September 2nd
1983: Kenneth Williams is the latest to retrace his Comic Roots (part two; part three) steps around St Pancras at close to a mile a minute, flamboyantly recalling neighbours, teachers, hairdressers and ne'er do wells bookmarked by him singing in the local pub.
1996: The Big Breakfast, already struggling off the back of the Zoe Ball/Mark Little fiasco, make things even worse for themselves with a complete overhaul - new format, new approach, entirely renovated house, new presenters in the shape of Sharron Davies and Rick Adams. The work went so close to the wire that the refurbishment was completed less than an hour before it was all due to be unveiled on air and the new title sequence didn't even get completed in time. The furnishings were eventually returned to the classic look but the pair's chemistry was never fixed, so Adams comes across as an Evansagram and Davies is struggling throughout, especially so in retrospect with Denise Van Outen appearing in the travel helicopter - a year later her and Adams’ holiday relief Johnny Vaughan were brought in for good. Andie MacDowell is the bemused guest.
1996: after 32 years, making him the longest serving main anchor of any BBC regional news programme, Mike Neville leaves Look North and, apparently not holding it against him that he was returning to first home Tyne Tees and would stay there for another decade, BBC North East gave him a fulsome, star studded send-off. While with Look North his accolades ranged from an MBE to a Noel Edmonds Gotcha, the latter oddly not mentioned.
September 3rd
1985: an E180-fuelled evening in with ITV starts with Stunt Challenge '85. It comes as a surprise to find how many of these stuntman showcases littered television of the mid-80s, especially one in the midst of prime-time weekday ITV, and similarly it's hard to think of proto-Partridge horse racing man Derek Thompson as the ideal linkman for a family role but ours is not to question why, merely to gawp at brave men and women crashing vehicles and a favourite being badly injured performing a stunt for Death Wish 3. That's followed by an episode from the first in the second series of Travelling Man, in which Leigh Lawson lives on a narrowboat while trying to find his son and the man who sent him to prison, and News At Ten leading with the TUC at war with itself, Jeffrey Archer becoming deputy Conservative chairman in something that was obviously not going to rebound on them, Michael Brunson meeting West Germany's head of counter-intelligence and being shown his collection of gadgets, Princess Anne going on the radio and meeting Billy Connolly, and the Titanic wreck being discovered two days earlier. Reliable Robin Houston is in charge of Thames News, showing viewers exactly how to inject heroin, followed by monthly social documentary strand First Tuesday with Jonathan Dimbleby.
1993: with a month to go until his Live & Kicking start Andi Peters says goodbye to the broom cupboard via a trip round the gallery. You'll be unsurprised to learn the expected trail has been hijacked by forces unknown possibly including his replacement Toby Anstis and a large Battenburg. Note Andi's thank yous include "Christina... you don't know who Christina is but you probably do", Christina Mackay-Robinson being Edd's special assistant.
September 4th
1976: Clive James was a regular contributor to the first series of Tony Wilson's Granada arts magazine show So It Goes and on its last edition of that run interviewed Peter Cook about Derek And Clive (Live), which came out the following week. Sometimes Clive interjected instead. Following them was a band making their TV debut, of whom you may be aware.
1989: Steve Coogan starring in something written by Paul Abbott? It happened... as The Krypton Factor's Observation round, Coogan's first regular TV job.
1992: Tommy Boyd launches the new Children’s ITV season in less than surefooted manner. Given a state visit by Disney Club's Andrea Boardman and Paul Hendy, Boyd decides to rush through his link and ends up calling the How 2 team "superstars of shit". Once back from the break - including an invitation to push a Push Pop, Sexy Jif and Tetley instant tea with the obvious face of Tetley tea, Rita Rudner - Boyd and the power trio of Neil Buchanan, Treguard and Sweep are making even more of a mess of everything with the aid of an overlarge prop from the former’s set. None of this is scripted and you can tell.
1993: What's Up Doc? was in its prime a series of wild swings at the very concept of Saturday morning telly, starting with a fake newsflash at the end of which Meridian's Alison Holloway is blown up. Things kind of progress from there in an even looser fashion than usual, starting with an officious Andy Crane, who had apparently been in Godspell, channelling the High Priest from Life Of Brian. STV were already leaning on the production team over the more near the knuckle content, which they appear to have taken as challenge rather than warning especially given the sketch with a pregnant Yvette Fielding and Billy Box starting at 25:28 that not just breaks down the limits of live children's TV audacity but then reverses back over it just to make sure - and then straight the other side of the subsequent cartoon Frank Sidebottom and a washing machine lead a Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine pisstake right in front of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. Fred Dinenage passes by with an almost inaudible and possibly unscripted gag about the other side, while Pat Sharp takes advantage of his newly shorn hair in an even more impenetrable sketch than usual which leaves Yvette gesturing at invisible children and memories of Dave Lee Travis cast aside.
