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1980
What I mostly remember about early 1980's television is the weekends. Public Information Films that were relatively new in this year were the Play Safe ones voiced over by Brian Wilde, Mr Barrowclough in PORRIDGE. Telling us to keep away from 66,000-volt electric power stations and not to fly your kite near electricity pylons because the kite conducts electricity especially when wet. Swimmer David Wilkie (with a group of middle class kids) advising us to go to our local swimming baths. A repeat of the Rolf Harris job back in 1973. And the one, which features children, watching a Punch and Judy show, reminding parents of the dangers of strangers. In the world of advertising, Tommy Cooper was doing a commercial for Lego, the Kipper not a slipper animation. Someone told me that it wasn't Tommy Cooper who actually did the commercial, but an impressionist. However, Cooper did get payment for it. Not bad getting payment for something you had nothing to do with. Speaking of Tommy Cooper; at this time, he was voted the most impersonated man. That title now goes to Bruce Forsyth, I think! Here's a look at what we watched on television back in 1980:
BBC 1 saw pre BLUE PETER Janet Ellis and pre DOCTOR WHO Sylvester McCoy appeared in children's drama JIGSAW, while Diane Keen and Martin Jarvis appeared in RINGS ON THEIR FINGERS. THE WOMBLES of Wimbledon occupied the five-minute slot before the news, and PEBBLE MILL'S late night spin off, SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MILL was on just after MATCH OF THE DAY. This programme, which was mostly presented by Bob Langley, featured a vaguely remembered guest who took his trousers down and hopped around the studio like a kangaroo with them around his ankles. Chat shows do have that one difficult guest, don't they?
BBC 2 had that long running monocled Patrick Moore's THE SKY AT NIGHT. If you were interested in which position the galaxies will be in for the next month, then you should have found it interesting. If you didn't, then you're normal. We don't get much badminton on terrestrial television nowadays. I suppose that one of the satellite companies, perhaps Eurosport got hold of the rights to it many years ago. Well, the BBC must have the rights to INTERNATIONAL BADMINTON back in 1980, as it was on then. Is it a load of shuttlecock or is it just a load of ball cock?
ITV has the best of the best, when it comes to the programmes this year. That Saturday 5.15 p.m. feeling after WORLD OF SPORT gives us METAL MICKEY, a Ronnie Corbett sized robot who lives with the Wilberforce family. What about when the little ones have gone to bed? What about TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED? The British answer to ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and the opening titles of naked girls, brushing themselves near flames, roulette wheels, tarot cards and so on. Farcey storylines penned by no other than Roald Dahl. He should have just stuck to writing children's books. Apparently Dahl started to write zany stories and books when he received a bump on the head during world war two. It has to be said that Dahl's work has caused much embarrassment, especially to primary school teachers when they read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in class and pronounce the name Willy Wonka wrong due to a slip of the tongue. Take Five!
1981
For the first time since 1968, ITV was going through a few changes. Westward Television ended broadcasting on December 31st, even though its successor, Television South West or TSW took over Westward staff back in August. Programmes like GUS HONEYBUN, a local children's television programme remained in the schedules. Southern Television also ended their broadcasts on December 31st, where the new company Television South or TVS took over the following morning, taking over the Southern studios. Programmes like WORZEL GUMMAGE disappeared like most of the children's television programmes of this period made in the South. ATV also ended their broadcasts on the same date, with Central Independent Television taking over the next day. Well, they did this in the West Midlands, but the East Midlands had no ITV for about a week because of strikes over pay and manning. (Not Bernard of course!) One of the biggest television audiences covered in 1981 was for the wedding of PRINCE CHARLES and LADY DIANA SPENCER, later known as Diana, Princess of Wales. 25 million people watched it in Britain, and 750 million watched it all over the world. It's a shame that ten years later, the marriage didn't work out as expected. Remember those street parties on the corner of every street that celebrated it? Anyway, here is what else we were watching in 1981:
BBC 1 had Windsor Davies and Don Estelle whispering grass in the final series of IT AIN'T HALF HOT MUM, which inspired that 1975 chart hit. Davies was to change channels to ITV also in this year for NEVER THE TWAIN as one half of Oliver Smallbridge and Simon Peel played by Donald Sinden as antique dealers that kept him busy for the next ten years. (Not to be confused with Acorn Antiques), Victoria Wood and the like. POSTMAN PAT made his first appearance as part of the SEE SAW series of programmes. Pat and his black and white cat Jess travelled around in his red van delivering letters and parcels to Greendale. Characters included Mrs Goggins, the postmistress and handy man Ted Glenn.
