This Week was the first weekly current affairs series to be broadcast on the UK independent network (ITV), and it ran for 36 years until 1992. ITV had begun in September 1955, and This Week was launched on 6 January 1956 by Associated-Rediffusion (A-R), the company which had been awarded the franchise for weekday broadcasting in the London region. Originally a light weight magazine, which mixed serious journalism with more frivolous items, by the early 1960s This Week was making journalist-led thirty minute single item programmes, which tackled both domestic and international subjects. In 1968 Associated-Rediffusion (at that time known as Rediffusion) was replaced as the London weekday franchise-holder by Thames Television, which continued to produce This Week until Thames itself lost its franchise in 1992. For a period between 1978-1986, the series was renamed TVEye.

Independent Television (abbreviated to ITV) was originally a network of commercial television companies, funded by advertising. In the early 2000s it became a single company, ITV plc. It was set up in 1955 as a second television channel and broke the monopoly of the non-commercial BBC, which was funded by a licence fee. It was regionally based, and companies broadcast to their own region as well as contributing programmes to the ITV network. Associated-Rediffusion, the producers of This Week, had won the franchise for the London region on weekdays. ITV was regulated by the Independent Television Authority (ITA) (from 1972 the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)) which monitored the companies’ performance and reviewed licences. In 1968 Rediffusion (as the company was then called) lost its licence to broadcast and was replaced as the London weekday franchise-holder by Thames Television.

In 1967 the ITA had mandated that current affairs programmes should be broadcast across the network at peak viewing times. World in Action (Granada from Manchester) was to be broadcast on Mondays, and This Week (A-R from London) on Thursdays. In 1991 the IBA was replaced by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) a ‘lighter touch’ regulator.

Current affairs is a television genre which is journalist-led and covers the news agenda; but it aims to expand on and get behind the news headlines. Its format is frequently close to documentary. It includes programmes which deal with the public issues of the day; programmes which involve investigation or information in the public interest; debates on issues of public concern; the questioning of politicians and similar content; programmes which are prepared to ask awkward questions --whatever their style or drive for popular appeal.

Together with Panorama [BBC 1953-] and World in Action [Granada for ITV 1963-98], This Week was a major contributor to UK television current affairs programming. A history of This Week is a history of television journalism itself, carving out its space on the commercial channel. Always balanced between rigorous investigation and audience appeal, This Week monitored and enriched the scope of the news agenda, ranging from domestic politics and social affairs to the major events on the world stage. Across its long history it brought home the reality of poverty at home, famine in Africa, and challenged the centres of power - both business interests with its investigations such as those into smoking and health, and government, in particular its policies in Northern Ireland. This Week’s uncompromising coverage of the spectrum of public affairs regularly brought it into conflict with the authorities – not least over its most well known programme Death on the Rock (1986). Across the years, its journalists and producers have included some of the most respected names in television journalism.

Yes, FremantleMedia which owns the rights to This Week, has agreed that the data is available for non-commercial use only. The This Week data is only available to bona fide students, researchers and teachers in further and higher education in the United Kingdom and to BUFVC members.

The This Week Database is an innovative contribution to the resources underpinning research into British television current affairs, as well as to students of social and political history. Among the benefits to researchers are:

access to ‘enhanced’ records with additional information on the location of programmes and documents relating to the programme, and access to information provided by expert researchers on style and presentation; ability to download data for personal research; enables quantitative analysis of programme output; informs the study of the development of British television current affairs programming; users can instantly find information on individual programmes within the series; assists biographical research of presenters, journalists and production staff.

The This Week Database is accessed via the Learning on Screen website and is authenticated using your institutional login credentials (Single-Sign On).

If you are experiencing problems, please contact This Week support by emailing members@learningonscreen.ac.uk. The This Week Database is free at point of access to all staff and students in further and higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and to BUFVC members.

Yes, there are three related projects. TVTiP and TRILT provide listings television programmes including current affairs programmes and BBC Radio 4 Analysis is a database of information just about this leading radio current affairs series.

TRILT: Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching

TVTiP: TVTimes Project 1955 – 1985

BBC Radio 4 Analysis.

The database will indicate At Bournemouth for scripts, documents and video copies of programmes which are held in Bournemouth University Library. You can search specifically for "Script at Bournemouth" or "Viewing copy at Bournemouth".

The following is a brief bibliography listing books about This Week and related programmes including a broader discussion of current affairs television.

BARNETT, S. AND SEYMOUR, E., 1999. A Shrinking Iceberg Travelling South. Changing Trends in British Television: A Case Study of Drama and Current Affairs. London: Campaign for Quality Television.

BOLTON, R., 1990. Death on the Rock and Other Stories. London: W.H. Allen.

BONNER, P. WITH ASTON, L., 1998. The old relationship changes 1981-92. ITV in Britain. Vol. 5. London: Macmillan.

COCKERELL, M., 1988. Live from Number 10: the Inside Story of Prime Ministers and Television. London: Faber and Faber.

GODDARD, P, CORNER, J, AND RICHARDSON, K., 2001. The formation of World in Action. Journalism, 2 (1), 73–90.

GOLDIE, G.W., 1977. Facing the Nation: Television and Politics 1937-1976. London: Bodley Head.

HALL, S., CONNELL, I., AND CURTI, L., 1976. The “Unity” of current affairs television. In: Culture and Domination: Cultural Studies 9. Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham.

HOLLAND, P., 2001. Authority and authenticity: redefining television current affairs. In: M. BROMLEY ed. No News is Bad News. London: Pearson Education.

LINDLEY, R., 2002. Panorama: Fifty Years of Pride and Paranoia. London: Politicos.

NEGRINE, R., 1998. TV and the Press Since 1945. Manchester University Press: Documents in Contemporary History Series.

POTTER, J., 1989. Independent Television in Britain. Vol. 3. Politics and control 1968-1980. London: Macmillan.

POTTER, J., 1990. Independent Television in Britain. Vol. 4. Companies and programmes 1968-80. London: Macmillan.

SENDALL, B., 1982. Independent Television in Britain. Vol. 1. Origin and foundation 1946-62. London: Macmillan.

SENDALL, B., 1983. Independent Television in Britain. Vol. 2. Expansion and change 1958-68. London: Macmillan.

TAYLOR, P., 1979. Reporting Northern Ireland. In: Campaign for Free Speech on Ireland, eds. The British Media and Ireland: Truth, the First Casualty London: Information on Ireland. Reprinted from Index on Censorship. Vol 7 No 6 London 1978

TAYLOR, P., 1980. Beating the Terrorists? Interrogation in Omagh, Gough and Castlereagh. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

TAYLOR, P., 1984. Smoke Ring: the Politics of Tobacco. London: Bodley Head.

TRACEY, M., 1983. In the Culture of the Eye: 10 Years of Weekend World London: Hutchinson

TRACEY, M., 1998. The Decline and Fall of Public Service Broadcasting. Oxford: OUP

TUNSTALL, J., 1993. Television Producers. London: Routledge.

WEGG-PROSSER, V., 2002. This Week in 1956: the introduction of current affairs on ITV. In: Janet Thumim, ed. Small Screens, Big Ideas: Television in the 1950s. London: I.B.Tauris.

WINDLESHAM, D.J. AND RAMPTON, R., 1989. The Windlesham/Rampton Report on Death on the Rock. London: Faber and Faber.