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Advent Calendar Day 23: Watch Wogan on Christmas Day

2016-12-23T07:00:00+00:00

We're almost there! And what better way to get ready than by transporting yourself to 1984. The late Sir Terry Wogan's Christmas Day guests included Freddie Starr, Kiri Te Kanawa and Elton John, with a special satellite interview with Victoria Principal, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes in American soap opera Dallas.

You can watch the full programe here or, if you're in the middle of Christmas preparations, enjoy this short clip of Terry Wogan being offered an unusual role in Dallas...

Victoria Principal offers Terry Wogan a part of Dallas.

Don't forget you can find more BBC archive content by running a search on Genome and filtering the results by Programme Available. If you're feeling adventurous, just run an empty search and click on Programme Available, or click here. There are more than 11,000 programmes you can watch or listen to on those dark December nights...

When BBC daytime television fully arrived

2016-10-27T06:00:00+00:00

BBC Daytime was launched on October 27th, 1986, along with its pastel hued promos

Guest blogger Heather Lewis grew up with a love of television, with a particular fascination for continuity and idents from the 1980s. In-between looking after her two young children she celebrates Children's BBC in her blog The Broom Cupboard and Me and contributes guest posts for the Curious British Telly website. She writes about the launch of the BBC's full daytime television schedule 30 years ago.

There are a great number of us waxing lyrical in blogs and websites about television shows and schedules of the past. The 1970s and 1980s are now a fondly remembered age when the majority of us had a maximum of four channels to enjoy and the BBC1 nightly channel closedown sequence is worthy of a nostalgic discussion among enthusiasts on social media.

Less talked about though, is the BBC1 daytime schedule in the early and mid- 1980s. There is a reason for that of course and the words 'daytime schedule' are perhaps a little misleading due to a huge gap in the morning hours of programming until October 1986, now 30 years ago.

A delve into the pages of BBC Genome for Friday, October 24th 1986 paints an interesting, if baffling picture of daytime viewing options, or rather lack of options. With BBC Breakfast finishing just after 9am and a repeat showing of Will to Win (a documentary previously shown on BBC2 in 1985) we were treated to a selection of pages from the BBC’s Ceefax text service for a whole 55 minutes before that cornerstone of children’s programming Play School was aired. Pages from Ceefax appeared again afterwards for a lengthy 2 hours and 10 minutes until the lunchtime news bulletin at 1pm. So… where were all the programmes? Was that really it?

On the morning of October 24th, 1986, viewers were treated to a selection of pages from the BBC’s Ceefax text service for a whole 55 minutes... (image is from 1981)

We need to travel back to 1983 first of all. The BBC took a significant step forward in launching Breakfast Time early in that year, at that time it was followed by the familiar countdown dots of the schools and colleges strand just after 9am. More change was to come, however, from late in June 1983 as the schools programmes slowly ambled their way over to BBC2, leaving a few holes during the morning hours. By the 19th September 1983 the game of 'scheduling musical chairs' meant that Play School was now moved across to BBC1 and the schools and colleges programming occupied BBC2 for much of the day.

Until 1986 the odd programme creeped in to interrupt the weekday Ceefax and Play School dominance on BBC1. Repeats of Sunday teatime staples included Antiques Roadshow and Songs of Praise; the annual political party conferences filled up the Autumn months with Play School solidly standing its ground every mid-morning throughout (presumably to give the keen politics viewer a chance to take a tea break). The summer of 1984 brought us extended Grandstand, showing highlights from the Los Angeles Olympics.

The school holidays usually saw BBC1 with a slightly more jovial schedule, particularly in 1986, when with the new Children's BBC branding in its infancy, in-vision presenters (Debbie Flint and Andy Crane) appeared on screen during the morning introducing cartoons, the holiday staple Why Don’t You…? and special editions of Newsround. By September 1986 the kids were back at school and pages from Ceefax reappeared, much to the delight of some enthusiasts and the frustration of others.

The Radio Times listing for the launch of daytime television

At last, on the 27th October 1986 the new look BBC Daytime finally arrived. It didn't exactly explode onto our screens, but lightly skipped on, complete with pastel hued promos that included an animated peachy coloured curtain and window for added scenery. Featured in the new daytime line up were the 'filler repeats' of classic comedy and films, but more importantly there was a significant number of brand new shows introduced on to our screens for the very first time.

Children's BBC presentation, now just over a year old, was rewarded with a small mid-morning slot either side of Play School where Phillip Schofield sat with his mid-morning coffee in one of the BBC’s small presentation studios, reading out birthday cards for his under-5 year old audience. It started off as a relatively simple, humble affair, as in addition to the hand-drawn cards, there were birthday messages hastily scribbled onto scraps of paper and shop bought cards! Nonetheless this is a format which was hugely popular and is still going strong every day, now on the CBeebies channel.

