July 1st
1972: while Dougie Squires’ Young Generation were still at their hoofing height he formed the Second Generation and won them their own, cumbersomely titled show 2Gs And The Pop People on LWT. This week they do the Eurovision classics and the Monster Mash alongside guests Chas Hodges' pre-Dave band of "hairy sounds" Heads Hands & Feet, DJ Mike Raven and Sandie Shaw, who sings a lovely medley involving One Is The Loneliest Number and then steamrollers potentially her entire career by diversifying into reggae, with spectacularly tone-deaf results. Maybe this is what Paul Nicholas had in mind.
1985: Saturday Review talks to Douglas Adams about the cult of Hitchhikers' Guide, specifically the text adventure game. Oh, and here that is.
1990: as well as the whole “landmark for English football” thing the World Cup in Italy made the cult of Des Lynam, despite his introduction to the England vs Cameroon quarter-final. He claims he was so upset by his flub and flopping around that he convinced himself he was going to be fired, only to find out no journalist back home had commented upon it, and while he returned to London for the rest of the tournament he would grow to semi-affectionately refer to the incident as 'see Naples and dry'.
July 2nd
1991: the truism is everybody starts out on Casualty or The Bill, and in the latter case there's backup from this episode with a fifteen year old Martine McCutcheon getting the first line and Alex Kingston in one of several early appearances as a doctor, but its real immoral centre is a typically magnetic Ken Campbell.
1993: James Whale's live late night argueathon of the day Whale On features a debate on horror, Charlie Chuck, "the best soul band in the country", Reece Shearsmith taking legal advice from resident expert Gary Jacobs (at 22:42) and at 39:35 Whale addressing both him and the taciturn man sitting next to him, "a bit of a nut as far as horror's concerned", Mark Gatiss. It ends in an undignified fashion for him.
July 3rd
1976: Harriet was supposed to be a fun fish out of water human interest series for HTV in which journalist and plenty besides Harriet Crawley takes on various jobs in the style In At The Deep End would later adopt. Becoming a Butlins redcoat in Harriet: At Play must have felt like the light, less strenuous relief. And yet... the whole thing is coated in authentic 70s grime (and "attitudes") and increasingly creative shots by former Frank Zappa associate and future pop history documentarian Tony Palmer, all fish-eye lenses, audio effects and Dutch angles seemingly learned from Kubrick making it look like something nobody can escape from, the final montage backed by Working Class Hero going gloriously off-script from whatever the series was surely supposed to be.
1981: the Beeb's original Alexandra Palace studios finally closed and Nationwide saw it off. Stay tuned for Sue Lawley plugging Condorman.
1986: Claire Usher would eventually appear in Riverdance on Broadway, which were the lengths she had to go to to get away from her one hit as essayed on Top Of The Pops.
1992: Exam Conditions (part two) is the forgotten work in the Steven Moffat canon, as with only Press Gang and the Joking Apart pilot of his own TV work behind him he decided the time was right to get his children's silent slapstick comedy out of the way. Brian Blessed is the lead, helpfully having the only line, as Moffat’s fellow Junior Gazette graduate Paul Reynolds is a school genius attempting to retrieve a caricature of his teacher from amid exam papers. Sarah Lancashire, a year and a half after inhabiting Raquel, cameos as Blessed's secretary. An excited Tommy Boyd introduces with context for why it exists at all.
1992: with Eldorado emerging on the horizon like its own logo, the 1250th (or 1131st, depending on which count you're going with) and last Wogan is festooned with clips, a few big guests - Michael Crawford, Torvill & Dean, Jason Donovan, Montserrat Caballe - Joanna Lumley and Ruby Wax attempting a takeover, and an odd section where Frank Bruno being in America preparing for not beating Mike Tyson is presented as the same importance as cancer victims and the Lebanon hostages.
July 4th
1981: the first ever edition of Pop Quiz, where we note the theme has the literal opposite of the bit in later series where a group of men shout the title. Suzi Quatro, Roger Taylor and Cozy Powell take on Manfred Mann's Paul Jones, Linx's David Grant and, um, Sheena Easton's producer. Did someone pull out late?
July 5th
1985: BBC live Wimbledon coverage turns into live electrical storm coverage. Harry Carpenter and Arthur Ashe can only look on in wonder.
1988: Points Of View sees Anne Robinson troll dogs, parry Sabrina and heavy metal enquiries alike and appear to carry out a two way conversation with some correspondents.
July 6th
1988: The Roxy had ended back in April but that wasn't going to stop Kellyvision going ahead with its look behind the scenes of an episode from February, the titular Chris Kelly leaving Gaz Top to do all the work.
1992: stand by your acoustically poor bare walls and act like you have never done so before because you haven't, it's the first trip to Eldorado!
1996: the revival of Saturday Live had some future big names but did badly for viewers and critics. An indication why might be this day's Mission Impossible-riffing opening sketch starring Leslie Grantham, Tony Hawks, host Lee Hurst and a mute extra now more famous than all three, not least in an MI context.
July 7th
1977: ITN went behind the scenes of itself and its history to mark its 25th anniversary in the self-explanatory The ITN Story - broadcast at 11.15pm.
1983: television knew it wanted Fry and Laurie but didn't quite know what to do with them yet, giving over an on-air pilot of sharply odd science programming and sci-fi spoof The Crystal Cube, not anything was expecting on commission, which may be why despite a strong backing team - Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, John Savident - it didn't go beyond this point.
1988: Simon Parkin's part time Broom Cupboard fiefdom is invaded by a shades wearing Andy Crane plugging But First This. VT reacts by breaking down spectacularly, Crane filling by explaining his new discovery, A Tribe Of Toffs.
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