TV Cream

Cream over Britain

Advent Calendar: December 17th

1977: “He’s got a funny surname but I can’t remember it!” Our Show was what LWT, with the backing of Anglia and Southern, did for two years while they waited for that whole Tiswas nonsense to blow over. With a USP of being presented by kids, here including Susan Tully and Dexter’s brother Graham Fletcher (who had a tiny role in The French Lieutenant’s Woman and still acts to this day), somehow the rushes of this episode have escaped complete with floor manager direction and the like. Really it’s a generic magazine show for kids on which the only distinguishing feature is adolescent hesitancy, though LWT haven’t helped with the guest list: pre-fame Shakin’ Stevens, post-fame PJ Proby and comfortably pre-Angelo/Teletubbies Tim Whitnall from the original cast of Elvis: The Musical, Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, Generation X – hark at Tully having to explain punk to the kids – and Marty Feldman co-writer Chris Allen plus guests from the skateboarding and circus trapeze fraternities.

1980: That snowman on skis from yesterday is back, and this time he’s got a ramp! BBC1 continuity brings us that year’s films and then the promise of ‘video superstar’ Kenny Everett on Parkinson, which sounds intriguing even if it isn’t the one which starts with Cupid Stunt, that was two years later.

1981: If you’re looking for an under the radar hero of the Cream era you could do much worse than Sue Menhenick, the only person to have been a member of both Pan’s People and Legs & Co, plus she did time in Ruby Flipper in between and was amongst Zoo’s cast of millions afterwards. Top Of The Pops saw her off with a proper balletic solo performance to Jon & Vangelis’ I’ll Find My Way Home. Earlier in the show, by way of contrast, The Snowmen, a Stiff Records conceit featuring someone seemingly doing an impression of Ian Dury were he to have spent years swallowing ashtrays whole illustrated by four men in costumes that don’t allow them to stretch arms or bend knees as suggested by the lyrics.

1986: Noel Edmonds was still on TV in the weeks after Michael Lush’s death due to Telly Addicts being in the can but his first live appearance after the Late Late Breakfast Show’s cancellation, eight days before ascending to the top floor of the Post Office tower, was on Wogan. Suffice to say it’s not the first car crash Edmonds has been involved with.

1988: After World Of Sport ended in 1985 wrestling stuck around independently but continually changed slots due to rapidly falling interest, started showing WWF matches that showed up what our men could offer in the glamour and wildness stakes and, as you’ll see at the start of this video, gained a stupid theme tune. Greg Dyke’s desire to move LWT upmarket finally meant Kent Walton administering the last rites after 33 years, the earth on its grave later thoroughly salted by this year’s revival.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. George White

    February 16, 2019 at 8:29 am

    Graham Fletcher was also the gangster kid sidekick in A Little Romance

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