Old telly shows from my VHS collection

[Alberon]

I've been rummaging through my old recordings that I transferred over from my VHS tapes to DVDs. One I'm saving up till next year is a itv pilot movie that never went to series called 'Police 2020'. I'll put that up on Youtube if no one else does in the new year and see how well it predicted the future.

But today I'm putting up something that barely seems to have a mention anywhere on the internet. That's mostly down to the fact it aired in just two itv regions back in 1993 and is a dreadful It's a Knockout knockoff. It even ropes in Stuart Hall, before his molesting ways came to light of course. Also here is Eddie the Eagle, eeking out the final drop of his celebrity.

Rather than having the teams competing directly together, they each perform in their home town and the camera switches between the two. It doesn't work. I was in the crowd in the Reading competiton (I stumbled over the recording while shopping). The cheering noises were dubbed on after, we just watched it all in embarrassed silence.

https://youtu.be/J2MYz5EBsZI

[bomb_dog]

Interesting (but unwatchably awful) show - thanks. Odd to see Gloucester in this show as I remember we were tuned to Central back in the day rather than HTV West, so even though we lived only a couple of miles from the Docks where it was filmed, we may not have even been able to see it.

Wipeout did a similar think to Stuart Hall here, with Hamster Hammond not being there, only in the studio doing a voiceover. And the cheering sounds like it was in a studio, not from an outdoor brodcast.

[Pranet]

I could have seen that, as I lived in the one of the regions it was broadcast in, and it looks like another episode featured a nearby town, and it is the sort of crap I was drawn to at the time, but I have no memory of it. Thanks for uploading it. I do actually miss tv being like that.

[Dex Sawash]

Better quality video than I expected

[Shit Good Nose]

The lovely Sam "Sammy" Mason doing the HTV link there.  Started out as the HTV news local OBU, then did the tea time news presenting late 80s to early-mid 90s before going back to OBU, then co-hosted a local Friday night live "IMPORTANT LOCAL ISSUES" talk show with ex (now dead) DJ Dave "The Voice" Barratt that was basically like the good AIDS/bad AIDS bit in Brass Eye, before decamping to BBC Bristol to do radio and continuity in the early 00s, until being sacked for being a huge racist when it was not yet the in-thing for celebs to be, and subsequently having "problems" with alcohol and, allegedly, drugs and generally going a bit crazy.  Was married to a well known Bristol multi-millionaire who was murdered by a jealous ex girlfriend.  Has basically spent the last decade posting suggestive photos of herself smoking and drinking heavily on various social networking sites and "showreels" (which are nothing more than bits of her taped off the telly) on YouTube (most of which keep getting taken down).

She was also one of the panel guests on the Bristol shows of Shooting Stars live, along with another female local news presenter (I forget which one), Midge Ure, Tony Robinson, Tricky, and two others (due to overwhelming demand they did two nights at the Colston Hall, with Sam being the only celeb who did both nights) I've forgotten.

More info than anyone needs, but just to put some interesting context with Stuart Hall.

[DrGreggles]

The lovely Sam "Sammy" Mason doing the HTV link there.  Started out as the HTV news local OBU, then did the tea time news presenting late 80s to early-mid 90s before going back to OBU, then co-hosted a local Friday night live "IMPORTANT LOCAL ISSUES" talk show with ex (now dead) DJ Dave "The Voice" Barratt that was basically like the good AIDS/bad AIDS bit in Brass Eye, before decamping to BBC Bristol to do radio and continuity in the early 00s, until being sacked for being a huge racist when it was not yet the in-thing for celebs to be, and subsequently having "problems" with alcohol and, allegedly, drugs and generally going a bit crazy.  Was married to a well known Bristol multi-millionaire who was murdered by a jealous ex girlfriend.  Has basically spent the last decade posting suggestive photos of herself smoking and drinking heavily on various social networking sites and "showreels" (which are nothing more than bits of her taped off the telly) on YouTube (most of which keep getting taken down).

She was also one of the panel guests on the Bristol shows of Shooting Stars live, along with another female local news presenter (I forget which one), Midge Ure, Tony Robinson, Tricky, and two others (due to overwhelming demand they did two nights at the Colston Hall, with Sam being the only celeb who did both nights) I've forgotten.

More info than anyone needs, but just to put some interesting context with Stuart Hall.

She's doing well now:
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/ex-tv-presenter-bbc-bristol-1569870

[Alberon]

That's a lot more than I expected to learn about that show. Thanks!

Here's something else I've found that isn't up on Youtube (entirely) already.

