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1990
The 1990 Broadcasting Act came into force and with it, changed the way we watched television. The Independent Broadcasting Authority disappeared and split into two regulators: The Radio Authority, which regulates radio and the Independent Television Commission, with of course regulates television. Satellite television had began to come into people’s homes the year before and now more people were watching Sky, Eurosport, The Movie Channel, MTV and other television stations. Here was what we were watching back in 1990:
BBC 1 saw GRANGE HILL have a new revamped theme tune and a new teacher – Mr Hankin. TRIVIAL PURSUIT, one of the few board games developed into game shows rather than the other way round was on the television on a Tuesday evening, presented by Rory McGrath. Those hard questions are too difficult! Bruce Forsyth was bringing himself back onto the BBC for the first time in twelve years with THE GENERATION GAME, with new hostess Rosemarie Ford (cf COME DANCING). New catchphrases included “What’s on the board, Miss Ford”, yet the cuddly toy and most of the games remain. Since Larry Grayson left the show in 1981, there was a nine-year gap that THE GENERATION GAME had left our screens. Victor Meldrew made his very first appearance, played by Richard Wilson in ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE. Catchphrase: “I don’t believe it!” Angus Deayton appeared in this sitcom and in the same year he hosted the first series of a new news quiz…
BBC 2 had Angus Deayton, along with Private Eye editor and lightning ad libber Paul Merton in the very first series of the satirical quiz HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU? Most rounds still survive to this very day, including the Odd One Out round. Is Margaret Thatcher the odd one out because she was the only female British prime minister? Never mind it was a great political year for the quiz to focus on as Mrs T had left Downing Street for the last time in November of 1990, to be replaced by a very much satirical icon for the 1990’s, John Major.
ITV had on Saturday evenings, YOU BET! which had a change of presenter; Bruce Forsyth left the show to do the revival of THE GENERATION GAME (see BBC 1) and was replaced with MATTHEW KELLY (cf GAME FOR A LAUGH). 82% say that yes, he will complete the challenge, while 18% say no, he won’t do it. STARS IN THEIR EYES began in this year, with former PRICE IS RIGHT and Nottingham born CRACKERJACK presenter Leslie Crowther. This karaoke and fancy dress show is still going, with now the aforementioned Matthew Kelly after Crowther was involved in a road accident in 1992 and never really recovered from it. He died in 1995. MR BEAN began, with Rowan Atkinson playing the part. The first two episodes were screened in this year, the pilot on New Year’s Day. One would have thought that Bean was a BENNY HILL replacement as just like Hill, Bean was a silent character and arrived after Thames terminated Benny Hill’s contract to do more shows with the company. Hill died only a couple of years later in 1992 after he was allowed a comeback on television. Never mind, MR BEAN was supposedly a Charlie Chaplin of the 1990’s as he was regarded as a silent hero of comedy. When Bean spoke, admittedly he did have an unusual voice.
CHANNEL 4 had from Ireland, Gay Byrne and his LATE, LATE SHOW early at 5 pm, after FIFTEEN TO ONE, presented by former sitcom producer WILLIAM G STEWART, asking fifteen contestants general knowledge questions in order so that one by one they would all drop out and eventually a winner would be chosen.
1991
The television world was shook upside down when in September; four ITV companies found out that they had lost their franchises. Thames and TV-am bid too low, while TVS and TSW bid too high. TV-am boss Bruce Gyngell was so upset about his loss that he went to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as a Samaritan. A sign of weakness, perhaps? Here is what else we watching in 1991:
BBC 1 had a new sports quiz based on the BULLSEYE genre. BIG BREAK was an untransmitted pilot, which was originally done by Mike Reid, but when Jim Davidson took over, that was when the game took off. John Virgo, the former snooker player and pundit was the referee and straight man to Davidson, soon to appear in pantomimes together as well. Celebrity snooker players like Steve Davis, Willie Thorne and Dennis Taylor were regular players on this game, as well as a showcase for the forthcoming 1990’s players as well like Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ken Doherty. Virgo developed his “pot as many balls as you can” catchphrase here, which doesn’t sound exciting if done by your own voice, but doesn’t sound funny when done in a Salford accent? PLAY SCHOOL, which was also called PLAYBUS, was now called PLAYDAYS by this time, while Debbie Greenwood hosted THE TRAVEL SHOW.
