Cinema newsreels
Though not strictly anything to do with Television, historical value demands the inclusion of this section devoted to Newsreels which would be screened at cinemas, before a movie, a week or so after the match.

27/09/2020 Notts County 2 (Humphreys, Ross) Middlesbrough 0
The earliest known film footage of a Notts match is this Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon (Norden Films) production which is described as follows "Main (replacement) title (00.08). Game in progress. Nottingham wears vertically-striped shirts and dark shorts; Middlesbrough wears white shorts and dark shirts. There are large signs for Newton's perambulators, Westgate Road around the ground. Large crowds. At one end of the pitch is a long, tall industrial-looking building. The covered stand has another small, pagoda-like- stand built into the roof. The match is filmed from both wings and at the goal-mouth of Notts County."
This was a top-flight match probably played at Trent Bridge (or possibly the City Ground), it was estimated to have been watched by around 10,000 and the victory put Notts on top of the First Division. Parts of the film (crowd only) were included on a DVD "Mitchell & Kenyon: Edwardian Sports" in 2007.

26/03/2020 Huddersfield Town 3 Notts County 1 (Hill) (FA Cup Semi-Final)
Since winning the competition in 1894, Notts had done poorly in the FA Cup until this epic campaign of 1922. Second Division Notts had battled through no less than 9 matches (including 5 replays) to reach this Semi-final. The action was shot at Burnley's Turf Moor, a supposed neutral venue that involved considerably less travelling for supporters of their First Division opponents. Over 46,000 attended. Harold Hill, signed from a Hucknall miners club, scored the Notts goal in what was to remain as County's best Cup run of the 1900's. Although Notts were denied a place in the final (the very last to be played at a League ground before it would be staged at Wembley stadium) County were to achieve success the following season by winning promotion to the top flight as champions.

20/02/2020 Notts County 0 Fulham 1 (FA Cup 5th Round)
Titled "Fulham fight hard" this Pathe newsreel is the earliest known surviving film shot at Meadow Lane, the referee is seen shaking hands with the two team captains (The Notts skipper is wearing the period Chevron shirt) followed by various shots of the match taken from behind the Kop-end goal with the Fulham keeper making lots of saves, the recently opened County Road Stand can be seen in the background. Notts Goalkeeping legend Albert Iremonger, who had the road that runs behind our away stand named after him, played in this match but sadly he was not captured on this film.
Notts were relegated at the end of 1925/26, nobody could have imagined then that only the youngest Notts supporters would live to see their team grace the highest level again.

Another film of Notts in the 1920's (playing against Crystal Palace) is also thought to exist.
Footage of Notts in the 1930's was shown at an exhibition of football history given at Nottingham Castle in 1983 courtesy of the Nottingham Historical Film Unit. It showed a few fleeting glimpses of players running onto the pitch and kicking off. The main owner of the Film Unit died some years ago but the collection should still be in existence.

15/11/2020 Northampton Town 1 Notts County 2 (Lawton,Marsh)
Notts may have been languishing in the 3rd Division South, but they were now back in the big time thanks to the surreal signing of England's most famous striker, Tommy Lawton. His Notts debut was captured on film by Pathe, scenes included general views of the huge crowd of spectators as well as various shots of the game spotlighting Lawton.

29/11/2020 Notts County 9 (Lawton 3,Sewell 3, Marsh 2, Freeman) Horsham 1 (FA Cup Round 1)
Lawton's FA Cup debut for Notts was filmed by British Movietone. The film opens with  Lawton walking into camera in civilian clothes and overcoat and is seen signing autographs. On the field  Lawton and Hughes (Horsham) shake hands, toss up and Kick off, there are various shots of Lawton attacking the Horsham end plus goals and cut-ins of cheering crowds.

