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Nicholas Parsons: “Never get complacent about your success”

In 2015, TV Cream was fortunate enough to talk to Nicholas Parsons on the eve of the 71st series of Just A...

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Creamguide Review of the Year: 2019

Time now for our review of what everyone’s calling the worst year ever, but what year hasn’t been recently, eh? But it’s...

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2019 in memoriam

Ron Smith (?/24-10/1/19), Judge Dredd artist Dianne Oxberry (28/11/67-10/1/19), Simon Mayo breakfast sidekick, 8:15 From Manchester presenter, BBC North West weather presenter...

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Christmas Creamguide 2019: Week Two

Hullo there! Welcome back to the second part of your Christmas Creamguide with the last knockings of this bloody awful decade and...

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Christmas Creamguide 2019: Week One

Hullo there! It’s the Christmas Creamguide and it’s the twentieth time we’ve done it! Maybe one day we’ll get good at it,...

Clive James, on television

The artist formerly known as Vivian James was initially more famous for writing about television than appearing on it, with his column...

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TV Years: Classic Children’s Programmes

Do you remember Bagpuss? The next issue of our favourite magazine, TV YEARS, goes on sale on Tuesday June 4, and it’s celebrating classic children’s TV!...

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TV Years: The Nineties

Here it is, another issue of TV YEARS. This time it’s covering the 1990s and it’s on sale from Tuesday April 2....

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Creamguide Review of the Year: 2018

And so another year has gone, and we’re all thrilled we’ve come out of it in one piece. As ever loads of...

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2018 in memoriam

Doreen Keogh (5/2/16-31/12/17), first Rovers Return barmaid Concepta Riley and Mrs Doyle’s mainland friend Mrs Dineen Denise LaSalle (16/7/39-8/1/18), soul singer and...

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Advent Calendar: December 24th

1977: It’s gone down in folklore that Eric Morecambe’s appearance on World Of Sport was dreamt up by him and Dickie Davies...

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Advent Calendar: December 23rd

1981: Even the Community Programming Unit has to let its hair down occasionally. Grapevine, “The Self-Help Show”, is still very low-key in...

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Advent Calendar: December 22nd

1979: 21 minutes of the pre-Christmas Swap Shop are illuminated by Debbie Harry and a Super 8 camera wielding Chris Stein taking...

Advent Calendar: December 21st

1981: Westward Television celebrated its 20th anniversary, eight months after the actual date and ten days before the franchise closed. Hey, better...

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Advent Calendar: December 20th

1971: Opportunity Knocks’ big discoveries in 1971 were Little & Large, but despite making the All Winners Show they weren’t in contention...

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Christmas Creamguide 2018: Week Two

For we know we should be gay Hullo again! And we’re back with the second half of your double Christmas Creamguide with...

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Christmas Creamguide 2018: Week One

Hullo there! And welcome to the maybe-legendary-but-it’s-not-for-us-to-say Christmas Creamguide, back for a nineteenth festive season. As in previous years, it’s so big...

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Advent Calendar: December 19th

1977: You’re quite right it’s Monday, Play School, and as the start of Christmas week Chloe Ashcroft and Johnny Ball are getting...

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Advent Calendar: December 18th

1980: Top Of The Pops (full playlist), the last one before Christmas. Both Simon Bates and the production team are in “that”...

Advent Calendar: December 17th

1977: “He’s got a funny surname but I can’t remember it!” Our Show was what LWT, with the backing of Anglia and...

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Advent Calendar: December 16th

1980: Um, is it alright if we all agree to skip past the imagery of the first show trailed here? Thanks. BBC1’s...

Advent Calendar: December 15th

1987: We haven’t included a lot of adverts in this Advent Calendar so far because there’s great vats of them on YouTube...

Advent Calendar: December 14th

1976: Post-Grundy, the Sex Pistols found promoters and local councils weren’t as amenable to putting on their UK tour as they had...

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Advent Calendar: December 13th

1970: “The work to rule is over!” And unfortunately so is the online presence of the full Bob-fronted Golden Shot that was...

Advent Calendar: December 12th

1981: Some of the bits between the programmes on BBC2. “It’s really sodding cold” is the news lead, including a rare namecheck...

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Advent Calendar: December 11th

1980: Tributes to John Lennon were still having to be made, Top Of The Pops finding a dark corner of the studio...

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Advent Calendar: December 10th

1981: One of the great pop years, where the rise of the synths, punk’s fallout, the soul revival, rock’n’roll revivalism, weird European...

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Advent Calendar: December 9th

1980: John Lennon was declared dead at 3.50am UK time, which means it’s very likely this Midday News report would have been...

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Advent Calendar: December 8th

1979: The first Star Trek film was released the previous day in the US and on the 15th here. The BBC children’s...

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Advent Calendar: December 7th

1984: “Lumberjack? Steeplejack? Oh, Uncle Jack?” The Chas & Dave theme and presence of Stu Francis can only mean Crackerjack was on...

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Advent Calendar: December 6th

1973: Everyone was into oil fields in the mid-70s, and a discovery near the Shetlands led John Craven’s Newsround. Craven himself had...

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Advent Calendar: December 5th

1982: As trailed by the natural face of experimental broadcasting, Arthur Mullard, although The Saturday Show found an ideal front”person” for the...

Advent Calendar: December 4th

1974: The Irish border problem used to mean something entirely different. Nationwide traversed the divide in the company of Bernard Falk, who...

Advent Calendar: December 3rd

1980: Peter Davison had been named as the Fifth Doctor a month earlier and was three and a half months away from...

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Advent Calendar: December 2nd

1981: Southern was on the way out at the end of the year which would inevitably mean an end to Houseparty, the...

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Advent Calendar: December 1st

Hello there! Why Don’t YouTube? here, popping in from next door where all year we’ve been collating and contextualising clips over at...

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TV Years Christmas special

TV YEARS – the excellent magazine about old telly – is back soon, with a Christmas Special that goes on sale from...

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It’s out today!

Today’s the day TV YEARS magazine goes on sale. Packed with interviews, facts and fancies about Eighties television – and nothing but...

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Introducing TV Years!

A brand-new magazine about old telly goes on sale Tuesday, 11 September. Called TV YEARS, its first issue is all about the...

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Peter Firmin, 1928-2018

TV Cream was sad to hear of the death of Peter Firmin, co-founder of Smallfilms (with Oliver Postgate). Between them, Firmin and Postgate created The...

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We want your 1980s TV crap!

TV Cream is working on a new ‘pet project’ – and we’re hoping you can help! We’re looking for 1980s programme ephemera,...

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2017 – was it really that bad?

Yes, we’ve made it through another year, which all and sundry have called the worst ever, but which one hasn’t been recently,...

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2017 in memoriam

Sid Roberson (15/03/1937 – 22/12/2016, reported January), award winning advert director, also directed the Sweeney and Fast Show Larry Steinbachek (06/50/1960 –...

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Christmas Creamguide 2017: Week Two

Hullo again! And we’re back with the second half of your Christmas Creamguide. Actually, such is the way the dates fall this...

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The Christmas specials they should have made!

Call The Midwife? By all means Call The Midwife. Open All Hours? Okay. But what about all the other deserving shows over...

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