BBC 2 was showing the repeats of SATURDAY NIGHT CLIVE, presented by Clive Anderson, and JAZZ 625 was on after NEWSNIGHT in the evenings, exploring the world of jazz.
ITV had the RAINBOW spin off ROD, JANE AND FREDDY on at lunchtimes, while the afternoons consisted of A COUNTRY PRACTICE and THE YOUNG DOCTORS. FAMILIES was often regarded to be an Australian soap as well for two reasons; firstly as it was scheduled in more or less the same time slot as the Australian soaps were and also the title sequence showed a map of Australia and scenes of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and women sunbathing, as well as pictures of people horse riding in a map of Britain. It was British as it was made by Granada and not Reg Grundy. EMMERDALE FARM had the word “farm” taken away from its title and thus the soap was now called EMMERDALE. WHEEL OF FORTUNE was on peak times with a pre-Radio 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell and hostess and former Scottish Television fashion expert Carol Smilie. S for sugar, T for Tommy, R for Romeo…
CHANNEL 4 had as always the men in leggings, (well cycle shorts, anyway) travelling around France and beyond in TOUR DE FRANCE. 4-TEL ON VIEW was Channel 4’s CEEFAX competitor on at five in the morning, while BUSINESS DAILY was sorting out the Dow Jones and was the on at 12.30, just before SESAME STREET.
1992
Thames in London, TVS in the South, TSW in the Southwest and TV-am at breakfast time disappeared on December 31st at midnight and was replaced by four new ITV companies; Carlton in London, Meridian in the South, Westcountry in the Southwest and GMTV at breakfast time, which was originally going to be called Sunrise Television, but Sky News, who called their breakfast show Sunrise said that the new company was breaking their copyright and so GMTV was so named. The Sunrise aka GMTV consortium was done on behalf of LWT, while an opposing Daybreak consortium was made by the new kid on the block - Carlton. (If Carlton's programmes have anything to go by, then thank goodness that Daybreak lost in the franchise rounds!) A lot of programmes ended in this year as a result as some of these programmes were made by these companies. Here was what was on television in the year of 1992:
BBC 1 saw WOGAN being axed, with Terry going “upstairs” to radio and his Radio Two breakfast show for the first time in seven years. His chat show was ran for three times a week and over a thousand episodes over seven years and now in the Monday, Wednesday and Friday slot at 7 pm, the Spanish flop, ELDORADO began and lasted for about a year and 150 episodes. Never mind, the BBC have not been able to make any good soaps, and neither has any terrestrial television channel, come to that.
BBC 2 looked at dyslexia and crime in PUBLIC EYE, and the ever-ready GARDENER’S WORLD was on Friday’s. Oh yes, and RORY BREMNER had his final series with the BBC.
ITV saw the start of the Yorkshire set in the 1960’s drama begin in May, HEARTBEAT, with Nick Rowan as policeman Nick Berry and a couple of sixties tunes thrown in for good measure. RAINBOW was coming to the end of its twenty-year run as most children’s television programmes were at the end of the franchise run. THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY was going strong in 1992 with the Larkins and Pa “Perfick” Larkin, played by David Jason and Ma Larkin played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Thames ended at midnight on Decemebr 31st and their last programme was THE END OF THE YEAR SHOW, which looked at the company’s archives and selected clips from some shows.
CHANNEL 4 had the start of THE BIG BREAKFAST, with Chris Evans, before he did the same job for Virgin Radio, (that’s do their breakfast show, of course) and buy the company and become a millionaire in the process. Evans, started the ‘Breakfast with Gaby Roslin, soon to be Wogan’s sidekick on CHILDREN IN NEED, until they both left a couple of years later to be replaced by people like Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen. TV HEAVEN also had a series in the spring of 1992 with Frank Muir looking at a particular year in the television archives and showing programmes, television themes and commercials from that particular year. The one of 1978 was one of the best seen for some reason? Should be repeated, but it never has.
