I Didn't Know There Was So Much in It: A Weekend to view from the TV Times - 14th and 15th of April 1984

Welcome back to another look at the TV Times from the past, this time we go back to April 1984 and the weekend of the 14th and 15th of April. One which would turn out to eventful for reasons which no-one could for tell. With this being 1984, for the first time in our look backs at times past that we have Channel Four listings as well. The channel in its infancy with Jeremy Isaacs at the helm, alongside ITV. But as such, being neighbours of ITV itself, meaning that the channel as well as being its own self, that also it takes some programming which ITV would have shown previously. 

Anyway onto the listings and starting with Saturday 14th April, 1984 means that TV-AM is one year old and breakfast television on ITV had arrived. So at 6.25am, Good Morning Britain presented by Henry Kelly and Toni Arthur, the former having left Game For a Laugh and the latter had been working for TVS in such programmes as 'Watch This Space'. They came together for a lighter version of TV-AM's magazine programme with a more relaxed approach. 

During the programme, with this being Saturday, sport plays a big part in it. At 7.15am, George Best talks to Henry Kelly and Toni Arthur about the weekend's football. But of course, this wasn't to be the first footballer for TV-AM to use. With Jimmy Greaves, also a part of the team, but reviewing television in later years. Though Best's role was similar to what he'd been doing for TVS' "The Saturday Match" and "Sunday Sportshow", but how often George turned up at this early hour each week was up for consideration. 

Though Rusty Lee was in the kitchen cooking up some more tasty treats and give culinary ideas for the viewers to try at home, plus there was a preview of a new feature to start seven days hence as Harry and Sarah Greene offer up more DIY tips in doing up the TV-AM 'Dream Home'. The emphasis on hobbies, was right for weekend viewers encouraging them to try new skills at home. Much like the programme turning to a more tabloid style after its rocky start at the beginning of 1983.

Saturday morning means programming for children, at 8.40am there's Data Run presented by Edwina Lawrie, the sister of Lulu. This contained a combination of pop music and various features for its core audience, alongside Data Run was S.P.L.A.T. in 1984, known as this because of the acronym made from Soaps, Puzzles, Laughter and Talent. Introduced by future Wide Awake Club presenter James Baker, both of these could be seen to of the same family of the later Wide Awake Club and Wacaday as well.

So after breakfast television has finally been removed off the table, because this a North-Eastern edition of the TV Times, it means that Tyne Tees' listings that we'll be looking at for ITV this week and their day starts with an odd little programme called 'Morning Glory' at 9.25am with the children of Grangetown Primary School play Whistling Rufus. The song itself is of African-American origin and was composed Frederick A. "Kerry" Mills in 1899, It is typically described as a march, and can be used effectively as a two-step, polka or cakewalk. An example of its popularity is given on the first page of the music sheet: "No cakewalk given in the Black Belt district of Alabama was considered worth while attending unless 'Whistling Rufus' was engaged to furnish the music. Unlike other musicians, Rufus always performed alone, playing an accompaniment to his whistling on an old guitar, and it was with great pride that he called himself the 'one-man band'." Although not verified, this quote is likely from Kerry Mills as he was both the composer and publisher of the song.

It was more then likely, to go in an awkward five minute slot which on weekdays was filled by the North-East news headlines and most probably counted towards their religious quotation as it also fills up the same slot on Sunday morning. Though, it maybe quite apt to have a song from the deep south of America before at 9.30, an edition of Little House on the Prairie which was based in Walnut Grove, Minnesota around the same time that Whistling Rufus was written. But with each region scheduling its own programmes, meant what they thought was appropriate children's programming usually was what you would describe as programming for the whole family.

Following this at 10.30am is the last on the series of 'The Saturday Show' from Central and it is the last of the programme in its current form with the programme coming back as 'Saturday Starship' in the Autumn. The presenting team of Tommy Boyd, Isla St. Clair, Jimmy Greaves and David Rappaport had been there since the beginning in the Autumn of 1982, but the original plan was to have wrestler Big Daddy to be a ringmaster of sorts for the programme with his name on the show itself, even with Look-In in June 1982 previewing the show with a small article in the magazine. However owing to health related problems, Big Daddy pulled out and the show dropped his name out of the titles and opening titles where edited to take virtually any references to the wrestler.

So having Jimmy Greaves come into the show, as he already was part of the Central sports team working on Star Soccer and other sport related programmes and segments for the company. His big personality helped filled the gap where Big Daddy was to be and it gave Tommy Boyd someone to talk about sport and broadening the show's range by having sporting guests on the programme. Meanwhile David Rappaport was there as 'Shades', a somewhat smaller version of The Fonz but also taking some of the presenting duties off Boyd and St. Clair as well as being a bit of a comic foil as well with his character. 

After a morning of fun, Tyne Tees has the first local news of the day at thirteen minutes past midday followed by an afternoon of sport introduced by Dickie Davies in World of Sport. Today, the sports anthology covered Rollerskating with the World Gala from Bury St. Edmunds, as the best skaters show off their skills on the skates of the wheeled variety to music, highlights from Augusta of the first two days play at the US Masters golf, followed by the first ITN news of the day at 12.45pm.

Following the news, World of Sport continues with On the Ball with Ian St. John and with Jimmy Greaves chipping in from up in Birmingham. There's an ITV Six from Thirsk and Ayr where the feature race of the day is the Scottish Grand National from Ayr, also there's horsepower of a different kind as England face the United States in the first speedway test plus also with grapple time with a bill of wrestling from Blackburn. So in just that one edition Anglia, Yorkshire, Scottish Television, Central Television and Granada all pooled their coverage to the London Weekend television studios to make this edition possible, which is a massive undertaking, but they did on a week in, week out basis to get the programme on the air.

And as a bonus, here some footage from World of Sport on that day. On the top the Scottish Grand National won by Androma and below that nearly twenty minutes of the England vs USA Speedway Test Match.

Anyway, moving along from sport for a while after the ITN News and a round up from of local news from Tyne Tees starting at Five o'clock in the afternoon, the evening's entertainment starts on ITV with a trip to Fraggle Rock, as the TVS made series was at its peak and had become and international success for both Jim Henson and Television South as well. The early Saturday evening slot was a good one for the programme, like many other crossover shows for both children and adults, the early evening slot was ideal as had been proved by many shows before it. But to add variety, there's American import Whiz Kids made by CBS, following four young amateur detectives using their computer skills to help them solve crimes.

Although this made the show run into trouble with stories of young computer hackers gaining access to sensitive information, meaning that the network bosses had asked for storylines to be changed to seem like the young detectives were doing their sleuthing by legal means and that other adult characters such as a police detective and a local newspaper reporter were introduced, meaning the young characters would have people to look to for guidance on certain issues relating to what they were doing.

After all that action, LWT bring a sense of fun to proceedings with an edition of 'Child's Play' with Michael Aspel as your host, where members of the public and their celebrity playing partners have to work out a group of young primary schoolchildren are describing. This was the last but one edition of this series, though we do not have any information as to who the celebrity playing partners are in this edition, but we can bring you an edition during that 1984 series to show you what the programme was like and how it actually played as a game. 