BBC 2 had a great mixture of programmes, including HOCUS POCUS IT'S MAGIC, which featured amazing tricks disappearing before your very eyes. Even made a car vanish. Thieves can do exactly that, only quicker. PAUL DANIELS MAGIC SHOW, it wasn't quite.
ITV had Alastair Pirrie hosting RAZAMATAZZ, an early eighties ITV equivalent to TOP OF THE POPS, made at Tyne Tees where THE TUBE was later made. Shakin' Stevens, Toyah and Adam and the Ants were regular pop acts in residence up in Newcastle. Practical jokes were on the cards when GAME FOR A LAUGH started with Jeremy Beadle, Matthew Kelly, Henry Kelly and Sarah Kennedy. This is the show that got people always writing up to newspapers asking the big $64,000 question: Are Henry Kelly and Matthew Kelly related to each other? The answer is of course, no. Practical jokes, such as feel what's on Duncan Goodhew's head that eventually lead Beadle to have several shows of his own. Beadle remained on the second and third series, but Kennedy and the two Kelly's was replaced with Paul Daniels' nephew Martin Daniels and Rustie Lee, later to be TV-am's cook in residence, being given the boot by Bruce Gyngell after allegedly being paid to feature certain brands.
1982
ITV had three new ITV companies going on air. Central replaced ATV in the Midlands, while TVS replaced Southern in the south and TSW replaced Westward in the south west. A new television channel started broadcasting on November 2nd. Channel 4. Wales got a Welsh alternative, S4C. Here is what we were watching on television in 1982:
BBC 1 had Ronnie Barker and David Jason starring as Arkwright and Granville in OPEN ALL HOURS, with Nurse Gladys Emanuel, played by Lynda Baron. Robert Robinson decided to ASK THE FAMILY, and Terry Scott and June Whitfield appeared in TERRY AND JUNE. Stuart Hall hosted a final series of IT'S A KNOCKOUT! Kenny Everett moved to the BBC and appeared with Cleo Rocos in THE KENNY EVERETT TELEVISION SHOW. One must admit that he calmed down a little bit when he arrived at the BBC, or the Beeb as he called the corporation.
BBC 2 had the camp chat show host RUSSELL HARTY. Yes, him who was too weak to retaliate when Grace Jones hit him, was rewarded another series of his chat show. Or would you have preferred THE DISCOVERY OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR? I'd rather not know why criminals do what they do.
ITV had Robert Gillespie starring as cartoonist Dudley Rush in KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY. The cartoons he drew were of Barney - Adventures of a Bionic Bulldog. Pauline Yates and Stacy Dorning also appeared as Rush's daughters, Muriel and Susan, who lived downstairs. Michael Aspel presented the charades game GIVE US A CLUE, with Lionel Blair and Una Stubbs as team captains. They had to change their theme tune in the early 1980's, because it was exactly the same as GRANGE HILL'S. GRANGE HILL did change its theme tune in 1990, but only because it's previous one was getting out of date. Bernie Winters and dog Schnorbitz co hosted the game show WHOSE BABY? Which looked at children of well-known celebrities. Ted Rogers and Dusty Bin appeared, along with Rogers' wrist spraining gesture in 3-2-1. Regular guests included the Brian (no relation to Ted) Rogers Connection, and those hostesses known as the Gentle Secs. Contestants either got a Ford Fiesta or a new dustbin.
CHANNEL 4 began at 4.45 p.m. on Tuesday, 2nd November. Its very first programme was COUNTDOWN with Richard "Twice nightly" Whiteley and Carol Vorderman (then Mather), long before she turned up on every other programme and commercial that we watch today. Beverley Isherwood and Kathy Hytner put the letters and numbers, vowels and consonants on the board. Now Vorderman does the lot herself of course. Britian's first hour-long news CHANNEL FOUR NEWS began at 7.00 p.m., followed by BROOKSIDE at eight. Set in Liverpool, as if you didn't know! The very first COMIC STRIP PRESENTS was transmitted on the first night, showing FIVE GO MAD IN DORSET. Christmas saw the very first annual screening of Raymond Briggs' THE SNOWMAN, including the song that Aled Jones is still famous for. We're walking in the air! Shown every Christmas every since. So was FATHER CHRISTMAS. And don't forget GRANPA! Now replaced all year round by more adult animations, as in BOB AND MARGARET and so on.
