Mersey Television

Mersey Television is a British television production company, founded by renowned producer and writer Phil Redmond in the early 1980s. Its first major production was the soap opera Brookside for Channel 4, which ran from the channel's foundation in 1982 until 2003, when it was taken off air due to declining ratings. A spin-off ('soap bubble') of Brookside was produced in 1987: Damon and Debbie.

Related Topics:
British - Television - Phil Redmond - 1980s - Soap opera - Brookside - Channel 4 - 1982 - 2003 - 1987 - Damon and Debbie

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In the 1990s, the company began producing a second soap opera for the same channel, Hollyoaks, which still runs as of 2005. Both of these series were created by Redmond himself, and in 2003 the company took over production of another series he had created, the children's drama Grange Hill, which had first been broadcast on BBC One in 1978 and had been made in-house by the BBC until Mersey Television took over. The company moved production of the series to their Liverpool base, with the fictional school no longer being established as in London but instead its location in the UK was no longer specified.

Related Topics:
1990s - Hollyoaks - 2005 - 2003 - Grange Hill - BBC One - 1978 - Liverpool - London

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In the 1992 ITV network franchise auction, Mersey Television made an audacious bid against holders Granada Television for the North-West England franchise, which had been Granada's ever since the inception of independent television in the 1950s, with Granada one of the biggest and most established of the ITV companies. However, although Mersey bid more money for the franchise, the licence stayed with Granada as the Independent Television Commission declared that the Mersey Television bid did not meet the required quality threshold.

Related Topics:
1992 - ITV - Granada Television - 1950s - Independent Television Commission

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Mersey Television was bought by All3Media in June 2005.

Related Topics:
All3Media - June - 2005

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