The seventh and final part of a documentary series co-produced by Tyne Tees Television and Deerpark Films in which Geordie television personalities Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, better known as Ant and Dec, explore the history of their native Tyneside from the beginnings of human society to the everyday dramas of the present day. In this final programme a look at how regional television station Tyne Tees Television helped to tell the stories of Tyneside and what the area is doing to...

The seventh and final part of a documentary series co-produced by Tyne Tees Television and Deerpark Films in which Geordie television personalities Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, better known as Ant and Dec, explore the history of their native Tyneside from the beginnings of human society to the everyday dramas of the present day. In this final programme a look at how regional television station Tyne Tees Television helped to tell the stories of Tyneside and what the area is doing to re-invent itself for the 21st century. An opening montage featuring both contemporary and archival material relating to Tyneside and presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly providing details on the upcoming programme that will look at the making of modern Tyneside and the early stars of Tyne Tees Television made the Geordie accent cool. Title: A History of Tyneside Coming to stand on the bow of a boat as it travels along the River Tyne making its way towards with the Tyne Bridge Ant and Dec talk about the start of regional television in the Northeast and Tyne Tees Television (TTTV). A clip from its opening nights on the 15th January 1959 beginning with the station identification followed by a clip from the first programme shown live ‘The Big Show’ with performers singing a rendition of ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business.’ Standing in the wings of the TTTV studios on City Road, Managing Director Graeme Thompson talks about this live variety show and what it meant to local people at the time. Sitting at home broadcaster Mike Neville MBE talks about the importance of local television as a place where people were able to hear their own accents. Over clips from ‘The Road to Blaydon’ and Mike himself taking part in ‘Your Heritage: The River Tyne’ he tells a funny story about asking a local woman in Wallsend how to get to the Segedunum Roman Fort. Over a montage of TTTV clips featuring coal mining and shipbuilding, Ant and Dec explain how the broadcaster had to report grim news relating to the closure of coal mines and shipyards along the Tyne. Sitting beside an editing desk at TTTV, former Industrial Correspondent Sheilagh Matheson talks about her time as a reporter and seeing a climate of fear across the region as she regularly reported on the closures of traditional industries with nothing opening to replace it. Over a clip of a tanker being launched and workers coming out of Swan Hunters shipyards at Wallsend, Mike Neville talks about a programme he made on the yard and of those he spoke to talking about their feeling of doom, but still with hopes for a better future. Over a clip from the TTTV music programme The Rehearsal Room featuring members of the Newcastle pop group The Animals being chased by their fans, Ant and Dec talk about how Tyneside’s energetic music scene suddenly burst onto the international music scene. Inside The Sage Gateshead, now The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Wallsend born musician Gordon Sumner aka Sting talks about how he first heard The Animals and how it showed him that perhaps he could also become a successful musician. Over a clip from the music video for Lindisfarne’s song Fog on the Tyne Popular Culture Historian Chris Phipps talks about Lindisfarne being a good example of a working-class pop music and how this song was a rabble-rousing festival crowd pleaser. Returning to Sting he talks about being brought up in Newcastle musical traditions and how the local culture educated him. Over TTTV footage of the 100th anniversary of the Blaydon Races in June 1962, Ant and Dec read a poem written at the time by then leader of the Labour group on Newcastle City Council T. Dan Smith which make mention to his desire to make changes. Over a montage of relevant TTTV news footage Ant and Dec talk about Smith’s utopian vision for Newcastle that eventually led to the most notorious corruption trials in British history. Architectural Historian Dr Thomas Faulkner provides further details of Smith vision of modernisation, which also destroyed many buildings in the city unnecessarily. Further details are provided with regards the involvement of Yorkshire architect and businessman John Paulson with Ant and Dec providing details on how one of the biggest scandals of the era changed the face of Newcastle drastically with Smith vision of utopia turning into ugly buildings and corrupt local government. Returning to Sheilagh Matheson and over relevant TTTV news material she talks about another man who had a vision for Tyneside that was bigger than T Dan