07/01/2020 Notts County 1 (Johnston) Burnley 4 (FA Cup 3rd Round)
A Pathe film once again focussing on Tommy Lawton, the Notts hero is seen chatting with fans outside the ground and showing his England caps and medals with Mrs Lawton, players are seen leaving the dressing room, some of the 44,000 crowd are seen entering the ground through the turnstiles and match action includes the Notts goal scored by Johnston after a pass from Lawton.
Notts had entered the 1950's with a temporary blip of defeats, but they were soon back to winning ways and as champions they were finally promoted (as only champions at this level were). With Forest attracting smaller crowds and now a Division below, Notts cemented their position as Nottingham's chief club.

02/02/2020 Notts County 1 (Lawton) Portsmouth 3 (FA Cup 4th Round)
British Paramount filmed this Cup tie, the scenes are described as follows......
"Crowd / Fighting crowd / Policemen trying to organize crowd / Mounted policemen on edge of pitch / Notts County kick off /  Play in Portsmouth half, player slithers over on ice, ball goes out of play / Type with pipe / Play around Notts County goal / Gaillard scores Portsmouth's first goal after 5 minutes / 2 young Notts supporters looking grim /  Crookes of Notts County & Gunter of Portsmouth, dribbling in Portsmouth half / Gunter gets ball & passes it to goal area. Tommy Lawton heads it in, scoring equalizer for Notts in 8 minutes / Play around Notts goal, Mundy scores Portsmouth's 2nd. goal, Crowd cheer /  Play round Portsmouth goal, Notts score an off-side goal / Crowd / Play round Notts goal, Play, ball is passed, Reid scores 3rd goal for Pompey."

20/12/2020 Notts County 2 (Evans, K McPherson) Leicester City 2
With the Lawton era now over, British Movietone filmed this old 2nd Division Midlands derby.

03/01/2020 Nottingham Forest 1 Notts County 0
Forest had quickly re-joined Notts in the 2nd tier and in this match gained revenge for the 3-2 defeat earlier in the season, the Pathe film includes match action and plenty of crowd shots.

19/02/2020 Notts County 1 (Broadbent) Chelsea 0 (FA Cup 5th Round)
A suggested newsreel that sadly I can find no record of.

12/03/2020 Notts County 0 York City 1 (FA Cup Quarter Final)
Notts record attendance of 47,310 witnessed this cup upset. Pathe cameras caught sight of two disallowed goals for offside (one for each side) and the pitch invasion that greeted the final whistle. British Movietone were also there and this film shows "Kick-off. Notts on the offensive and seen opening the attack. Tommy Forgan, York goalie makes a save. Now York fight back. Second half - York attacking the Notts goal. The winning goal which Arthur Bottom scores from a mix-up involving Bill Hughes and Sid Storey. The crowd surge onto the pitch to congratulate the 3rd Division winners."

All of the above Pathe newsreels can be downloaded from Pathe's site

The Dawn of Television
The first transmission of a moving image had been achieved by John Logie Baird in England back in 1924, the BBC became involved with television in 1930 and they began the first true public high definition 405-line broadcasting service six years later, but only those living in and around London could tune in and, at the time, there were only thought to be around 2,000 "Televisor" sets in use around the entire world.

Horses passing the winning post at the Derby had been the first outside broadcast in 1931, experiments with other sports - including reserve team football - soon followed. The first landmark football broadcast was the 1938 FA Cup final between Preston North End and Huddersfield Town which was screened live in it's entirety. Although Television was still only available to the privileged few, the Football League (as with many entertainment institutions of the day) were deeply uncomfortable with the idea of Television, fearing it may affect attendance's, and so football would remain a very rare treat on the box until the mid-1950's.

The 1950's
It wasn't until December 1949 that watchable TV transmissions could be picked up in Nottingham with the building of the UK's 2nd TV mast at Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham. On January 1st 1950 there were still only 340,000 television licence holders and just 2 transmitters, yet by the end of the decade there were 10.5 million licence holders and 33 transmitters now covering all but the most remote and sheltered parts of the UK.

As far as the general public were concerned, 1953 was the year Television truly arrived, Queen Elizabeth's coronation that year was the event that convinced the masses that Television was now as essential as Radio. The 1953 FA Cup final, in which Stanley Matthews and Blackpool defeated Nat Lofthouse and Bolton Wanderers 4-3, was many viewers first experience of watching football on TV.

