Shows that people forget or get lost in time

There was a similar C4 show in the late 90s - iCamcorder hosted by Robert "Kryten" Llewellyn that nobody remembers.

Yes, Davro needed a new home because TVS had lost their franchise, but he didn't work out at all at the Beeb. As well as Public Enemy Number One, the ill-advised hidden camera show up there, he also did a variety series called Rock With Laughter, which seemed incredibly out of date. I remember it was pushed back on several occasions, it was definitely supposed to start in January 1993 because I remember it turned up in the "At A Glance" box in the Radio Times and was mentioned elsewhere in the magazine, but when you turned over the page to the actual listings it wasn't there. I think that happened a couple of times. I also remember him going on Going Live around that time, presumably booked when he would have been able to promote it. It finally turned up in July, up against Emmerdale, and totally died on its arse.

Hale and Pace was one of Paul Jackson's ideas, he had a bit if a soft spot for them (as he did with Cannon and Ball) and thought they were very talented, and Hale and Pace themselves said that they'd been doing the same thing for ages and wanted to try something new but ITV just wanted more of the same - they did a one-off comedy drama in 1997 which they were very proud of, but ITV shoved it out in a late night slot, much to their chagrin. So they moved to the Beeb and Jobs For The Boys was quite successful, as it went, but it clearly involved them not being comedians. When they did their actual day job, they did a couple of Mr Bean-style silent comedies called Oddbods which they hoped would prove as successful as Mr Bean internationally, and then of course h&p@bbc which was just the most incredible disaster. And that was it.

Didn't Robert Llewellyn do a series on Channel 4 as well (iCam or something I think) which was the same sort of thing? How to use a camcorder, shoot various styles and achieve certain effects etc. I think it was mid-late 90's.

EDIT - Seems Steve beat me to it by 99 minutes!

There actually some clips from I Camcorder on the Red Dwarf VII DVD.

I have all the Red Dwarf DVD's but haven't watched most of the extras on them apart from the extra scenes and smeg-ups. Must give them a proper viewing.

It's on the main documentry, there's a bit at the start about what Grant Naylor did between series 6 and 7 (there's a couple of clips from the 10%ers, a sitcom they made for Carlton, as well).

Despite not liking Red Dwarf, I was quite fond of The 10%ers, as it happens, although nobody else ever seemed to watch it. Along with Brighton Belles, it was the only spin-off from the Comedy Playhouse series Carlton did in its early months, with a full series following in 1994, although Grant and Naylor had split up by then and Doug Naylor wrote it with other writers instead. Then a second series followed over two years later in 1996, initially pre-watershed (the first series had been post-watershed) but after just two weeks it was dumped to after News at Ten. I remember reading at the time that none of the rest of the ITV network particularly wanted a second series because the first hadn't done much at all, but Carlton insisted, so it more or less got commissioned for political reasons. And clearly the second the ratings came in all the other regions demanded it be shunted.

It wasn't all that bad, Clive Francis who played the lead role was a very funny performer, quite manic and likeable, and it was quite pleasingly anarchic. Possibly there were a few too many media in-jokes for it to really catch on, but I always remember the exchange "Bad news!"/"What, they've discovered a fifth McGann brother?" which made me chuckle.

As the Radio Times Comedy Guide reminds me, exactly one week before that second series, there was a pilot for a very similar sitcom called, of all things, The Office. This was written by Steven Moffatt and starred Robert Lindsey and I remember reading on Teletext that when they had a preview for the TV critics, they were all absolutely wetting themselves and demanding they showed it again when it ended, and they gave it a glowing review, they said it was brilliant. It was pretty good, but nobody seemed to notice it and that was the end of that.

In those days it was hard to get comedy away on ITV, they didn't have many slots for it so everything was dumped at 8.30 regardless of its suitability. I watched them all, mind, because I was going through a phase of masochistically watching every new comedy show on telly.

Who remembers an ATV/Central programme in the 80s called Parents and Teenagers?

It was a semi-educational drama series, in some ways not unlike the schools offering Starting Out. Two series were made - the first shown on Sunday afternoons in early 1981, and the second on a weekday lunchtime in mid-1985 (though scheduling may have varied around the network).

Both series featured a family with two or three teenaged children, and the ups and downs the parents had with their kids. The theme tunes, interestingly, were a medley of 50s/60s and 70s/80s hits, reflecting the different eras of the parents and teenagers.

Back in the late 1980s, on a Saturday night, there was a comedy sketch show, called "Go for it". The theme tune had similarities to Name that tune. What I seem to remember of the show was, the lettering in the titles had fireworks in the background, like on the Benny Hill Show. Also, the end sequence had each of the stars on the show delivering a short sketch to camera.

On one occasion, one such short sketch at the end had one of the stars wearing gloves which were on fire. There was, just as the LWT endcap went up, an announcement, presumabley from the LWT announcer, that "we would like to remind parents with children, that setting fire to gloves is dangerous."

Anyone else remember this show?

I remember Aidan H Harvey from Copy Cats being on this. I also remember another series which was similar ( I think?!? ) called The Funny Side. I remember AJH was on that too and was joined by Derek Griffiths amongst others.

Complete with a typical Ed Welch theme. Wish he'd done a disc of all his themes... and kept the Central master tapes of Blockbusters. I never got to the bottom of whether he orchestrated the version that was broadcast or whether Central got someone else

Does anyone else remember The Learning Tree with Radio 2's Tony Brandon from the late 1970s? It's a shame that there are no information or clips anywhere online.