SW
For years I was looking for a clip of Worldwise that featured Kid Jensen's amazing flying desk which at the time I thought was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. The other week I realised there'd been one on YouTube for four years...
Used to be obsessed with that desk, I still think it looks pretty cool today. For the last series, when Emma Freud took over, they got rid of that gimmick and everyone stood on the floor, and I was devastated. Actually I also remember Frued chastisting a contestant for getting a question wrong in an observation round by saying "weren't you listening?!", which I thought was an incredibly patronising response. I've not really liked Emma Freud since.
Premiership Rugby were dishing that out for free for Channel 5 because nobody else wanted it, the Beeb having dropped Rugby Special the previous season. The next season the rights went to Channel Four who did a show called Inside Rugby which was initially presented by Thierry Lacroix. However everyone complained they couldn't understand him, so he was gradually phased out and most of the work went to the show's reporter, a little-known Dermot O'Leary.
Well, not really, it was a bog standard panel show most people forgot about the second it ended. One of the only things I remember about it was someone writing to the Radio Times to point out that every episode Martyn Lewis went through the rigmarole of asking the teams which of them would be playing the final round, and in every single episode it was the player on the left.
Yes, The Alphabet Game in the UK was the first stage in Andrew O'Connor's shift from TV presenter to TV executive, he made loads of money from it and it established Objective as a major company. I really liked it at the time, because I was an irritating student, we all talked about it in the sixth form because it seemed a cut above the usual daytime fare, it probably seems less amusing these days. It was about the level of Win Lose Or Draw in terms of its humour. Like that, the same celebrities would be one for a week, and would move around so each one did every role throughout the week - on both teams and as umpire.
I used to hate shows from Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro, the Glen A Larson of kids telly, there were loads of them, they used to go on forever and they all had a weird mid-Atlantic feel about them. Mike and Angelo was another one, smothered with canned laughter and weird American-style credit sequences in a transparent attempt to flog them abroad.
Does anybody remember the geography themed gameshow Worldwise on CITV? I think this was another TVS production!
For years I was looking for a clip of Worldwise that featured Kid Jensen's amazing flying desk which at the time I thought was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. The other week I realised there'd been one on YouTube for four years...
Used to be obsessed with that desk, I still think it looks pretty cool today. For the last series, when Emma Freud took over, they got rid of that gimmick and everyone stood on the floor, and I was devastated. Actually I also remember Frued chastisting a contestant for getting a question wrong in an observation round by saying "weren't you listening?!", which I thought was an incredibly patronising response. I've not really liked Emma Freud since.
Who remembers a sports show that ran for one season on Channel 5, 1997-8, called "Rugby Express"? Bringing it up, with the FTA rights for Premiership rugby reverting to Channel 5 for the forthcoming season.
Premiership Rugby were dishing that out for free for Channel 5 because nobody else wanted it, the Beeb having dropped Rugby Special the previous season. The next season the rights went to Channel Four who did a show called Inside Rugby which was initially presented by Thierry Lacroix. However everyone complained they couldn't understand him, so he was gradually phased out and most of the work went to the show's reporter, a little-known Dermot O'Leary.
Considering Today's The Day ran and ran, it's incredible it's just disappeared without trace.
Well, not really, it was a bog standard panel show most people forgot about the second it ended. One of the only things I remember about it was someone writing to the Radio Times to point out that every episode Martyn Lewis went through the rigmarole of asking the teams which of them would be playing the final round, and in every single episode it was the player on the left.
I've no idea what it was called, but was this the programme presented by Colin Bennett (best known as Mr Bennett the caretaker from Take Hart)? He dropped into places where people were working in the middle of the night; apart from that there seemed to be no aim or goal other than to fill overnight airspace as cheaply as possible. I thought it was on ITV Night Time, but I might well be mistaken as it was the sort of show one only watched on return from a night out.