1993
A very depressing year for television after a lot of programmes, particularly ITV programmes were axed, to make way for new, less quality ones. ELDORADO was axed, as mentioned in the previous year and replaced with a mixed bag of programmes in the 7pm slot. In the world of commercials, an orange character may have slapped your face or kissed you to let you know that you’ve been Tangoed! This commercial often developed into kids slapping their opposing pupil’s ears and thus possibly causing damage to their hearing. A doctor said that he performed an operation on a young boy who had been “Tangoed” and had a perforated eardrum. This doctor wanted this commercial to be axed, as it was harmful and dangerous for children to copy. Britvic, the makers of Tango did, only to replace it with the orange figure kissing the man who was drinking from a can of Tango. Now, a lot of homosexuals would think that they might have gone to heaven when they saw that one! What was on television in 1993? Let’s look here and find out:
BBC 1 had the local newsreader made good Rob Curling, later to be an actor on BEADLE’S ABOUT (see ITV) presenting the daytime quiz TURNABOUT, where the balls, sorry spheres got turned about, with a sub-Connect 4, Blockbusters grid. A latter edition suspiciously saw two contestants on the show had come from the Arnold area of Nottingham! This grid started out with four grey spheres in each corner (to sum up the John Major period, perhaps?) and the contestants had to fill in these with their own colour by getting a question correct and the sphere would change in to the colour of their contestant’s representation. You could get points by matching three spheres of the same colour in a row and more points if you could match four spheres in a row with the same colour a la Connect 4. Even the set was made into a more modern feeling to it, as they seemed to put a pool of water on the floor for no apparent reason. No reason why, really. GOING LIVE! had ended its six year run on Saturday mornings, presented by Philip Schofield and Sarah Greene and later on in this year LIVE AND KICKING started with Emma Forbes and Andi Peters. In this particular year I remember when MR BEAN had made a guest appearance on the show in late November of 1993, causing havoc in the studio as normal as he was there to promote one of his videos that the show was giving a way as part of a competition.
BBC 2 opened up its Sunday morning schedule in 1993. They cut down on the Open University programmes that they were showing and put more Children’s television programmes in its place, including old repeats of GRANGE HILL when the programme started back in 1978. (See 1978).
ITV had BARRYMORE with Michael Barrymore, acting the fool as always, while BEADLE’S ABOUT had the public on their unawares as Jeremy Beadle helped to set them up. That old warhorse BLIND DATE was up there with Cilla Black, along with one footballer lookalike and three eighteen year old tarts, dressed in sub-Kate Moss uniform behind a screen, where decent people can’t see them hopefully. BAYWATCH was on just after the sports results with David “Knight Rider” Hasselhof as lifeguard Mitch Buchannan (sic?). Preschool children’s television programmes moved from lunchtimes to half past three so that the programmes would appeal to more younger viewers, it seems.
CHANNEL 4 stopped calling ITV Schools by that name and started to call them a more sensible name of Channel 4 Schools instead. DISPATCHES, ands EQUINOX were the flagship documentaries in this year.
1994
Something new was about to happen on Saturday evenings. Something that might change your life forever, and it might cost just one pound to make it happen. THE NATIONAL LOTTERY LIVE was coming to British television screens after we realised that most other countries have a weekly lottery taking place. The first ever edition was in November 1994 and the presenters were Noel Edmonds, at BBC television centre for some reason; Anthea Turner, fresh out of BLUE PETER and Gordon Kennedy, up in Scotland. Turner presented the very first edition in the main branch of Tesco’s in Victoria Centre in Nottingham, so there! After the lottery beginning, gambling, bingo and of course the lottery itself was given leeway and was allowed to be advertised on television. The National Lottery’s slogan was “it could be you”, poached from Jeremy Beadle of course, until they changed it some years later to, “maybe, just maybe”. Television in 1994 was like this:
BBC 1 had the revival of PEBBLE MILL, with Judi Spiers presenting, like she did with her Radio Two show at the time. The lunchtime chat show that came from Birmingham, featured actress Sherrie Hewson (born in Burton Joyce, you know) slipping on something in a famous AUNTIE’S BLOOMERS outtake. And what about AUNTIE’S BLOOMERS? The Christmas Day outtake treat began around about this time with Wogan going through the year’s archive of local and national BBC programming. THE VICAR OF DIBLEY began in about this year with Dawn French as the vicar. ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS had French’s sidekick Jennifer Saunders as Edina. “Sweetie”. The theme tune was based on the song “This Wheel’s on Fire”, which was sung in 1968 by Julie Driscoll and Brian what’s his name. Esther Rantzen ended twenty one years of THAT’S LIFE with a special programme with all her co presenters that have ever appeared with her over the years, including Cyril Fletcher in THAT’S LIFE ALL OVER!