1983
How many of us eat our breakfast while watching television? Quite a few of us, it seems. Unless we ate our breakfast in the evening, for we would have needed Noel Edmonds presenting THE LATE, LATE BREAKFAST SHOW. Before 1983, we could have only eaten our breakfast listening to Mike Read or Terry Wogan (on the radio, of course). Frank Bough and Selina Scott presented the BBC's BREAKFAST TIME, while over on ITV, as early as 1980 there were decisions by the IBA for the new breakfast television franchise. TV-am won it, and was on the air a couple of weeks after the BBC launched its breakfast service. TV-am had original presenters David Frost, Angela Rippon, Anna Ford (before she was sacked a couple of weeks later). Michael Parkinson, fresh out of PARKINSON presented at the weekends. Other presenters were Robert Kee, who originally read the news, later to be replaced by Gordon Honeycombe. (An allegedly bald headed newsreader, who was accused by a viewer of calling himself after another TV-am newsreader, Geoff Meade). Wincy Willis did the weather, later to be replaced by Ulrika Jonsson. "Mad" Lizzie Webb got us doing those daily exercises. Falling ratings in the company's children's television output made the then executive Greg Dyke to introduce ROLAND RAT. Later, that other TV-am executive Bruce Gyngell caused all the staff on strike and mayhem and eventually made the company loose its franchise. What a nice man he is! Here is what else we were watching on television back in 1983:
BBC 1 was repeating that bald headed person in a dress called BOD. (That can't be Gordon Honeycombe under a false name, is it?) George Layton was narrating the stories on PIDGEON STREET, and the MR. MEN, or its full title was LITTLE MISSES AND MISTER MEN, gave Roger Hargreaves' characters a new lease of life on television. The late Arthur Lowe narrated, of course.
BBC 2 was showing the programmes for schools and colleges during the day, so nothing's changes there. Except that the great Sheena Easton kept the children quiet while waiting for their programme to start. A caption such as LOOK AND READ follows shortly appears on the screen, with the sound of "My baby takes the morning train…" Or "She's a modern girl…" Makes a change from the Radio 3 school of music, doesn't it?
ITV had not only Michael Parkinson working for TV-am, but doing a ten-minute mid day children's programme called THE WOOFITS. Ten minutes later, an unknown actor called Stephen Boxer, who played DCI Thorndike in PRIME SUSPECT, worked opposite the better known actress Beryl Reid and a green cat puppet in GET UP AND GO! Wayne Jackman and other out of work student actors were saved from signing on the dole by adapting MEN BAHAVING BADLY to the under five age group in LET'S PRETEND. I thought it was rubbish when it was on. I still do.
CHANNEL 4 had a Jilly Goolden forerunner in THE WINE PROGRAMME featuring Jancis Robinson. Yes, that was the time when wine never tasted like a wet nappy, unless it was your wine! Get it? Or would you like Gus Macdonald, now an executive at Scottish Television, who had live coverage from the TUC '83 conference at Blackpool. I thought that TUC was those biscuits made by McVities!
1984
George Orwell wrote a book about a specific year in the future. He chose 1984, which is what we are choosing to talk about now. The year that Tommy Cooper died live on air during a performance of LIVE FROM HER MAJESTY'S in the middle of his act. He went just like that! One half of MORECAMBE AND WISE also died. Eric Morecambe, the tall spectacled one was only 58, and they had been well known as a double act for their contribution to comedy. Two funnymen that we lost in the same year. People usually complain of too many repeats on television all the time, but when it comes to these delightful talents recorded on tape in many television companies archives, one would not complain of these shows being repeated too often. These people won't come back to do any more, will they? So these are our souvenirs for what they left behind during their lifetime for us, and future generations. The minors' strike of 1984 hasn't got any significant relevance to what was on television, except that it was on the news in this year. Let's look at the old television guides and see what was on television back in 1984:
BBC 1 saw Terry Wogan, soon to be replaced by Les Dawson helping celebrities to fill in the blanks in BLANKETY BLANK, while Ronnie Corbett starred as Timothy Lumsden, the 41 year old librarian Mummy's boy in SORRY! Paul Daniels was doing one of his non-magic shows, when he was asking which one was the ODD ONE OUT. John Nettles was appearing as the Channel Islands detective in BERGERAC. We then went to take a trip to watch and listen to those animal sounds with Derek Griffiths in HEADS AND TAILS. They were probably going to call the programme Head and Shoulders, but as there was a shampoo that was available in the shops with the same name, the BBC thought it might be advertising. They could have called it Matey, (after the bubble bath) though, after all dear Derek Griffiths has been mates to all kids for many years!