Following Child's Play at 7pm, Candid Camera returns with a look back some of their most popular jokes and pranks, looking as the title suggests "Candid Camera: The Difference Between Men and Women" to show each of the sexes would react in a certain way to a Candid Camera sketch. Though it is interesting to note that as well as Game for a Laugh, also Noel Edmonds' Late Late Breakfast's Hit Squad had been going over some of the same territory. But it is not surprising to learn that Peter Dulay had a hand in both.

Dulay himself had come from a show business family even with his father Benson Dulay had been a comedy magician of note on the music hall stage. But Peter Dulay had broken into television co-writing Roamin' Holiday with Eric Sykes for Max Bygraves in 1961, though after working regularly for comedy show on Independent Television, he had moved into the producing side of the industry such with 'Comedy Bandbox' for ABC-TV and also television specials for the likes of Frankie Howerd and Bruce Forsyth.

But in 1969, Peter Dulay moved to Yorkshire Television to become writer/producer on Sez Les, the new at that time vehicle for the comedy talents of Les Dawson, meanwhile in London he scripted for Leslie Crowther in London Weekend's 'The Leslie Crowther Show' and even scripting for Larry Grayson in 1972 for his 'Shut That Door' showcase for ATV and his last producing work was of producing a series for Tommy Cooper in 1978 called funnily enough "Just Like That" after Cooper's catchphrase.

After all the fun and pranks at eight o'clock comes American cop action as T.J. Hooker bursts onto the screen and with the real life events of the ITN News at 9pm bring all the latest national and international news to ITV viewers.

At 9.15pm, the first of Saturday night's movies is 1967's 'Wait Until Dark' starring Audrey Hepburn as a young blind woman, Alan Arkin as a violent criminal searching for some drugs with also Richard Crenna, Jack Weston, Julie Herrod and Efrem Zimbalist Jnr co-starring as well about a tale of drugs, intrigue and murder. After a quick five minute community service announcment, the second movie appears of the night. This time is it home grown comedy with the film series of Granada Television's sitcom 'The Lovers' starring Richard Beckinsdale and Paula Wilcox as Geoffrey and Beryl, a young courting couple. From the pen of Jack Rosenthal who had previously also written 'The Dustbinmen' for Granada as well during his time there. So at 1am Tyne Tees closes down for the night, but what exactly was Channel Four showing on the same day?

They opened up at 1.50pm with 'Some Mothers by Daughters' from the Moving Picture Company, as we will see in quite a lot of Channel Four's listings during this week a lot of independent production companies, some familar and some not so. Following this at 2.15 is the film 'The Sign of the Cross', produced and directed by Cecil B. Demille in 1932 about Marcus Superbus, a Roman solider under Emperor Nero who falls in love with a young woman and converts to Christianity for her. Taking many of the same themes as used in Quo Vadis, but staying faithful to the stage play of which this adaptation comes from itself.

At 4.35, there's another edition of Mama Malone, with the titular Ms. Malone being the host of a live cookery show from her fourth floor apartment in Brooklyn, the CBS sitcom had actually only been running in America for about two weeks previously before Channel Four started showing the first edition on 14th of April. Though the show was only to have a one series run, finishing in July of 1984 in America. Though doubtless, the programme would also have finished in the UK a few weeks after that.

Though as you'll see in the show's opening credits above, the show had a catchy theme tune or catchy enough to put people coming back each week to see the show it seems.

But from home spun wisdom, American style to home spun wisdom, Scouse style with this week's Brookside omnibus as in the previous Tuesday's episode that Sheila feels guilty over what has happened to Matty and Paul receives an invitation to a reunion at PetroChem. Meanwhile in the previous Wednesday's episode that Annabelle is embarrassed when she doesn't realise that the potential buyers she has to show around Heather's house are a gay couple. So a lot going on in Brookside Close during the previous week there and we will coming to this week's episodes a bit later on.

At Six o'Clock, Gary Crowley presents another edition of Ear' Say, with pop music for the kids on a Saturday night, but sees one of the first Action Time productions on the screen with the later to go on to bigger and greater successes as a production company during the 1990's. As they say, from humble beginnings and all that, but the show was important enough to show that Channel Four could also do pop music as well alongside what The Tube was doing for Tyne Tees themselves. 


After the Channel Four News headlines and weather at 7pm is a documentary from Granada Television called 'The War of the Springing Tiger' looking at the 40,000 men who deserted the Indian Army to fight for the Japanese against the British for an independent India during World War Two. Led by Subhas Chandra Bose who rejected Gandhi's non-violent campaign against the British Army, the documentary looks at the Indian National Army which had been revived by Bose in 1943 and why Indian Prisoners of War decided to join up with the Indian National Army, also its role in the Burma and Imphal Campaign and its role in the Indian Independence Movement.

At 8pm, there's a look at the political week in '7 Days' from Yorkshire Television follow by Four American Composers, directed by Peter Greenaway famous for directing films such as 'The Draftsman Contract', 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' and 'Prospero's Book'. This week's film looks at the musical works of Phillip Glass accompanied by some of his compositions, made by Trans Atlantic Films for Channel Four, the other programmes in the series concentrates on the composers Meredith Monk, John Cage and Robert Ashley. 

Drama at 9.35pm with a another showing for The Avengers from ABC-TV, during the early years of Channel Four, Chief Executive Jeremy Isaacs used archive programming such from ABC and ATV to reshow on the forth channel. The popularity of repeats of The Avengers and also The Prisoner gained a whole new audience who were too young to see the programmes when they originally went out on ITV during the 1960's, but also with an eye to viewers who appreciated a re-showing of them as well. 

To round off the evening is the second visit to the Augusta National Course for live coverage of The US Masters at 10.40pm for the Third Round of the tournament, at this stage after two rounds of golf that Mark Lye, a player playing in his first Masters Championship was leading by three strokes from Tom Kite with Ben Crenshaw, a further stroke behind in third place at that stage. Though with any live sporting event, it is difficult to tell how long it will last for, so the TV Times puts an approximate Closedown at 12.35am.


Sunday morning on ITV starts with TV-AM featuring Rub-a-Dub-Dub with Dick King-Smith at 7.30am and Good Morning Britain at 8.30am. Tyne Tees comes onto the air at 9.25am with some more 'Morning Glory' again featuring Grangetown Primary School, followed by Central's programme for the disabled 'Link' at 9.30am. The Morning Worship is presented by TVS at 10.00am with afterwards, a look around at some of the events taking place in the Tyne Tees area in Lookaround at 11am.

At five past eleven, there's film fun with Laurel and Hardy in One Good Turn, as Stan and Ollie are victims of The Great Depression and are begging for food, when a friendly old lady gives them some sandwiches but as they eat them they overhear that the lady is about to be thrown out of her house because she has been robbed and cannot pay the mortgage. Though Stan and Ollie don't know that the old lady is rehearsing a play. So in kind hearing about her plight, Stan and Ollie decide to sell their car to pay so she can remain in her home. Though during the auction of selling the car, a drunken man puts a wallet in Stan's pocket and Ollie thinks that Stan has robbed her but when they return to the old lady's house they learn the truth about what has happened and Stan takes revenge on Ollie for accusing him of doing such a thing. 

Following Laurel and Hardy at 11.30am is the last in the series of 'Me and My Camera' from Yorkshire, where they looked at all aspects of photography and how to take better pictures with hints and tips from the experts. 

