The Why Don't YouTube? Archive - October 7th-13th 2024

From the house of @whydontyoutube

October 7th

1971: The Tams on Top Of The Pops, in the country in time for the last of Hey Girl Don't Bother Me's three weeks at number one. It all proves too much for Horace Key, one of the backing members in the middle, who according to lead Tam R.L. Smith had a sudden bathroom necessity.

1975: BBC Schools' Science All Around explores the world of sound with percussionist Tristan Fry and everything he has at his disposal, from gong to swannee whistle via a duet for thunder sheet and hand cranked wind machine. The net result is a bottle and percussion classroom jam that sounds like the backing for a later Scott Walker album.

1978: Bruce Forsyth's Big Night was set up as Brucie's ultimate light entertainment extravaganza by his new home LWT, intended as a two hour vehicle for all his talents, but it famously got poor reviews, crashed in the ratings and lasted only thirteen shows. After his incredible introductory song it turned out Brucie had got the network together to watch the UK Disco Dancing Championship, games of Pong, competitive joke telling and fancy dress, The Glums, Bette Midler calling Michael Parkinson a homophobic epithet, Emu and Steve 'Not That One, Or That One' Jones.

1993: Mortal Kombat hit the nation's consoles and The Late Show, having no real idea of what to do with the form as they're ADULTS and games are for CHILDREN, asks not just designer Richard Seymour but Will Self to review it with the expected result.

October 8th

1988: the latest series of Going Live! begins with Sarah Greene still bandaged up in hospital after the helicopter crash four weeks earlier (she was back in the studio for show three), not that that was going to stop them. "I know we've got some twins turning up later" Greene comments to two nurses who do look somewhat alike, which gives away that the Proclaimers' appearance a few minutes later isn't as surprising as suggested. Back in the studio Kylie Minogue is in the Hot Seat and has brought her sister along for introductions. Before that the ever game songstress has herself had been introduced, less willingly, to Don Singing and Bob Corner.

October 10th

1981: half an hour of Swap Shop, in which Noel meets a very nervous John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan, Maggie sits behind a desk outdoors and tells us Carry On Screaming is on telly, Keith gets wet introducing a go-kart race in the long lost Dorset model village of Tucktonia, John breaks in with news of the funeral of Anwar Sadat, the kids can win Barry Manilow tickets and there's some CSO fun involving the other three that Noel can't quite believe actually went out. The other studio guest is Toyah in her Tron top, who tells Noel "I haven't seen you for four years", as they appeared together in a Second City Firsts drama (with Phil Daniels) that was her first professional acting role but Noel claims has been wiped. If it had been it was later rediscovered and shown on BBC4.

1987: the third ever Going Live!, in which Trevor & Simon deal thoroughly with bullying, Philip goes sailing and is swallowed by a bean bag, and the Video Vote brings together Dennis Taylor - should have been Steve Davis, he’s there too - Jools Holland and Annabel Giles, Jools obligingly pointing out that the Hoddle and Waddle up first, with their *second* single, are #NotMyGlennAndChris

1989: if Craig Charles' Children's BBC music show What's That Noise? is remembered for anything it's Napalm Death's appearance. The closing jam putting them alongside Patrick Moore, dancers and an orchestra is a chaotic joy.

1992: there are many temptations that a young boy band are advised to avoid - drink, drugs, women and of course Mr Spanky and Naughty Torty's ghee. One such star swerved none of these on What’s Up Doc?

October 11th

1973: Top Of The Pops number 501 (part two, part three) is Kenny Everett's seventh and final stint with the mike, as he was decamping from Auntie Beeb when Capital launched a month later, and the only one that still survives. So obviously he does it in yokel character, changing titles and interacting with mostly unwilling audience members. Is that Brian Murphy in the yellow bobble hat behind him during his first link?

1985: Jools Holland and Jools Holland judge a Madonna lookalike contest on The Tube, which mostly goes to prove that Chris Barrie can't impersonate Jools Holland.

1987: after being embarrassed by Linda Davidson, Mary The Punk from Eastenders, on Now On 2, Simon Potter then finds Windmill falling over on him and resorting to messing around with the set and wondering aloud about "the in crowd".

1998: A Big Hand For Sooty celebrates both fifty years since the original model was bought by Harry Corbett and his son's impending retirement. The usual ITV light entertainment mafia of the time are among the talking heads, but so are Spike Milligan and Alvin Stardust, who guested on the show, Barry Cryer, who has a poem, and John Peel, who has no direct connection but was... available?

October 12th

1981: Jigsaw is entirely famous today for Noseybonk, and he's here playing crazy golf, but there's so much else happening in the world of Ellis, Hedley and Jigg. In this one, for instance, an alien ray gun wielded by Tommy Boyd traps everyone, including Wilf Lunn, inside tiny TV sets before being rescued by Sylvester McCoy ("currently appearing in Can't Pay Won't Pay") and David Rappaport as the O-Men.

October 13th

1979: the Magic Show just through its first series, Paul Daniels appeared on Shirley Bassey's own programme, where she turns out to be inexperienced at both the riffle card shuffle and using a whisk.

1990: Going Live! put on a 3-D special - glasses free with Fast Forward - until Trevor, Simon and Jonathan Ross run out of things to do.

2002: Peanuts!

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