Spode Under the name 'Spode Ltd' the same factories and business was continued after 1970. In 2006, the business merged with Royal Worcester. The merged company entered administration on 6 November 2008. The brand names and intellectual property were acquired by Portmeirion Group on 23 April 2009. On 23 April 2009, Portmeirion Pottery purchased their rival Royal Worcester and Spode brands, together with some of the stock, after they had been placed into administration the previous November. The purchase did not include Royal Worcester or Spode manufacturing facilities. Many items in Spode's Blue Italian and Woodland ranges are now made at
The Owl Service (TV series) The Owl Service (TV series) The Owl Service is an eight-part television series based on the fantasy novel of the same name by Alan Garner. Produced in 1969 and televised over the winter of 1969–1970, the series was remarkably bold in terms of production. It was the first fully scripted colour production by Granada Television and was filmed almost entirely on location at a time when almost all TV drama was studio-bound. It used editing techniques such as jump cuts to create a sense of disorientation and also to suggest that two time periods overlapped. For the series, the book