I knew that The Alphabet Game was the original version of what later got revived as Alphabetical here, via being sold to several European countries - what I hadn't realised is that the UK had it as purely a comedy panel game, and then Spain or Italy turned it into a big money show with an almost impossible endgame, and it was that reformat that sold, snow-to-Eskimo style, to the UK as Alphabetical last year!
Yes, The Alphabet Game in the UK was the first stage in Andrew O'Connor's shift from TV presenter to TV executive, he made loads of money from it and it established Objective as a major company. I really liked it at the time, because I was an irritating student, we all talked about it in the sixth form because it seemed a cut above the usual daytime fare, it probably seems less amusing these days. It was about the level of Win Lose Or Draw in terms of its humour. Like that, the same celebrities would be one for a week, and would move around so each one did every role throughout the week - on both teams and as umpire.
It was a joint production with Thames and YTV in Canada. This partnership lasted for one series though. Thames took full control of production from series two.
I used to hate shows from Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro, the Glen A Larson of kids telly, there were loads of them, they used to go on forever and they all had a weird mid-Atlantic feel about them. Mike and Angelo was another one, smothered with canned laughter and weird American-style credit sequences in a transparent attempt to flog them abroad.
CW
As such it was revived back in 2015 in the form of Hunted on Channel 4, which so far has had 2 series. Notable difference is it's all pre-recorded, and the public and can contact the 'hunters' via social media as well as calling in. (Would also be a bit tricky to have them calling live from a BT phone-box at a mystery location these days.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunted_(2015_TV_series).
Charlie Wells
Moderator
Wanted! on Channel 4 (Originally hosted by Richard Littlejohn and later, Ray Cokes). A programme way ahead of its time technologically. Cost a bomb to make in the 90s mind you.
This is another show where a similar format could be revived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoHIlKcq5zw
This is another show where a similar format could be revived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoHIlKcq5zw
As such it was revived back in 2015 in the form of Hunted on Channel 4, which so far has had 2 series. Notable difference is it's all pre-recorded, and the public and can contact the 'hunters' via social media as well as calling in. (Would also be a bit tricky to have them calling live from a BT phone-box at a mystery location these days.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunted_(2015_TV_series).
JE
I remember it as an evening show, but it may have been both. I think I have the tie-in book somewhere. One of the presenters was Carol Vorderman, but during the brief period she was going by her then married name of Carol Mather.
Unless of course I'm getting it mixed up with "The Show Me Show", which is another one for the list...
Jenny
Founding member
"Take Nobody's Word For It" (which may have been an Open University co-pro and ran on Sunday mornings I think)
I remember it as an evening show, but it may have been both. I think I have the tie-in book somewhere. One of the presenters was Carol Vorderman, but during the brief period she was going by her then married name of Carol Mather.
Unless of course I'm getting it mixed up with "The Show Me Show", which is another one for the list...
RI
The Real World. A short lived competitor to Tomorrows World by TVS.
The Secret Life of Machines presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod. I still think this is remembered and episodes are on YouTube.
I can vaguely remember some garden programme from the early 1980s that was different from the usual gardening programmes called Over the Garden Wall. It could have been a TVS production because the gardens were in the south of England.
On the House. A proper DIY programme from the 1980s before the likes of Changing Rooms took over.
The Secret Life of Machines presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod. I still think this is remembered and episodes are on YouTube.
I can vaguely remember some garden programme from the early 1980s that was different from the usual gardening programmes called Over the Garden Wall. It could have been a TVS production because the gardens were in the south of England.
On the House. A proper DIY programme from the 1980s before the likes of Changing Rooms took over.
MA
No, it was British, but IIRC episodes were made by different production companies rather than it being a production of one. Similar to their other strands Dispatches (current affairs) and Cutting Edge (documentaries)
It may have had for some episodes (just as its BBC 2 equivalent Horizon did) a tie in with WGBH Boston ?
Equinox. A science programme on C4. Was it an American production?