Smith’s, property developer John Hall. Over a montage featuring it being built she talks about the Metro Centre in Gateshead which became the largest shopping centre in Europe. With people now wondering around the completed shopping mall, Sheilagh explains how John Hall was able to transform the image of whole Northeast from an industrial place to a shopping paradise. Title: A History of Tyneside Over a montage of related clips, Ant and Dec provide details on part two. Title: A History of Tyneside Standing beside disused industrial and mining equipment at Beamish Museum in County Durham, Ant and Dec explain how the new millennium started with the end of something and that the mighty achievements of the Industrial Revolution had passed into history. Back in the TTTV studio Sheilagh Matheson talks about her experiences reporting on the 1984-85 Miners Strike. Over a montage of TTTV news clips featuring miners clashing with the police she provides details on what the dispute was about and how it was the most acrimonious, bitterest and most prolonged fight where she saw things she believes she should never have seen. A clip featuring during this sequence includes an incident in which then newly appointed Chairman of the National Coal Board Ian MacGregor was jostled to the ground and knocked unconscious by protesting miners at Ellington Colliery in Northumberland in February 1984. Sheilagh concludes by talking about how swathes of the local population had already lost their jobs in older industries and how they and their children had no prospects was the beginning of what is known today as social exclusion. An aerial of the River Tyne showing its many bridges changes to a montage of Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North which Ant and Dec explain how it has come to represent Tyneside’s present and very different future. From a boat travelling along the Tyne Ant and Dec provide details on how the Gateshead river bank and Baltic Quay has been transformed into a vibrant centre of the arts with the like of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts, the Millennium Bridge and The Sage Gateshead, now The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, all described as spectacular additions to the landscape of the Tyne. Talking about Newcastle and Gateshead today compared to when he was younger Mike Neville sees what has happened as wonderful and like being in a foreign country. Over a montage of views of both quaysides from a boat, Ant and Dec talk about the issues the Tyne had with pollution and how it has now been cleaned up becoming a thriving salmon river. Still inside The Sage Sting talks about how much he admires the changes that have taken place more recently including this music centre. As he remembers the Quayside Sunday Market TTTV archive of it followed by Graeme Thompson explaining over a montage of both archival and contemporary footage of the area how much Tyneside has changed in twenty years being able to rebuilt and re-invent itself. Over more relevant TTTV archive Ant and Dec talk about the political changes that have taken place on Tyneside since 1974 that have reshape the area, the work of the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation who poured money into the derelict river corridor and the 2004 North East England devolution referendum. Over relevant clips including those taken from this series, historian David Simpson explains what makes the Northeast special and different from anywhere else in Britain and how its culture is reflected in its music, dialect, history and pride. Over a montage of various aerials around Tyneside and Northumberland Sting, Brendon Foster MBE and Graeme Thompson explain what makes Tyneside a special and unique place to them. The sequence ends with a boy dressed in a 1950s costume kicking a ball and pretending to score a goal with the pit wheel of Woodhorn Colliery at Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland behind him. Following a high-speed montage from around Tyneside, the programme and series ends with Ant and Dec standings with the Angel of the North superimposed behind them explaining how the heroes featured in this series would be proud of today’s Tyneside as there is something special about the area and its people, the essential talent of Geordies is invention, and their greatest invention is themselves. Title: Thanks to One North East, The Vermont Hotel Newcastle, Gallowgate Productions Credit: Camera Steve Green, Alistair McKenzie, Janusz Ostrowski Sound Andy Bennett, Colin Lang, Adam Toy Electricians Paul Caddick, Lewis Hedley, John Mason Research Sandy Neil Archive Research Gillian Robinson Titles Music “Get Carter” by PEAK Location Director Anne Buckland Contracts and Rights Peter McArthur Production Manager Christine Stewart-Tilling Graphics Charlie Lennie Sound Post Production The Edge Online Editor Peter Telford Assistant Producer Chris Phipps Producer Alistar Moffat Executive Producer Jane Bolesworth Director Ian Hughes Title: © ITV Tyne Tees 2006 End title: An ITV Tyne Tees and Deerpark Films co-production for ITV