BBC 2 had the nostalgia quiz that would have helped me with this website, perhaps? TODAY’S THE DAY, which was stated in the UK Game Show website that some political pundit called Andrew Wansley (sic) was the host for the pilot. Martyn Lewis, the well-known newsreader took over and it lasted for five years. Excellent rounds in this show including Stop the Clip, and what was on television on the very day that the programme was transmitted and runners up got a newspaper published on the very day that they were born. They even had Sunday editions it seemed as one contestant had a copy of The Observer as a prize. At 4.30 was READY, STEADY COOK! with Fern Britton and chefs like Ainsley Harriott, who later presented the show and people like Kevin Woodford, Brian Turner and that bald headed camp one with glasses whose name escapes me.
ITV had Roger Cook doing the dirty jobs in THE COOK REPORT. “I’m Roger Cook from Central Television and I am investigating your… ouch!” His interviewee attacks Cook yet again. Yes, Roger Cook jacked it all in a couple of years later as he claims to have every bone in his body broken in his body because of being beaten up. You could always live on a council estate, Roger and go to an inner city comprehensive school to compare the difference! Better still, Claims Direct should sort your injuries out! VANESSA FELTZ was made a household name when her talk show became a networked programme after a successful run in the Anglia Television region. Campster and former radio disc jockey Dale Winton was underway with his bouncy banana bonuses and his SUPERMARKET SWEEP. It seems a coincidence that more women apply to be on that show instead of men!
CHANNEL 4 had THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW on in the afternoons, before BBC 2 and eventually the early Channel 5 would show some episodes. HOME IMPROVEMENT was the six o’clock sitcom in the evenings, but it wasn’t long before the RICKI LAKE and MONTEL WILLIAMS’ chat show genre began on the fourth channel.
1995
The summer of 1995 was regarded as one remembered for what was on television. I went to a school reunion in that year and so that was a well remembered time of year for these things. Let’s look at television in 1995:
BBC 1 had Gary Lineker, who was still flogging crisps on the other side, along with Lee Hurst, Rory McGrath, David Gower and presenter Nick Hancock with THEY THINK IT’S ALL OVER, quoted from the 1966 world cup final. Lineker made found it a bit difficult with the changeover between the programme and the crisp commercials that one episode the word W * * * * * was deleted, even if it was referring to the retiring formula one announcer Murray W * * * * *. I know a street near where I live called W * * * * * Street. Anyway, a very funny episode of this programme came in the Christmas edition of 1997 when retiring SOOTY operator Matthew Corbett and the yellow bear himself arrived on the show. Corbett, or should we say Sooty squirted Hancock with a water pistol, so Hancock got his own back on Corbett and poured a whole bottle of mineral water on Corbett’s head. A moment to cherish. Bob Monkhouse had a one series game show called MONKHOUSE’S MEMORY MASTERS, which was a game show that challenges the memory and the mind. The Television Nostalgia icon Terry Wogan went back to native land in WOGAN’S ISLAND, where he visited places like Derry and Donegal.
BBC 2 had Esther Rantzen after THAT’S LIFE ended, with her own BBC 2 talk show called ESTHER, where it was just a watered down version of KILROY, who at the time were experimenting with a kid’s version during the school holidays, using kids of course and other young offenders on day release from their prison in KID’S KILROY.
ITV featured Bradley Walsh presenting this weird game show called THE MIDAS TOUCH, where Walsh leads five contestants on a journey up a pyramid to find the prize. A TOUCH OF FROST started the trend of two hour feature length detective who done its, starring David “Only fools” Jason. The autumn came and with it, Bob Holness, retired from BLOCKBUSTERS and just about to start the revival of CALL MY BLUFF on BBC 1 started this one series game show wonder with RAISE THE ROOF, which was regarded as the WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? of its day. There was a whole house to offer as a prize, courtesy of Barratt homes or someone like that. It only lasted for one series though.