No, it was British, but IIRC episodes were made by different production companies rather than it being a production of one. Similar to their other strands Dispatches (current affairs) and Cutting Edge (documentaries)
It may have had for some episodes (just as its BBC 2 equivalent Horizon did) a tie in with WGBH Boston ?
MA
Yes, one of TVS's first network offerings, and the initiative of Michael Blakstad, who was Tomorrow's World's exec producer, before becoming TVS's founding Director of Programmes.
One of the first things TRW did was a 3D broadcast, with the glasses given away in TV Times.
Also, I've got a feeling they collaborated with ITN over ITV's coverage the first Space Shuttle mission ?
The Real World. A short lived competitor to Tomorrows World by TVS.
Yes, one of TVS's first network offerings, and the initiative of Michael Blakstad, who was Tomorrow's World's exec producer, before becoming TVS's founding Director of Programmes.
One of the first things TRW did was a 3D broadcast, with the glasses given away in TV Times.
Also, I've got a feeling they collaborated with ITN over ITV's coverage the first Space Shuttle mission ?
TI
One random programme I remember is ‘See for Yourself’ that aired for a few years in the late 1980’s. If I remember correctly it was an exercise in the BBC demonstrating that it was value-for-money, whilst lapsing into the inevitable patting themselves on the back. It was a three hour programme on prime-time BBC One on a Sunday evening. The ‘highlight’, as such, was an audience of licence fee payers grilling BBC Chairman Marmaduke Hussey and DG Michael Checkland. To show they were men of the people Hussey insisted on the public calling him ‘Duke’ and Checkland was ‘Mike’!!
VM
That was on YouTube until a few months ago… there was a newsflash during it as well.
One random programme I remember is ‘See for Yourself’ that aired for a few years in the late 1980’s. If I remember correctly it was an exercise in the BBC demonstrating that it was value-for-money, whilst lapsing into the inevitable patting themselves on the back. It was a three hour programme on prime-time BBC One on a Sunday evening. The ‘highlight’, as such, was an audience of licence fee payers grilling BBC Chairman Marmaduke Hussey and DG Michael Checkland. To show they were men of the people Hussey insisted on the public calling him ‘Duke’ and Checkland was ‘Mike’!!
That was on YouTube until a few months ago… there was a newsflash during it as well.
MA
Yep, one year, there was also a pan-regional / nations follow up programme the following night.
Our one here was presented by Bruce Parker, and shown on BBC South, West, and South West
One random programme I remember is ‘See for Yourself’ that aired for a few years in the late 1980’s. If I remember correctly it was an exercise in the BBC demonstrating that it was value-for-money, whilst lapsing into the inevitable patting themselves on the back. It was a three hour programme on prime-time BBC One on a Sunday evening. The ‘highlight’, as such, was an audience of licence fee payers grilling BBC Chairman Marmaduke Hussey and DG Michael Checkland. To show they were men of the people Hussey insisted on the public calling him ‘Duke’ and Checkland was ‘Mike’!!
Yep, one year, there was also a pan-regional / nations follow up programme the following night.
Our one here was presented by Bruce Parker, and shown on BBC South, West, and South West
TI
That was on YouTube until a few months ago… there was a newsflash during it as well.
I remember that well. Coming from Northern Ireland the newflash was a big story here as most of the passengers were from NI.
One random programme I remember is ‘See for Yourself’ that aired for a few years in the late 1980’s. If I remember correctly it was an exercise in the BBC demonstrating that it was value-for-money, whilst lapsing into the inevitable patting themselves on the back. It was a three hour programme on prime-time BBC One on a Sunday evening. The ‘highlight’, as such, was an audience of licence fee payers grilling BBC Chairman Marmaduke Hussey and DG Michael Checkland. To show they were men of the people Hussey insisted on the public calling him ‘Duke’ and Checkland was ‘Mike’!!
That was on YouTube until a few months ago… there was a newsflash during it as well.
I remember that well. Coming from Northern Ireland the newflash was a big story here as most of the passengers were from NI.