TV Cream

TV: D is for...

Did You See…?

...See?THE GREAT and the good settle down in a beige-toned boudoir set to ruminate upon the small screen highlights of the last seven days. And then once LUDOVIC KENNEDY has shut up, three special guests offer their own four penn’orth of amateur critiquery, usually comprising of a) a posh columnist from Fleet Street b) a stage actor who will confess, by way of an opening apology, “I’m afraid I don’t usually have much time for the box – in fact I haven’t even got one; and c) a parliamentary backbencher with too much time on their hands. Normal tripartite editions would be interspersed with “specials” devoted to one-on-one interviews wherein Ludo invited topical personalities to listen to some of his obsessions and invite them to lunch at one of his numerous London clubs. A worthy, if dull, attempt at TV talking to the nation about itself. Revived, and pretty much reviled, in the early 90s with JEREMY PAXMAN in charge of proceedings, including that dicey opening monologue (“Tough times for people in power this week – yup, BBC mandarins have been trying to explain why Los Barcos has rather turned out to be Costa Packet”).

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Angryhead

    November 11, 2009 at 12:20 am

    Neither did I.

  2. Rob Free

    November 11, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    It was one of those programs you could actually sing the title along to the theme tune. Try it.

  3. Dave Nightingale

    November 15, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    With those with membership to MHP,you might like this!

    http://pp.meldrum.co.uk/show.asp?id=10271

  4. Lee James Turnock

    May 5, 2010 at 4:41 pm

    There’s a special edition of this included on the BBC ‘Brimstone and Treacle’ DVD. Watching it now is like watching an alien broadcast from a distant planet.

  5. George White

    March 1, 2024 at 12:01 pm

    One of several BBC shows that to save money, bought episodes of CBS Reports to fill a slot, so this 1982 CBS Reports ep on US TV became a ‘Did You See? special’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urlp5PBXJOQ

  6. Glenn Aylett

    March 1, 2024 at 3:03 pm

    I much preferred Right To Reply and its video booth, where anyone could wander in and, so long as they didn’t swear, could give an opinion on the week’s television. Also Points Of View could be quite amusing in the Barry Took era and was brilliantly sent up on Not The Nine O Clock News.
    Did You See always came across like The Late Show, a bit too up itself and pompous.

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