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Name that cover star: 6

2016-06-24T09:00:00+00:00

Hundreds of stars and familiar TV characters have appeared on Radio Times front pages down the years.

This week's cover stars quiz focuses on the 1990s. Can you guess the stars or TV programmes? There's also a clue with links to Genome listings. You can find the answers at the bottom of this post if you're teased too much. Happy guessing and tell us your 1990s TV memories at the end of this post.

You can also test your wits with previous editions of our teaser.

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1) The arrival of a new EastEnder was marked with this cover shoot by Lord Lichfield. Can you name both mother and baby?

2) This extract of a Radio Times cover from 1999 marks the return of a much-loved duo. But which one?

3) This cover star from the latter part of 1991 went to great lengths to publicise a new strand of a popular BBC1 show. Can you name the person behind the brightly-coloured pixellations?

4) This is a small segment of a sporting comeback which took place in 1994. Can you name this courageous pair?

5) Finally this week, a star on a 1990 Radio Times cover who is still very much at the top of his game more than 25 years later. At the time he was the host of a film-based quiz for younger viewers.

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Can't quite join the dots? Here are the answers:

1) Ben and Kathy Mitchell

2) French and Saunders

3) Esther Rantzen

4) Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean

5) Phillip Schofield

This Life at 20

2016-03-18T10:00:00+00:00

Amazingly, 20 years have passed since the first episode of cult drama This Life was first broadcast on BBC2.

This is how the Radio Times welcomed the programme onto the scene, with a quickfire guide to the show's premise, which promised strong language and scenes of a sexual nature. Back in 1996, writer Amy Jenkins said the show - aimed at a younger audience - could offend more mature viewers.

This Life ran for two series and enthralled fans with tales of its house-sharing characters and their constant dramas. It acted as a launchpad for actors Jack Davenport and Andrew Lincoln in particular.

A decade after the first series, the original cast reassembled, and we had a chance to see what had happened to them during the intervening years.

Fans of the show still remember the show with fondness. Who was your favourite character? Let us know in the space below.

Your 'forgotten' 1990s sitcoms

2015-08-24T10:00:00+00:00

Maureen Beattie played a Romanian exile in bakery sitcom All Night Long

A delve into the listings to unearth some long lost sitcoms from the 1990s jogged a lot of memories on Genome's Facebook and Twitter channels. Here's a round-up of comedies from those days which failed to make it beyond one series...

The Sitcom Club nominated All Night Long (pictured above), a 1994 comedy set in a round-the-clock bakery which starred Keith Barron as a reformed burglar and other characters including a Romanian migrant called Vanda. It was on air for just six episodes.

Aaron Brown, meanwhile, says he was a big fan of All Along The Watchtower (pictured below), and is "still gutted" a second series never materialised. The comedy was set at a remote RAF early warning base in a remote part of Scotland, where the news that the Cold War is over hasn't quite hit home.

Another offering from Scotland was The High Life, a caper about the cabin crew of an airline which starred Alan Cumming and mentioned by Chris Gilmour. While it may not have been forgotten, the show only lasted one series plus a pilot episode.

Kevin Ryan contacted us on Facebook suggesting Starting Out, a comedy from the tail end of the 1990s dealing with the romanic entanglings of four people in their twenties. It came from Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks, who write the mighty Birds of a Feather - but this one failed to take flight.

The creators of Father Ted came back with sitcom Hippies, but it was canned after just six episodes and a critical basting. Starring Simon Pegg, the take on 1960s culture was remembered fondly by Simon Love, while Dave Rhodes said: "The hype machine suggested Hippies would be Fawlty-meets-Blackadder - what we got (though good) could never match the marketing."

Thank you for all your suggestions - please keep them coming for this and all other topics.

Scottish offering All Along The Watchtower failed to develop past series one

'Lost' sitcoms of the 90s

2015-08-21T09:00:00+00:00

Honey For Tea failed to match the success of The Good Life for Felicity Kendal

Absolutely Fabulous, The Vicar of Dibley and Keeping Up Appearances are comedies from the 1990s that everyone remembers. They were huge successes and took flight in the imaginations of viewers.

But as well as the triumphs there were sitcoms that failed to to make an impact. It was only working with a collection of programmes from the 90s and Genome that gently reminded me of those short-lived comedies that now languish in the listings.

In 1993, Honey For Tea hit our screens, starring Felicity Kendal as a Californian transplanted to genteel Cambridge. Its first listing stated it "should be guaranteed success" with its writing and acting pedigree. But it was mauled by the critics and didn't survive beyond a first six-part series.

Another star vehicle which was unable to set the world alight was Bonjour La Classe, a sitcom about an idealistic yet hapless languages teacher played by star of The Young Ones, Nigel Planer. It too was cancelled after one series.

Other forgotten 1990s 'gems' and one-series comic wonders that I've encountered on my travels include Every Silver Lining, a "gentle comedy" about an East End cafe. It featured Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs and Frances de la Tour, who has recently appeared in ITV's Vicious.

Caroline Quentin, a cornerstone of the massively successful Men Behaving Badly, also fared less well in Don't Tell Father, a family-based sitcom which didn't have legs in the end.

Discovering long-lost sitcoms is just one journey you can take by delving into the Genome listings, which are filled with the obvious and more hidden. As for comedy series from back in the 1990s, do you still remember the ones that sank almost without trace? Were you sad when they didn't come back? Please let us know!

Niger Planer's hapless Laurence Didcott graced our screens for just six episodes