Freedom of the Air (TV series)

Freedom of the Air is an Anglosovic television drama created by Alan Ives, Chris Pierce, & Ian Morley. It was broadcast on ITV from 3rd May 2012 to 20th February 2018. The series follows management and production staff of Anaron Television, a fictional ITV franchise taking the place of Granadia Television, over the course of 8 years. Morley plays Anaron's director of programmes and eventual chairman Albert Wentworth, while Pierce plays Anaron Journal reporter later turned Prying Eye host Francis Ffolkes. Freedom of the Air was a co-production between 33North and Ives/Pierce/Morley's Alchia Productions.

The story of the series was concluded in the 2019 film Freedom of the Air.

Etymology
The name of the series is derived from the editorial from the first issue of the TV Times, which claimed that "Television is at last given the true freedom of the air."

Series 1
Following a DVD-exclusive episode following Anaron's founders bidding for and winning the North West franchise, the programme begins the day of the channel's launch - 3rd May 1956.

Series 2
The second series, set in 1958, begins with Anaron management having to decide between making cuts to the news department or to Lanzish-language programming.

Wentworth is approached by a young screenwriter named Ken Jones to discuss a spec script for a soap opera revolving around a department store. After a grueling interview with Jones, he agrees to commission 13 episodes of the series for filming starting in the new year.

Series 3
The main plot arc of the third series, set in 1962, is the troubled production of the third series of Anaron's flagship soap opera Wilkinsons of Dirmingham.

In the middle of the season, comedic duo Fortnum and Mason (Tom Wilson and Hugh Carson respectively, played in a cameo appearance by comedic duo Mitchell and Webb) come to the station to star in a new sketch comedy series, Courtesy of Fortnum & Mason. However, it soon becomes clear that the duo's comedic sensibilities are beginning to diverge radically, with Fortnum becoming more forward-thinking while Mason believes they'd be better off sticking to the formula they've used since their early days. Anaron's first head of comedy Sarah Bircham (Melanie Sayer) is forced to become a mediator between the two. Eventually, Fortnum and Mason come to realize that through combining their comedic styles, they could end up creating an entirely new style of Anglosovic comedy. Reinvigorated, the two begin work on Courtesy of Fortnum & Mason anew.

Throughout the season, Francis deals with having to choose between his chief anchor job at Anaron Journal or hosting duties for Anaron's new current affairs series Prying Eye. In the end, he chooses Prying Eye.

Series 4
The fourth and final series, set in 1965, begins with Wentworth having been promoted to chairman of Anaron Television.

Francis finds the new head of news at Anaron is attempting to steer Prying Eye away from its investigative format, and rallies his fellow newscasters to fight these changes to the programme.

The series, and the programme, ends with Prying Eye successfully protected from softening up and Wentworth being in the running for an OBE.