BBC 2 saw a second series of THE YOUNG ONES starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, where just two years later, they teamed up with Cliff Richard to sing a version of Living Doll. It probably serves Cliff right to have a hit actually called The Young Ones back in 1962. Thank goodness the song wasn't called Men Behaving Badly! Robert Robinson chaired more word baiting and definitions from around the world in CALL MY BLUFF.
ITV had school leavers wanting a P in BLOCKBUSTERS, before putting themselves onto the Hotspot (no relation to STRIKE IT LUCKY) to win and get a skiing holiday in Southern France, or to fail and get a BLOCKBUSTERS sweater or a leather-bound dictionary, and later a filofax. Remember the audience hand jiving at the end of every week? The deaf community probably thought that the credits were in sign language!
CHANNEL 4 had former BLUE PETER presenter Peter Purves presenting BABBLE, another one of those mid 1980's celebrity panel word games from the CALL MY BLUFF genre (see BBC 2), while later on, Ted Danson was running the Boston bar in CHEERS. Former GOODIE Graham Garden hosted TELL THE TRUTH, where one of three people is telling the truth. (Again, see BBC2). COUNTDOWN was seen for the first time on a Friday. Before this, it was only on Monday to Thursday.
1985
The year that ITV celebrated thirty years on the air. (Well, in the London area, at least!) BBC 2 came of age with 21 years on television and it was also the year that the BBC started a six-month experiment of televising proceedings in the House of Lords. As late as 1985, we still had PAGES FROM CEEFAX on BBC 1 in the mornings and sometimes BBC 2 in the afternoons to fill those gaps that were not occupied by the programmes. A sort of test card for the 1980's! Watching these pages, which revolved every thirty seconds when I was ill in bed, inspired me to get my very own television with teletext ten years later! PAGES FROM CEEFAX were sometimes not listed in some newspapers as a television programme. Channel 4's PAGES FROM 4-TEL did literally the same thing in the afternoons in the mid 1980's, if there wasn't any racing going on in the afternoons, waiting for COUNTDOWN to start a couple of hours later. The music that accompanied the pages seems to be forgotten, mostly as they used so many different tunes. Meanwhile, here is what we were watching on television back in 1985:
BBC 1 had Terry doing his thrice-weekly stint on WOGAN, which first became a Saturday evening PARKINSON filler. Terry, who never had any difficult guests like Rod Hull and Emu, or Grace Jones, (should I say that they were never difficult to him), did over 1000 editions of the peak time chat show, until it was axed to make way for ELDORADO. He gave up his breakfast show job on Radio 2 just to present it, with Derek Jameson in the chair for much of the time. The pre NEIGHBOURS slot was taken up with ROLF HARRIS CARTOON TIME, where he just drawn a Warner Brothers cartoon character like BUGS BUNNY, while we watched a cartoon starring the same character. The BBC must have seen the 5.35 p.m. slot for all things Australian, so they put NEIGHBOURS in it, soon afterwards.
BBC 2 had its regional slant on Britain explored in LOOK STRANGER! With hobbies like craft activities and things like that. While the late Dennis Potter had an excellent adaptation of TENDER IS THE NIGHT on Monday nights.
ITV had Gordon Burns, presenting THE KRYPTON FACTOR, with much of the observation rounds, including dexterity, the assault course and the 100 second general knowledge round at the end. Beryl Reid, fresh out of MOONCAT AND CO played Grandma Mole in THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE, AGED THIRTEEN AND THREE QUARTERS. Glan Sammarco played the title role and Julie Walters played Pauline Mole, Adrian's mother, later to be replaced by Lulu in the second series. CHILDREN'S ITV had presenters that changed on a monthly basis, including SUPERGRAN actress Gudrun Ure in character, of course, as well as David "Kid" Jensen, Bernie Winters and Schnorbitz and other children related celebrities. RALPH McTELL was a resident in TICKLE ON THE TUM, after visiting ALPHABET ZOO. Remember the Kenny Lynch postman-milkman confusion that became an outtake on IT'LL BE ALLRIGHT ON THE NIGHT? Well, now you know which programme it came from.