After the North-East News Headlines at two minutes to midday, Brian Walden introduces this week's edition of Weekend World looking at the scene politically both here and abroad, also including the ITN News as well. But what was happening in the news during this week? On Sunday, the USSR performed a nuclear test in what is now Eastern Kazakhstan and Alexander Trocchi, Scottish Writer died as well. During Tuesday, an event which was to change the whole week's tone occurred when PC Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy during demonstrations there, Wednesday saw the Challenger space shuttle arrive back at Kennedy Space Centre after a mission. Though an event later on Sunday evening was to overshadow all of this. 

This week's edition of University Challenge, presented by Bamber Gascoigne is at One o'clock followed by Farming Outlook introduced by Stuart Seaton, as we saw last week he was the presenter of Farming Outlook for ABC-TV and nearly twenty years on, he was doing the same job although by now it was a Tyne Tees production instead. Following all the latest for farmers and those interested in in country pursuits at 2.00pm, there's a chance to relive Tinseltown's golden age with a compilation of some of its most popular musicals in 'That's Hollywood'.

At 2.30pm, an afternoon of sport starts with The Big Match as Brian Moore introduces one of that weekend's FA Cup Semi Finals between Everton and Southampton, which Everton won one-nil at Highbury and coverage of a Second Division match from Tyne Tees' own patch as promotion chasing Newcastle United lost to Sheffield Wednesday one-nil as well. Though the sport takes a more local theme at 3.15, when Derek Thompson introduces Extra Time with a look horse racing, golf and also at the weekend's football. 


Meanwhile Channel Four starts the day at 1.45pm with Irish Angle from Iona Productions looking at issues from an Irish perspective followed by the Sunday afternoon matinee, The Eddy Duchin Story at 2.15pm which is a biopic about band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin starring Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. Following Anything We Can Do at 4.30pm is Book Four from LWT, hosted by Hermione Lee with the latest reads from the world of literature.

On Tyne Tees at 4.50pm from Central, its Bullseye with Jim Bowen and Tony Green with contestants hoping to win big on Bully's Prize Board. After the latest ITN news at 5.20, part three of Jesus of Nazareth is shown. The multi-million production directed by Franco Zeffirelli starring Robert Powell as Jesus with a supporting cast of Olivia Hussey, Ernest Borgnine, Anne Bancroft, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quinn and Peter Ustinov to name but a few. The other parts had been shown in the lead up to Easter Day with the fourth one shown on 22nd April 1984. 

Over on Channel Four at 5.45pm, there is a more cerebral quiz as Ray Alan asks 'Where in The World', where two teams and their guests try to identify well known places from around the world from pictures, objects and the food of that country. Ray is able assisted by former Countdown hostess Beverley Isherwood and also by the team captains John Carter of the Holiday programme and latterly Wish You Were Here plus John Julius Norwich, travel writer and editor of such books as Great Architecture of the World and The New Shell Guides to Great Britain. Following the Channel Four News headlines at 6.15, there's the first of two live visits to the US Masters Golf introduced by Steve Rider before an edition of The World at War from Thames, as the landmark series gets a repeat show on the Fourth Channel. Which is little wonder as Jeremy Isaacs was the producer on the series itself, comissioned in 1969 by Thames Television, the series took a total of four years to produce at a cost at the time of £900,000. Itself a record amount of money spent on a British television programme, which would equate to over twelve million pounds today.

On Tyne Tees, Chas and Dave presented another edition of 'Knees Up' combining the best music and also the best comedy around including Jeff Stevenson and also Lonnie Donegan who had been a fan of Chas and Dave's musical work for a long time. The original idea for Knees-Up had come from a Christmas Special broadcast on Christmas Day that Chas and Dave had done for LWT, when that show was such a success, that executives decided to commission a weekly series of shows for the ITV network. Also on this programme were appearances from Renee and Renato as well as a young Brian Conley as well.

With this being Sunday night, LWT held the tiller for most of the programming for the evening. At 7.45pm, the network went live to Her Majesty's Theatre, London as Jimmy Tarbuck introduced 'Live From Her Majesty's'. The bill that evening featured Les Dennis and Dustin Gee, Donny Osmond and also an appearance for Tommy Cooper. Though no-one was to know what was going to follow, whilst performing his act on the stage, Cooper had a heart attack and was seriously ill. Meaning after this had happened, the programme cut to an advertisement break but afterwards when it came back, the show continued with Cooper receiving CPR behind the curtain. It was announced later that Cooper had died on arrival at hospital. For Les Dennis, this same experience was to strike again a few years later when also lost his double-act partner Dustin Gee to the same thing.

The ITN news updated viewers with the latest news at 8.45pm, but the palpable shock had been felt across the country when one of Britain's best loved entertainers had been seen to collapse in front of live television cameras. Cooper had not done much performing on television for a while and this was seen as a special treat, especially as host Jimmy Tarbuck had known him so well.

This was followed by an edition of The Professionals at 9pm As Bodie and Doyle try to find out why an organisation is hiring people to kill seemingly normal members of the public. On Channel Four at 8.15 was another chance to see Staying On, a drama from Granada Television which had been shown on ITV on the previous Tuesday. Based on Paul Scott's award-winning novel and filmed on location in India, this is the postscript to the story of The Jewel in the Crown. As when in 1947, when India gained independence from British rule, most of the British Raj returned home. But some elected to stay on in India post-1947 and this drama is about the experiences of Tusker and Lucy Smaller recalling their memories of that time as the last English residents of Pankot.

On Tyne Tees at 10pm was the latest edition of Spitting Image with the promise of Tony Benn, Len Murray, Fidel Castro and Bernard Levin being lampooned by the programme, the programme which had been broadcast since late February had not quite caught on with the public at this point after the show had got 7.9 million viewers for its first episode, those numbers slowed slipped away and so much to the point that the series which was to have been thirteen episodes long, was reduced back to twelve with the show nearly being cancelled owing to such a drop in viewing figures and also with the cost of the shows to make totally up to £2.6 million, double the amount of any other prime time series at that time.

Following this at 10.30pm was this week's edition of The South Bank Show as Melyvn Bragg introduced Professor Sir Ernest Gombrich, art historian and author examines the effect of eyes in our imagination both in art and life giving a lecture on this subject, meanwhile over on Channel Four at 9.55pm is Jesus The Evidence, in the start of Easter week, this programme looks at recently found evidence that Jesus may have been very different to the one which who's image had been portrayed in both fact and fiction. Questioning this traditional image and asking if he had influenced by the Jewish faith and the context it has on Jewish history.

After the South Bank Show, there's the last in the series of a repeat run of the Irish RM, the series which had been made in co-production by Ulster Television and Radio Telefis Eireann and first shown on Channel 4 in 1983, adapted from the books of Anglo-Irish novelists Somerville and Ross concerning the life of an Irish ex-British Army officer resident magistrate appointed to this position in Ireland in the days when Ireland was a whole before the creation of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

Peter Bowles played the role of The R.M. Major Yeates, much like the creation in the books leading to the stories being played as comedy drama reflect the situation in Ireland with its culture and people at that time.

On Channel Four at 10.55pm is live coverage of the final round of the US Masters golf as Steve Rider presents with Ben Crenshaw hoping for his first win at the Augusta National course and it was Crenshaw who won by two strokes from two time Masters winner Tom Watson, the coverage of the Masters tournament had been with ITV and Channel Four for the past couple of years before switching to the BBC in future years.

