[Milkshake]

One reason The Bill went out on Friday evenings post 1993, was that Thames was now an indy, and the show was commissioned by another ITV region. Something tells me possibly Yorkshire commissioned it but Thames produced it.

Tech it was the ITV network Central that commissioned the show by Thames, but you still needed an ITV company to push it thought.
I think the bill ended up with Carlton by the late 90s? Central took over Mr Bean and Des O'conner etc but neither had any real say in the programme.

One programmes that LWT did broadcast which Thames made was that god slot before the closedown.,

[JAS84]

One reason The Bill went out on Friday evenings post 1993, was that Thames was now an indy, and the show was commissioned by another ITV region. Something tells me possibly Yorkshire commissioned it but Thames produced it.

Yeah. I think it was this endcap followed by a Yorkshire Television Presentation for ITV one?
tvark.org 

[Rdd]

In the early days of the post-1993 Networking Arrangements, independents could only have programmes commissioned with the backing of a licensee. My recollection is that very early on, this was the subject of a complaint to the OFT and was changed.

[Bluecortina]

Post 1993 the ITV licence holders became legally responsible for legal compliance of any and all programming they broadcast. The only practical way to achieve this (pre-ITV licence mergers and consolidation) ) was for each commissioned or bought in programming to be assessed for compliance, including technical compliance, by one of the licence holders. It could have been any of them.

[agemame]

Isn't that why Channel ended up the nominated franchise for doing such for big 'live' events? The idea being that since the financial penalties were based on revenue, a fine for the then still independent Channel would be smaller than any of the others as the amalgamations started, and Channel could effectively be paid for this process to help them with their running costs?

[Bluecortina]

Yes, but of course the actual process took place in central London.

[procrastination]

Wasn't "The Treacle People" made by LWT? I remember seeing an endcap with their logo on the Channel 4 re-runs years ago. "The Treacle People" was shown on weekdays on CITV.

[Mike]

Always surprised me to learn that the police uniforms used on The Bill were accurate and real (permission of Scotland Yard apparently), and that after the show ended the Met Police bought the whole wardrobe and some of it probably entered real life usage:
www.bbc.co.uk 

Yet I this was very unique arrangement and you probably wouldn't see such a thing happening today. State of the times I feel.

...to the point where there were Metropolitan Police logos all over the place covering up other brand names such as the manufacturer's logo on telephone handsets, the kind of stuff that wouldn't happen in real life.

They used to pay the Met £60,000 a year for this. It covered media and marketing (posters), the surveyors department (property services/decorating), uniform services (the kit did come straight from the Met's stores and suppliers), and striping services (the cars were kitted out by the Met's provider, MacNielie), and checking names to make sure characters weren't being given real MPS officer names.

It also enabled them to use the MPS logo which is trademarked - it also covered other Talkback Thames productions not just The Bill, so the Bill spin off 'MIT' and Family Affairs I think).

The logo being on everything is interesting, while it did cover brand names for trademark reasons, I've certainly seen Met Police computer terminals with Met logos plastered on them, but not as an asset tag.

[lookoutwales]

Wasn't "The Treacle People" made by LWT? I remember seeing an endcap with their logo on the Channel 4 re-runs years ago. "The Treacle People" was shown on weekdays on CITV.

Made by LWT Productions (though The London Studios got joint-credit on their prod cap) but from what I recall, it was a Granada commission for the network.

[Bluecortina]

Made by LWT Productions (though The London Studios got joint-credit on their prod cap) but from what I recall, it was a Granada commission for the network.

The London Studios made a direct financial investment in this, perhaps that might explain the colour prod. It was filmed (stop video animation) in a couple of areas in the TLS props store area.