All posts tagged "It&#8217;s Saturday Night"

82. We just weren’t allowed into UK terrestrial television

“A dazzling array of top flight entertainment is coming to you,” proclaims the double page advert. ” … There’s family fun with...

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81. I sat for a moment in silence, then turned in my chair and left the stage

Cissie Charlton made the trip to London all the way from her home in Ashington. The pensioner thought she was going...

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80. The Charge-And-Shout Brigade

Aside from streamlining the rank and file of LWT, Greg Dyke was also intent on maximising the company’s advertising revenues. To do...

79. The yarns worked their tried and tested magic

Another welcome return to Saturday nights occurred in 1988, and although All Creatures Great And Small hadn’t been away for quite as...

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78. You wanna bet on it?

Another familiar, some would say iconic, figure also found his way back to his rightful place in 1988. Unbelievably it had...

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77. Taking on Blind Date would be a real challenge

1988 brought with it the prospect of fresh new challenges. For the BBC, there was the continuing and ever accelerating reform...

76. There’s good news for perplexed fans of 3-2-1!

1987 would herald the departure of one of ITV’s longest running and most successful game shows. Produced by Yorkshire Television, and based...

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75. This is your show, folks, and I do mean you

In 1986, Central Television saw fit to resurrect New Faces. Hosted by previous winner Marti Caine and featuring the then fearsomely ubiquitous...

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74. I Heard A Seat In The Stalls Go ‘Gerdonk!’

“A pale, pretty girl dressed in black is singing a sad love song,” observes writer Nicki Household. “Her voice cracks a...

73. There’s such a passion for nostalgia right now

While comic impersonators enjoyed pretty much a monopoly on Saturday evening comedy programmes, series like Summertime Special provided a platform for a...

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72. I don’t care if he doesn’t like me

Programmes come and programmes go, but in 1987, mainstream comedy continued to rule Saturday night television. In fact, on one fateful...

71. I was in obscurity until this series

Of course, Casualty and The Houseman’s Tale were unrepresentative of the BBC’s previous homegrown Saturday night dramatic fare. The lineage of The...

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70. Stretchers never go up stairs

“Death is part of our business whether we like it or not, and somewhere along the line we have to compromise.” So...

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69. The powers that be listened to Denis

ITV in 1986 was not just about straight comedy series. Another force for light entertainment was burgeoning too. With Game For A...

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68. We Are The Funnymen

Between them it might have seemed that TVS and LWT had the monopoly on mainstream Saturday evening comedy series, yet this was not entirely...

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67. Well bottom’s not funny

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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66. That’s just not funny Bobby, it’s corny – just don’t do that

For all its attempts at breaking new ground, Bobby Davro On The Box appealed to a relatively conservative audience. Journalist Stewart Knowles attended a...

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65. It’s no good doing all the same old people all the time

On Saturday 4 January 1986, ITV’s evening schedule included an oddity – 60 minutes of extreme alternative comedy in the shape of...

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64. Things Look Very Precarious

With the arrival of Casualty, Saturday evenings had taken on a surprisingly grim aspect, yet the real world could also violate the...

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63. A slightly pretentious manifesto

It would be up to other dramas to make their mark on Saturday nights. Jeremy Brock – then script editing Juliet Bravo was...

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62. There’s going to come a time when you’ll have to go to the BBC

Come 1986 and, as per usual, ITV (now operating with the strap-line “It’s worth coming home to … ”) was playing...

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61. More pilots than British Airways

While LWT was busy furnishing British entertainment with new, alternative comedians, the station’s dedication towards mainstream acts remained undimmed, and as if...

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60. The audience just sort of started to freeze on him

Although a commendably sophisticated and slick production, not everything ran smoothly on Saturday Live. Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s “The Dangerous Brothers”...

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59. The plumply pretty female duo

LWT poured all of its resources into the production of the pilot edition of Saturday Live, using their largest studio and determinedly...

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58. The most important entertainment programme of my time

Saturday night television in the 1970s and 1980s belonged jointly to BBC1 and ITV. These two goliaths slugged it out, ensuring...