And to round off the night at 12.30am on Tyne Tees, the The Eskdale and Skinningrove Male Voice Choir sing 'The Donkey' before closedown.

I've you enjoyed this look at the weekend of the 14th and 15 of April 1984, brief as it maybe. Next week, we'll be back to normal looking at a whole week via the TV Times as we once again say 'I Didn't Know There Was So Much in it'.

"Coming up after this break.." The story and art of Continuity Announcing from those who have done it themselves

For all of its changes in presentation, style and even with new channels launching all the time, there is one thing that stays the same and has done since day one of television itself and that is the continuity announcer. But these people are lot more then just informing viewers of what may be coming up on any given channel at one time, the actual art of continuity is something to behold itself.

The earliest days of television saw the announcers themselves become celebrities themselves, but the idea of continuity announcing was seen as continuation of what people would have been used to say at a music hall or a theatre where a compère would announce the next act. Where as television was an extension of this theory, announcers were used to announced what act was coming next, a procession of items rather then programmes meaning there could be a singer with a cookery item in the next bit. Their job would be to sometimes to list the whole evening's programming in one slot, so that viewers knew what would be coming up during the evening, sticking rigidly watching the little box in the corner bringing themselves entertainment.

With the constant appearances in-between the programming, the faces doing the announcements became more and more recognisable, the first voice being Leslie Mitchell announcing on the 2^nd November 1936 debut of the BBC's television and uniquely as well he was the first ever voice heard on Independent Television in September 1955 launching Associated-Rediffusion. Mitchell himself had been a trainee stockbroker and because of his good looks and rich voice started to get him parts in stage productions. As we'll see later, certain things can have a way of making a strange fate for people and how they became continuity announcers.

Carrying on with Leslie Mitchell, he started appearing on BBC Radio in 1932 and joined the staff at the corporation in 1934 starring as a announcer and producer on variety shows. Come 1936 though he was picked as one of the faces for the new BBC television service, though as war broke out, his voice was used by the Movietone News for their newsreels informing people what was happening during this turbulent time even with this fame appearing in a Will Hay film, The Black Sheep of Whitehall as himself. By the end of the war he sensed that commercial television would eventually come to these shores, Mitchell travelled to the United States to see how commercial television worked over there and particularly the style of promotion used for the programmes and the networks themselves.

All of this came in handy when he moved to Associated-Rediffusion in 1955 becoming their senior announcer and appearing on screen chairing discussions and also having input over the 'talks' department with his previous experience of this coming from being the compere of Picture Page for the BBC. By 1958 he had taken the decision to go freelance allowing him to jointly narrate the BBC's 25^th anniversary of television in 1961 and also presenting Tyne Tees' 'Those Wonderful TV Times' between 1976 and 1978.

Along with Mitchell in the first three announcers on the new BBC television service were Elizabeth Cowell and the woman who at the outbreak of the Second World War made the final announcement that the service would be closing down for the duration and also the opening announcement in 1946, which was "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?" where the last programme before the close the cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere which had been the last programme before the service had been suspended in 1939.

Such was Bligh fame she would be see somewhat as a daredevil, having been filmed racing around in a motorbike's sidecar and even getting a fireman's lift! These things endured herself to the public and the fan mail came flooded in, even with Cowell the press described them at the time as 'Twin Paragons', Bligh's career much like Mitchell's stretched into the 1970's but in the 1950's she was the presenter of Television for Deaf Children seen as a forerunner to Vision On and was also a presenter on Thames Television's Good Afternoon as well, similarly moving across to the London ITV company much like Leslie Mitchell had back in the mid-1950's.

The early days has established continuity as a key factor in television's make up with some many names coming through it to become presenters in their own right such as Michael Aspel and Anne Greig as well, both starting announcing the programmes eventually becoming the ones who presented them. Memorably Sylvia Peters is another name who became a familiar face to the public during post war times, the BBC themselves had their announcers in-vision at the time allowing the public to see a familiar face night in, night out. The sense by the mid 1950's that ITV was using more voices out of shot over their each companies branding meant the BBC had to change and slowly by 1963 when one of the last recorded in-vision announcements at that time leading into that year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Though there was still in-vision announcing on ITV but out of vision continuity on BBC and ITV were becoming prevalent as the battle for viewers was hotting up, for example some ITV companies making a conscious decision to have only out of vision announcements with presentation consisting of slides and identities. BBC 1 and 2 had disappeared behind their identities with announcers being in voice only, however with ITV being made up of a regional system, each company went for a different approach to this. Here it was that the regional faces became celebrities in their own right as former LWT and Channel 4 continuity announcer Trish Bertram explains “I started at a time when working in-vision was about to change. Back then, my senior colleagues had a modicum of fame, were invited to open fetes, etc. and received a lot of fan mail. Such is the power of television.”

Trish had an unusual route in becoming a continuity announcer, she takes up the story herself “I blagged my way in! No radio or acting background and only a small awareness of television. I was a theatre struck teenager. I went to the Central School of Speech and Drama to study stage management and technical theatre and embarked on a career as a stage manager, finishing up at the National Theatre. The job included having to make the backstage and front of house calls ("The curtain will rise in .....3 minutes" ). A lot of actors would remark on my deep tones and suggest that I 'did something' with my voice. I knew I didn't want to be an actress - I saw too many talented ones struggle to earn a living. Then my fellow student and flatmate from my course at Central wrote to me and said she'd got a job as a continuity announcer at Westward Television . 'You were the one with the unusual voice' she said, 'why don't you have a go'? That friend was Fern Britton and she put the idea into my head.”

She continues “After that, I started paying more attention to television and the people who linked the programmes. I made a cassette tape at home and sent it to the BBC and around the ITV network. ( There were no satellite and digital channels in those days - no Channel 4 or 5 ) I still have my rejection letter file to this day!”

But for Tony Currie, the former Scottish Television and current BBC Scotland announcer had a more conventional route into the job himself “I started in radio – running my own attic radio station at the age of eleven, and having produced and presented a weekly show on KPFK in Los Angeles, I was first voice on radio Clyde when it opened in 1973. STV literally poached me from Clyde in 1976.”The route of radio and acting seemed an obvious route to go when thinking about becoming a continuity announcer, though for current STV announcer Derek Smith his ambition had shown from an early age “I grew up with Grampian and STV and wanted to be a Continuity Announcer for either station from about the age of fourteen. Both stations were very different in styles of presentation.

I wrote to Kennedy Thomson in 1982 who was the Senior Announcer at Grampian and he Invited me to the studios to have a look round and I met him and fellow announcer Lesley Macleod she was on duty that evening .I was so excited about my visit to Grampian and I have to admit it was everything and more that I dreamed of. Meeting Kennedy and Lesley and seeing the continuity studio was just the most amazing experience. I was quite shocked at the size of the studio though I didn’t realise it would be so small.

I had also written to STV’s Senior Announcer Tony Currie at the same time and he very kindly Invited me into STV to spend the whole day with him again it was a great experience that would shape my future. Tony bought me lunch took me on a tour of the whole studio complex at STV and he also let me sit in the hot seat it was just a dream come true for me I remember seeing the STV clock and being shocked that the STV logo in the continuity studio was attached to a piece of fishing gut! Another highlight was meeting Paul Coia who was the late shift announcer. I remember Tony escorting me out of the studio and I just didn’t want to go! It was overwhelming to walk back into Studio E at Cowcaddens twenty three years later to start announcing for STV.

