[DJ Dave]

I think he started off at Granada in Manchester? I have seen a clip of him with the old Granada logo tattooed* on his back.

www.itv.com 

Watch classic Granada Television moments with the late Sir Michael Parkinson | I…
Sir Michael Parkinson, one of Britain’s most celebrated broadcasters and talk sh…
  Source: www.itv.com

[Steve in Pudsey]

Granada at that time covered Yorkshire as well. He worked out of their Leeds studio on the Headrow.

Picture and a nice anecdote on

yorkshirebylines.co.uk 

The night Parky threatened to take away the cameras
With the eyes of the world trained on a small Northern constituency, a young loc…
  Source: yorkshirebylines.co.uk

[VMPhil]

Was Parkinson one of the last programmes to go widescreen? I seem to recall something being said that Parkinson himself felt widescreen was less 'intimate' for interviewing. Is that true? A little research suggests it was 4:3 until it moved to ITV1.

I'm not sure it's ever been written down anywhere officially but the general consensus on TV Forum was that he personally disliked widescreen as it made close-up shots less intimate. In the BBC years it was made in a studio with cameras that were switchable between 4:3/widescreen, so certainly by 2004 when he did his last shows for the BBC it will have been a conscious decision to keep it 4:3.

[James2001]

That will have been the case for many shows still being made in 4:3 in the 00s. Certainly, for example, SM:TV and CD:UK were in 4:3 until the end of 2003, but came from studio 2 at TLS (apart from the last few months at Riverside- but that was also 16:9 capable)- which was making 16:9 programmes right from when SM:TV began in 1998, so that's another one which must have been a conscious/editorial decision rather than a technical one.

Interestingly though, a lot of CD:UK pre-records were in 16:9 over the last year to 18 months before the switch, and shown in 14:9. Wasn't consistent though, in fact the first performance on the first 16:9 edition was a Will Young pre-record which had been done in 4:3! And I think there were a few specials shown in other timeslots (with a set from a particular artist) that were made in 16:9 too.

[Bluecortina]

That will have been the case for many shows still being made in 4:3 in the 00s. Certainly, for example, SM:TV and CD:UK were in 4:3 until the end of 2003, but came from studio 2 at TLS (apart from the last few months at Riverside- but that was also 16:9 capable)- which was making 16:9 programmes right from when SM:TV began in 1998, so that's another one which must have been a conscious/editorial decision  rather than a technical one.

Interestingly though, a lot of CD:UK pre-records were in 16:9 over the last year to 18 months before the switch, and shown in 14:9. Wasn't consistent though, in fact the first performance on the first 16:9 edition was a Will Young pre-record which had been done in 4:3! And I think there were a few specials shown in other timeslots (with a set from a particular artist) that were made in 16:9 too.

‘Customers’ at TLS were initially charged extra for wanting their productions in 16:9, I’m not sure how long that lasted.

[James2001]

I presume it wouldn't have been the case as late as 2003, SM:TV/CD:UK were probably the only 4:3 content apart from the LNN news and GMTV still coming out of TLS by then.

[nwtv2003]

I presume it wouldn't have been the case as late as 2003, SM:TV/CD:UK were probably the only 4:3 content apart from the LNN news and GMTV still coming out of TLS by then.

I think it was 2004 when GMTV started broadcasting its main programme in 16:9, but I’m sure they shared their main studio with ITV Sport (at least for football) and their coverage was 16:9 from quite early on, but only digital viewers saw it in that format. Same also went with the BBC for a good number of years of course.

[Brekkie]

I think it was 2004 when GMTV started broadcasting its main programme in 16:9, but I’m sure they shared their main studio with ITV Sport (at least for football) and their coverage was 16:9 from quite early on, but only digital viewers saw it in that format. Same also went with the BBC for a good number of years of course.

That was the case for sport for a long while, mainly as international feeds were still 4:3 - think only two sports at the 2004 Olympics were in widescren.

The Parkinson Final Conversation programme is flagged as "1.33:1" on IMDB but it has been uploaded to YouTube in 16:9,

[Technologist]

The UK was very much in the lead for having Widescreen SD -
basically driven by the BBC /ITC attitude that "Digital Tv was different"
Everyone else just put an MPEG /DVB encoder in parellel with the PAL Encoder on their output.
so Sports and international feeds were always 4:3
(and they kept Teletext)

[Bluecortina]

I presume it wouldn't have been the case as late as 2003, SM:TV/CD:UK were probably the only 4:3 content apart from the LNN news and GMTV still coming out of TLS by then.

LNN, both transmission and news, were self contained and nothing to do with TLS. Studio 7 only came under TLS’ umbrella when LNN produced local news left the building. 

GMTV hired TLS studio 5 at normal commercial rates and if they wanted to broadcast in 16:9 then they would have been charged appropriately for the conversion of the studio. TLS was a stand-alone business under the LWT/ITV banner and there was no concept of ‘mates rates’ etc. 

I’ve no doubt at all that when GMTV/Daybreak moved into Studio 7 (HD) and Studio 3 (SD) they would have been charged the going rates.