There were plenty of actors/actresses in Children's Ward who went onto Coronation Street - Nikki Sanderson, Tina O'Brien, Samia Longchambon, Alan Halsall and Jane Danson.
Being made by Granada obviously has something to do with that.
Haven't seen this ITV children's programme for around thirty five plus years. I remember it only being on once a week so I maybe wasn't aware of this particular series of Stepping Stones. ( I'm nearly 43 ). As a young child loved and was transfixed by the title animation.
Perhaps more unusual and interesting is the presenting team of Keith Barron and Elisaeth Sladen.
Good to see an excerpt online.
Double post, sorry - but yes, this was normally shown on Thursday lunchtimes and was replaced by Get up and Go (with Mooncat). YTV and TTT even scheduled it during Schools hours for a while as a mid-morning filler.
Talking of ITV lunchtime shows for children, here's Our Backyard from the mid 80s. Normally on Wednesday lunchtimes. My sister and I used to find the boy with the hose in the titles funny for some reason 😝
Possibly my favourite ever CBBC series. Dark and absolutely terrifying. The underscore was haunting and only added to the scariness of Terrence Hardiman's character.
It was a particularly dark series for CBBC - incredibly popular at the time though! Cross-promotion on CBBC continuity, with regular visits in the studio from the Headmaster.
Series 1 was broadcast twice weekly over three weeks, whilst 2/3 played weekly, and only series 1 ever received a commercial release. There was also a special 'play' performed at the CBBC Big Bash, broadcast at Christmas, where the headmaster tried to take over TV through the digital switchover.
Think the Demon Headmaster books are still around though the packaging has changed over the years - at the time two of the books were repackaged to fit in with the TV show (the first series mixed the first two books, the second used the story from the fourth book and the third series used the fifth book).
After the TV show ended and had been relegated to filler and random slots on the CBBC Channel, the books issued at the time had IIRC no reference that there had ever been a TV adaptation at all. Since then of course there's been two more Demon Headmaster books and at least another repackage of the others and anybody new to the books today would be forgiven for not knowing it was ever adapted for TV. The show hasn't appeared on CBBC since 2007...
Last edited by Neil Jones on 24 September 2017 8:33pm
I recall that the books of Series 2 and 3 were written at the same time as Gillian Cross wrote the TV scripts. The third book, where the headmaster hypnotises two sets of holidaymakers to work shifts in a Center Parcs - style holiday resort - to make the merchandise for a TV show featuring a filthy pig, sounded too complex and frankly wierd to film.
I recall that the books of Series 2 and 3 were written at the same time as Gillian Cross wrote the TV scripts. The third book, where the headmaster hypnotises two sets of holidaymakers to work shifts in a Center Parcs - style holiday resort - to make the merchandise for a TV show featuring a filthy pig, sounded too complex and frankly wierd to film.
It's possible as the fourth and fifth book in the series (what was series 2 and 3) were released quite close together - 1996 and 1997. The first and second books date from 1982 and 1985 and IIRC the second book (Prime Minister's Brain) featured references to a somewhat now obscure 1980s computer. Was it a Salamander? Damn I'll have to dig the book out and remind myself, I have the first five in the series.
The third book I remember vividly as it made reference to the pig as you say and it had the name Hunky Parker. I will always remember reading it at the time of the TV show and wondering how the frig this is going to turn out on the TV series. It was very surreal and quite frankly far-fetched even by the standards of the rest of the series!
The Salamander is on the TV adaptation too, I never thought it was a real computer, just something made up for the show. The implication after all is that the Demon Headmaster's behind it all, and the big computer in the tower is called the "Super Salamander".
I have the last 4 episodes of Series 1 and all of Series 2 on video, recorded from a repeat run in 1998 (after the third series had been shown). Been waiting for a commercial release that seems it's never going to come.
The third series is probably the one that's dated the most, as it heavily features an internet cafe. Which with most people having internet at home, and on the move with smartphones, have been all but dead for a long time. Though were all the rage at the time it was made.
I still sort of wish they'd get them back together and make a new adventure with them all taking him on as adults! Not sure if it's possible though with Terence Hardiman being 80 now.
Internet cafes are still around as such but the proliferation of Wi-Fi means anywhere can be an internet cafe now - go into Tesco/Asda/McDonalds and use their wifi while shopping/eating for example. The local library internet services are probably the closest equivalents to the old-school style Internet cafe.
They're apparently still quite big in some countries, you sometimes read stories of students somewhere in the Asian region spending all day and all night gaming in internet cafes and then keeling over and dying when they don't eat or sleep, or get Internet withdrawal symptoms after being offline for a while. It may be cheaper there to hang out in a cafe and game rather than having the internet at home.
With regards to the "new adventure", apparently the new 2017 Demon Headmaster book reboots the entire franchise with new characters and the only link to the original books is the Headmaster himself. So I dare say if a new adaptation does appear it would be based on that and not the established canon. C'est la vie I suppose.
Here's early '90s CBBC design show Artifax, featuring a report and discussion about comics - as well as TOTP Year Zero rent-a-presenter Adrian Rose:
Ran for three five-episode series between '91 and '93. Margot Wilson and Helen Fort presented all three; Rose only featured in the second (it probably wasn't a coincidence that he'd left Pops by then).
Whatever happened to them all, eh? Obviously, we all know what's happened to the comic industry since...
Tv-am had a couple of early shows for children that aren't that well remembered. One of the first was Data Run. Note the Vince Clarke / Alison Moyet theme tune :
There was also a Summer Run.
One of my favourites although it didn't last long was Splat.
Which featured a " soap " including Sid Owen.
And a game show with James Baker who was one of the first presenters on the Wide Awake Club. I think he went on to produce or direct after that.