July 8th
1983: Richard Feynman sits down in a comfy armchair and has a good long think about the world works. That's the pleasing set-up for Fun To Imagine, twelve ten minute monologues about the pleasure of the possibilities in science
July 9th
1980: John Prescott's death stare, child poets and lots of Queen Mother eightieth birthday memorabilia - all in an early evening for Nationwide.
1981: do you remember The Good Old Days before the curtain down? They danced and sang as the music played in the, er, City Varieties. It's a strong line-up too, augmenting the double act that should have had countless series of their own Cryer and Cribbins with the King's Singers, Bertice Reading and Sheila Steafel's show stealing turn as Miss Popsy Wopsy.
1990: Children's ITV documentary strand Docurama investigated the nature of fandom, talking to teenage superfans on one side of the fence and the newly dumper resident Brother Beyond and and screamworthy teen sensations Del Amitri on the other. One of the what we’d now know as stans is apparently called River Phoenix, going by the credits and the namecheck at 18:39, which is either very young to be changing your name or a hell of a coincidence.
1990: a very different kind of pop entertainment in the form of The Grumbleweeds' last TV special. There's multiple Savile sketches but those may be the least of its problems, not least how the sketch featuring members as Freddie Mercury, Danny La Rue and Boy George builds up to what would seemingly be a terrible punchline only for it to be something that has actually aged even worse. Notice too how the obligatory female foils don't get credited.
1993: after 156 episodes and about 156 tonnes of negative press Eldorado really was only golden dreams. As Marcus, who had just escaped his car being blown up, and Pilar sail off, just to really rub it in BBC news had sent a reporter and crew to cover the last day of filming, though speculation that the cast might be blown up by ETA proved wide of the mark. Imagine if that had been dropped on an unsuspecting prime-time viewing public, though.
July 10th
1982: Madness hardly passed up the opportunity of mucking about on the telly but when called upon for single promotion for Saturday Live - not that one, this was the latest attempt to get a Saturday night show out of Pebble Mill - the imminent arrival of Scarlett McPherson presented its own problem. But there's always a solution.
1983: Made In Britain is the last in David Leland's Tales Out Of School series of single educational system dramas and the one most people remember it for, mostly for its stunningly intense central performance by 21 year old screen debutant Tim Roth as a teenage, obviously smart dropout skinhead whose lack of prospects is everybody else's fault to him, specifically the immigrants, directed by radical Wednesday Play/Play For Today regular Alan Clarke. Eddie Marsan has credited this as his spark to become an actor.
1985: Sparks reached the singles chart top 100 once in the Eighties, and that was number 85 for Change. Their performance of it on Wogan deserved better.
July 11th
1982: it's World Cup final day and Jimmy Hill in Spain decides we're interested in being told how the BBC's satellite operation works, which promptly glitches. Bob Wilson is pitchside battling with the volume of the PA and interviewing Arsenal's John Hollins through the crowd control fence.
1987: Michael Barrymore hosts Summertime Special from Bournemouth, essaying Doin' The Crab in a way that one of those No Context British Shit accounts endlessly retweeting his Backstreet's Back routine would die on the spot if they say it. Among the other delights are Grace Kennedy joining the Nigel Lythgoe Dancers for an expansive, aisle, pier and town centre spanning version of Dancing In The Street, Nino Firetto presenting a heat of the disco dance championships - disco in 1987, yes, so up yours Steve Dahl, and No.73's Kim Goody is one of the judges - and Chas & Dave hymning a different resort town. Comedy acts include Dave Lee, a man of fairly regular size whose routine is all about how fat he is, and New Faces discovery Rudi West whose act is based on pretending not to be able to pronounce vaguely foreign actors' names (including Sylvester Stallone, but the first name) and having a joke shop Reagan mask.
July 12th
1985: the day before Live Aid, so the Style Council popped into Breakfast Time (ignore the first bit) where Mick Talbot reviewed the papers, while Wogan was joined by a positive Bob Geldof and Nik Kershaw with Spandau Ballet at Wembley already.
1986: the Liverpool Festival Of Comedy & Music presented I Feel Fine for Granada. Stan Boardman hosts, obviously, with guests ranging from Ringo to Stilgoe via It's Immaterial. You'll Never Walk Alone is sung by proud Scouser... *checks notes* Sheffield's Tony Christie.
2001: Richard and Judy's final This Morning, apart from the two or three they came back to do a couple of years ago, is the expected cavalcade of borderline nonsense right from when it starts with a lack of dignity over a passing an orange under the chin game, followed by a woman who can't hear very well but wants to talk. Later on Paul O'Grady aids in what is essentially an AMA, Boy George ventures to cook, Les Dennis hosts a This Morning-themed Family Fortunes takeoff remotely and there's the world's largest makeover, almost too on-brand.
July 13th
1973: Z-Cars had made stars of Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor as Superintendents Barlow and Watt, so Z-Cars devisers Troy Kennedy Martin and Elwyn Jones reunited them and invented the drama-documentary police procedural for the ultimate cold case, Jack The Ripper. Over six weeks the pair discussed what was known about the murders, all in character and interspersed with period drama set-pieces. Their eventual conclusion as to the culprit: dunno. It's not really a format you can imagine the BBC indulging in again. Except they did, with Silent Witness’ Emilia Fox in 2019.
1985: how Live Aid finished in Philadelphia and, more importantly, in the West End nightclub the BBC commandeered for the Wembley afterparty.
1991: timing, the secret of both opera and comedy. It takes Robert Lloyd a worrying long time to notice what has happened to BBC2 before Peter Bolgar jumps in.
July 14th
1986: Bastille Day and the eve of an Allo Allo tour so Wogan dresses up the set, and himself, for two pairs of cast members.
1987: a special edition of Children's ITV magazine show Splash follows twelve year old Jane Horn as she enters the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Horn did move into adult acting, mostly on stage, but the real future stars appear in passing - Denise Van Outen singing at 21:11, Samantha Womack in a choral follow-up at 22:46 (standing up blowing her fringe out of her eyes) and Danniella Westbrook asking guest Letitia Dean a question three years before they became castmates at 17:30, plus around the ten minute mark people in the comments say they see future All Saint Melanie Blatt in an assembly.
1988: one of Kenny Everett's last regular TV gigs was the BBC1 7pm science quiz show Brainstorm (part two) The first contestant mentions his record label Ugly Man, which had released Black's Wonderful Life first time around and later put out Elbow's first single.
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