The Why Don't YouTube? Archive - August 5th-11th 2024

From the house of @whydontyoutube

August 5th

1979: Victoria Wood had already been on New Faces and That's Life but the Granada version of her play Talent not only served notice of the extent of her ability but gave her drama school friend Julie Walters a big break.

1982: Thames News takes a light approach to millions of cigarettes being stolen and a coroner calling for motorbikes to be banned. But watch out for the minced meat cheats!

1983: after just short of fourteen years of its uncomfortable teatime mix of consumer affairs, political talking shop and The Great British Public, Nationwide wraps up with self-effacement, cross-country cake travel (CW: Stuart Hall) and the ever reliable Richard Stilgoe, even if Michael Barratt refuses to leave his conservatory. The teed off Diane Harron at 3:30 looks remarkably like Mel Gierodyc.

1987: Philip Schofield developed a minor obsession with Petula Clark's Downtown to the extent that he managed to get it re-released albeit to little commercial return (at least not until the following year's remix top ten hit) and conduct an old school telephone interview with her, repeated after a timely showing of Finian's Rainbow inspires unexpected song. Keep watching for his apology for cartoon quality, and he doesn't mean in the artistic sense despite showing the Laurel & Hardy cartoon beforehand.

August 6th

1981: Looking Good Feeling Fit features one of the greatest singers and songwriters of the pop music age, whose matchless creative capability for artistic invention is only rivalled by grace and power of movement. And he's talking to Kate Bush. Really difficult to tell why she gave up on the interview circuit soon afterwards, isn't it?

1983: in her latterday directorial career Andrea Arnold has made a virtue of leading actors out of their comfort zones. On that note, here she is singing on No. 73. That starts at 8:42, though stay tuned before it for Neil Buchanan and Nick Staverson as Dollar, and also note that with the presence of Patrick Doyle - Ethel's love interest Percy at the time, Kenneth Branagh's film score composer of choice more recently - that little scene features two Oscar nominees.

1988: Michael Barrymore's Saturday Night Out hits Jersey - again! - which seemingly is close enough for the dancers to go all Folies Bergere and French maid themed routines and carry a walk-on by Gorden Kaye in character. Obviously Barrymore does his Barrymore thing but ultimately this is one of the last stands for the old fashioned onstage variety showcase, which we should warn you means Su Pollard doing a big musical showstopper number. Martin P Daniels appears too and our headliner is Ken Dodd somehow keeping it to a tight six minutes, some of which is taken up by his singing Happiness. Michael meanwhile is still trying to make something out of the previous summer's flop single Doin' The Crab.

August 7th

1982: Sin On Saturday, Bernard Falk’s themed talk show for which “being found out” became an unseen eighth sin, and one of the most notorious flops of an age full of notorious flops, begins with some alarming opening titles. Tag yourself.

1983: Willy Russell's One Summer, the story of two Liverpudlian schoolboys attempting to reconnect with the dream Welsh holiday one had when he was twelve, is now regarded one of Channel 4's (via Yorkshire) earliest drama crowning glories but it took its time to achieve that honour. Russell actually had his name taken off the broadcast initially as he disagreed with the casting as sixteen year olds of David Morrissey (17) and Spencer Leigh (19), who like Ian Hart were making their TV debuts. (Leigh would never get past TV bit parts but became a Derek Jarman favourite).

August 8th

1988: CITV anthology series Dramarama was partly intended to give new talent a showcase, on and off camera, and it provided a springboard for a few careers. Most notably The Secret Of Croftmore, a story of supernatural goings-on witnessed in the Highlands by visitors from Edinburgh, features the TV debut of David Tennant.

1989: amid But First This celebrating television itself, Simon Parkin gets continuity and elocution lessons from Malcolm Eynon.

August 9th

1981: Victoria Wood's third Granada play Happy Since I Met You developed her partnership with Julie Walters, brought Duncan Preston into her rep company and gave early roles to Maggie Steed and Tracey Ullman. Also, Jim Bowen.

1986: Yorkshire becomes the first ITV company and first British terrestrial outlet to offer 24 hour broadcasting, through simulcasting Music Box. By the middle of 1988 every ITV region would be broadcasting full hours; for now the night owls and curious about telly history got to watch Gaz Top in a helicopter and leading Spandau Ballet into pro-am naturalism while Nino Ferretto is in the shower, Simon Potter introduces the Superbowl Shuffle (er, it's August, Simon) and Amanda Redington has to stay in with a reticent Gary Numan.

August 10th

1991: after No. 73 and Motormouth but before the American Film Institute of Los Angeles Andrea Arnold presented A Beetle Called Derek, a TVS-produced attempt at harnessing the first wave of youth culture engagement with environmental issues, the last episode in its two series run explaining how to get involved in eco-activism. Arnold has latterly become known (yep, same knowing joke as last week coming) for giving her actors complete control over their characters so it stands to reason that Frank Sidebottom also features, as do Londonbeat, Benjamin Zephaniah (whose poem gave the show its curious title) and the Yes/No People with one of the percussive pieces they'd later evolve into Stomp.

1998: Peter Kay, most famous at the time for The Sunday Show's World Of Entertainment, did a week's deputising on The Big Breakfast alongside Melanie Sykes. Only the first link here, but the script very quickly becomes a vague guideline.

August 11th

1981: Razzmatazz's Alistair Pirrie interviews Terry Gilliam and child lead Craig Warnock about Time Bandits, all of which is going swimmingly if not completely comfortably until the Bandits themselves show up and Pirrie isn't sure whether to address Kenny Baker in or out of character.

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