The Why Don't YouTube? Catchup - May 27th-June 2nd 2024
From the house of @whydontyoutube
May 27th
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Frankie Howerd surprises Cilla Black on for her birthday, appropriately, Surprise Surprise! with gifts and banter, alongside which Jack Douglas does his act and Ed Stewart introduces an all-star band including Spike Milligan, Toni Arthur and, yes, Deryck Guyler.
30 YEARS AGO TODAY: Kilroy Down Under (part two, three, four) sends Robert Kilroy-Silk as far away as possible. To Erinsborough, in fact, or rather near its Melbourne set as he asks actual Australians whether such soaps represent their lives; Sir Rhodes Boyson MP makes a memorable, confused turn on Have I Got News For You, delivering monologues of such length Paul Merton has to make his own fun. Maureen Lipman for one can't hide her reactions.
ALSO... Anna Ford helps ITV Schools celebrate its anniversary in Thirty Years On today in 1987, the clip collection including Roger McGough shattering the fourth wall, Julie Covington's song about stereotypes and our old favourite, the handwashing song; Elton John is a remarkable catch for The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross today in 1988, where he narrates a catwalk show of outfits even he thinks are silly. Other guests are Gabriel Byrne and animal communicator Beatrice Lydecker.
May 28th
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Su Pollard has moved into a very soft furnished new house, which is still clean enough for her to invite Disney Time round; after a preview of the following evening on BBC1 comes the Bank Holiday Monday news on the day Eric Morecambe (and Reginald Bosanquet) died.
30 YEARS AGO TODAY: the Tarrant-fronted Pop Quiz revival invites along Eddy Grant, Betty Boo, Rick Wakeman, CJ Lewis, Go West’s Richard Drummie and, bravely, Jim Bob of Carter USM; the Cocteau Twins on Later With Jools.
20 YEARS AGO TODAY: someone must have been ill, Dara Ó Briain presents Have I Got News For You for the second time in two weeks. More interestingly, Clive James makes his one and only appearance, opposite a fortunately pre-Twitter Julia Hartley-Brewer; the last episode of Friends is immediately followed by the first of Big Brother 5. As often the anticipation, as in the Big Brother's Little Brother preview, is more exciting than the actuality, especially the male psychic who's a ringer for Phoebe Bridgers; Janet Jackson is struggling with Jonathan Ross and vice versa, but then he does insist on discussing piercings.
May 29th
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Ernie Wise was due to appear on TV-am anyway but Eric Morecambe died the previous night; Heinz Woolf challenges The Great Egg Race teams to construct and model a working tail with only lots of string and household items to hand.
30 YEARS AGO TODAY: medieval monk mysteries begin with the first case for Derek Jacobi as Cadfael; a good solid culture clash opportunity as George Melly is among the critics given a Private View of an exhibition curated by Damien Hirst.
May 30th
60 YEARS AGO TODAY: The Great War, one of the classic ambitious BBC projects, commemorates WWI's fiftieth anniversary with readings and personal memories over 26 episodes.
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Anglia wind up for the night with a very literal take on a new theme park at Clacton, a month into its four month lifespan, and a nighty reading with an ecclesiastical take on Hare Krishna. Don't forget to switch off your whatever.
30 YEARS AGO TODAY: BBC2's latest bank holiday Monday theme night, with an eye on the World Cup ahead, is Goal TV. Amongst the night's new programming: Stuart Cosgrove links personal letters from fans to the sport in Dear Football, which ends with Ray Davies rewriting Autumn Almanac and is followed by a USA 94 trailer featuring Jimmy Hill in a cowboy hat; Nick Hornby and a cast including natural bedfellows Chris Waddle, Billie Whitelaw and Mark E Smith try to explain football's popularity in The Ball Is Round; a compilation of cock-up, cliche, comedy and oddness from the Beeb archive, Football Hell; a phone vote for the greatest ever goal, though we question the overall strength of the nominees (Maradona won); L'Etranger, considering the lot of the keeper; and the first overview of where you were for Gazza, The Crying Game.
ALSO... you know John Noakes' Nelson's Column climb? Today in 1977, that was, and Lesley Judd speaks not only for us all but gives the cameraman doing much the same journey but sideways on overdue props.
May 31st
30 YEARS AGO TODAY: television cookery unveiled its spiky haired new face, Gary Rhodes, who in the spirit of the single step launched Rhodes Around Britain by making a full English breakfast (part two; part three)
20 YEARS AGO TODAY: anthropomorphic porcine child Peppa Pig had her first of at time of writing 399 adventures, which means kids watching it as-new are only now old enough to investigate the rest of John Sparkes' work; we're approaching D-Day anniversary season, for which Time Team not only take some veterans back to the Normandy beaches to retrace their movements but dig to see if they can locate the trenches and bunkers; Derren Brown conducts a live Seance to use the power of suggestion to prove seances aren't a workable thing. Channel 4 and Ofcom received over 700 (rejected) complaints between them, mostly we suspect from people who didn't reach the twist end.
June 1st
50 YEARS AGO TODAY: a Clement & Le Frenais sitcom (with a Mike Hugg theme like the Likely Lads) starring John Thaw and Bob Hoskins seems a strange thing to have been completely forgotten but such was the fate of threesome flatshare Thick As Thieves, especially after LWT declined a second series; Brian Clemens' favourite episode of his anthology series Thriller, A Coffin For The Bride stars Michael Jayston as a serial marrier and then murderer of wealthy older women who finds love and trouble in TV debutant Helen Mirren.
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Goodnight Sweetheart is the title of the first episode of the third series of East End demob comedy-drama Shine On Harvey Moon, written by Marks & Gran who would reuse it many years later.
30 YEARS AGO TODAY: Damon Albarn talks to Caitlin Moran on Naked City, including a very early reference to Britpop that doesn't reference Oasis at all. How different to a year later.
20 YEARS AGO TODAY: The first attempt at going out in the country for a live evening to gawp at some wildlife next to Kate Humble, Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie.
ALSO... Victoria Wood followed her breakthrough TV play Talent with Nearly A Happy Ending today in 1980, her and Julie Walters reprising the characters through slimming, dating and even more full production musical numbers than before.
June 2nd
50 YEARS AGO TODAY: Jolly Lynsey de Paul music is an odd choice of theme for a series of John Pilger documentaries, ATV, but you do you. Thalidomide: The Ninety-Eight We Forgot follows those who hadn't managed to get compensation for the children born with deformities.
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Just Amazing was surprisingly controversial in its day, called "sickening" and "irresponsible" for bringing stunts and extraordinary feats and clips to Saturday teatime but with Barry Sheene, Kenny Lynch and early 80s LE perennial Suzanne Danielle rather than Beadle or Edmonds. Why are Madness involved just to introduce a kung-fu expert?; Channel 4 early evening pop magazine Ear-Say features Linton Kwesi Johnson, the making of the Two Tribes video, Jim Steinman and the Style Council live, but chiefly Roland Rat reviewing the singles, appearing on screen at the same time as Gary Crowley to prove a point; in an episode of Tales Of The Unexpected written by the highbrow pairing of Wolf Mankowitz and Lady Antonia Fraser, Simon Cadell sports a fulsome tache as a misogynist author who seems to be being targeted; the Alfresco team of all the young talents make their final visit to the pretend pub.
30 YEARS AGO TODAY: As Love Is All Around's reign of terror at number one continues Jarvis Cocker illustrates Pulp's Top Of The Pops debut by taping a piece of paper reading 'I HATE WET WET WET' to the inside of his jacket, not that you can read that very easily.
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