redistribute content from the Service.

Reservation of Rights

We reserve the right to request that you remove all links or any particular link to the Service. You approve to immediately remove all links to our Service upon request. We reserve the right to make the Service temporarily unavailable during maintenance – often on or about 3 a.m., local time. We also reserve the right to amend these Terms and Conditions at any time. By using and/or continuously linking to our Service, you agree to be bound to and follow these Terms and Conditions.

Fair Use Policy

All multimedia items on the Service are presented in good faith and are not presented for the purpose of profit or deliberate copyright infringement. We believe all content not owned by the Service is allowed under UK Fair Use Copyright Law (also known as “Fair Dealing”). Fair dealing is governed by Sections 29 and 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which outlines where fair dealing is a legitimate defence: If the use is for the purposes of research or private study … purposes of criticism, review or quotation.

The Service will always remove any such material that the original copyright holders, or their authorised agents, decide should not be on the Service. Any removal requests should be sent to admin@tvark.org.

Cookies and Privacy

Our Service may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by us. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites or services.

You further acknowledge and agree that the Service shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such websites or services.

Disclaimer

Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. Our Service is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. The Service is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or course of performance.

Can you help TVARK with the following material? If so, please contact us.

Cardboard studio endboards wanted

Do you have a vintage television ‘endboard’ that was used in studio where a TV camera would point at it at the end of a programme? Would you considering selling it? Please contact us at the link above.

News clips wanted

ITV:

• Scotland Today (1980-1989 & Jan-Jun 2006)
• North Tonight (1980-1990)
• STV News (2009-2014 Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen)
• Lookaround (1970s & 1980s)
• HTV News West (1996-1997)
• Meridian Tonight (2006-2009)
• Channel TV Report (1970s)
• Central News East (1989-1992)
• UTV Live (1995-1997)

BBC:

• BBC North East local news (1970s)
• Look East
• Reporting Scotland Sixty Minutes
• Reporting Scotland 2004 – 2007
• Reporting Scotland 2007 – 2008
• BBC London News (2005-2008)
• Spotlight Channel Islands (2005-2008)
• BBC Oxford News (2005-2008)

Five:

• Five News (2012-2014)

Branding clips wanted

BBC:

• Old continuity recordings (1960s-1980s)
• Photographs of former BBC London premises and studios
• BBC Choice: 1998: (Trumpet ident)
• BBC Choice: July – Dec 2001 (Green Blocks)
• BBC 4: Office ident from 2005/06 plus many special idents

ITV:

• Carlton London idents (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 certain idents from each sets)
• Granada idents (1996-1999: Art/Football/Soap/Rocket/Train/Sketch/Square)
• LWT local ident (1995)
• Scottish Television idents: (1991 – scenic scene)
• Grampian: (New 1983 black ident with revised jingle)
• Border: (Autumn 1990 ITV promo ident)
• Channel TV: (2004 Presentation)
• Yorkshire: (1992 – 1993, Chess Board look, Pink look)
• Archive continuity from the Grampian, Border, Channel and Ulster TV regions
• ITV regional merchandise from the 1970s and 1980s

Channel 4:

• Grabbers (1994-1995)
• Reel Women (1995)
• Stanley Kubrick season (Summer 1996)
• Robert Altman – American Player season (Summer 1996)
• Handmade Films season (Summer 1996)
• Coen Brothers season (August/September 1997)
• India Summer
• Comedy Weekend
• Simpson idents (2004)
• People idents (1999-2003)

Five:

• 2008-2011 idents

Digital Channels:

• Challenge TV idents (1998-2008)
• Living/Sky Living idents (2004-2013)
• Yesterday idents (2009-2012)

Do you work for a broadcaster? Can you send us some pictures of your studio or building? Are you a former employee of a past TV station? Do you have any old photographs we can add to our studios and buildings section?

Personal Collections – Do you collect something for a hobby you would like share with our audience?

International TV wanted

Do you live in any of these countries? We’d love to feature TV recordings from your country! Australia, Barbados, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, China, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Fiji, Gibraltar, Greenland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, India, Israel, Luxembourg, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Saint Maarten, Seychelles, South Africa, Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe.

A selection of links to some of TVARK’s favourite TV-related websites. Listed below there are museums, research websites, TV enthusiast sites, TV branding websites and much more, so there’s loads to explore.