Cliff and Friends

Although ITV Schools began in 1957, much of it is very rare, hence all you will see here is what we could get hold of! Much of what is out there is quite repetitive, so we have curated the most interesting or entertaining clips only.

ITV Schools aired from 9.30am-12pm until 1987, when it aired from 9.25am.

Around the turn of the 21st century, Channel 4 wanted more commercially appealing morning output, as adverts were banned during schools programming.

Coupled with the increasing prevalence of myriad multimedia teaching resources, Channel 4 Learning – as it was called by this point – became less viable and was transferred to a graveyard slot of around 04:30-06:00 weekday mornings, a commercially unviable timeslot. The idea was teachers would record these programmes overnight.

The strand was eventually retired altogether in 2009.

ITV Schools was probably most famous in its early Channel 4 & S4C era for its iconic rotomotion sequence, which used computer artistery techniques that were state-of-the-art at the time.

This was a big leap forward from ITV’s somewhat old-fashioned presentation which had changed very little since 1959, other than the advent of colour television.

The rotomotion era is also famous for the use of the compositions ‘The Journey’ and ‘Just A Minute’, both composed by ‘James Aldenham’ AKA Brian Bennett, drummer with the band The Shadows.

Brian composed many pieces and incidental music for TV over the years including ‘Birds Of A Feather’, ‘New Tricks’ and ‘BBC Sport’.

A third track, thought to be a library track, was also used in the early days of ITV Schools on 4 but its origins are unknown. The branding was updated in 1993, with an industrial drone complete with reverbed bleeps over still, 30-second promos.

These survived Channel 4’s 1996 rebrand but were updated and renamed 4Learning when Channel 4 updated its look again in 1999. 4Schools was renamed 4Learning in 2000, and the final revamp of Schools happened in 2002, lasting all the way to the end of its run.

The latter day promos and idents for Channel 4 Learning are notably more colourful and friendly than the interesting but somewhat obscure predecessor package, and really did offer some quite stunning visuals for the time.

Sadly TV schools programming is obsolete in the internet age, but here’s to the heady days of brilliant presentational music, dry documentaries and massive TVs on wheeled trollies in classrooms up and down the country!

Please note that this megamix includes no substantial inter-programming content, only opening and closing credits from a small number of shows and some brief content. It mostly consists of ITV Schools continuity. A small number of fantastic mocks are also included.

All content is owned by ITV/Channel 4/S4C/Brian Bennett etc., and we own none of the Schools content used in this video. No copyright infringement of any kind is intended.

For entertainment purposes only

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