The Why Don't YouTube? Archive - April 8th-14th 2024

From the house of @whydontyoutube

April 8th

1968: John, Pete'n'Val debut a new official Blue Peter guide dog later named Cindy, not Clementine or Cleopatra as per John's advice. Also featuring Chelsea's Charlie Cooke, motor racing driver Bruce McLaren, the Tower Of London and an egg full of jelly.

1977: Shirley Bassey delivers Everything's Coming Up Roses far out in the North Sea. That said, according to director Stewart 'RUN THE ROLLER' Morris she isn't exactly singing along from 2:10 onwards.

1979: LWT gave Rowan Atkinson his first solo venture Canned Laughter, with Sue 'Marlene' Holderness and Christopher Lillicrap as a waiter. A couple of ideas would reappear in the Bean chronicles.

1988: it feels like this Friday Night Live catches various characters at their zenith, including Loadsamoney, the Joan Collins Fan Club (with Fanny the Wonderdog) and Josie Lawrence's Florence From Cradley. Also features Hattie Hayridge's TV debut, Howie Mandel and Eurythmics.

1993: New Order take to the Venice Beach, California Baywatch beach at Top Of The Pops' behest, with David Hasselhoff inviting himself along. It's now Regret's official video, as is only right.

April 9th

1970: Sportsnight With Coleman sets out on its Kop Choir Competition to find the best set of chanting supporters in the land. Liverpool, as you'd expect, are involved, facing Spurs, Wolves, Southampton, Rotherham United and Newport County. Those that impress the judges, including Bob Wilson, the most stood the chance of winning a mass trip to the European Cup final and "also a car".

1992: general election day brings a special Remote Control, Channel 4's adapted import of the MTV game show presented with due indeference by Anthony H Wilson. With the possible exception of Frank Sidebottom, and that’s arguable as his Fantastic Shed Show hadn't started yet, everyone else went on to bigger things - Phil Cornwell, John Thomson previewing Jesse, Errollyn Warren (the first Black woman to have her composition performed at the Proms, awarded a CBE in 2020, her work here not mentioned anywhere other than the description of this upload) on musical accompaniment, and what must have been one of Mrs Merton's first national TV appearances. Even senior producers David Liddiment and Brian Park had big things ahead.

1993: we're heading towards the final Going Live!, which is presumably why, in what must have been a crowded bathroom floor, Gordon The Gopher is on Good Friday's The Crunch with Zig & Zag. Paul Smith or whoever is doing a fine job, especially when Gordon is challenged by Chris about his talking abilities.

April 10th

1987: to the South Bank for LWT's Six O'Clock Show. The ever reliable/available Joe Brown and former footballer Johnny Haynes guest, Chris Tarrant is taking part in Viking re-enactment, Danny Baker is on the Brinks-Mat robbery trail, Emma Freud has Japanese clichés employed around her and Cannon & Ball don tricorn hats. Plus, off-air audio of bantering with the audience! And for those who love a good set of future famous names in the credits there's editor Paul Ross, producer Jeff Pope and researcher Charles Colville who later fronted Sky's cricket coverage.

1993: the final Saturday Zoo features Spike Milligan resurrecting a Q character and having a disjointed chat, and Trevor & Simon with characters aiming both much higher and much lower than the morning gig that was coming to an end.

1999: the one moment most remember from Vic & Bob's great prime-time folly Families At War is Leo Sayer's encounter with a running machine. That moment is at 36:27 but the whole thing is resolutely, pleasingly obtuse even by the odder standards of modern Saturday night.

April 11th

1982: the actual show ended two weeks earlier but that wasn't going to stop the recent Easter tradition of the Swap Shop Star Awards. Adam Ant comes and goes, Dame Edna fawns over Peter Davison and Clare Grogan sports full Scotland football kit so is presented with a group of England players singing This Time (We'll Get It Right) And hold on, here’s a bit more, featuring Su Pollard nearly losing her balance, Peter Bowles declaiming the names of pop stars and the kids' fave Ray Reardon.

