Blog

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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,...

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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...

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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”...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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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Christmas Creamguide 2017: Week One

Merry Christmas! And welcome to, heavens, the eighteenth annual Christmas Creamguide where once again we collate all that’s worth watching and listening...