Phillip Schofield reading out birthday cards on the day of the launch

Open Air bore a striking resemblance to the BBC’s long running show Points of View, but expanding the concept into a live broadcast magazine. Originally presented by Pattie Coldwell, Bob Wellings and Eamonn Holmes each daily edition covered all aspects of television programming in an interactive (for the 1980s) way where viewers could telephone in and be given the opportunity to praise recent shows, or grumble about them. Various show creators, producers and presenters were put in the firing line to answer their questions. Enjoyably, we saw fascinating behind-the-scenes features of the workings of the BBC, for example in 1987 when Richard Straker talked the Open Air audience through his duties as a BBC continuity announcer. Some of Open Air was even dedicated to the new BBC1 Daytime schedule itself, and one of the programmes given notable attention was the lunchtime soap opera called Neighbours, which in terms of peak viewing figures became one of the BBC Daytime schedule’s most successful shows.

The story of Neighbours coming to the BBC was recalled by Roger Laughton who had the task of finding a drama suitable for a lunchtime audience. His choice was made simple when faced with a selection of numerous identikit American soaps, or a lone Australian drama centred round a small street of houses and a handful of families. Neighbours had an immediate appeal to many people, sitting down at lunchtime for 25 minutes of daily television escapism to a friendly world of warm sunshine and backyard swimming pools. Its popularity wasn't restricted to just frazzled mums of young toddlers and the retired, in school and college common rooms all over the country it became essential viewing for teenagers and students, too.

Throughout the latter half of the 1980s the daytime schedule evolved to bring us more new and long-running shows including the topical debate programme Kilroy, and Going for Gold, a quiz with an international flavour hosted by Henry Kelly.

There was even a Daytime magazine and a Daytime Club, complete with a flashy membership card. The phenomenal success of Neighbours continued to grow and the combined lunchtime and teatime repeat each day (from 1988 onwards) had audiences of 18 million upwards glued to Ramsay Street's unfolding dramas. The long, enduring stretches of selected 'pages from Ceefax' became a distant memory, much to the wistful sadness of some; but also to the joyous relief of many!

Name that cover star

2016-05-11T07:30:00+00:00

Radio Times covers are all about stars. Hundreds of well-known names have been awarded the privilege of gracing the magazine's front page over the years.

Here are just five of them from 1988 - they are either extracts or have been blurred out to make it all the more challenging. Each clue contains a link to a relevant programme in the Genome listings.

If it all gets too much, you can find the answers at the bottom of this post. Happy guessing and feel free to leave your comments about these stars and memories about their programmes.

1) This TV personality from the 1980s and 90s was more readily associated with a host of ITV programmes. But he came to the BBC to star in a Saturday night variety show.

2) This personality took a starring role on a January 1988 Radio Times cover to promote a new series on a subject very dear to his heart. Ironically this man always preferred to talk about the stars.

3) Actors and actresses are often Radio Times cover stars, and this person graced the front page in May 1988. This was for a role in a Moliere adaptation on BBC2.

4) This broadcaster needs little introduction. A glamorous portrait was on a 1988 Radio Times cover to mark the return of a long-running show which she will always be associated with.

5) It's June 1988 and the advent of the Wimbledon Championships are featured on the Radio Times front cover. But which tennis star do this pair of pins belong to?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you give in? Here are the answers to this week's teasers:

1) Michael Barrymore

2) Barry Norman

3) Nigel Hawthorne

4) Esther Rantzen

5) Pat Cash

The Sunday Post: Lost laughs

2016-02-14T10:00:00+00:00

Molly Sugden failed to reach the stars with intergalactic sitcom Come Back Mrs Noah

With the closure of BBC Three as a broadcast channel now imminent, it seemed the right moment to look back at some of the corporation’s more obscure sitcom offerings from years – and indeed decades – past. After all, what other genre elicits so much passion or such dedicated fans?

Every channel (indeed broadcaster) has had its share of short-lived comedies in the search for the next big hit. You can’t have escaped the fact that a brand new adaptation of one of the BBC’s best-loved sitcoms, Dad’s Army, is now in cinemas. But who remembers co-creator David Croft’s one-series 1980 sitcom Oh Happy Band!?

Written with his ‘Allo ‘Allo! and Are You Being Served? partner Jeremy Lloyd and starring Harry Worth, the six-episode series seems to have returned to relevance, focusing as it does on a small town’s campaign to stop an airport being built nearby. (Heathrow expansion, anyone?)

As far as "failures" go, Croft and Lloyd are far better known for the ill-fated Come Back Mrs. Noah, a futuristic sitcom starring Mollie Sugden.

Somehow surviving a pilot in December 1977 before returning for a five-episode series seven months later, it saw Sugden portray an ordinary housewife in 2050 who is accidentally blasted into space aboard an experimental rocket due to a terrible technical fault. Whether Mrs. Noah ever made it back to Earth or not is unknown, as the show did not return for a second series.

Sci-fi comedy Clone failed to dazzle the imagination

Indeed, sci-fi has proved to be a difficult subject matter for British sitcom on more than one occasion. The most recent entry to this not-so illustrious group would almost certainly be BBC Three’s Clone, starring Jonathan Pryce and Mark Gatiss. The premise was as simple as the eponymous clone - designed as a "super soldier", the resulting humanoid was nothing of the sort.