CHANNEL 4 was showing former Southern Television icon Jack Hargreaves in OLD COUNTRY, LOU GRANT was making a comeback to television on Channel 4.
1986
Another year in television brought us more memories. The Andrew and Fergie (Sarah Ferguson that was) got married in July 1986 and became the (grand old) Duke and Duchess of York. They didn’t have 10000 men, but in the next few years the royal couple had two little girls; Beatrice and Eugenie. The wedding that was transmitted by both BBC 1 and ITV on July 23rd seems to have some comparisons with Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981. They were both royal weddings, of course and were both transmitted on a Wednesday in July. On both dates, the television schedules seem similar, including the GIVE US A CLUE, HONEYMOON DEPARTURE and CORONATION STREET on ITV. However, this wasn’t the greater of the two as BBC 1 went back to normal programming by the evening, even showing the national news at six o’clock followed by the regional news at 6.35. A bit like having a Christmas Day in summer, don’t you think? Edward and Sophie Rees Jones’ wedding in 1999 has no direct comparison between the two as they were married on a Saturday in June instead and it wasn’t as big a occasion as the previous two. In the world of advertising, British Gas advertised a fictitious character called Sid and viewers were advised that “if you see Sid, tell him”. This was the privatisation of the company and folks were desperate to buy their shares. The same gas company also launched a scary public information film type commercial, which started in someone saying, “Hey, Brian I can smell gas”. Cue this Brian opening windows and cutting off the gas supply at the mains. Then, he catches the woman of the house trying to turn on the light and shouts “no!” This British Gas advertisement also ran in national newspapers telling you how to get rid of a gas leak. You were forced to cut this advertisement out of your newspaper and keep it in a safe place. Wonder if you’ve still got yours after all this time? Anyway, this cutting told you mostly what the television commercial said and you also had a space at the bottom of the page to write down the number of your nearest gas station. This danger of having fire in your house coincided with CORANATION STREET, where the Rover’s Return didn’t have a fire because of a gas leak, but an electrical fault. Anyway, here is what was on television back in 1986:
BBC 1 started to open CASUALTY up on Saturday nights, starring people like Derek Thompson as Charlie Fairhead, who was originally a curly head in the early episodes and is now a grey head. But he still works as a nurse at the same hospital, doesn’t he? RUSS ABBOT and LES DENNIS had their own laughter shows, although Les’s was interrupted when the death of his comic partner Dustin Gee died after collapsing during a pantomime. So LES AND DUSTIN’S LAUGHTER SHOW became THE LES DENNIS LAUGHTER SHOW. Only a couple of years after that Les Dennis took over from Max Bygraves as host of FAMILY FORTUNES, where he now adopts that cringing catchphrase that uses if a contestant gives a stupid answer, “if it’s up there, I’ll give you the money, myself”.
BBC 2 had a Sunday lunchtime programme called WINDMILL. Nothing to do with baking bread or flour – or Rod Hull and Emu (see ITV), but Ex That’s Life star Chris Searle presented this archive programme from the Windmill Road archive, somewhere in London. This cheap programme looked at different things in each edition; holidays, schooling, music etc. Vaguely remembered, but unique.
ITV had the celebrity amateur television aerial repairman Rod Hull, with his fake arm and a group of stage kids, poached from the Captain Bird’s Eye and Dairylea commercial respectively, (to tell you the truth, they were actually just twelve year old stage kids from Central Television Junior Workshop) to present EMU’S WORLD, which was also called EMU’S PINK WINDMILL SHOW. (Well, mending television aerials was the last thing that Rod Hull, would do I suppose!) Features included Grotbag’s Grotto, with Grotbags the witch, a green skinned woman who seemed to be like the Incredible Hulk’s auntie. Grotbags was played by Carol Lee Scott, along with the crocodile called Croc and the robot Redford, (which was supposedly a pun on the actor Robert Redford), mixed up by myself with the north Nottinghamshire town Retford. Various chants by the kids, who Grotbags called Brats to “there’s somebody at the door”. Sometimes it was the Grot herself. Gloria Hunniford, still doing her afternoon show on Radio 2 had a Friday night game show called WE LOVE TV, which was supposedly a TELLY ADDICTS tryout, and so possibly might be The Newlywed Game, which came from the BLIND DATE blend of mid 1980’s dating game shows. And from the same company, CHILD’S PLAY, which was presented by Michael “Wogan Tryout” Aspel. Kids were given a subject to talk about and they had to talk about it without saying the words. A whoops sound was covered by the child’s voice if he said the answer by accident. One remembers one episode where the word was highwayman and the kids said, “Harry Seacombe is one”. What this kid was getting confused about probably was the programme HIGHWAY, which was on Sunday evenings at the time and the show was on immediately after it. CHILD’S PLAY was also the inspiration for the Ronnie Corbett vehicle SMALL TALK ten years later.