CHANNEL 4 started to rerun that Yorkshire television series set in the wards of St James’ Leeds; JIMMY’S in the afternoons, while CHEERS and LA LAW were being repeated at night. Can’t Channel 4 show anything new and original to transmit?
1996
The Channel 5 retuners started to knock on doors of people’s houses over the summer of 1996, ready to retune their video recorders for the start of Channel 5 that was meant to start on January 1st 1997, but that start date was delayed because of problems of retuning people’s aerials. The retuners were dressed in blue sweaters and had the “Gimme 5” logo on them and an ID card. They retuned your video recorder as Channel 5 were going to broadcast on most video’s frequency, one that was regarded by Channel 5 as one that was obviously freed up by other station frequencies. Even as late as 2001, some viewers in the South East and north of Scotland have never seen Channel 5. Not because they don’t have a television, but because they can’t get a decent picture on their sets. Here was what was available on television back in 1996:
BBC 1 had the daytime quiz INCOGNITO, presented by the former BIG BREAKFAST newsreader and celebrity shirt and tie wearer Peter Smith. The game had a forever spinning wheel of letters that if you looked carefully spelt several words that overlapped with other ones. When I first watched this programme, I wondered what a PUSSAKIDNEY was, but I found out that this was some of the letters that were available to see on the Incognito wheel. Another daytime quiz was TIMEKEEPERS, which was on in the morning and had the strict host of Bill Dod. If you said the correct answer to a question and stumbled a little a bit to get the answer, Dod would not allow it due to hesitation. You also had the chance to take ten seconds away from your nearest arrival who had the most time on their clocks. CALL MY BLUFF made a return to our screens after about a ten years absence at least. Bob “Blockbusters” Holness was the host, along with team captains Alan “newspaper column writer” Coren and Sandi “Number 73” Toksvig. And the word is “Piblockto”, and it’s Alan Coren to start. (Piblockto was in fact one of the words used in one edition. Don’t ask me what the word meant, as I don’t remember!)
BBC 2 had in force, THE LEARNING ZONE during the nighttime, allowing students and teachers to video record programmes to watch during the day. Programmes included THE OPEN UNIVERSITY, an abridged version of the weekend morning stuff; NIGHT SCHOOL, which first came from Radio 3 during the night and had programmes for primary and comprehensive schools and also specialist programmes for people like nurses, teachers and doctors.
ITV had rubbish like TALKING TELEPHONE NUMBERS, with Philip Scofield and Emma Forbes, later to be replaced by Claudia Winkleman. The pre-recorded bit was the numbers being generated throughout the show, as we found out. A fault happened and the programme, which we believed to be live started to rewind before our very eyes! Scofield came on air and apologised for the mistake. But we knew the bit that was live was the telephone call at the end. If your last five numbers on the screen matched the same five of your telephone number, then you could win up to £20000! However, this became a bit controversial when one former winner complained that someone had guessed his telephone number by looking in the local telephone directory and began pestering the winner. Not a great idea, folks. It was axed in 1997.
CHANNEL 4 felt that as BBC 2 had TODAY’S THE DAY on at 4 pm weekdays, they decided that they should set a rival at exactly the same time. BACKDATE, was hosted by Valerie “Blue Peter” Singleton and three contestants were allowed to make up their own “datelines” using different numbers on the board, making any date from 1945 to the present day (unlike this as it only goes from 1955 onwards). For example, you could put a number 22 in your date box, a number 76 in your year box and a number 12 in your month box and hey presto, you have a dateline of December 22nd 1976. Singleton would ask you a question based on something that was relevant to that day in history and vouched that over 19000 questions were stored in the game’s computer so that every date from 1945 onwards was stored. However only about 200 of them were heard throughout the series. You could even pinch a number from an opposing team, that is pick or pinch. The final was a Date With a Decade where nine parts of a picture would form when you got each of nine questions correct and you would have to guess who that jumbled face from your chosen decade is. And your prize was a leather bound Backdate chronicle. Pity it was axed after two series; Channel 4 felt that ratings were sliding, so they moved it to early morning where soon afterwards, it disappeared.
