Wednesday, 8th January 1986
PICK OF THE DAY
5.35pm FIRST CLASS, BBC1
BBC Scotland upgrade to the network with the second series of their schools ‘video quiz’. It’s thusly cheerio to Louise Bachelor, as Debbie Greenwood takes over as host, adding an agreeable burr when pronouncing show super-computer’s name, Eugene. As this series began, Radio Times wondered if the First Class of 1986 would be from “Wiltshire, Wales, Dundee or Durham?” Whichever, the winning school would be awarded a microcomputer with disc drive and monitor. Part of a new look to teatimes on the channel, the 5.35pm stranded scheduling went thusly: Charles in Charge (Mon), Fax! (Tues), First Class (Weds, Thurs) and, once more with even more feeling, Fax! (Fri).
ALSO SHOWING:
5.00pm THE ROYAL INSTITUTION CHRISTMAS LECTURES, BBC2
We remain in the agreeableness of early evening with this Christmas clinger-on. The third in a series of six programmes, zoologist Professor David Pye tells us all about how bats are able to find their way in the dark, and even constructs his own flying mammal, optimistically described as ‘The Bionic Bat’. Which is great, but not a patch on the way he brilliantly confounded expectations around the portability of telephones in another speech from this run. Have a look!
8pm DUTY FREE, ITV
Mum, it’s back! Returning for a third and final series, how could David, Amy, Robert and Linda all possibly find themselves in each others’ lives again? Well… David’s out of work, so he decides a little holiday is just the thing to perk himself up. Etc, etc. Joanna Van Gyseghem (Linda) opined at the time: “It’s very clever the way the writers have managed to get us all back together, but I think they’ll really have to scratch their heads if there’s to be another series – unless we taken an ocean cruise and Carlos, the waiter, joins the merchant navy.” Yes! We’d watch that!
THX 1139
January 3, 2018 at 12:40 pm
I like to think the First Class Eugene was the same one from Manic Miner. Just to give us a face to put to the name.
Glenn A
January 6, 2018 at 3:36 pm
Maybe BBC One was looking for a teen rival to ITV’s hugely successful Blockbusters, although this mostly ran in the autumn. Also pre Neighbours, quizzes and games shows seemed to fill most of BBC One’s 5.35 slot. Some, like The Railway Csrriage Game, were dreadful, others like First Class were OK, and Masterteam was a genuine miss when Neighbours took its slot, as a few angry letters to Points of View complained about.