A little more fantasy than sci-fi was Ed Stone Is Dead which ran for 13 episodes in Autumn/Winter 2002/3, just before BBC Three rose from the ashes of BBC Choice. With writers including Peep Show’s Bain and Armstrong, it starred Richard Blackwood as a man killed before his time, and thus restored to the land of the living – with some limitations – by Death himself, a role fulfilled to perfection by Bill Paterson.

A real death brought about the end of 1979’s Bloomers. Just five episodes had been recorded before its star, Porridge legend Richard Beckinsale, died suddenly of a heart attack at the unspeakably early age of 31. He starred as out-of-work actor Stan, who finds a bright new future in the floristry trade.

After the death - at the age of 93 - of original Carry On films scriptwriter Norman Hudis this past week, it would be mean-spirited not to mention his early 1960s ITV sitcom Our House. Starring the likes of Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims, it follows a group of strangers who pool their money and buy a house together. Running for an incredible 39 episodes over just two series, just three of programmes are known to survive.

A different type of house share was explored in His Lordship Entertains, broadcast in 1972. To have even heard of it you’d likely have to be a die-hard fan of its creator Jonathan Cobbald - a man better known by his real name, Ronnie Barker.

If a comedy like His Lordship Entertains fails to survive, can it become a classic?

Barker reprised a role he played at numerous points during his career, that of saucy, ageing aristocrat Lord Rustless. The six-part series saw Rustless opening his ancestral pile, Chrome Hall, as a hotel. Ancient bell-boy Dithers was played by David Jason in one of his first sitcom roles, with Rustless’s right-hand-woman, Mildred Bates, inhabited by overlooked sitcom legend Josephine Tewson, with whom Barker would star again in his last ever series, 1988’s Clarence. Sadly only one episode of His Lordship Entertains is known to survive.

Everyone other favourite Ronnie, Corbett, reprised his role from No – That’s Me Over Here! for BBC One’s Now Look Here… from 1971, and sequel The Prince of Denmark in 1974. Between them the two BBC shows clocked up 20 episodes, penned by Barry Cryer and Graham Chapman.

Many more treats exist deep in the archives for those with an interest in finding them. I started off with a mention of Dad’s Army, but who recalls the spin-off from its radio series, It Sticks Out Half A Mile? Broadcast on Radio 2, a TV pilot was made in 1985 – Walking The Planks – and a full series appeared on ITV two years later, called High and Dry.

That sitcom may have lasted for only seven episodes, but many entertain millions through multiple series before being completely forgotten. Starring David Roper and Peter Sallis, Leave It To Charlie racked up 26 episodes over four series in just three years. But when was the last time you heard its name mentioned?

Holding The Fort, a marital role-reversal sitcom by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran in the early 1980s suffered a similar fate. Hugely popular at the time, it ran for three series and launched the career of Matthew Kelly, with Peter Davison and Patricia Hodge as house-bound husband and his military wife.

Of course, some series are forgotten because they are largely or wholly missing, believed wiped. Who wouldn’t love to see Son Of The Bride, starring Mollie Sugden and Terry Scott in the familial titular roles, given half the chance? Others simply disappear into the ether, forgotten simply because audiences, writers and stars move on, regardless of how successful they may have been at the time.

But all play important roles in the history of British sitcom, one of the widest, most diverse and potentially most successful of all the broadcast art forms.

Aaron Brown is editor of the British Comedy Guide.

Do you remember any of these ‘lost’ sitcoms? Would you like to see them again? If you’d like to mention any other forgotten comedy classics, please leave your comment in the space below.

Test your television mettle

2016-02-10T10:00:00+00:00

We've been poking around in the picture archives and Genome listings to bring you another crop of television teasers to exercise your eyes and minds.

Each of the following five visual teasers features a star of the small screen or the movies. They may not appear as you know them best and be shown in the early parts of their careers. Take a punt and tell us your guesses at the bottom of the page.

To get closer to their identities, click on each link which takes you to the television listing - the right name will be in there somewhere. Happy hunting!

You can also try the first and second editions of our quizzes.

1) Who is this russet-haired gentleman from Scottish historical series The Borderers, which screened in 1968? He has since gone on to become a Knight of the realm and starred in countless memorable roles. You might see him at the moment in a senior role at the movies.

Click here to find out his identity with Genome's help

2) This studio shot from 1974 is from a production of Greek tragedy Electra. Can you identify the actor being locked in an embrace? He has gone on to take on a host of lead TV roles, including pillars of the establishment.

Click here to find out his identity with Genome's help

3) This actor, regularly a romantic lead and dashing hero on the big screen, goofed it up for 1993 one-off comedy Mama's Back, which starred Joan Collins.

Click here to find out his identity with Genome's help

4) You'll find this actor fully in character as Sigmund Freud in an 1984 television drama about his life. His most famous character is suitably hirsute in the facial department - and also European.

Click here to find out his identity with Genome's help

5) A little behind-the-scenes moment from a popular 2005 costume drama. Our heavily draped star has appeared in a number of period pieces, including a recent epic.

Click here to find out her identity with Genome's help

Feel free to leave your guesses in the space below or share your thoughts about any of the programmes mentioned in our quiz!