Government-imposed restrictions on daytime broadcasting hours meant that television would close down frequently during the daytime, and sometimes for a few hours at a time. They also occurred due to budgetary constrictions. The eventual relaxation of these rules meant that afternoon closedowns ceased permanently on the ITV network in October 1972. The BBC took a long time to abandon the practice, and did not commence a full daytime service until the autumn of 1986.
A full night-time closedown sequence on British television typically contained information about the following day's schedule, perhaps a weather forecast and/or a news update, possibly a Public Information Film and finally, a look at the station clock and the national anthem. You might also have a book or poetry reading by a well-known actor.
In the 1950s, the BBC Television Service ended with the closing bars of Eric Coates' Television March [Spotify link], before the national anthem. From the late 1960s until September 1980, the English regions outside London and the South East ran their own closedown sequences on weekdays, generally including a late news and weather bulletin, but also - depending on the region - features such as an events guide, competitions and a BBC2-style picture montage accompanied by easy listening music.
On BBC One, the sequence included a rundown of the following evening's schedule, the national weather forecast and a public information film (Monday to Thursday nights only). A closing announcement wishing goodnight to viewers and pointing them towards BBC radio services on air through the night would be made over the clock and finally a rendition of the National Anthem, played out over the ident (before the 1960s, played over a shot of the Queen). This ended in November 1997 when BBC News 24 launched, and the news station has filled the overnight BBC One downtime ever since.
On BBC Two, a look at the following evening's schedule, or occasionally instead by news of individual programmes/films related to the output that had just ended, was followed by a closing announcement over the station clock. BBC2 never closed with the National Anthem and the clock just faded to black following the closing announcement, although picture montages accompanied by easy listening music regularly followed the closing announcement until the early 1980s, after which such montages were only transmitted very rarely. From 1994 to 1998, one of the idents and stings would play in full following the clock before the fade to black. On nights in which Open University programmes were the last programmes on that night, the OU ident was played at closedown, followed by the usual fade to black. This procedure was discontinued when The Learning Zone started airing OU programmes during the night. From October 1995 until the completion of digital switchover, some parts of the overnight dead air time were filled by Ceefax, the BBC's Teletext service.
Most ITV regional programming closed with the National Anthem. Granada and Central played out with special arrangements of their station themes. TSW also used their station theme "That's Soul, Write" (YouTube link) as part of their closing sequence. Thames played either easy listening, popular or instrumental library music over a programme menu and the clock. Scottish also used various pieces of library music for playout during a rundown of programmes for the next day but still ended with the national anthem. Border and Yorkshire chose to simply fade out following the closedown announcement accompanied by the station clock.
Grampian, Ulster and Border also signed off with late regional news bulletins read by the duty announcer. For a time, a farming news bulletin, Farming Brief, ran as part of TVS's closing sequence. Most regions also signed off with a weather forecast whilst Westward and TSW also provided a Shipping Forecast. Westward also aired short bumpers of Loeki – a cartoon lion whose adventures had bookended the advert breaks on Dutch public television since the early 1970s – prior to switching off the main transmission stream. Some regions (namely Central, Grampian, Granada, LWT, Scottish, TSW, Tyne Tees and Yorkshire) also included a short announcement advertising Independent Local Radio stations in their respective areas as part of their closing sequences.
A special handover was done on Thames when handing over to London Weekend Television. In the black-and-white phase, the announcer at the end of the Thames schedule for Friday (6:59pm) announced that broadcasts resumed on Monday morning without mentioning LWT. LWT on its behalf opened with an authority announcement, as if it were a morning start-up. After the start of colour broadcasts, the formalities had been toned down.
The ITV regions gradually switched to 24-hour television between 1986 and 1988, under a directive issued by the IBA. Yorkshire Television was first to go round the clock showing programmes from the satellite station Music Box. However, Music Box shut down at the start of 1987 and YTV went back to a nightly closedown although it did air a Teletext information service called Jobfinder for an hour after sign-off. In August 1987, Thames/LWT and Anglia began through-the-night broadcasting (Thames had already extended broadcast hours to around 4 am earlier in 1987). The other major regions including Granada, Central, Yorkshire and TVS slowly followed suit during the first half of 1988, although many had been broadcasting until around 3 am for some time, especially at the weekend. By the start of September 1988 the last regions – Tyne Tees, Border, TSW and Grampian went 24 hours although Ulster did not start round-the-clock broadcasting until October 3, 1988. Some overnight programming slots, typically between around 4 am and 5 am, were filled with Jobfinder, which some regions adopted and others did not, and, between 1998 and 2021, ITV Nightscreen.
Channel 4 closed down with the clock and a play-out of the exploding station ident before fading to black and after a minute or so the Channel 4 testcard appeared. Channel 4 was the only TV station to show the testcard at closedown as the BBC just radiated tone for ten minutes after closedown before the transmitters were switched off for the night. Channel 4 (which, at launch in 1982, was usually closed for around sixteen hours a day) began its 24-hour service on January 6, 1997, after a year of gradually expanding its overnight hours.