It's two episodes of long-running BBC holiday children's programming Why Don't You? It's from the end of the 1990/1 series and there's a much stronger storyline going on than is usual in this show. That might have something to do with Russell T Davies who was running it at the time. The second episode is already up on Youtube from one of the stars, Ben Slade, who went on to be a headmaster. But he probably got a proper quality copy from the BBC rather than recording it off air.

I'm not sure why I did record it. I couldn't have been that starved of Sci-Fi even in the lean years of the eighties and early nineties.

https://youtu.be/BpRcvz1WyiU

[Small Man Big Horse]

That's a lot more than I expected to learn about that show. Thanks!

Here's something else I've found that isn't up on Youtube (entirely) already.

It's two episodes of long-running BBC holiday children's programming Why Don't You? It's from the end of the 1990/1 series and there's a much stronger storyline going on than is usual in this show. That might have something to do with Russell T Davies who was running it at the time. The second episode is already up on Youtube from one of the stars, Ben Slade, who went on to be a headmaster. But he probably got a proper quality copy from the BBC rather than recording it off air.

I'm not sure why I did record it. I couldn't have been that starved of Sci-Fi even in the lean years of the eighties and early nineties.

https://youtu.be/BpRcvz1WyiU

I never liked Why Don't You as I always found it oddly patronising even when I was a kid, so I'd stopped watching it by the time RTD was running it. I did find his entries in The Writer's Tale about it fascinating however so will have to watch that soon, though I had a quick look at it just now and was appalled by the 90's version of the theme tune, sure the lyrics are mostly the same but the music side of things is atrocious.

By the way, is there any chance you might have an episode of Takeover Tv in your vhs collection? There's a couple of clips and one partial episode on youtube but no complete ones, and I really want to see more of it as I have such fond memories of the show.

[Alberon]

I'll have a look, but I'm pretty sure I don't. Which is a shame as I'd like to see more of that as well.

[DrGreggles]

Me and a mate were going to start a podcast called 'Shit Video(?)' a few years ago, where we would trawl through old VHS tapes in search of gold.
We did a pilot (which wasn't completely awful), but then someone told us about Found Footage Festival...

[JesusAndYourBush]

I couldn't have been that starved of Sci-Fi even in the lean years of the eighties and early nineties.

I was puzzled at your comment until I clicked the video and briefly skimmed through it.  Looks like that show changed massively from when I saw it in the 70's when it was just a bunch of kids in a shed.  I remember the episode when they got a new theme tune (the version sung by the girl with the loud foghorn voice).  They had a cassette sent in by a viewer with a letter saying "I've recorded you a new theme tune, why don't you use it", although thinking about it now that was almost certainly a lie as it sounded professionally recorded, not sung by some kid into their tape recorder.

[Harry Badger]

She's doing well now:
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/ex-tv-presenter-bbc-bristol-1569870

Defence barrister Taryn Turner said Bush, who lives at the pub in Murray Street, had sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous, been sober for two months and was now trying to make a new living as a pub landlady.

[Replies From View]

https://youtu.be/J2MYz5EBsZI

This is the era of Why Don't You I remember the most - this version of the theme tune and that animated head shouting "WHY DON'T YOU" in that very specific way with his mouth.

Thanks for uploading!

[FredNurke]

That's a lot more than I expected to learn about that show. Thanks!

Here's something else I've found that isn't up on Youtube (entirely) already.

It's two episodes of long-running BBC holiday children's programming Why Don't You? It's from the end of the 1990/1 series and there's a much stronger storyline going on than is usual in this show. That might have something to do with Russell T Davies who was running it at the time. The second episode is already up on Youtube from one of the stars, Ben Slade, who went on to be a headmaster. But he probably got a proper quality copy from the BBC rather than recording it off air.

I'm not sure why I did record it. I couldn't have been that starved of Sci-Fi even in the lean years of the eighties and early nineties.

https://youtu.be/BpRcvz1WyiU

Oh Christ, not that flat-capped tosser. Who has pretty obviously also been editing his own Wikipedia page.

[SteveDave]

BENJAMIN! RORY! SLADE!

[Alberon]

Some more stuff. This one is only from 2006, but I was surprised not to see it up on Youtube already. It's an episode of BBC Four's 'Mark Lawson Talks to' where he talks to Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks.

https://youtu.be/hsx6oHjnZVo

I have one other of this series with Terry Pratchett, again there only seems to be a few clips up on Youtube so I'll put that one up in the next day or so.

[Alberon]

Oh well, forget the Terry Pratchett one. That was insta-banned by Youtube.