Incidentally, in the late 70s Border also produced, for local consumption, a variation on Mr and Mrs called, if my memory serves me correctly, "Happy Families". The theme song was just as sugary as that for Mr and Mrs. I think the opening line was "When I'm opposite your smile, I'm opposite a rainbow". I was a teacher at the time and one of my pupils, who was around 13 at the time, appeared on the show with his mum. The poor lad was asked, by Derek Batey, "How tidy does your mum say your bedroom is?" He said "very tidy", his mother the exact opposite. I bet he still has nightmares, even though he'll now be in his early 40s!
It's not the first time, who remembers the poor version they did with Julian Clary? It was one of ITV's 'big' shows to replace News At Ten in 1999, and was binned rather quickly...
Will Julian Clary be presenting this new-new version? Going on about contestants getting holding of his 'bonus'
It's not the first time, who remembers the poor version they did with Julian Clary? It was one of ITV's 'big' shows to replace News At Ten in 1999, and was binned rather quickly...
Will Julian Clary be presenting this new-new version? Going on about contestants getting holding of his 'bonus'
I thought it was Bruce Forsyth who had a "bonus"?
The Julian Clary version was awful, I'm glad ITV saw sense and scrapped it early on.
What was the name of the Central gameshow with Bradley Walsh as its host - a cross between a normal gameshow and It's A Knockout - it was on for 30 minutes. I always thought it reminded me of Cheggars Plays Pop but without the pop group of the week!!!
You make reference to Mr Batey being in talks with ITV. As far as I had understood, Celador had acquired the international rights and were in discussions with 'a number of television companies'. For all we know it could end up on Sky One.
Mr Batey retained the rights to it, as he did with most of his Border shows, he would have sold them to Celador
Incidentally, in the late 70s Border also produced, for local consumption, a variation on Mr and Mrs called, if my memory serves me correctly, "Happy Families". The theme song was just as sugary as that for Mr and Mrs. I think the opening line was "When I'm opposite your smile, I'm opposite a rainbow". I was a teacher at the time and one of my pupils, who was around 13 at the time, appeared on the show with his mum. The poor lad was asked, by Derek Batey, "How tidy does your mum say your bedroom is?" He said "very tidy", his mother the exact opposite. I bet he still has nightmares, even though he'll now be in his early 40s!
They also did Try for Ten for a number of years for local tx
There was also "Brain of the Border"...which started with a shot of a model head revolving slowly on a turntable which, I believe, was hand-operated. And, further back in the mists of time, there was "Cock of the Border", an inter-town talent contest featuring local singers, jugglers, comedians and ventriloquists etc as well as, in one series, a quiz element. It was screened at peak viewing time and drew a huge audience. Border also had its own pop music programme "Beat on the Border"...their Johnny Kidd and the Pirates special was one of the best music shows ever. I doubt if any recording exists now. Can you imagine that level and variety of local programming today?