Tony advised me to get some experience in Hospital Radio which I did at Stracathro Hospital near Brechin. I only went there twice though as I lived in Perth and it was quite a distance to travel. I had no aspirations to be a DJ or an Actor and the announcers that were at Grampian and STV all came from those backgrounds.” But Derek's route was just like Trish's one unsual, he continues “So I went off in another direction I joined British Airways as Cabin Crew I still had my continuity dream though. To cut a long story short and moving on a decade. I found out Grampian were looking for a Continutiy Announcer in 1995. I applied got all the way through to the second set of auditions and down to the last three but sadly It wasn’t to be.

However I did get some good feedback from Grampian and the experience drove me forward and put me back on track. I was lucky to gain experience Presenting for BA TV I also did some voluntary news reading at QFM in Glasgow to gain live experience. That lead to me getting my first Continuity job at The Travel Channel in 1999. I was then selected to be on the first team of announcers on The Biography Channel when it launched in the UK in 2000.The same year I joined Radio Forth as a freelance Newsreader .(Whilst still travelling the world for BA as Cabin Crew) For me though the goal was always STV that was my dream.”

Being a continuity announcer can be tough at times, it may seem to the untrained as just a person talking into a microphone but they are there at a moment's notice ready to go live when there is a fault in a programme, the pace and tone of an announcement is always important. Introducing any serious news bulletin or newsflash is sacrosanct, the ability of the announcer to come maybe from an entertainment programme into a news bulletin which may contain news which might be harrowing is one which is important. During significant times the announcer is called on at moment's notice when schedules may need to be changed at the last minute to do live announcing. Trish Bertram remembers one such occasion in August 1997 “1997 - the hardest shift of my life. I'd been on duty late the night before. The news had broken that Diana, Princess of Wales had been in a car crash in Paris. I'd stayed up watching news bulletins when I got home as I knew that this was going to seriously affect work the next day. Went to bed about 0200 after news updates saying she'd been taken to hospital.

The next day my morning lie in was interrupted at 0800 by my boss calling to say that I had to get in straight away. Diana had died. That day I was on air from 0925 until midnight or so and was networked for most of the day until the early evening when everyone went local again with their own announcers. There was no schedule and we didn't know from one hour to the next what we were going to do. Decisions were being made on high as we went from hour to hour .As we were the nominated contractor for the network for the weekend it was up to us to lead the rest of the network and transmit nationally. One of our promo producers and I made up menus slides on the transmission caption generator.

When we knew when we were opting in and out of ITN ( decided as we went along in tandem with ITN) - we just made up 'ITV' slides and found appropriate music to fill the gaps, with me talking over them.

For me it was not only about thinking on my feet but also about finding the 'right tone' . But everyone I worked with that day was brilliant and our presentation management back up were amazing - it was a real team effort. That was certainly the day when I really earned my money.”

For Tony Currie it was another significant moment in history that he will remember “I was on duty on 9/11 – in fact expecting a quiet afternoon shift, a group of announcers were with me and I was filming a private video for the farewell party for an colleague who was leaving. The filming was cancelled and I went straight into the pres suite for the rest of the evening.”

It was both of their professionalism and thinking on their feet at times when the mood of the nation was sombre which saw the viewers through those very hard days, showing that continuity announcing was most key part of broadcasting right to the present day, their skills were able to pull this off at a time when others needed reassurance from a friendly voice as to what was going on.

Though over the years there has always been the choice of if a channel should use in-vision continuity or out of vision, when in the later 1980's most stations decided to use out of vision continuity, it was commonly thought apart from a few ITV stations and other channels that the days on the in-vision announcement had gone into the past. With Channel 4 launching in 1982, out of vision announcing was there from day one when Paul Coia launched the station nearly fifty years to the day when the BBC television launched. From the days of Leslie Mitchell, this was something new, this was the future.

At around the same time Trish Bertram applied to one of the most sort after jobs in television which was to find herself at the start of launch of Channel 4 breaking new ground in the process as she explains “Around that time (1982) Esther Rantzen decided to audition for a new That's Life presenting team and hold nationwide auditions. Anyone could apply - no experience required. She was certainly ahead of the X factor with that idea. So I applied. I must have written a good letter as I found myself on a short list of 100 out of thousands of applicants.”

She continues “Then I went through a lengthy audition process at the BBC's Lime Grove studios as the numbers were whittled down. Finally I was down to the last 3 girls for the one female place on the team. In the end I was runner up to Joanna Monroe. It was the right decision as I was beginning to feel I had bitten off more than I could chew. But Esther was brilliant, very encouraging and said I could use her name as a reference in case she could help.

After that I took Esther at her word and wrote back to everyone I had originally contacted, shamelessly using her name. Doors began to open - thank you Esther! One of the companies who replied was LWT. Channel 4 was about to launch in November that year and the ITV network were going to sell their advertising and transmit their commercial breaks in return for their investment into it.

LWT decided that live announcer cover for their C4 breaks would be a wise thing. They were the only company to do this - but they also viewed it as a way to train up announcers for their own output in what would be a relatively low key environment. The job required only 2 or 3 A/Vs ( alternative viewing announcements) per shift, plus the announcer would have to dive in and rabbit on about the TV times to fill the holes if the acr machines playing the comms broke down ( which they did – often!).”

But the announcers are back up by people who know their jobs and help the announcers themselves when things go wrong, they are the Transmission Controllers. These people operate the presentation suite who are responsible for continuity and punctual play out of scheduled programmes. With out of vision announcing, as Tony Currie says “I liked in-vision announcing but although it allowed transmission controllers some flexibility when things went awry, it required slapping on make up, making sure you were impeccably dressed, and knew your script inside out. It’s a lot easier to sit in a pair of old jeans at a desk and talk while you’re in control of the faders!”

As Trish Bertram continues from before about joining the announcing team at LWT “So - I auditioned for LWT and was lucky to be taken on as one of two Channel 4 cover announcers the week Channel 4 launched. I was thrown in at the deep end and learned on the job. Very scary. There were 3 transmission controllers whose brains I picked shamelessly and who gave me a fantastic grounding in television transmission. Malcolm, Jenny and Tony - I owe you a great deal to this day.

Also - as C4's comm breaks were sometimes undersold, the announcer would also be used to read live low budget slide + announcer commercials for local businesses. One I had to read for an Indian restaurant had the tag line : " Ram Parkash Sonderdash - remember the name". And I always have! Another I had to do made a bit of broadcasting history as the first ever 'gay' commercial on tv . It was a 10" slide with live announcer v/o for a London magazine called City Gay.”

This proved that Channel 4 was breaking new ground, in their programming and also their advertisements, the continuity announcer was called on to voice over slides for advertisements, which at the start of Channel 4 was vital to allow the channel to sell some advertising when the Equity union refused their members to appear in advertisements on the channel which similarly happened during the launch of TV-AM during the next year.

But what about moments which the viewers remember the continuity more then the programmes themselves? How does the continuity announcer cope with those moments when it all goes wrong or maybe it goes right and makes unforgettable television? BBC Scotland and former STV announcer Tony Currie recalls one moment of which “Christmas Eve 1984 when a last minute OB link failure meant I had to fill in vision for around half an hour …. Then apologise over hymns as we only had sound …. Then do another six minutes in vision at the end to explain that a gale force wind had blown STV’s microwave dishes off beam. I found the next day that my performance (after I’d read through the TV Times I started singing Christmas Carols and telling jokes) had also been networked. I was told that I’d got three times the ratings they’d expected for the planned Watchnight Service.”