 In 1954 the BBC launched "Saturday Sports Special", a weekly late night series that was the first programme to regularly include football league highlights, although they were only allowed to show 5 minutes from each game (10 minutes in exceptional circumstances) and they sometimes missed goals whilst changing the film reels!

05/12/2020 Notts County 0 Bath City 1  (FA Cup 2nd Round)
                  commentator: Ken Wolstenholme for BBC television
It was Saturday Sports special that covered Notts on television for the first time and the cameras captured what the producer had probably been hoping for, a Non-league upset (three years earlier Notts had been knocked out by another Non-league outfit, Rhyl). The commentator, who had rosettes of both teams pinned to his lapels whilst introducing the game, would later go on to spout those famous words "They think it's all over, it is now" at the 1966 World Cup final.
*Note: Matches were still being recorded onto film rather than videotape in 1959 (video was still in its' infancy at the time) but it's unlikely that any footage of Notts first televised match was kept, even if it was - the BBC junked a huge percentage of their archive when the tape and film library moved premises in the early 1970's.

County's televised FA Cup embarrassment illuminated the troubled times Notts now found themselves in. A double relegation to the newly created Division Four had come at the worst possible time as neighbours Nottingham Forest won promotion to the top flight and then proceeded to win the FA Cup. The repercussions were to be felt throughout the next decade to almost fatal degrees.

The arrival of Commercial television
There was still only one channel available (BBC Television) until the staggered addition of local commercial stations. Between 1955 and 1962, thirteen independent television stations were set up to provide regional services funded by advertising, the Midlands was the 2nd region to get a commercial service when ATV (Monday to Friday) and the weekend channel ABC began sharing a transmitter at Lichfield in 1956, but it was some time before they showed any football.

The 1960's
15/11/2020 Margate 1 Notts County 1 (Loxley) FA Cup 2nd Round
                  Televised by either Southern, Anglia, Rediffusion or possibly the BBC
The matchday programme for the replay at Meadow Lane (which Notts won 3-1) referred to the drawn match at Margate.... "The press & television cameras were there in force to witness what they expected to be another giant-killing act......", whether the pictures formed the basis for highlights or just a news report is not known.

??/??/1962 Centenary Programme - Title & channel unknown
One Notts supporter recalled that a special programme commemorating Notts' centenary was screened on Television, Trevor Wooley remembers "My only memory of it was the end scene where a young lad about my age was kicking one of the old plastic tea-cups up County Road past the wooden fence behind the stand. I associated with that, as I used to do it as well.". County were, of course, the first League club to reach the 100 year landmark which must have attracted a good deal of media attention, for certain there was a BBC radio special broadcast on 24/04/2020.

Match of the Day begins on BBC2.
Frustrated at still only being able to offer 5 minutes worth of highlights, the BBC finally dropped "Saturday Sports Special" in 1963. The following year the League agreed to allow the BBC to broadcast extended highlights, but only to an exclusive audience. "Match of the day" began on Saturday 22nd August 1964 at 6:30pm on the new higher definition (but still black & white) 625 line channel BBC2, only people living in the London area with specially adapted sets and new aerials could receive it. The first programme offered 55 minutes of videotaped highlights from Liverpool v Arsenal, yet fewer people than were actually at the game were estimated to have tuned in. For 1965/66 the programme moved to a later time slot after 10pm and the programme was shortened to 45 minutes with the League still deciding which matches would be shown. The success of the 1966 World Cup finals staged in England paved the way for a switch to BBC1 and the show would now be watched by millions. Sadly Notts County were still struggling in the 4th division and did not warrant an appearance on the programme during the 1960's.

Football on ITV
Anglia (in the East of England) and then Tyne Tees (North East) began regular highlights programmes to showcase their local teams during the early 1960's, but other regions were slow to catch onto the idea. ATV (then weekend broadcasters to the London area) began sporadic coverage of London teams in October 1965, ABC (the weekend channel for the Midlands and North) then introduced "World of Soccer" with Gerry Loftus*.