CHANNEL 4 had The Golden Girls and The Cosby Show on Friday nights. Different to your Frazier, and your Friends nowadays, isn’t it?
1987
Michael Fish made a blunder on television when he said that there was not going to be a hurricane when a viewer telephoned that there was. Indeed there was; uprooted trees, slates off the roof and more. Even weathermen make mistakes sometimes, it seems. Eamonn Andrews died in this year, handing the big red book over to Michael Aspel, something what he did actually did do back in 1980 when Aspel was the subject for THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Here was what television was like back in 1987:
BBC 1 had newcomers; KILROY and NEIGHBOURS come to daytime screens, brightening up the mornings. The latter was moved to teatimes because of its appeal to younger viewers. FIVE TO ELEVEN was this poetry spot in the mornings where someone like Joss Ackland would read a viewer’s poem on the air. This was withdrawn at holiday times to make way for children’s programmes and BUT FIRST THIS! Philip Scofield and Gordon the Gopher having their work cut out, reading birthday messages and revealing homemade birthday cards where they almost every day got a card that had Postman Pat on it and saying “Look who’s three today!” And who’s in Pat’s van next to Jess? Yes, it’s a cut out and paste on photograph of the birthday boy himself! A cartoon like JIMBO AND THE JET SET or STOPPIT AND TIDY UP would be on immediately after these birthday announcements. JIMBO, sounded like a bit like Jim Bowen, but then again what’s new? OPEN AIR was an extended version of POINTS OF VIEW, with people like Bob Wellings and Adrian Mills (both cf That’s Life) ready to take calls from viewers and more Disgusted from Tunbridge Wells’ about the previous night’s television and why they should have to pay their licence fee after not getting any decent programmes in return. Also may had connections with Mary Whitehouse, it seems. Oh yes, KNOTS LANDING graced the afternoons, and so did BOX CLEVER, a TELLY ADDICTS style quiz played by Emlyn Hughes with families playing each other.
BBC 2 creamed off the impressionist Rory Bremner in NOW – SOMETHING ELSE, long before Channel 4 poached him. Steve “Margaret Thatcher impersonator” Nallon, who also did the impressions of the then prime minister on SPITTING IMAGE was Bremner’s right hand man in character as her at number ten.
ITV had Derek Jameson (who then did the breakfast show for Radio 2 in Wogan’s seven year absence) had a quiz show on television that coincidently started a week after the final THIS IS YOUR LIFE was transmitted before Eamonn Andrews’ death. HEADLINERS, the short-lived Wednesday at 7pm quiz invited contestants to answer questions about the news, a bit like the BBC 2 quiz TODAY’S THE DAY. ITV schools moved to Channel 4, amazingly still called ITV schools despite the change of channel for the next six years. The channel got rid of the schools programmes to start new series like CHAIN LETTERS, which had a guest presenter each series; the first one was JEREMY BEADLE. PLAY. Change the P to a C to make CLAY. C-L-A-Y. After the news was Barbara, followed by The Time The Place, presented by Mike Scott and was originally an afternoon programme called Daytime and was presented by Sarah Kennedy, which had a ten year old David Beckham showing his tackling skills to the audience, as seen on BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS.
CHANNEL 4 did indeed have the ITV schools, which were the same programmes and the same times, but Sesame Street was also new to the channel and that was on weekdays at 1pm. Bert and Ernie are my favourite characters in that children’s television programme!