Though for Trish Bertram it was making an unexpected appearance one of the BBC's biggest shows of the year which was most memorable “Well I particularly remember were appearing on Children in Need live from the LWT studio in 1989. In those days television was a bit more relaxed than it is now. I was on late duty that night. We were watching Children in Need on the BBC monitor. ( We always kept an eye on the competition!) The transmission controllers and engineers I was working with had the idea to ring up BBC Elstree and tell them that if they put me in vision, we would have a whip round and send them some money. BBC transmission and the Children in Need production team liked the idea. A bit of furious line repatching and technical jiggery pokery and then I was on - going out on the BBC live from the LWT studio, merrily wishing Children in Need well on behalf of LWT. And yes - we did send them some money! And no, our bosses weren't cross at us arranging this late night stunt!”

Though we should leave the last word to the announcers themselves about what the best thing about being a continuity announcer is, first STV announcer Derek Smith “Xmas day is a big deal for STV with millions of viewers tuning in to see their favourite programmes and it’s great honour to be Invited into peoples homes to introduce some of the biggest shows such as Corrie,The X Factor and Downton Abbey not just on Xmas day though but all year round too and that’s what I love about being a Continuity Announcer.

I also enjoy writing short punchy scripts which reflect each programme I believe creating compelling content is crucial and key in connecting with our viewers. Working in a live situation is also another great aspect of the job as there is nothing else quite like it and there is only the one chance to get it right.”

and finally Trish Bertram “The best experience for me was being part of the transmission and presentation team. It is a collaborative job - you really are part of the jigsaw puzzle - no room for 'egos' or any idea that the announcer is 'the star' of the output. You really aren't! There was always a sense of satisfaction at the end of a shift if things had gone well. Particularly if it had been a tricky one ( eg. an live OB overrun or unexpected events that caused the schedule to change). You really feel as if you have earned your money then and done the job properly. One of my LWT bosses always used to say " I don't pay you for what you say - I pay you for what you do when it goes wrong' ) The other part is that I never stopped feeling lucky that I was, in essence, 'paid to talk' - but, as every announcer knows, there's far more to it than that.”

One thing is certain, they maybe seen to be just talking for money but there is a lot more to the job and lots more people behind the scenes to make sure the programmes get to air safely. Whether its in vision or out of vision, they are the people who link the programmes together and without them the sense of television being just a series of images spliced together gives some humanity to the day's viewing.

"After the count down to a new channel ends.. A new countdown begins..." Channel Four at 30

So Channel Four is thirty, looking at its midriff pinching it and wondering why it has got larger in the past couple of years, granted there are some good shows still on the channel now such as Peep Show and the excellent Friday Night Dinner. But apart from that, its got a bit bland and a bit beige. From this young upstart wanting to rip down the conventions of television though its entertainment and music, focussing on programmes for different sections of society, breaking new ground as it went. Everyone has their memories of the channel and how its developed, both the good and the bad.

I can think of several shows which would stand out and would be the ones everyone thinks about when asked about Channel Four. But the gems in their schedules were just as good, for instance Superchamps, a mini We Are The Champions with quadbikes excited me enough to send loads of empty packets of Smiths Crisps to get a poster of the show. The power of television, eh? Chips Comic containing Andrew 'Son of Sir Harry' Secombe as a dog, a thought which might have sprung out a conversation saying 'Do we think this is mad enough to work?' They were the only channel in this country to show Worzel Gummage Down Under, to revive Quizball as an American Football game, introduced the country to wheelchair basketball long before the 2012 Paralympics.

Four in its self could be said to be a slice of life, sometimes maybe the butt of other jokes as the wheelchair basketball on a Saturday morning didn't get enough viewers to register on the RAJAR ratings. But it was a place where it could be tried without people noticing at all, much like other output involving disability such as 'Boom' and 'Hand in Hand' were allowed to take place, some people would say it was worthy television all of this but if it wasn't for Channel Four would these programmes have even been commissioned. At one time Four was the goto place for minority groups such as the Gay and Lesbian community, even offering a programme for the trade unions on a weekly basis. The purpose was there to cater to these communities  but to the casual viewer, it offered something else like a window outwards to show what was happening in the real world apart from the one usually on television at the time. Channel Four offered social realism always and pushed it as reality with later on reality becoming entertainment.

Over the years, the channel can claim that it started off the careers of some performers and it can be said it finished off others as well. Saturday and Friday Night Live showcased so many different acts who went on to carve careers of their own and into the new millennium The Friday/Sunday Night Project launched Jimmy Carr and Alan Carr into the spotlight. But for that it also launched Justin Lee Collins too as well.. The clipshow started here, with its countdowns as well both with 'The 100 greatest..' series of programmes copied and copied over and over again by other channels as well the domain of the late Richard Whitlely. The first face on Four may not have been bombastic, but in the way the first controller Jeremy Isaacs put it " I wanted that first night schedule to be typical of what night to night the viewer could see on Channel Four." With a documentary of Max Boyce meeting the Dallas Cowboys, the television film premier of 'Network' and also the first Film Four production 'Walter' starring Sir Ian McKellen this was what Four would be about nightly including the news at 7pm as well.

This is the alternative that television needed, but for long time it was a yes and no situation with Four. In the 1960's the frequencies for the VHF transmitters were worked out with a spare slot for Channel Four to go into. Now, BBC 2 had launched in 1964 but the Conservative government of that time had promised the spare capacity to the then Independent Television Authority. Come election time the Tories lost power to Harold Wilson's Labour Party and with this the tune changed so the new government wanted the BBC to run the service instead, the problem was that the BBC presented their case by putting how much money it would cost to set up 'BBC3' and also to increase the licence fee as well to cover it. Either way they were stuck, so by not giving the frequency to either the BBC or the ITA, it laid dormant for many years as governments changed like the seasons. Though slowly after the second 1974 election discussions were held to see what type of form a fourth channel could be. What came of it was a television foundation much along the line of what PBS had done in America, but in 1977 when  the Annan Report was published and a white paper written that an 'Open Broadcasting Authority' would take over the control of the channel with a notional date of 1979 or 1980 for a launch.

With the Tory Goverment committed to the idea of Channel Four, they had to go through with it and handed responsibility to the IBA for the channel to be set up. Such as a lot of things have changed in the last thirty years, the channel itself has changed. For the better, maybe... But in the end if it wasn't Paul Coia welcoming us to Channel Four nearly thirty years ago this week, we wouldn't have had children saving up empty crisp packets to get a poster, eh?

Funny Fortnight - All the world's a stage and all the players are Norbert Smith...

What does make something believable or more to the point, how can something be made to be believable? Since Bad News arrived on the small screen in 1983 and later Eddie Monsoon, both from The Comic Strip, the presidence of the mocumentry in the modern era was born. Either by aping or spoofing something to make it look real. Where as Bad News and Eddie Monsoon may have been more knock about with the later even mocking up clips, the first real mocumentry to go into such detail on British television was Harry Enfield's Norbert Smith - A Life. 