1997
This was the year the Channel 5 officially began. On Sunday, March 30th 1997 at 6 pm, there was the opening programme; This is 5, presented by Tim Vine and Julia Bradbury, which looked at what was to come on the new television channel. For more details, look at the new Channel 5 paragraph at the bottom. Here is what else that was on television in 1997:
BBC 1 had THE REALLY USEFUL SHOW; a consumer show that was presented by people like Cheryl Baker and Ruth Langsford, while at midday, Andrew O’Connor hosted THE ALPHABET GAME. Michael Parkinson, just before his famous chat show was revived, hosted this revived edition of GOING FOR A SONG. Nicholas Lyndhurst starred in GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART, while George “Minder” Cole started as the title role in DAD.
BBC 2 had Andy “Meridian Tonight” Craig and later Stuart Hall presenting GOING, GOING, GONE, which was a bit like the aforementioned GOING FOR A SONG (see BBC 1) as they valued antiques and also had Eric Knowles, the famous BBC antiques judge and John Kettley lookalike. Knowles can also be seen on the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, and used to appear on the Aladdin’s Cave bit on CRIMEWATCH UK.
ITV got John “Morse” Thaw into KAVANAGH QC, and in May, Richard and Judy investigated before a full Granada studio audience in KIDS BEHAVING BADLY, which was about kids and their anti social behaviour. You know, smashing windows, throwing stones, that kind of thing. MONACHY – THE NATION DECIDES was a failed attempt into whether the nation needs a monarchy or not. The majority at the end decided that our delightful nation does need a monarchy. Trevor “News at Ten“ McDonald, along with Roger “Cook Report” Cook, Michele “Central News” Newman and John “The Time, The Place” Stapleton all co-presented the programme.
CHANNEL 4 had the COLLECTOR’S LOT, originally presented by Sue “Crimewatch” Cook, who was later replaced by Debbie Thrower. If you have a collection of 1000 beer mats, or bottle tops or even marbles, then send them to the address of this programme as they would like to hear from you.
CHANNEL 5 began to transmit programmes to about a third of all viewers on Easter Sunday, 1997. Programmes seen on Channel 5, includes PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H, which was on early in the morning for a bit then moved to 11.30 pm weeknights. Unfortunately as the south and London were showing their episodes of the same soap at the same time, Channel 5 had to move it back to the early morning slot. I was surprised when Channel 5 began that they even had the rights to screen PCBH as some of the ITV stations were still showing episodes. Mind you, these were London and the South, the areas that couldn’t get Channel 5 anyway, so there was no harm done! Carlton and Meridian however, must have invited Channel 5 to officially “hand over the reins” as it were, and let the channel broadcast the episodes as both regions stopped showing the episodes in 1997. They got to about 600 as well, with less than 100 episodes to show! Never mind; Channel 5 had shown all 692 episodes, so there!
1998
We are really getting up to date now, aren’t we? Channel 5 continued to spread its transmitter coverage across the country so that more people who couldn’t get Channel 5 before, could now. The chance of winning a million pounds was also available on the cards in a new game show called WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? which began in September and changed the way that a game show works. Chris Tarrant presented the first edition and has stayed there ever since. Here was what was available on television in 1998:
BBC 1 welcomed back PARKINSON after a sixteen-year break. Michael Parkinson interviewed some again some of the guests that originally were guests on his show back in the 1970’s, but now newcomers who were not famous in the original incarnation were now turning up on the programme; Carol Vorderman, Rory Bremner, Clive James, to name but a few. And there is no chance nowadays of Rod Hull and Emu making a return to the show, so that’s one thing guaranteed!
BBC 2 had some new political programmes including WESTMINSTER in the afternoons and THE MIDNIGHT HOUR at midnight, which was a misleading title as the programme was only on for half an hour. Presenters included Janet “yoof” Street-Porter, Andrew Neil and some others. This was replaced by DESPATCH BOX. But who would want to stay up as late as midnight to watch what was going on in Westminster, anyway?