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57. Is there some way to play with the internal constituent parts?

Over the years, Blind Date changed very little. Filmed inserts superseded the photographic montages originally used to represent Blinders’ dates. Meanwhile,...

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56. They’d have strung me up if I hadn’t chosen him

Over the years, Blind Date gave early television exposure to Amanda Holden (who appeared in 1990), children’s TV presenter Ortis Deley (1995) and...

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55. The Most Sexless Person In Television

Unsurprisingly the press seized upon the failed Blind Date pilot and David Glencross and the IBA felt compelled to act. Birt, comfortable that...

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54. We would be the spoilsports

“It’s wallpaper TV,” claimed Daily Mail entertainment columnist, Baz Bamigboye in 2000. “But watching Cilla is like using an illegal substance. You know you...

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53. I shouldn’t have accepted it

LWT’s head of comedy, Humphrey Barclay was growing increasingly concerned. Much effort had been made in the late 1970s to sort out...

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52. A Shrivelled Little Thing

Bob Monkhouse found his niche at the BBC in 1984, but he was not the only one to attain a sense of...

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51. Oh dear – Auntie’s playing bingo!

Another comedian hosting a primetime quiz show for the BBC in 1984 was Bob Monkhouse. From the 1980s onwards, Monkhouse would routinely...

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50. I wanted to make sure it was going to be disastrous

1984 was a year of change in front of the camera. Simon Cadell was replaced in BBC1’s Saturday evening nostalgic sitcom Hi-de-Hi! by...

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49. There’s lots of killing, but not much else

ITV’s own Saturday night dalliance into the realm of telefantasy was more successful, although it too would suffer from an early...

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48. Pure Megablast

The Tripods first aired on 15 September 1984 accompanied by a level of hype that marked the series out for intense scrutiny...

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47. Scope for humour and danger

As the new age of ITV co-operation started to bear fruit in 1984, further promises were made. Granada, still resistant to Birt’s...

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46. We’ve got the fucking lot!

The steady trickle of new weekend ITV programmes made by the traditionally weekend-averse Granada and Central Television was taken as a personal triumph...

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45. Unedifying Greed

“I think the third programme in the series was number one in the ratings,” says Stewart. “Coronation Street was gone, everything else...

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44. Let’s get straight into this

Leslie Crowther was born in Nottingham in 1933. In 1946 he found his way into the BBC Schools Repertory Service and in...

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43. If you want Russ Abbot to do it, then you have to accept me and my ideas

Even before the arrival of Surprise, Surprise, Birt’s public confidence in LWT’s output appeared well founded. By the end of 1983...

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42. All the anticipation of the great emotive point

At the beginning of 1984, the BBC was forced to fight political battles (both internal and external) on almost all fronts....

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41. He has to allow you to do your bit

While 1983 saw Squire’s career briefly hit the stratosphere before descending back to Earth, Cannon and Ball’s star was still inexorably...

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40. Delivered impeccably

But back in 1983 Russ Abbot’s Madhouse was a lynchpin in ITV’s Saturday night schedules. Meanwhile Abbot’s old mentor, Freddie Starr was finding...

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39. We are investing in people

The eventual victor in the TV Times Magazine Top Ten Awards in the category of comedy was Russ Abbot. The loss in...

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38. We haven’t moved into luxury

As the annual TV Times Magazine Top 10 Awards reared its head, readers were asked once again to ponder upon their...

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37. Kamikaze Mastermind

Also beginning in 1983 and faring better than Just Amazing! was the series dubbed “The Kamikaze Mastermind”. Like the Yorkshire Television vehicle, Ultra...

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36. I thought it might be terrible and I wouldn’t enjoy it at all

Born in Bermondsey on May 4, 1952, the young Michael Barrymore fell in love with Norman Wisdom films and, from the age...

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35. Watch the redoubtable Terry take off

For Cilla, the breakthrough was immediate. Not only would Surprise Surprise deliver her substantial new audiences (up to 16 million viewers would tune...

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