Part of Channel 4's Funny Fortnight, this reshowing of Enfield's first mockumentry with later on coming the sublime Smashy and Nicey - The End of an Era for the BBC and finally, the not so on form Norman Ormal - Political Turtle. In itself, this was different from everything else as the fiction could be better then reality itself. 
First of all, to make the programme real the presence of Melvin Bragg helps with the supposed reality as anyone not tuning in from the start would thing this was a repeat of The South Bank Show. The style is meant to be like that to blur the lines, used once again in The Cricklewood Greats nearly twenty five years later. 

From the opening lines, the whole programme is put at an angle with Smith proclaming that his home used to be a country house but he had it converted to a vicarage two years ago. But in which also Bragg's commentary pulls the viewer onto the joke, being able to talk about the important facts of the story with the comedy added into it but said at the same rhythm as he would a normal South Bank Show film commentary would be at. Meaning the the viewers have to listen to what he is saying and that the verbal jokes can help the flow of Norbert Smith's life along at a measured pace.

The simplicity comes when the simplest jokes are got out of the way i.e. his mother being a woman and his father being a man. Simple, maybe almost corny, but this settles a pattern for the mockumentry. Where as the interview sections are scattered with jokes about what the British film industry was like allowing people to link something said comically to an actual event, the strength of the programme comes from the recreation of the films and adverts that Smith had been in throughout his long and varied career. 

Now it's easy just to be able to do a spoof of something and say that it is an accurate portrayal what something was like. But what makes something stand out is the minute detailing of a spoof, such as the way its filmed, the clothes being worn or even the surroundings its being filmed in. Enfield's spoof of Will Hay films, allows the verbal dexterity to be shown. What maybe seen as easy takes planning to remember the right line put in at the right time. Capturing the monologues between the characters as they go, the sense that the audience are almost akin to a three-way tennis match with the characters hitting the balls to each other and replying back in kind.

But the supporting cast with the likes of Josie Lawerence and Felicity Montegau, means that Enfield can make the scenes bigger then it but without it getting too large at all. When something like a lavish dance number is needed, its done with the style demanded of Busby Berkley and when gritty northern realism is portrayed, something is played which is like those films. The supporting characters maybe be on the small screen, but they are played to look like if they could be on a bigger medium, exaggerated maybe but just big enough not to seem over the top.

As the years go on, the movies seem to turn out more terrible but the jokes also get more barbed but even more funny reaching his film 'Dogs of War' typical of those war films made in the 1960's and 1970's. With movies moving towards the more action angle, setting up to seemingly to go towards the films concentrating the Nuclear threat in the early edge such as Who Dares Wins, Defence of the Realm etc. But taking a sidetrack with the spoof of a 'Carry On..' film with Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas and Kenneth Connor. This tops off the whole mockumentry, by almost reflecting the British film industry from its early days right up until Norbert Smith was made. Its a reflection of what happened but painted in finer detail, there maybe bigger swathes of colour during the programme but its the hidden jokes which keep you wanting to return to watch again and again. 

Enfield went on to do more of this in Smashy and Nicey - End of an Era and Norman Ormal - Political Turtle, but in the past ten years only The Cricklewood Greats has come even close to matching Harry Enfield's work. These mockumentries should be loved for the joyous way they can portray a whole period of time but still make it seem real enough, even though none of it happened. That in itself maybe the mark of a good set of comedians, writers such as Geoffrey Perkins who also wrote for Norbert Smith. Meaning something filmed twenty five years ago can seem as fresh as something just made yesterday.

Funny Fortnight - Pop along to Popadoodledandy

One thing about Funny Fortnight on Channel 4 apart from piloting new shows, is that the channel has had a delve into the deep recesses of the archives to pull out some shows not seen since broadcast. An example of this is the Clive Anderson Talks Back special featuring Peter Cook, which is always welcome in my book. But all the remember able programmes there are also some curious shows forgotten about but not by groups of fans and comedy lovers in general. 

Two examples of this have to come from Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, the first being The Weekenders and the second, well somewhat of an odd programme really. Now Channel Four has always had a tradition of music shows from the serious to pop as well, though what was filmed in 1993 straddled both pop and entertainment as well. The Tube did endevour to do this with the alternative comedians of the day filming and taking part in sketches and skits for the programme. But it had been a good five years since The Tube had finished, plus other shows had tried to combine the two, though never to much success.

Though at that time something had happened to link comedy and pop together, not since the days of the novelity songs of the 1970's. Rather then playing it for laughs, Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff along with Bob Mortimer had scored a number one single with Dizzy. No parody was involved, this was a straight pure piece of pop without comedy within it. Some people may have said that comedy was the new rock and all, but this proved 100% when a comedian could get to the top of the charts with a song not played for laughs, the first one since Ken Dodd in the 1960's.

Combine all these events together and you get 1993's Vic and Bob's Popadoodledandy, filmed by Reeves and Mortimer it was to be like no pop/entertainment show seen since. A unbroadcast pilot until being shown as part of Funny Fortnight, this was fresh and never seen before, But the influences could be seen from another show of its ilk. 

Right from the title sequence where both Reeves and Mortimer's feet are tapping it looks like a conventional show, up until where Vic is tapping the blunt back of an axe on his palm. This can be taken as they want to smash up the convention of the pop show entirely or it could just be Vic tapping the blunt side of an axe onto his palm, who knows... But as soon as they start singing a song, you know that it'll be alright...

Now what does every good pop show need? A group of dancers to accompany the music or the acts, with Strawberry Tarts you get this. Playing off the idea of Legs and Co., Hot Gossip etc allows for Vic and Bob to concentrate on the jokes and their performance doing a pay off about the size of their respective horns before the CUD band come on to perform. Which sets us off on the music side of things until Vic comes in to interview the band, usually which means a dull three minutes until the host says "Well, that's great! Over to you Nicki!"

But this is Vic Reeves interviews the band about who's the best in the band all the way through to their National Insurance contributions the band pay and if they would put their hand deep into manure to retrieve a loved one's sentimental broche. The lead singer's confused bewilderment says it all, in a good way he doesn't know what's coming next and the confusion is evident is but once they cotton on to the joke. The laughter itself is natural much like the crew laughter on the Kenny Everett Thames shows, slightly wondering but eventually getting the joke meaning the singer and the lead guitarist even perform the pay off where the lead singer gets show in the foot by Keith Richards. Bizarre, yes... Surreal, definitely...

In every twist and turn, the music is the key thing of the show but Vic and Bob are they to offer either their take on the song just played or their just incept it with a quickie joke, with so much of the music video it can be difficult to actually destinguise between what is part of the video itself and what maybe joke. But by using that method, the whole thing blends together seamlessly with the comedy. 

The sketch featuring 'Rick Wakeman' and 'Brian Eno' takes the essence of the performers and puts it into a form which allows the the bubble which would surround them to be popped. Though its the essence which is taken by Reeves and Mortimer and transformed into something wonderful, pretty much like Reeves own drawings come to life. But not grotesque, but twisted at a new angle to allow to be believable that Wakeman and Eno would be great friends, reflecting on their own friendship some what. Though its the musicality which allows Vic and Bob to improvise a song for Wakeman and Eno to sing reflecting their musical characters and let them be seen in a comic light and with a twist.