September 5th
1978: Kate Bush takes up questions about her singing voice, hair, nerves and songwriting progression from Ask Aspel.
1990: TVS' Late Night Late, apart from asking why that Capri-Sun advert was airing that late at night, follows Blade Runner with a tremendous link of the sort only late night regional onscreen continuity could ever do.
1991: Bouncer has a dream.
1992: to explain our excitement/bafflement up there, What's Up Doc? was the first in a line of ITV Saturday morning shows supported by Warner Bros and filmed at The Maidstone Studios. Luckily at some stage someone had the idea to just run with it as far as logic would stretch, so Crane, Fielding and Sharp were often but the human marks for a wild selection of characters and puppets, most famously soon Twix shilling comedy nerd Simon Perry and flesh fancying wolves Bro and Bro. They're bedding themselves in from this debut but that does include hideous, pissed frog chef Gaston, Pasty the cockney environmental earthworm, the recurring sitcom Life With The Amoebas - written and voiced by Chris Sievey - and, of course, Naughty Torty with his waistcoat of beef. Meanwhile Pat, wearing a big mullet wig over his big mullet hair, is introduced to a celebrity hairdresser who has a remarkable surprise in store for one young audience member.
September 6th
1985: Alexei Sayle, who clearly missed his calling, takes up the agony aunt role for Bliss. A week later the mantle was passed on to the somewhat less helpful or behaved Rat Scabies of the Damned.
September 7th
1983: Maggie Philbin gets scared on a rollercoaster in the name of The Show Me Show, followed by an ur-Harty trailer in which he invents a new slot while the wind does its own job on his hair.
1996: Rainbow essentially came to an end with the loss of Thames' franchise - we do not acknowledge Rainbow Days in this house - but Mole In The Hole looks like an attempt to reboot it in as both similar and distant a way as possible, so now Geoffrey lives with a mole that sounds like a Bristolian excited Bungle, a cat that sounds like a falsetto George and a dog that sounds like Zippy, Malcolm Lord and Roy Skelton having joined Hayes on the journey. They do have a proper outside filming budget now despite going out as part of GMTV's Saturday mornings as early as 6.10am. And what shameless tout was responsible? Why, "produced, directed and written by Alastair Pirrie"! (He uploaded this too)
1996: Wow doesn't get talked about a lot - understandable, it was a ITV Saturday morning show up against Zoe and Jamie era Live & Kicking that didn’t even make it to 1997. However, it had something of the spirit of What’s Up Doc? about it, with Neil Buchanan executive producing and Phil Cornwell voicing his difficult second Saturday morning puppet, and actually challenged the BBC autumn ratings dominance for the first time in a little while. Their second show threw them everything the fates could manage as a major power cut meant they had to clear the studio and send everyone out round the back. No matter, someone will grab a generator so Simeon Courtie and Sophie Aldred can do the show right here!
September 8th
1972: Bill Grundy on Today discusses the state of the educational system and the whole back-to-basics teaching idea with Rhodes Boyson and an opposing progressive headmaster. If you thought the Sex Pistols were a difficult crowd for Grundy you should see him try and fail to control a studio audience of upset parents. Eventually the credits just roll and the headmaster is cut off mid-sentence by the closing Thames slide.
1972: Larry Grayson's long association with Noele Gordon began on Shut That Door!, the ATV comedy chat show with which Grayson made his name and of which this was only the fourth episode, though one of very few clips to survive and that not exactly in great picture quality. Grayson then introduces the little known and only arrived on British TV earlier that year Rod Hull, with inevitable consequences.
1987: with just 108 days to go Andy Crane gets his first Christmas card before being shocked back into action as an increasingly second hand Popeye print alters its own aspect ratio before either physically giving up or someone snatching at the buttons on the telecine. Watch the broom cupboard TV, they don't even cut that picture as the reel is taken off the VT machine. Crane has to fill by explaining what "life's a beach" means and reading the top ten off Ceefax before running out completely. "Helen Rollason, you'll be presenting the Six O'Clock News this afternoon!"
1987: what happens if everyone involved with a huge hit record has already fallen out with each other and wants no part of it? M/A/R/R/S never appeared on Top Of The Pops but The Roxy wouldn't take no for an answer so Dave Dorrell and C.J. Mackintosh, the DJs who added samples and scratches to everyone's work, put the needle on the record just like it says.
1987: busy day. You've (possibly) seen the title sequence, now watch the whole thing as Central gave Jimmy Greaves his own indefinable chat show, with ATV/Central And Finally stalwart John Swallow as reporter. Clearly easing your way into an introduction to camera is for lesser folk.
1990: Neighbours marked its thousandth edition with a special celebration, shown by BBC1 in Saturday prime-time with no leeway given for its embedded Australian slang and culture. But then we gave them quotes from Garry Bushell, so...
1991: Harry Secombe catches the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Steam Railway from Dungeness to Rye for Highway, meeting an old friend at the other end and discovering another has been driving him there.
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