1988
I went to hospital back in June 1988 and what I do remember about my stay in hospital was what was on television at the time. There was a television set on the wards and I was watching programmes like these:
BBC 1 had the Liverpudlian sitcom BREAD, written by Carla Lane, of BUTTERFLIES fame, with the Boswells and granddad that lived next door. Catchphrase: “Where’s my pudding. I want me pudding”. HI DE HI was having its last series based on that fictitious holiday camp Maplins, and THREE UP, TWO DOWN was doing the rounds starring Michael “BOON” Elphick. The quiz show GOING FOR GOLD was doing the Reg Grundy double bill with NEIGHBOURS made to make the Eurovision Song Contest look like Beethoven’s finest hour. Henry Kelly, now hiding behind the microphone at Classic FM (so that’s where the Beethoven bit comes from) presented this series that lasted about six months each time. Belgium, Holland, France and of course the four British nations, Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, not to mention the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands took part. All the Swedish and Danish could speak good English, so why bother with this quiz that lasted the best part of the next seven years?
BBC 2 had FOOD AND DRINK with Chris Kelly, formerly the Granada voiceover man on Clapperboard and World in Action. Chef Michael Barry was in the kitchen doing something mouth watering at 8.30 of a Tuesday night. Michael Barry, not to be confused with Michael Barrymore had to retire from the series in the mid 1990’s after having a stroke during a Classic FM interview. When he came back to the show as a visitor, his hair and beard had gone suspiciously grey, whereas before Barry’s illness, they were both black.
ITV had STRIKE IT LUCKY with Michael Barrymore, telling contestants that a hot spot is not a good spot. Matthew Kelly presented this little remembered one series QUANDERIES, which was on at weekday lunchtimes. CROSSROADS ended its first run on Easter Monday in 1988, but who would have guessed that nearly thirteen years later, the soap would be coming back? Liza Goddard took over from Una Stubbs as the female team captain on GIVE US A CLUE. Aled Jones, the former choirboy made famous for his song, We’re Walking in the Air – the theme tune to the Channel 4 Christmas programme THE SNOWMAN hosted this vaguely remembered children’s chat show called CHATTERBOX. I was in hospital when I saw one episode I seem to remember. David “Kid” Jensen hosted the poor Top of the Pops flop THE ROXY in the evenings. So much of the kid, David. THIS MORNING with Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan began in October.
CHANNEL 4 began their breakfast television transmissions, five years after BBC 1 and ITV with their CHANNEL FOUR DAILY. This programme told you about the Financial Times Share Index, the Dow Jones and so on. The programme ended in 1992 when that embarrassment called THE BIG BREAKFAST took over.
1989
The Australian fever seemed to have caught British viewer’s attention by 1989 especially if they watched soaps. The established NEIGHBOURS was going strong in 1989 as well as PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H in a number of ITV regions. Yes, those bitches in the slammer were on British screens at night, even though in Australia it had finished production three years before. Just look at what else was on television back in 1989:
BBC 1 had its TOP OF THE POPS broadcasts transmitted simultaneously by Radio 1 each Thursday evening at 7 pm. John Craven said goodbye to his NEWSROUND and began presenting COUNTRYFILE. BIRDS OF A FEATHER first began with Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson as Sharon and Tracey and also Lesley Joseph as Dorien. THE CLOTHES SHOW saw Jeff Banks present the show that was the female stereotypical world of fashion.
BBC 2 had THE MONEY PROGRAMME on Sunday evenings and also those regional Westminster magazines that still appear on television.
ITV had on Sunday afternoons ALL CLUED UP, presented by David “Diddy” Hamilton, which featured a large Land of the Giants keyboard and a selection of letters that a certain puzzle contains. However one letter that was lit did not correspond with the puzzle and that letter was known as the stinger. There was also a star key on the board and that represented an apostrophe or a hyphen. Sometimes even the star was the stinger! Continuing with Australian soaps and the short lived RICHMOND HILL was in 1989 with some of the PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H cast in it, including Maggie Kirkpatrick. HOME AND AWAY began in February 1989 in the United Kingdom after it began a year before down under. The youngsters who went to Summer Bay High in the soap had probably one of the weirdest school uniforms ever; the boys were allowed to wear jeans with a shirt and tie and the girls just wore a patterned dress with white ankle socks (or black if you were Angel Parrish). Mind you, Australians are known as back to front, anyway. This demand for anything Australian could have been because Australia had just celebrated its 200th anniversary of being a country and the rest of he world wanted a piece of the country as a souvenir.
CHANNEL 4 had Sunday morning repeats of LOST IN SPACE and also THE WALTONS, which was replaced after the series ended with LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE.
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