As Part Two starts, the surrealism continues with the title writing in white is on a black background. Though just about its can be made out that it is superimposed over a bottom, a very Reeves and Mortimer thing to do it seems. But as the first act of the second half begins, it becomes clear this is no ordinary bottom at all... When it pans out and starts to dance, it is one of the first ever television appearence by Martine McCutcheon in her band of that time 'Milan' . Now in talking to Martine and her bandmates, the strange interviews continue with first Bob offering the band Cider and then Vic riding in on a bicycle.  Live and Kicking, this isn't...

With a slight not quite knowing what is going on look, the band are trying to interact with Vic and Bob, surprisingly its not Martine who is the one who sort of understands what is going on but her bandmates instead. Though when you are used to the types of questions usually asked on other shows, Vic Reeves asking you to feel his muscles or punch him in the stomach must be a relief or when Martine does punch him in the stomach, she does punch him in the stomach! Proving that when even playing it for laughs, comedy can be dangerous especially when the punishment is dealt out by future Eastenders actresses...

Meanwhile, we learn about how Erasure got to together thanks to Vic's wonderful drawings and also strange but funny story of how Vince and Andy got together with pay off that the beast under the hospital developed into Clive James and how Hazel O'Connor got rid of a mattress out of her front garden as well in the subsiquent pop news as well. 

Overall, this is a rare slice of Vic and Bob and it can be seen what they were trying to do with the programme, maybe with people being so used to seeing them performing sketches meant they over looked the potential for the pilot to go to series. By no means their best work, but just seeing it leaves the taste of wanting more. Considering what other music shows which were around in 1993, this could have easily fitted late night on Channel Four or even overnight on ITV. Both places where big audiences would not be, but to have a loyal audience which would have grown over time to become like a secret club with the people in it knew they were getting something special from it weekly. 

For those who knew Vic and Bob from Big Night Out and latterly The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer the humour comes as no surprise, though it is surprising that the acts on the show didn't at least to try and check what they were about before appearing. Much like the world of pop music, there's some who bget it and others don't quite know, wheither it was down the bookers wanting to promote the music in Milan's case, but its is a tasty slice of something different and refreshing as such.

Where as Kenny Everett's Thames shows took the same line, a clean, crisp and uncluttered approach can help itself by allowing flow to happen. But actually I could have seen if it did do to a series that the producers would have at least tried to persuade Everett to come on as a guest, by having the man who orginated that style of music/entertainment show would have focused people on what this show was about in style and content.

Sadly, we will never know the the answer to both those thoughts. But as a one-off, in the high paced world of music channels and videos, it serves as a feast for the eyes and surely you wouldn't let it lie in the archives for more then seventeen years next time Channel Four?

Funny Fortnight - 1997 and all that..

Last time I look at the what Channel 4 was doing for their Funny Fortnight, by repeating shows from their archives. As I said I was too young for some of these programmes such as Chelmsford 123 and Vic Reeves' Big Night Out.

Now my comedy had come from the BBC2 anti-news slot having seen things like Naked Video, KYTV, the repeats of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy and also The Smell of Reeves and Mortimore. This is where I got my Vic and Bob training and by 1997, now 18, I was looking to expand my comedy horizons and go for a journey of discovery by myself. Armed with a car boot VHS, I was able to record comedy for the first time and analysis it. Yes, I was enjoying the sillyness of Shooting Stars on BBC2, but I was looking towards Channel 4 for something different and that came in the shape of Father Ted.

This was religion being pricked of its pomposity, but developing a silly sense of humour. The storylines in themselves seem almost ludicrous such as Father Dougal Maguire becoming a milkman. The lines which were delivered were honed to get the best out of them and to ramp them to a level of surrealness which added to the manic mixtures of this family which weren't actually family. By using that concete, it allowed the characters to form in their own ways. They mayhave had their individual characteristics but when they came together like any sitcom group, it allowed for them to bounce off each other. 

Maybe, I was silly to think that Father Jack saying 'Feck, Arse, Drink and Girls' was the be all and end all. The show grew on me, as the situations got sillier and the humour getting more and more like The Simpsons each week. But it put into my mind the seeds of sillyness and thinking that it need not be just like 'Whoops vicar, there goes my trousers!' But it was something new in my life, but then came some which rocked my world forever.

At that time daytime television was staid and boring, there wasn't anything different to shake it up at that point, then came along two ladies who were like the fun to the plainess of Pebble Mill. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins were like a shot in the arm to me at this time. 

Yes, to the 18 yr old me Mel and Sue were something from another planet, with their own language and way of performing and presenting took me aback. This was must see viewing, it was almost comedy/light entertainment/cooking had been involved in a love triangle and this was the result of it.  The food and cooking was a part of it, but it was the daily interviews with the guests, though more the comedy which made the programme. Having been part of the Footlights, Giedroyc and Perkins had treaded a well worn path by those before them and since by going to the Edinburgh Fringe to perform and also apart from that they had written for French and Saunders as well.

It was another step on the road to surrealism, but it seemed that Mel and Sue could not make the break though that French and Saunders had previously done. Wheither thst was down French and Saunders strong position as the leading female even double act of that time. Even after doing a quizshow for ITV in 1999, they seemed to merge into the background of comedy. Though seperatly they did seem to find their own niches with Perkins branching out on her own both presenting and performing and with Giedroyc becoming an author reflecting her experiences of her own pregnancy and giving birth, still acting and laterly becoming a presenter for radio.

It is surprising to think that the incoming Chief Executive of Channel 4 at that time was current outgoing BBC Director General Mark Thompson. He had taken on the role vacated by Michael Jackson who had moved to America to head up the USA Network. Though Thompson had be important in knowing that comedy was a key part of a channel when being controller at BBC2. Though it was Thompson later noted for the broadcast of Jerry Springer - The Opera, he allowed Chris Morris to make a Brass Eye special reflecting the knee jerk reaction by the media of the subject of paedophiles, it is important to remember this was the time of the now defunct News of the World's Name and Shame campaign to find paedophiles which lead to attacks on innocent people and the cause of riots. But by this one programme allowed Channel 4 to show that they still could be ground breaking still nearly twenty years after its launch, the furore may have been seen as big around that time. It was needed to reflect the furore that the press had caused itself, with this doing the job, it could be said that the reaction was justified to reveal the truth about the events many years later through the Leveson inquiry.

For all the surreal and strange comedy that Channel 4 has done, it has allowed Mark Thomas to bring his brand of humour to the screens but with it bring serious points for people to reflect on. His comedy was there to make people think about what was going on the world around them, though this allowed an off-shoot of this by him looking at a the places that the public weren't meant to know about such as places of significance to do with the Cold War and also places which were still on meant to be seen. 

This type of thinking marked Channel 4 out as wanting to try something new, but by the 21st century something new was coming, wheither for the good or the bad but it would change the humour of this country. As along came The 11 O'Clock Show launching both Iain Lee and Daisy Donovan on the nation's screen but also from this came Ricky Gervais and Sasha Baron Cohen as well, it took the idea of look at the day's news and showing it in a comical angle.

As such as Gervais and Baron Cohen much like Channel 4's comedy output comedy from 2000 onwards, it can be very much like Marmite. To be honest I have dipped in and out of it, but maybe with a new comes new shows and new comedians. Eventually shows like Peep Show will finish and be replaced, but with the Robert Popper written Friday Night Dinners for example it has got a ready made replacement. But in which way it goes, who knows...