The Why Don't YouTube? Archive - July 15th-21st 2024

From the house of @whydontyoutube

July 15th

1975: Angela Rippon enters the grounds of a country mansion to front introductory news special This Is Ceefax (part two)

1976: a semi-legendary performance from the early days of the BBC4 Top Of The Pops repeats by no-hit wonder - and you can tell why - girl group Glamourpuss, created by the people behind Guys'n'Dolls and featuring future West End and Broadway musicals star Stephanie Lawrence, the sister of Wayne Laryea from Pipkins and a future Play Your Cards Right dolly dealer.

1983: some time, nobody seems entirely sure when, in 1953 the BBC famously affixed a camera to the Brighton Belle Pullman train on the journey from London Victoria to Brighton, sped the film up, put it on an edition of Children's Newsreel to later be used for interludes, and called it London To Brighton In Four Minutes. Thirty years later the Beeb gave it another go and as technology all round increased upped the ante, making it London To Brighton In Three-and-a-Half Minutes.

1983: a two and a half minute Tom Baker voiced promo which invokes the work of Greek scholars, Shakespeare, the founding fathers, Jules Verne, HG Wells and Kurt Vonnegut to present the true final form of information as... Teletext.

1988: Michael Jackson had started a five night run at Wembley Stadium the previous evening, and foremost in covering it was a much bigger event, the entertaining final ever edition of LWT's Aspel-faced whizzbang The 6 O'Clock Show, featuring Chris Tarrant taunting Jackson's security in amongst Danny Baker wearing a Blue Peter badge, Emma Freud with Eve Pollard and Ken Livingstone on a boat, and Joanna Kay in a helicopter. Meanwhile The Last Resort sent Dr Martin Scrote there to find him. He didn't quite manage that, but did have someone to talk to. The support was Kim Wilde, who discussed it with Richard Keys and Mike Morris on TV-am the day before, finding herself having to defend allegations of profiting from apartheid South Africa.

July 16th

1977: Dukes & Lee were enormous names on the rarefied air of the Yorkshire cabaret circuit, so much so that Ronnie Dukes was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1975, the same year they appeared on the Royal Variety Performance. Granada's variety showcase Be My Guest gave them a spot in all their dancing, drum soloing, er, Pinball Wizard covering glory. Paul Daniels introduces them as "the finest cabaret act of its type in the world". They're certainly a thing.

1980: amid the penguins, lively puma cubs and journey to see some wild otters on Animal Magic, Terry Nutkins has brought his seal Gemini with him and Johnny Morris hasn't been on screen for a minute when she soaks him. No wonder Nutkins is soon reduced to playing Space Invaders.

July 17th

1985: it's Wogan's Weepy Wednesday! After yet another face-off with Victoria Principal Tel gets to give a typically verbose introduction to his favourite, Dallas, with a TV set handily placed.

1996: an extended Points Of View special sees Anne Robinson get to tackle the boss of Them Upstairs, new BBC chairman and Beach Boys fan - worth knowing - Sir Christopher Bland.

July 18th

1979: Southern's Day By Day was intended to be a special edition from Cowdray Park covering royal polo but, as David Bobin and Fred Dinenage explain in split screen, technical issues prevented it. Maybe it's because Bobin was enveloped in film stock.

1987: On Stage, the kind of parlour chat a certain strain of BBC2 thrived upon, brought together Amanda Barrie, Paul Eddington, Roy Hudd and Olivier-winning RSC regular Margaret Courtenay to swap theatrical anecdotes under the watch of Glyn Worsnip.

1991: "I'm going to be interviewing Scooby-Doo!" Tommy Boyd ambitiously promises on Children's ITV before spending the afternoon mocking actual guest Pat Sharp about his hair. Endlessly. Also, a comparison to Joan Collins.

1993: the BBC's monthly long hard look at its own navel Biteback asks what BBC1 could do to bring its big audiences back, with a panel of producers and critics including Jimmy Mulville then of The Brain Drain - whose producer Dan Patterson separately responds to a complaint about the show in a way nobody ever would before or since - and Lawrence Marks asked what they were going to do about it. Too much news, too many repeats (though this was the summer the Beeb messed up its accounts and basically had no money), not populist enough, not daring enough, all the usual complaints.

July 19th

1973: John, Pete and Val in their swimwear might be enough for you as Blue Peter reports back from its expedition to Mexico, but they're actually there for the cliff diving.

July 20th

1973: Willie Rushton, initially in a panama hat and apparently operating the camera himself for his first vox pop, files a light Nationwide report on the coming metric system.

1987: Biddy Baxter's Blue Peter rod of iron is examined in detail by Did You See...?

1987: punk died.

1988: Kellyvision sends the titular Chris to see how Spitting Image is made, starting with Luck & Flaw at the puppet workshop, on to a production meeting helmed by Geoffrey Perkins, and then a very literal handover to the Central studios takes us to Gaz Top by which time Perkins has put on a branded sweatshirt and Chris Barrie, who would have just finished filming the first series of Red Dwarf, and Harry Enfield are gathered around a single overhead mike. The appearance of Nigel Plaskitt as demonstrator puppeteer alongside Steve Nallon is a neat callback to Children's ITV shows past.

July 21st

1972: a bearded, vaguely mulleted Clive James considers sexual messaging via shopping trolley on What The Papers Say.

1983: Six Fifty-Five Special, Sally James by now joined by Paul Coia, sprints through the history of TV puppets. All felt life is here, chiefly Muffin The Mule, Andy Pandy, Bill & Ben, Mr Turnip from Whirligig - alright, maybe they don't all age that well, but his voice Peter Hawkins did plenty else - Sooty with Harry Corbett and yes of course Sally gets a water pistol soaking ("that takes me back a bit!" she says just as we were thinking it) and Gerry Anderson bringing along a preview of what a Terrahawk will look like.

1992: "Britain's least famous best-selling author" Terry Pratchett visits the National Garden Festival in Ebbw Vale, where BBC1 summer lunchtime magazine filler Summer Scene was based. Linda Mitchell's first question is "give me a definition of fantasy", and Pratchett's sigh-exhalation should have been his entire response.

1996: The South Bank Show changes tack and deliberately profiles someone who isn't famous, a 21 year old trying to find sponsorship to take up a place at RADA. Not famous at the time in any case as it's Maxine Peake, whose only credit at the time was a reoccurring secondary role in the previous year’s series of Children's Ward. Annoyingly this upload is from a later repeat with Melvyn Bragg that acknowledges their good fortune; pleasingly it keeps in not just Peake comparing accent issues with Jane Horrocks but her going for private elocution lessons with her drama school friend Diane Morgan.

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