TV Cream

Cream over Britain

Advent Calendar: December 11th

1980: Tributes to John Lennon were still having to be made, Top Of The Pops finding a dark corner of the studio to put Richard Skinner in. Before that Madness unveiled the family tartans.

1982: A few weeks after their fractious last in-person UK telly appearance on the same show, now safely back in Stockholm beamed live into the Late Late Breakfast Show, Abba’s final TV appearance (to date), performing I Had A Dream and Under Attack.

1984: It was this night when, returning from Newcastle City Hall to their hotel, Bucks Fizz’ tour bus was hit by a lorry. Mike and Cheryl, along with the driver and their guitarist, were thrown through the windscreen. Mike was on life support and in a coma for a week leaving him with epilepsy and short term memory loss, Cheryl broke three vertebrae, Jay was temporarily paralysed down one side and had head injuries, and Bobby “escaped” with back injuries. This collection of reports includes Razzmatazz rushes.

1992: A BBC1 afternoon, and it’s safe to say this is the classic era of Neighbours end credits with the NTSC effect over the stills and the likes of Kristian Schmid still around. This was the first episode shown in Australia that year as a demonstration of how far behind we were by this point, and we join them as Glen (Jim Robinson’s son, Paul, Scott and Lucy’s stepbrother) is being told he’s paralyzed from the waist down after falling off the roof of Lassiter’s. After that Patrick Moore is pressed into action to promote Sports Review (never Personality) Of The Year before Eldorado, still less than halfway through its run.

1992: Have I Got News For You with Peter Cook and Douglas Adams, in the week Charles and Diana separated? That’ll do us.

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