Snow On The Logo pt 2: TV Times

10 Comments

1. 

   Rick

   December 6, 2016 at 10:35 pm

   Am I correct in thinking the 1968 baby grew up to be Ben Fogle?

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2. 

   David Smith

   December 7, 2016 at 9:56 am

   Seems he wasn’t born until 1973, so presumably a younger sibling.

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3. 

   Glenn A

   December 8, 2016 at 8:33 pm

   I reckon the best one is the one from 1967. All the others, barring Sooty in 1975 and the 1980 Roger Moore cover, seem to be adverts for ITV stars and the 1981 one with Harry Secombe is sinister. Radio Times always was better and, of course, BBC 1 flattened ITV on the big day for years, probably why they pushed their stars so hard on the cover of the TV Times.

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4. 

   Glenn A

   December 10, 2016 at 12:11 pm

   Going through these again, the Julia Foster with baby, who is probably the same age as me now, is excellent, the Morecambe and Wise with James Bond cover is amusing and I quite like the illustrated 1982 cover. However, the 1993 and 1994 covers are cheap and nasty and look like a bad Christmas card.

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5. 

   Des E

   December 10, 2016 at 2:06 pm

   I reckon the 1995 cover is cheaper and nastier – and scarier, too.

   The folks at TVT must have been very low on ideas that year – a close-up of Santa and nothing else. And did the artist not think of the children at any stage – particularly when he drew Santa’s molars?

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6. 

   Glenn A

   December 11, 2016 at 5:37 pm

   Another contender for awful covers, 1976, with a creepy looking Hughie Green in a santa suit among the cheap mug shots. As in most years in the seventies, ITV knew Christmas Day meant BBC1, so the cover was a damp squib, same as for many years before it was an ITV star in a red hood. Mind you, when they really tried to beat the BBC in 1978 and 1980 with a mixture of Bond, Morecambe and Wise and Janet Brown, the covers were so much better- 1980’s is excellent.

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7. 

   THX 1139

   December 11, 2016 at 10:09 pm

   Am I right in saying the 1980 cover was shot before Janet Brown was filmed at the end of For Your Eyes Only, the jokey coda? Very prescient, if so – did it give Cubby a smashing idea?

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8. 

   Richardpd

   December 10, 2020 at 10:39 am

   The drawn 1985, 86 & 92 covers are very nice, & what you would expect to be on the cover of the Radio Times that year.

   Ironically in the first 2 years the Radio Times used photographic covers a little more typical of the TV Times.

   In 1992 both went for a well rendered generic snowman.

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9. 

   Sidney Balmoral James

   December 12, 2020 at 6:54 pm

   I think people are being a bit kind about this parade of truly hideous covers. The one with Roger and Eric and Ern is at least spiritedly jokey, and the one of Bet and Hilda is nice too, but the rest are all abysmal. The one from 1990 has so much text on it, and such a drab picture, it could be any week’s edition of TV Quick. 1970 looks about as festive as a trip to the dentist, 71 captures long-forgotten Barbara Murray, and then it’s a cavalcade of horrors until 1980. Such strange contrasts: 1973, Babs shows us her tits; 1974, Tommy Steele with the kiddies. That 1976 one looks about a decade out as well – almost everyone shown was well past their sell-by-date (note prominence of Gilbert O’Sullivan, who had no chart placings in 1976 in the UK), and the actual design would have probably been passable in 1965, but is frankly pathetic for the end of 1976.

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10. 

    Richardpd

    December 12, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    The 1976 is an odd one, being a load of publicity photos someone has pasted Santa hats & hoods on.

    Reply