Televisual Holy Grails

[telebox2001]

Granada opting out of network to cover a major news story, possibly an IRA bomb, in the 90s.

[Steve Williams]

Thanks for all these replies, I'm glad this has brought back some happy memories. I have been fortunate enough to see quite a few of my televisual holy grails over the years. The one I was thrilled to see again was my first ever TV memory, Play School moving "house" in 1983 when it had a slightly controversial relaunch with a new set and theme and so on. What I really remembered from the time was that the week before the relaunch, they had loads of boxes on the set with toys and props in them, as if they were really packing it all up, I was four at the time and absolutely fascinated by the whole thing, and it was exactly as I remembered it.

Of course, if you'd asked me for many years what my televisual holy grail was, I would said Breakfast Time from the Broom Cupboard the day after the hurricane, because I'd actually not seen it at the time (as the hurricane missed us completely, so I was totally oblivious of the whole thing) and only read about it after the event, and for years and years I assumed I'd never see it because it was presumably never recorded. Then in 2007 it turned up on YouTube, and I've now seen pretty much all of it, and it turns out more or less all of it is still in the archives.

I remember a gag on Wogan once (just before the closing credits) where Tel said he’d do an amazing trick if the audience chanted ‘change! change! change!’. So they do this for about 10 seconds and then (via the magic of TV), he morphs into David Frost! Frosty then did the closing link. Pretty sure I didn’t make it up

Well, David Frost did present Wogan for a week in October 1986, as seen on Genome, so presumably this was just a bit of silliness the Friday before.

Actually quite a lot of my unsettling telly memories come from Wogan, because when I was a kid I used to see it quite a lot, because it was on at 7pm, but they would often talk about things I wouldn't understand because I was a stupid kid. I remember Spike Milligan coming on stage in a wheelchair once which I found really scary (although I've seen it since and it's a really obvious gag because it was his birthday and so he came on in a bathchair with a long prop beard and so on because the joke was he was a million years old, but I didn't get it at the time) and they would often have people on who had been injured (like Mike Smith and Sarah Greene after their helicopter crash) and I remember Ray Moore appearing when he was dying of cancer and was clearly very ill. So things like that really stuck with me because I was a stupid kid scared of everything.

It's a bit like how my number one source for half-heard misunderstood news stories when I was a kid was the 9am news bulletin on Radio 4 which we used to hear in school while waiting for the radio assembly. John Craven and Edward Barnes often mentioned that one of the important things about Newsround was that they could reassure kids who hear snatches of news and don't understand them and get a bit scared by them, and I can absolutely attest to that, all the stuff I saw or heard while current affairs were being discussed on the news or Wogan that unsettled me greatly.

I think I’ve seen this bit in the last few years online (I remember it originally as well). You saw the front of the Iron Maiden (the torture device) and the door swings open with Paul explaining he actually survived. I feel like it was shown after a Monty Python repeat (the Whicker Island one) very late that night cos we had it on VHS for years!

Everyone seems to remember the Paul Daniels Halloween one, although while I've seen the actual show itself I don't think I've ever seen the appearance later that evening - as you say, after Python - where he comes back to reveal it was all a trick, I wonder if you can file that one alongside my Broom Cupboard memory as something that was wiped or never kept as it was a bit of continuity rather than the actual programme. Of course, the other famous thing from that year which appears never to have turned up is Jools Holland swearing on a trailer for The Tube - his apology on the programme certainly exists, and has been on YouTube, but the actual trailer itself appears to have long since disappeared.

Steve's original post has triggered a vague memory of something from the Broom Cupboard a bit later, from the Andi Peters years, where I think they went through a short period of changing the Broom Cupboard set every week. Possibly viewer's designs were involved, one week might have been spaceship-themed, but the one that I particularly remember (or maybe just dreamt) was all made of wood. I think it was all building up to the introduction of the new more permanent set in there, most likely the one with the neon lights. I've found the debut of that set on YouTube (with the neon having not arrived yet!) but I've not found anything from the weeks before.

I wonder if the picture towards the bottom of this page - https://thebroomcupboard.co.uk/page2.html - with Andi Peters in a Broom Cupboard totally decorated with flock wallpaper is part of that. Wonder if we'll ever get the 1992-96 page on that site which has been "coming soon" for about a decade now.

Granada opting out of network to cover a major news story, possibly an IRA bomb, in the 90s.

Well, I do remember this one, it was the Manchester bomb on Saturday 15th June 1996. I remember Granada doing an extended teatime bulletin, opting out of the build-up to a Euro 96 match and joining it on the kick-off.

