INCREDIBLE TELEVISION CONTENT

Will Barber-Taylor tells the story of the hit-making production and distribution company ITC

- Will Barber-Taylor

While TV channels and streaming services broadcast shows, it is the companies that make them that truly define our viewing experience. While there have been many companies that have produced countless hours of excellent television, one company’s output makes them stand out in the catalogue of British television – the Incorporated Television Company (ITC).

Founded in 1954 by the infallible Lew Grade, the cigar-chomping impresario who had come up through a theatre background and worked as a showbusiness agent, the company had originally been founded with the aim of being a broadcaster for the newly founded Independent Television (ITV).

Grade and his company were unable to win the contract but ITC did, however, gain a controlling stake in the broadcaster ATV (Associated Television, called ABC for its first two weeks on air). The Associated Broadcasting Development Company (ABDC) had won the contract to broadcast at weekends in the London region, and the Midlands on weekdays, but had insufficient funds to operate it. As a result, the Independent Television Authority invited ITC to take a controlling stake in ABDC.

Grade had a knack of picking winners and he didn’t have to wait long for the first of many shows produced by ITC to come along. It would also set the tone for ITC’s most successful shows – a focus on international distribution and charismatic, leading adventurers.