*It was also ABC who introduced Saturday afternoon sport to ITV in January 1965 with "World of Sport" (originally hosted by Eamonn Andrews, Dickie Davis took over in 1968 with production now handled by LWT) this rivalled  BBC1's "Grandstand" which had been presented by David Coleman since it first began in 1958. When Coleman began presenting "Match of the Day" in 1968, Frank Bough became the regular face of "Grandstand". That same year also saw the BBC change the title of their midweek sports programme from "Sportsview" to "Sportsnight".

Sunday Afternoon Highlights
London Weekend Television (LWT) was a new channel for the capital in 1968, their "Head of sport" was Jimmy Hill (an ex-Fulham player who had successfully campaigned against the maximum wage and had recently managed Coventry City's success). Often erroneously credited with bringing football to ITV, Hill WAS responsible for introducing "The Big Match" to regular Sunday afternoon London viewers at the start of the 1968/69 season with commentaries by Brian Moore, other regions adopted their own dedicated versions including ATV in the Midlands who showed "Star Soccer" introduced by Billy Wright with commentaries by Hugh Johns, Notts were still languishing at the foot of the 4th division at the time and were understandably ignored by the "Star Soccer" producers during the show's first few season's, but they did make an appearance on another region's football show.....

22/02/2020 Colchester United 1 (Gibbs) Notts County 1 (Butlin)
commentator: Gerald Sinstadt for ANGLIA
This was Notts first known game to be covered by an ITV station, but only viewers in the East of England* could watch highlights of this 4th Division match on ANGLIA's exclusive Sunday afternoon highlights show Match of the week. With less local teams to choose from (and most of them playing in the lower divisions), it was not so unusual for ANGLIA to regularly dip into the 3rd or 4th division. County's scorer, Barry Butlin, was on loan from Brian Clough's Derby County (he would later team up with Clough again at Forest), Brian Gibbs netted for Colchester.
Lincolnshire was still ANGLIA territory at the time (they had covered Lincoln City v Scunthorpe United the previous week), this allowed favourably positioned Nottingham households the opportunity of tuning into watchable pictures of this broadcast via the Belmont transmitter.

*In other regions that weekend, ATV in the Midlands showed Aston Villa's 1-1 draw at Charlton Athletic, GRANADA (North West) & YORKSHIRE relayed LWT's coverage of West Ham Utd 1 Liverpool 1, SOUTHERN showed a 2-2 draw between Portsmouth and Bolton Wanderers, TYNE TEES had Middlesbrough 2 Blackpool 1, HARLECH (based in Bristol & Cardiff) offered Swindon 1 Rotherham Utd 0 and even WESTWARD in the South West had their own game with Plymouth Argyle beating Tranmere Rovers 1-0.

Look! it's Meadow Lane!
Glancing at the televised fixtures for this period, TV cameras appeared to have ignored the Notts County ground in the 1960's, but this was not entirely the case, ATV covered Nottingham Forest 0 Coventry City 0 on 14th September 1968 when Forest were playing home matches at Meadow Lane after a fire had burnt down the City Ground's main stand during a match v Leeds United on 24th August 1968 (ATV covered that game too). And the Notts ground may also have been seen on Television on 8th June 1967 during Granada's "Play of the Week" during the DH Lawrence season, this particular episode was titled "Strike Pay", the synopsis reads.......
"Ephraim Wharmby is persuaded by his mates to go with them to Nottingham to watch a football match - and loses his strike-pay money on the way. He knows his wife and mother-in-law are waiting at home for him - and his money. Tom Radford goes part-way with them - to a pub on the Nottingham road - and then back home with his money almost intact. The story happens on March 13, 2020. For that was the day Notts County played Aston Villa - the game the miners go to see." An early TV appearance here for Geoffrey Hughes later to find fame as Eddie Yates in Coronation Street.

(C)2001 - 2008 Up the Maggies

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