ITV did have WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? begin in this year, and the most amount of money won at this stage was £64000. It just proves that us British are tight fisted scrooges and hate to lose any money, especially if it is given to us. YOU BET! ended and was replaced by DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!, which was originally presented by Darren Day and latterly Davina McCall on her own. And sadly, ITV’s second longest running television programme after Coronation Street (literally) was WORLD IN ACTION that was axed at the end of year to make way for a new type of current affairs programme. No retrospective show at the end of it, looking back at 36 years of the programme, it just ended like that.
CHANNEL 4 started a celebrity edition of COUNTDOWN and this was seen in the evenings on Channel 4. People like Nigel Rees and Geoffrey Durham were there, but so were other people like Des Lynam and Loyd Grossman.
CHANNEL 5 had its popular quiz show 100%, where three contestants compete against each other to answer the most questions correctly and win £100 at the end. However contestant Ian Lygo kept winning and winning and winning a total of 75 wins and £7500 to his credit. So much so that people were switching off because of his dominance. The producers had to do something about it, so they changed the rules. Up until Lygo’s win, any contestant could be allowed on the show as long as they kept winning. When Ian Lygo got to £7500, a decision was made. He won his last edition, but was congratulated off air with a bottle of champagne and of course the £7500 that he won throughout. Now the maximum amount of shows that any contestant can be on is 25 shows and £2500 to be won.
1999
We said goodbye to News at Ten in March when the news programme was ousted and the half hour bulletin as well as newscaster Trevor McDonald both moved to the 6.30 slot, with a new twenty minute news programme an hour later at 11 pm. Both the BBC and ITV were also getting ready for the millennium celebrations at the end of the year and were preparing fast. The millennium bug for one thing was something that the television companies and everyone else was worrying about. Take a look at what was on television on the final day of the second millennium:
BBC 1 saw an eclipse on the 11th of August at 11.11 am (a bit like the two minutes' silence on Rememberence Sunday - 11-11-11). People were silent when they saw the moon overrule the son to form that eclipse. People flocked to the southwest just to see the eclipse and you could have seen the number of flashes when people were trying to take photographs of the eclipse at the same time. BBC 1, as well as Channel 4 and Channel 5 transmitted the eclipse. People who lived either in Devon or Cornwall got the best view to this eclipse that was the first one to go across the UK since the 1920's; those old enough like the Queen Mother might have seen it twice! The sky went dark as if it was 11.00 pm at night, rather than 11.00 am in the morning, but where I was in Nottingham, it only went as if was late afternoon.
BBC 2 saw a documentary back in August about the Kennedy family, Anna and Sean. They lived in Hillingdon in West London and they had two twin boys, Patrick and Angelo. There was something wrong with these boys; one of them had autism and one of them had a minor autistic trait, known as Asperger Syndrome. They featured in a documentary and after I saw this programme, which was transmitted on a Saturday night back in August and so as I also have the autistic traits, I decided to write to them and address it care of the BBC. I got a reply two months later, and I must admit that it was great hearing from them!
ITV saw the end of NEWS AT TEN and the famous bongs. Well, not quite as Trevor McDonald and the famous bongs were reunited the following Monday evening for a new 6.30 bulletin. MPs and also members of the public said that they missed the news and that an evening on ITV isn’t the same without it. ITN also gave the news a more modern look with a new colourful studio. The same place is where the final programme of the millennium was transmitted. COUNTDOWN 2000 began an hour and ten minutes before the year 2000 started. Trevor, with other reporters and news presenters like John Suchet, Nicholas Owen, Shulie Ghosh and other ITN household names reported the news and the happening from various towns and cities throughout the United Kingdom. The bongs of Big Ben stuck midnight and then… well, that’s another year isn’t it?
CHANNEL 4 saw Yorkshire Television (who have admittedly got no taste when it comes to studio décor) ruin the set of COUNTDOWN and paint it a headache making bright orange. If I was a COUNTDOWN contestant in the studio there and then, it would certainly put me off what I was doing!
CHANNEL 5 saw the end of the Wogan compare JACK DOCHERTY SHOW, with more soft porn coming to its timeslot. FAMILY AFFAIRS celebrated its 500th episode, and 100% did exactly the same – without Ian Lygo, of course. Channel 5 newsreader Kirsty Young moved to ITV to read the news, although she still worked for the same company – ITN.
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