Chris, Craig and Jack alight upon the oeuvre of Vincent Price, via the incomparable “Theater (although we insist upon spelling it...
The pilot for Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush taught Chris Evans and Will Macdonald one very clear lesson: “We had a...
After a short break Chris, Craig and Jack are back Back BACK. And what better way to celebrate than anything other than...
Saturday night television remains the only night of the week not to have been commandeered by a traditional soap. With...
In the last of this particular run, Ian and Chris attend a colour-coded middle-management olympiad. This instalment includes: ‘Pluck’. If you don’t...
Chris and Graham settle down to two shows, and then talk about them. In detail. This instalment includes: Our nightly nibble on...
If you’ve ever wanted to watch a full-length cartoon featuring two bland middle-aged men chatting about two old shows from the corners...
TV Cream’s view-a-thing-and-then-chat-about-it podcast returns for an epic three-week residency! This instalment includes: Judith Chalmers If you don’t want to listen to...
Meanwhile, one of Davro’s protégés was at last making waves over on ITV. Brian Conley had appeared in a number of...
Also joining Big Break on Saturday evenings in 1992 was a former Sunday night staple, That’s Life! Esther’s show was taking up...
Since winning New Faces in 1976, Jim Davidson had been a constant staple of ITV’s light entertainment output. Almost immediately after...
ITV also came up with a new Saturday night banker in 1991. Michael Barrymore had already established himself a big success...
With a number of veteran series ending, what would take their place in the Saturday night schedules? Ironically, their initial...
While the BBC was pulling up the drawbridge on traditional sketch show talent, the crop of comedians at ITV weren’t...
1991 remains a pivotal year in the history of Saturday night television. It was the last time various genres of...
In the early to mid 1980s, the US drama Knight Rider tapped into a period in which adventure series featuring high...
Given the growing success of Casualty (which by 1990 was entering its fourth year and pulling in audiences in excess...
In 1990, the BBC managed to trade in one master game show host for another. Bob Monkhouse had been presiding over...
Game shows, having been slightly overshadowed in the middle and later years of the 1980s by the endless stream of...
In 1990 Cannon and Ball found their professional career in bad shape. During their final years at LWT they had struggled...
Do you remember Bagpuss? The next issue of our favourite magazine, TV YEARS, goes on sale on Tuesday June 4, and it’s celebrating classic children’s TV!...
And so into the 1990s. Almost none of the programmes that inhabited the Saturday night schedules at the beginning of the...
Elsewhere, LWT was taking steps in the right direction, nurturing talents such as Brian Conley and Hale and Pace. While Conley’s 1989 Brian...
One of the significant barriers LWT had to overcome in attracting the ABC1 audience that it so craved was the belief commonly...
By 1989, Greg Dyke was getting into his stride as director of programmes at LWT, and was keen for the company to...
The concepts of strip-scheduling, and reality television, not to mention the idea of having members of the public becoming immersed into...
Over at the BBC, attempts were being made to commission a new Saturday late-evening chat show. Ever since the departure of...
Come 1989 and Beadle’s About was at its absolute peak, pulling in up to 15.2 million viewers (for an edition screened on...
“A dazzling array of top flight entertainment is coming to you,” proclaims the double page advert. ” … There’s family fun with...
Cissie Charlton made the trip to London all the way from her home in Ashington. The pensioner thought she was going...
Here it is, another issue of TV YEARS. This time it’s covering the 1990s and it’s on sale from Tuesday April 2....
Aside from streamlining the rank and file of LWT, Greg Dyke was also intent on maximising the company’s advertising revenues. To do...
Another welcome return to Saturday nights occurred in 1988, and although All Creatures Great And Small hadn’t been away for quite as...
Another familiar, some would say iconic, figure also found his way back to his rightful place in 1988. Unbelievably it had...
1988 brought with it the prospect of fresh new challenges. For the BBC, there was the continuing and ever accelerating reform...
1987 would herald the departure of one of ITV’s longest running and most successful game shows. Produced by Yorkshire Television, and based...
In 1986, Central Television saw fit to resurrect New Faces. Hosted by previous winner Marti Caine and featuring the then fearsomely ubiquitous...
“A pale, pretty girl dressed in black is singing a sad love song,” observes writer Nicki Household. “Her voice cracks a...
While comic impersonators enjoyed pretty much a monopoly on Saturday evening comedy programmes, series like Summertime Special provided a platform for a...
Programmes come and programmes go, but in 1987, mainstream comedy continued to rule Saturday night television. In fact, on one fateful...
Of course, Casualty and The Houseman’s Tale were unrepresentative of the BBC’s previous homegrown Saturday night dramatic fare. The lineage of The...
“Death is part of our business whether we like it or not, and somewhere along the line we have to compromise.” So...
ITV in 1986 was not just about straight comedy series. Another force for light entertainment was burgeoning too. With Game For A...
And so another year has gone, and we’re all thrilled we’ve come out of it in one piece. As ever loads of...
Doreen Keogh (5/2/16-31/12/17), first Rovers Return barmaid Concepta Riley and Mrs Doyle’s mainland friend Mrs Dineen Denise LaSalle (16/7/39-8/1/18), soul singer and...
Between them it might have seemed that TVS and LWT had the monopoly on mainstream Saturday evening comedy series, yet this was not entirely...
“Changing their lives for ever” In 2018, Christmas telly is in something of a state of flux. With the streaming services continuing...
Wednesday, 24th December 1980 PICK OF THE DAY 4.45pm THE ALL STAR RECORD BREAKERS, BBC1 In the great 2000+ years history of...
1977: It’s gone down in folklore that Eric Morecambe’s appearance on World Of Sport was dreamt up by him and Dickie Davies...
Recognising that their best tactic was to live up to their promises, TVS invested a lot of time and money into quality drama...
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