http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/blog/ar...hlights-in-1988.html
The first in a new series of features, where we peer back through the mists of TV time to see what we were watching on the goggle box so many years ago. First up, we look back at the night of Friday 8 January, 1988.
The evening’s prime time viewing kicks off with two competing game shows. On BBC1, Les Dawson hosts this classic. You may remember ‘Blankety Blank’ as featuring A-list celebs but tonight Les’s guests include Philip Schofield (without his more famous partner Gordon The Gopher), Frank Carson and star of ‘Filthy Rich And Catflap’ and daughter of June Whitfield, Suzi Aitchison. Also on the show was West End stage singer Liz Robertson (nope, us neither).
The Price Is Right, ITV* 7pm
If those huge names didn’t tickle your fancy, you could turn over and see Leslie Crowther asking viewers to “Come on Down!” It looks dated – right down to the dollybird hostesses like Gilly De Terville and Carol Greenwood. The show was nonetheless groundbreaking if only because of the size of the prizes on offer (particularly compared to the jokey cheque book and pen handed out by Les on ‘Blankety Blank&rsquo
. The winnings were so big for the time that an earlier series was taken off air because they exceeded limits set by the Independent Broadcasting Authority.
Me And My Girl, ITV, 8pm
Following on from that excitement, there was a re-run of Richard O’Sullivan single-dad sitcom ‘Me And My Girl’. (Did you know: Joanne Ridley, who played his daughter, changed her name to Iona Simms and now works as a midwife in California?)
20 Years Of The Two Ronnies, BBC1, 8pm
We’re pretty certain the BBC would still show this today, given the chance.
Tales Of The Unexpected, ITV1, 8.30pm
But how about this for major-channel popular quality? A half-hour drama based around a Somerset Maugham short story and featuring legendary actors Pauline Collins and Joss Ackland. Class.
Dispatches, C4, 8pm
A 45-minute studio debate between Arthur Scargill and John Walsh, a challenger for head of the National Union Of Miners. Can you imagine the channel attempting that at primetime nowadays? Incredible.
The Tracey Ullman Show, BBC2, 9pm
We picked this date at random, but there’s actually a significant moment in television history here. The show won Emmys galore (including one for a certain Paula Abdul’s choreography) but its main claim to fame was that it brought ‘The Simpsons’ to the small screen. This was their first appearance on British television. Talking very sloooowly and being very jerkily animated, there’s little sign that the short cartoons on either side of the bits where the adverts would have been would go on to become TV’s first family.
Floodtide, ITV, 9pm
The second series of a mainly forgotten drama about a doctor who attempts to take down a gang of drug smugglers. Philip Sayer, who died shortly after it aired, played the lead, Dr Ramsay.
Rockliffe’s Babies, BBC1, 9.30pm
After the news (at 9pm, natch) grizzled detective Alan Rockcliffe (Ian Hogg) goes to work with a squad of wet-behind-the-ears PCs (of the actors who played the young coppers Joe McGann is the only one who went on to achieve more notable fame). In tonight’s episode three of the babies get held hostage when a junkie robs a chemist in an attempt to get a fix. Exciting stuff, but the best bit about it was almost certainly the rocking theme tune.
Footloose, BBC1, 10.20pm
Oooh, all that viewing has made us tired. Fancy a late night film? Well, there’s Kevin Bacon strutting his stuff or there’s…
Subway, C4, 11pm
What else for C4 other than a French classic? It’s about the metro system, not the sandwich shop, which hadn’t yet crossed the Atlantic. If that’s too much there’s…
Snooker, ITV, 10pm
Ah, soft colours, low murmuring commentary and the occasional click, sure to send you off. It’s the Mercantile Credit Classic - won by Steve Davis, if you were wondering. If you should doze off you might awake to…
Night Network, ITV, 1am
Featuring a game show with Nicholas Parsons and music from Wet Wet Wet. All the other channels have shut down. Bliss.
* Note: it’s not ‘ITV1’, just ‘ITV’ was enough in those days.
What do you reckon? Do you think telly was better in the good old days? Let us know how much you remember below...
I do remember most of these. And yes British tv WAS better then IMO, although there is a lot of stuff imported from the US that is good. I think the music/charts was betetr then too. This past few years has been dreadful IMO. And its not my age either LOL, because many people I know a generation younger, agree that the 80s were good and that the noughties hasnt been brilliant,
) i was out and about most evenings!
