TV Cream

TV: N is for...

Night Network

TYPICALLY 1980s WEEKEND FLAGSHIP overnight showcase, fronted by the likes of Tom Watt fresh out of EastEnders and Mick Brown, fresh out of, erm, Pat and Mick. Mainly remembered for Emma Freud’s pyjamaed in-bed-interview strand PILLOW TALK, but also very big on reruns of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY. Not remembered at all (except by Lee & Herring) for the dire LEEE’S PLACE, wherein top walking typo and ex-Imagination singer Leee John “ran” a “bar” which played host to some soul “legends” for much dreary banter.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Droogie

    March 25, 2020 at 3:57 am

    I remember Night Network fondly. Perfect post pub/club viewing for pissed/ stoned students like myself with re-runs of Batman and The Monkees. The original segments were a rum selection though: A Juke Box Jury thing where 2 pop stars would be shown current videos and had the option of pressing a buzzer to stop them if they hated the song. Tim Westwood presenting a dance music segment. The bloke who played Adrian Mole doing an unfunny weekly comedy monologue to camera. But strangest was Rowland Rivron hosting a show set in a pretend nuclear bunker where a celebrity guest go to choose their favourite tv and movie clips to watch after a nuclear war . Spike Milligan was a guest and practically broke down on camera at how crap the show’s concept was and why he was appearing on such trash.

  2. richardpd

    March 25, 2020 at 1:50 pm

    Here in Granadaland we had ITV Nightime where the highlights were shows liked America’s Top 10.

    Batman had recently been shown on TV-AM, but the Monkees had up to that time been shown on the BBC, & in the mid 1990s Channel 4 bought up the rights, making it one of the few shows that have been by all 3.

  3. Droogie

    March 25, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    I remember Channel 4 showing The Monkees in sequence from the pilot show with the original Kelloggs serial ads included which obviously the BBC couldn’t screen. I loved the Monkees as a kid, but I believe the BBC only owned maybe a dozen episodes which were always the same ones shown during the school holidays. . It was a shock to later find out later that 58 episodes were made and to finally see them on Channel 4 – especially the weirder psychedelic later ones for the first time with people like Frank Zappa guesting that The BBC didn’t show for whatever reason.

    • richardpd

      March 25, 2020 at 11:28 pm

      It’s one series I would like to have on DVD / Blu Ray but a Region 2 set doesn’t seem to be available.

  4. Glenn Aylett

    March 25, 2020 at 6:31 pm

    Not forgetting Granada’s Hitman and Her, an excuse to visit the non Hacienda type nightclubs in the North, where the idea of cutting edge dance music was the latest one from Sonia, and where mind altering substances were probably cans of strong lager. Trendies might have laughed, but Pete Waterman’s show was probably truer to the clubbing experience in 99 per cent of places in Britain at the time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top