[LukeHarrison]

A couple of them I remember were from How Do They Do That? Two stunts they pulled I distinctly remember, one where the studio floods and is washed away, and one where Eamonn Holmes falls from the top of Television Centre, trying to cling on to one of the slanted B blocks, before it breaks away taking him with it.

I've since seen the follow-up to the flood from the episode the week after, explaining how they did it, but haven't seen the second one from TV Centre since it aired. If anyone knows where this is or could dig it up, I'd be eternally grateful!

[Inspector Sands]

The Newsround episode that broke the news of the Challenger Disaster I'd like to see as it's such a vivid memory, there is a clip online but it's rather disjointed and not complete.

[eggsontoast]

Another standout memory from the 1980's was Children in Need when they put the phone volunteers in a different studio from the main show (possibly TC3/TC2) and had a waterfilled canal between the two studios. Terry and Sue rode on a gondola to the other studio to get the pledge updates... I remember it all looking amazing

[Steve in Pudsey]

Was that while TC1 was closed for asbestos removal?

[Spencer]

Play School has already been mentioned, but I’d love to see again what was my first ever memory of being excited about a TV presentational change, which was when they had an episode on location with different titles in around 1980/81.

The usual ‘a house, a door….’ animation was keyed in blue (from what I remember) over an outdoor scene.

I was probably about four years old at the time, but I remember pointing out to my mum that Play School had got new titles, and being disappointed the next day when they went back to the standard ones.

[eggsontoast]

Was that while TC1 was closed for asbestos removal?

Yeah.. that timing would be about right

[Isonstine]

Another standout memory from the 1980's was Children in Need when they put the phone volunteers in a different studio from the main show (possibly TC3/TC2) and had a waterfilled canal between the two studios. Terry and Sue rode on a gondola to the other studio to get the pledge updates... I remember it all looking amazing

1989 looks like a good bet. You can see Terry and Sue depart at the end of the broadcast in this video. I get the impression they're meant to emerge the other side but it doesn't happen for whatever reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijejaeEEl7o

[JK1985]

Shame the Children in Need now of the 2020s seems like a shadow of its former self.

[PD]

Sometime during the 2002 Jubilee coverage, David Dimbleby introducing EastEnders on a big screen behind him (I think the BBC One ident went out on the big screen too), with big cheers from the crowd infront of Buckingham Palace - someone please tell me I didn't imagine this!?

[thegeek]

Sometime during the 2002 Jubilee coverage, David Dimbleby introducing EastEnders on a big screen behind him (I think the BBC One ident went out on the big screen too), with big cheers from the crowd infront of Buckingham Palace - someone please tell me I didn't imagine this!?

Well that sounds pretty magnificent. EastEnders came between MOTD and the Party at the Palace, so I guess it was a live trail and presentation having a bit of fun with it.

[Johnr]

One of my favourite memories was the monumental balls up (literally!) of the big BBC millennium lotto draw

Poor old Alan Dedicoat was trying to make the best out of a bad situation whilst good old Dale completely ignored him and had a good old natter with Barbara Windsor instead!

Still strange to think neither are with us any more just 20 years later

https://youtu.be/wSXlMkpwP48

[Asa]

Sometime during the 2002 Jubilee coverage, David Dimbleby introducing EastEnders on a big screen behind him (I think the BBC One ident went out on the big screen too), with big cheers from the crowd infront of Buckingham Palace - someone please tell me I didn't imagine this!?

Well that sounds pretty magnificent. EastEnders came between MOTD and the Party at the Palace, so I guess it was a live trail and presentation having a bit of fun with it.

The TV Forum thread has some more details, including a How Did They Do That? style explanation.

Very nicely done, I can't think of any example like that since?

[Inspector Sands]

I have seen the CiN boat trip as its something I remember from the time. Yes they got into it and it went between studios via the circular scene dock that runs around the back of TVC. I seem to remember it was discussed in the old blue place, I can't remember which studios it went between but they seemed to go clockwise around the scene dock. If it was an actual river it was presumably not between TC 3 and 4 otherwise it would have blocked the corridor, but I think it was possibly a tarted up piece of BBC scene dock transport

It was an exciting bit of novelty TV at the time, but watching it today its an amazingly self indulgent bit of TV. It took ages too. 

They kept the set for the next few years. The following year the water bit was filled but 2 years later it was empty. 

Shame the Children in Need now of the 2020s seems like a shadow of its former self.

It's a different beast now, but not really any worse. The old CiNs are difficult to watch - a lot of faff, a lot of filler and self indulgent BBC stuff, and ages spent telling us how to donate. 

Now it's a lot more slick and entertaining, but it's a bit clinical and polished