1983: Loose Talk was Channel 4's shot at a start of the week early evening youth culture counterpoint to the pre-weekend Tube/Switch thrills, a live chat show from the Albany Theatre, Deptford produced by the same people responsible for BBC2's Something Else. Every week Steve Taylor was joined by a guest co-host, the first being Peter Capaldi off the back of Local Hero. Their guests are Grace Jones, who Taylor doesn't even name in his introduction but who understandably dominates and is enjoying the closing round table, Evening Standard columnist, young journalist of the year and future Conde Nast president and chair of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant Nicholas Coleridge, and Sade.

1987: yet again we refuse to bypass a Bob Says Opportunity Knocks, four weeks into the first series and with Bob awaiting the promise of a general election date with his freshest political material in the intro. Winner of the previous week's "telephonic ovation" was nine year old singer and reigning champion Toni Warner, but she was about to be usurped by... that's right, the Moppocrump. No, wait, the challenge came from another minor, Debbie Stephenson, or now Debra to you.

1987: what would turn out to be the last Saturday Live before it moved back a day for the next series welcomes Frank Hovis, The Inspirational Choir, Star Turn On 45 (Pints)' Eurovision tribute, Britpop band seven years too early Boys Wonder and Fry, Laurie, Elton and Enfield singing us out.

1990: BBC Scotland opted out of the FA Cup semi-final replay shown live on Regular BBC1, which when it went to extra time caused problems.

April 12th

1992: the League Cup final was preceded by the Saint & Greavsie-backed Rumbelows Sprint Challenge, a national competition to find the league's fastest player over 100 metres. This apparently needed Steve Cram and John McCririck's involvement. In the studio Gary Lineker couldn't be more nonplussed and Jack Charlton fancies himself as a sprint analyst.

1992: Richard Jobson for BiteBack goes behind the scenes on the BBC election coverage, followed by an audience Q&A with John Sergeant and Nine O'Clock News editor (later head of current affairs, then assistant director of BBC News, then controller of Radio 4) Mark Damazer.

April 13th

1982: CB-TV sends a young fan to watch a voiceover session on Dangermouse and meet Brian Cosgrove. They've also found the very postbox he lives under, apparently.

1985: "I'd like to introduce you to Tippa Irie" says Sarah Greene, dressed in her most formal gear for some reason, on Saturday Superstore and the rest is, well, vaguely embarrassing as he performs a special toast about the show. Ironically, it's left to Heather Couper to bring the show back down to earth. Cheggers for his part is in Stoke nearly tripping over.

1991: maybe the one-off Trevor & Simon sketch that gets most recalled by the cognoscenti, the glorious Ninja Day Off, is their main contribution to what was intended as their farewell to Going Live! - Hickish and Ball took over for the following series, which was followed by their hasty return. They come back later for a final sketch, except they've got no more ideas left and have to fill and work out an ending, but not before Philip and Bananarama take the piss out of it a bit afterwards, which feels beneath them. After that Schofield checks whether their new video is "too raunchy" as reported and then tells us what PAL, NTSC and NICAM stand for. You had to work for your competition prizes in those days. Also David Puttnam does the Press Conference and somebody called Charlie Green walks along Brighton beach talking about fashion before everything crashes over the closing song, but fortunately it's only the 'nanas' cover of Long Train Running. Earlier on, must we fling this filth at the pop kids in the form of Transvision Vamp, followed by Wendy James putting a shirt on so she'll feel the benefit outside and then being far too candid for the time of day.

April 14th

1979: Kate Bush must have made it a condition to stay as clean as possible if she was to visit Tiswas during the Tour Of Life as it's recorded in an empty studio sitting on the floor with Sally.

1979: Masterspy is overlooked these days but the wryly William Franklyn fronted espionage game show and its weirdly Clouseau cartoon opening titles lasted four series of contestants in information heavy spy training, from memory exercises to expert knowledge and active tasks, alongside a company of actors that here includes David Jason, who notably has to "check in" a wannabe agent called Penfold, and Crossroads' Tony Adams. This mission is to finding out why an assassination attempt was made on Jenny Lee-Wright as assistant Miss Moneypacker - can you work out what the inspiration may possibly have been?

1989: Midlands bearpit Central Weekend Live discusses the state and encroachment of TV censorship. NSFW, as this was from the time when nobody feared anything as much as the prospect of European stripping game shows one day being beamed via satellite into UK homes. If only they knew.

1991: after scoring a classic free kick in the FA Cup semi-final Paul Gascoigne gives a singular post-match interview to Ray Stubbs.

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