Dale's Death-UK Broadcast

[Martin2013]

I recently acquired the episode where Baby Dale died, recorded from the Carlton region in November 1993.

Its been suggested a number of times before that this episode had the credits cut by ITV but the recording I recently acquired has them in full.

Were the credits for this episode only cut in some regions with Carlton maybe retaining them or am I maybe thinking of a different episode which had a networked cut?

The episode I acquired is the one where the recap shows Pippa discovering Dale unconscious and frantically calling out for Bobby and the episode ends with Pippa sitting alone looking sad.  Is this the same one?

On a side note, I also have two episodes taped from Carlton in December 1993 and both have full credits suggesting that whatever happened to the credits on the episodes surrounding Dale's death, Carlton subsequently restored the full credits for a while longer.

Edited February 14 by Martin2013

[Old H&A Fan]

That was Episode 1222

[Red Ranger 1]

On 14/02/2026 at 09:07, Martin2013 said:

Were the credits for this episode only cut in some regions with Carlton maybe retaining them or am I maybe thinking of a different episode which had a networked cut?

It was actually the following episode that had the credits cut, to make room for an extended recap. The episode you've got had no evening showing, for reasons I can't remember offhand.

[Martin2013]

Thanks for advising me of this.

Interestingly the copy of Episode 1222 that I recently acquired didn't have the Carlton Logo at the end but instead had a slide for a 'Cot Death' support service.

Was the dropping of the evening showing a planned or unplanned event does anyone know?

Off topic but on the same tape there is an episode of A Country Practice from (I believe) the same day and on that occasion the credits are fade out before the end.

Edited February 21 by Martin2013

[Old H&A Fan]

I remember the cot death support service notice appearing in the credits in the original showing of that episode, and was left out in the 7TWO repeat.

Edited February 22 by Old H&A Fan
Australia not UK

[Martin2013]

Was that on ITV or on Channel 7?

Seemed to be common for TV networks to do that sort of thing after a particularly emotional episode.  On the same day,l (I think) ITV had a notice at the end of ACP about a 'Drug support' service suggesting that this topic had featured heavily in the episode and the previous year the BBC did it following the Neighbours episode where Harold had a heart attack and Dorothy gave him CPR!

Have noticed that around this time, ITV sometimes advertised a H&A information line where viewers could call and get updates on the story.

Edited February 22 by Martin2013

[Old H&A Fan]

2 hours ago, Martin2013 said:

Was that on ITV or on Channel 7?

That was Channel 7 in Australia

[CaptainHulk]

On 21/02/2026 at 13:40, Martin2013 said:

Thanks for advising me of this.

Interestingly the copy of Episode 1222 that I recently acquired didn't have the Carlton Logo at the end but instead had a slide for a 'Cot Death' support service.

Was the dropping of the evening showing a planned or unplanned event does anyone know?

Off topic but on the same tape there is an episode of A Country Practice from (I believe) the same day and on that occasion the credits are fade out before the end.

ACP got its credits trimmed too

[Martin2013]

On 22/02/2026 at 16:41, Old H&A Fan said:

That was Channel 7 in Australia

Thanks for clarifying this. Presumably the ones on Channel 7 and ITV were different if nothing else due to the phone numbers.

5 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

ACP got its credits trimmed too

I'm aware that this started happening around the beginning of 1994 (and potentially at the same time as the H&A credits started getting cut) but on the whole, Carlton seemed to still be airing the credits to both shows in full as of December 1993.

Edited February 23 by Martin2013

[James Martin]

I can help here!

The episode where Dale actually died, 1222, was only shown at lunchtime.  This was because of European football; Manchester United were playing Galatasary away in what's now known infamous "Welcome To Hell" match in football circles.  Turkey being 2 hours ahead of the UK, the kick-off was at 5:30pm, so truncated ITN & Regional news bulletins took up 5:00-5:20 with the match coverage beginning after that.

The single showing did have a support slide after it, but I'm not sure whether ITV or Channel 7 put it there.

Consequently, because of that lunchtime only showing, ITV edited an extended recap onto the start of Episode 1223 to bring viewers up to speed, having missed a key episode.  This went on for a good 3 or 4 minutes and was definitely done at our end, when I watched it on the 7Two run it was far shorter.

In the Central region, the credits cut in on the final "You know we belong together" (not the final coda/"oooo-ooooh" that was the edit point when this became a full time thing) and I assume were dropped in order to fit in the extended recap.  I imagine a number of scenes were also edited for time to avoid the episode particularly over-running.

If anyone's got a recording of 1223 taped off ITV it would be interesting to see.  I imagine your taping was done by a fan keen not to miss the episode!

There's been other occasions where ITV were only showing the episode at lunchtime; often due to sport (there were several preemptions during the 1999 Rugby World Cup) but I do recall Carlton dropping the evening showing the day before Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, with special London Tonight programmes bookending the ITN bulletin and The Queen's speech.  Central showed H&A at 6pm at the time and I distinctly remember them going straight into H&A off the back of The Queen, whereas now you'd have half an hour of analysis of said speech.  When evening showings were dropped in individual regions, again that region would usually start with an extended recap but the rest of the country got the normal episode.

ACP was never networked; like with S&D & Young Doctors, each part of the country was at a completely different point in the story* so individual regions did their own thing with the credits.  Several would just hack out to their Presentation slide.  Indeed Home & Away was the only Australian show properly networked (albeit with variations in transmission times.)

* Yorkshire and Tyne Tees merged their playout departments in early 1993 and shunted all Australian serials (and Blockbusters, of all things) forward to whichever station was furthest ahead.  A 4 minute précis of the missing episodes was shown beforehand.  Likewise Channel switched their network feed from TSW to TVS for technical & advertising reasons in 1986 meaning on some shows they had to jump forward and on some they actually had to jump back.