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UTV's "Kelly Show" Axed After 17 Years

(September 2005)

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AN
Andrew Founding member
Can I just ask, slightly off topic, what exactly is School around the corner?. From what I can see it seems to be on UTV filling various slots every week of the year
MA
marksi
It's a low budget local version of "kids say the funniest things" using a different school each time and presented by Frank Mitchell the weatherman*.

*he is not really a meteorologist.
SC
SCBNI
One of the main UTV personalities, Frank Mitchell, visits a different primary school from across Northern Ireland in each episode. He interviews two kids at a time talking about random crap like, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And in between each interview children from the school perform either a drama or a song. The School Around the Corner song is then sung by the whole class at the end of the show.
AN
Andrew Founding member
StevieB posted:
One of the main UTV personalities, Frank Mitchell, visits a different primary school from across Northern Ireland in each episode. He interviews two kids at a time talking about random crap like, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And in between each interview children from the school perform either a drama or a song. The School Around the Corner song is then sung by the whole class at the end of the show.

So is the famous outtake "Men with their shirts off" from this show?

UTV are showing repeats of School around the corner at 5pm from Monday until further notice, I think I'll stick with Paul O'Grady myself.
MA
marksi
So their autumn highlights is 3 programmes, all of which are returning series? Wow.

I'll be watching Paul O'Grady too.
GB
GavBelfast
I think they've given up - beyond UTV Live and Insight, what will there be? Even Jenny Bristow seems to have put her last bun on the oven.

(Oh,sorry, I forgot: RPM and UTV Sport on Sunday.) Wink

I remember when I thought they had TOO MANY regional programmes.
TE
Telefis
Yikes, when was that?!

School Around the Corner was a hugely successful RTÉ production originally, put on on Sunday nights at around 8.00 and presented by Gerry Ryan (!). As far as I can make out it was axed by RTÉ and so the company who appear to have made it for them - Tyrone Productions - simply moved up North with the concept and UTV snapped it up.
Indeed the set they're using today even seems to be the original one from the early nineties hauled up from Dublin! Shocked

That's unbelievable about Kelly running for 17 years - never knew it was that old!
Must admit to never having watched an entire episode either, but they made a big mistake moving to 9.00pm - it clashed with the Late Late and other UK output. The Late Late is really hitting it hard I'd say as RTÉ's penetration to the North is ever-increasing. Coupled with a refusal to alter the folksy nature of the programme and the direct clash with the most populist first segment of the Late Late, I'd say its figures have been plummeting.

Considering UTV have more viewers in the South than the North, it used to work quite well when Kelly started late and you could switch over from the Late Late to an item on Kelly. Likewise Kelly used to go on till midnight or so to catch the viewers coming from the finished Late Late at 11.30 - this has all changed.

The 9.00pm slot is a very crowded time on Friday nights - it tends to get lost in the crowd.
MU
murf1000
Dont forget they UTV still makes UTV School Choir of the year, a must to put you to sleep on a sunday evening.
CO
Colm
And what happens when UTV run out of School Around the Corner episodes to repeat at 5pm?

The Planet's Funniest Animals!
MU
murf1000
More Jenny repeats?
CO
Colm
I wouldn't mind if UTV showed repeats of the early Jenny Bristow series such as Highdays and Holidays (with end credits and Ulster Television Production end slide intact), or even SUS...

But more of all, Paul O'Grady would be highly appreciated by the UTV audience and would help them trounce BBC NI in the daytime ratings.
MA
marksi
Col posted:
I wouldn't mind if UTV showed repeats of the early Jenny Bristow series such as Highdays and Holidays (with end credits and Ulster Television Production end slide intact), or even SUS...

But more of all, Paul O'Grady would be highly appreciated by the UTV audience and would help them trounce BBC NI in the daytime ratings.


They'd need more than one programme to "trounce" BBC ONE NI in daytime. Incidentally, there's local input into the morning schedule on BBC ONE NI from Monday, with Lobby Lives (behind the scenes at a Belfast hotel) replacing a repeat of Homes Under the Hammer.

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