[Neil Jones]

Been reading the last few pages and have a couple of topics I want to ask about.

1) Years ago in Malaysia I saw a couple of episodes of Mr Bean that had the Thames skyline frontcaps, even though they were using the blue triangle endcap. (I remember one episode was the one where he thumps the Queen Mother, I can't remember what the other one was.) Years ago I remember someone on TV Ark's old forum saying that international copies still had frontcaps after the practice was abandonned domestically.
a) Was Thames sticking its frontcap on Mr Bean only, or were all programmes frontcapped?
b) Was Thames the only company sticking its frontcap on international copies or did other ITV regions do this as well?
c) If the answer to the other ITV regions is yes, when did they stop?

2) I remember during CITV's Old Skool Weekend "Mike and Angelo" and "Sooty" carried Thames frontcaps, but frontcaps were abandonned on CITV. Were those 2 programmes shown outside of CITV as well like Supergran?

1) This Transdiffusion article seems to suggest front-caps were still used internationally long after the domestic network had stopped using them - "The old Thames mirror frontcap has been spotted before episodes of The Bill (for example) made well after 1988 when shown in certain countries. That Thames frontcap has even been briefly featured in an episode of The Simpsons, which shows how important this form of frontcap branding has been in cultural terms.":
transdiffusion.org 

(The Simpsons reference is almost certainly the "Do Shut Up" segment from Season 11 where its claimed Do Shut Up is England's longest running series - and they're showing all seven episodes )

1) a) in theory all of them, but Mr Bean was an indie production (Tiger Aspect), not a Thames show. It was just presented by Thames to the ITV network (and later Central).
1) b) in theory, no - I think the ITC catalogue (Lew Grade's concept that made a lot of early ATV shows) retains the bulk of this both then and now.

2) Mike & Angelo ran practically forever and outlived Thames by some considerable margin (it transferred to an Indie after 1992). It was exported (and that's why they changed the music on it for the foreign market to the better known version) but AFAIK didn't air outside the CITV show, it being a children's show. Sooty has probably been aired in all kinds of slots over the years on both the BBC and ITV such is his appeal to all ages. According to Wiki he first appeared on a Sunday.