[James2001]

P.S.  A change in the credits for 35 - still on black, but the character name/job title is left aligned whilst the actors/crew name remained centered.  Last episode available so not sure if this remains or is a mistake.

I've seen a few episodes on YouTube for later on in 1983 and the credits are still that way so I think they're like that for several months.

According to this, they're like it from episodes 35-42:

www.brooksideepisodes.com 

Untitled

  Source: www.brooksideepisodes.com

From episode 105 (the first anniversiary), they bring in the background of the close. With transparent text until 1987- looking at videos on YouTube it can be quite hard to read, though I imagine a combination of VHS noise, low resolution and low video bitrates (probably re-encoded several times) combine to make it that way and it's a lot more readable actually on TV.

[James2001]

In episode 29, there's a scene where the window cleaner says what looks like "piss off", but the sound cuts out, were they cutting swearing out of episodes already recorded at this point after a backlash over the language?

[James2001]

Finally just caught up ahead of the new batch of episodes tomorrow, interesting just how few characters they've started having in episodes by this point (often only seeing characters from 2 houses, and even then not all of them). Only a handful of characters in most episodes, some very long scenes, often not much going on, it's very different to the show as it became- or even the first 20 or so episodes which had more characters and seemed to have a lot more going on.

[JAS84]

Finally watching last week's episodes, Episode 27 has the extended end to the theme tune as well.

Episode 26 has Phil Redmond's credit keyed over the final shot again for the first time in about 15 episodes, and they keying is probably the worst it's looked all the times it was used. Not surprisingly they're back to just cutting straight to the blue background the next episode.

Also regularly get adverts for Scotrail and Bank of Scotland despite putting in an English postcode and neither trade in England (apart from Scotrail running a train to and from Carlisle, if you want to be anal), so presumably they don't serve different ads based on where you are.

Bank of Scotland have one (just) English branch: branches.bankofscotland.co.uk 

But yeah it is unusual to see these ads.

There's a reason for that - they were owned by Halifax (which was later taken over by Lloyds), and the other branches all either closed or switched to that fascia.

[interestednovice]

Bank of Scotland have one (just) English branch: branches.bankofscotland.co.uk 

But yeah it is unusual to see these ads.

There's a reason for that - they were owned by Halifax (which was later taken over by Lloyds), and the other branches all either closed or switched to that fascia.

I believe it was actually the other way around!

Halifax Building Society demutualised and became a bank (1997), but shortly afterwards merged with Bank of Scotland, adopting the corporate name HBOS. Bank of Scotland was keen to make inroads into England as their big rival, RBS, had acquired NatWest! Then, the HBOS Group Reorganisation Act 2006 created "Bank of Scotland plc", of which Halifax became a brand name. In 2009, following the financial crisis, Bank of Scotland was in trouble so the government encouraged Lloyds TSB to make a takeover approach. Halifax and Bank of Scotland both then merged into Lloyds TSB, creating Lloyds Banking Group. As part of competition rulings, Lloyds Banking Group later had to sell off what-is-now TSB to satisfy regulators - so Lloyds TSB became Lloyds Bank and TSB. TSB is now no longer related to the rest of the group.

I believe Bank of Scotland, unlike Royal Bank of Scotland, never actually had any English branches aside from Halifax ones anyway?

Berwick-upon-Tweed, as the most northerly town in England, is treated as a special case by both Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland. Both still have branches there but, aside from commercial and specialist private banking activity, have no other business in England. You can still open accounts with them though, they just don't actively advertise or have branches there.

[James2001]

Same with football, as their team's in the Scottish league rather than the English one, I believe.

Don't RBS still have branches in England though? Or is that something that's changed recently? A quick google shows there's still RBS branded cashpoints around, or there were at least last summer when the most recent google streetview pictures were taken.

[interestednovice]

That makes sense when you think about it.

Despite being technically in England, almost every other place for miles is in Scotland and the border is literally right there. It's therefore no surprise that businesses and residents may think of Berwick as an "honorary Scottish" place!

[James2001]

You have the "Royal Border Bridge" in Berwick as well- even though it doesn't actually cross the border.

[WillPS]

Same with football, as their team's in the Scottish league rather than the English one, I believe.

Don't RBS still have branches in England though? Or is that something that's changed recently? A quick google shows there's still RBS branded cashpoints around, or there were at least last summer when the most recent google streetview pictures were taken.

The last RBS branded branch in England is Berwick. There is also Holt's in Farnborough and Drummonds in London, which are both technically branches of RBS but are not branded as such.

There might be a few 'Cashline' ATMs but even those are mostly changing to being Natwest branded now, notably the Tesco ones.

I believe Bank of Scotland, unlike Royal Bank of Scotland, never actually had any English branches aside from Halifax ones anyway?

Berwick-upon-Tweed, as the most northerly town in England, is treated as a special case by both Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland. Both still have branches there but, aside from commercial and specialist private banking activity, have no other business in England. You can still open accounts with them though, they just don't actively advertise or have branches there.

Bank of Scotland had a fair number of branches south of the border before the HBOS takeover/merger.

[Brekkie]

Finally just caught up ahead of the new batch of episodes tomorrow, interesting just how few characters they've started having in episodes by this point (often only seeing characters from 2 houses, and even then not all of them). Only a handful of characters in most episodes, some very long scenes, often not much going on, it's very different to the show as it became- or even the first 20 or so episodes which had more characters and seemed to have a lot more going on.

It is quite refreshing in a way compared to the soaps of today where you might not see a main character for weeks on end.   Not too surprising they showcase more of the characters early on - they tend to show three of the four households each episode.

Of course back then it was just twice a week and I suspect on a very tight budget initially, so a core cast of 13 and a few more regulars who don't live on the close but are friends of the families works (something soaps don't seem to do now - almost everyone has to live in the location and increasingly be related to an existing character).     Indeed it's not even just about the number of episodes as the early Neighbours episodes don't really have that many more characters too.