The Why Don't YouTube? Archive - February 5th-11th 2024
From the house of @whydontyoutube
February 5th
1985: night has fallen over You And Me but Dibs can't sleep so asks Liz Smith to read a bedtime story and help him drift off to dream of, apparently, tractor wheels.
1987: two weeks after her muddied visage was confused for that of John Reid by Emlyn Hughes, HRH the Princess Anne sat to his side on the 200th A Question Of Sport - for her three day eventing prowess of course - and her body language suggests this wasn't her preferred option. Let's blame associate producer Ray Stubbs. Linford Christie, Nigel Mansell and rugby union player John Rutherford are the other guests. None of them nearly get a handbagging.
1989: launching on a Sunday for some reason, and with Channel 4 News predicting how much of a disaster it might be, Sky Television became Britain's first true satellite network, with four channels available to dish owners who could pick up the signals via Astra 1A - Sky Channel, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport. So it's up with the dishes and into a Murdochian future from today in 1989, less than self-effacingly branded as 'The Revolution'. The first face (aside from in archive clips) seen on the service: Michael Winner. Kay Burley anchors the half hour show that spends most of its time crowing about how it all got on the air, early on taking to a boat in French Guiana to explain how hostile western imperialism was all worth it to get the Astra satellite into space. The first advert is for Amstrad, because of course. The first 22 minutes of Sky News, kindly uploaded by Sky themselves on their 25th anniversary, introduces us to a big haired Penny Smith and Alastair Yates. Entertainingly, the lead story on the first bulletin includes a clip from Central Weekend (and if you're wondering it was essentially a scam and the subject ended up in prison for people trafficking)
February 6th
1981: that start of year’s series of Oxford Road Show included a weekly song by Graham Fellows post-Jilted John pre-Shuttleworth, including this heavy metal pastiche backed by the Freshies, with pre-Frank Sidebottom Chris Sievey on bass.
1982: it doesn't seem entirely clear what The Play Away Square Tomato Show was other than the show's youth team getting a run-out for one time alone. So no Cant, no Benjamin, no Robinson, not even a Cohen, but three lesser remembered Play School presenters of the time stepping up - Ben Thomas, Heather Williams, now both theatre directors and trustees, and Lola Young, now Baroness Young of Hornsey, Chancellor of the University of Nottingham - plus musical director Dave Roach. There's a game for you to play throughout as well.
1989: the second Comic Relief is launched on Wogan, and by way of a link-up with See Hear! Stephen Fry is accompanied by that one sign language interpreter who looked like Richard Stilgoe, and the whole thing ends with Tel, Fry, Hale and Pace as the Four Yorkshiremen.
1993: a very well remembered Noel’s House Party for a surprise at the end that affects the whole of BBC1 itself ("for the last fifteen minutes I've been getting signals that we're short of time!") and has nothing to do with anything else within it, and actually might be the last time Mr Blobby is (in surprising circumstances) acknowledged as someone in a costume rather than an autonomous being.
1993: the very apex trio of the day’s pop glamour - Kylie Minogue, Lenny Kravitz and John Shuttleworth - appear on Saturday Zoo, with an early indication of how game Kylie is for looking slightly silly in the name of TV entertainment. Amid those Bill Wyman paedophilia and Roy Castle funnies (and what's with the jibe at sometime writing client Danny Baker?) Paul Calf makes one of his regular appearances; however the sex book author Jonathan interviews is, it turns out, a real person.
February 7th
1976: Elton John and Michael Caine indulge in an east end singalong on Parkinson.
1987: BBC1 experiments with the least shrift you can give an official complainant.
1987: polar opposites Meat Loaf and Stephen Fry on Saturday Live.
1992: BBC2's latest go at a youth magazine show, 100% is if at all remembered for linking material comprising Trevor & Simon sketches. What it might end up being remembered for is its trio of young stand-ups including not only teenage funnyman du jour Alex Langdon (whither?) but a 19 year old Victoria Coren Mitchell in a Blossom-style hat. John Hegley appeared weekly too, and this week the subject is pan-European examples of love and devotion, including a chat with Take That who are on exercise bikes for some reason along with fans - remember, the band wouldn't really take off until later that year but we've seen them crop up all over the place so someone was definitely trying their hardest. Are you strictly allowed to show that at 25:20 on early evening TV?
February 8th
1977: Good Health is maybe the most awry of all the ITV Schools programmes, given how often it submits to kids' wills. Talking Feet is the sub-title of this module, involving playground vox pops, basic animation, Neanderthal children and, as a framing device, two soles with faces drawn on them to explain good care. Only about seven minutes into a fifteen minute programme do we get to the crux - Blockaboots! No, they weren't from Watch or Why Don't You?, or a BBC programme at all, as many seem to remember. Weirdly well remembered, the stilted sandals sketch, lasting less than two and a half minutes, invented something so many people remember mostly as every child wanted a pair despite (because of?) their being explicitly portrayed as something that would ruin your feet and by extension life. That's what happens when you not only base a sketch about how everyone wants one but back it up with a laser guided earworm of a promotional song for the platform punishers.
1985: BBC Schools' The English File, fronted by Henry Kelly, discusses how newspapers work and visits the Mirror newsroom with the aid of children and some light acting. Spot a brief appearance by Mirror political correspondent Alastair Campbell.
1988: the Brit Awards are broadcast live for the first time. U2 were among the night's big winners and fortunately Bono chose not to speak, leaving the pre-prepared words of acceptance to The Edge. Unfortunately, Larry Mullen Jr got to the mike before he did.
1990: Tyne Tees wanted to do more with Gilbert the Alien, the speed-voiced, snot-nosed, Phil Cornwell-voiced Get Fresh anarchopuppet, but didn't really have any idea what exactly that was. After the baffling Gilbert's Fridge came the even shorter lived Gilbert's Late, a late night chat show on the old "puppets can say things humans can't" premise. Guests are Cynthia Payne, Sadie Nine, hype failure band Queen B (turned out we already had one Transvision Vamp) and, in full regalia which in conjunction with Gilbert must have absolutely terrified anyone coming back in from a night out and putting the telly on at the precise moment, Leigh Bowery.
February 9th
1980: Swap Shop sends Maggie Philbin upstairs to investigate Ceefax.
February 10th
1987: BBC can-do show In At The Deep End challenges Paul Heiney to direct a video for what the blurb calls "a major rock star", which with the best will in the world we'd call a stretch to describe Bananarama as, especially in 1987. The advice of Michael Hurll and the practicalities of Ken Russell guide him along the way but everyone from band to label to, er, Jonathan King hates it. Trick Of The Night, released that week, struggled to number 32, partly because it was the last single from the album and had already been delayed for months while scheduling of this programme was awaited but also you suspect because BBC1 had just devoted fifty minutes to the director making a bad video and going by his voiceover partly blaming them.
1996: Michael Barrymore interviews Georgie Ellis, the daughter of the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and she sings a sultry ballad to him. Now read that sentence back to yourself.
February 11th
1989: an odd selection of guests on Going Live!'s film spot - the animatronic central character from early Roland Emmerich horror comedy Ghost Chase (released two years earlier), Mark Hamill and at the end, surprising everyone, Kenny Baker.
1990: despite the story handed down between generations Nelson Mandela wasn't released during Antiques Roadshow, that was in fact replaced by extra programming. It nearly happened during Off The Record but actually broke live on BBC2.
2001: Jeremy Clarkson takes the Before They Were Famous wheel, including Danny Baker's pen, and uses it to run back and forth over some PIFs on You Don't Want To Do That.
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