Posts Tagged ‘1980s television’
Tuesday 31 December 1985
In my new BBC Pot Black 1986 Diary (produced under licence by Collins, Glasgow) I made my first entry. It bears quoting at length, "Last TV Prog of 85 - Wogan - crap."
There, what an erudite contribution to the discussion eh? You can rest assured that the rest of the pages are crammed with similarly pithy comment. But don't let the highbrow nature of it put you off. It does get easier to understand the more you read of it...
Sunday 5 January 1986
Now, I must have been out and about earlier in the week as reading this diary entry has jogged my memory of my paper round. I had a morning round and Monday through Saturday must have delivered no more than 20 newspapers plus the odd periodical. But then on Sunday, good grief, I must have had forty to carry and of course with it being Sunday, they were much much bigger - and heavier.
I had a racing bike. It was a Peugeot and it arrived, I remember, from me Mum's Kays catalogue on Live Aid Day in the summer of 1985. The wheels on this thing were like razor blades and it went like stink. It didn't go so quickly however, with 40 Sunday newspapers slung over me left shoulder. More to the point, I was probably unsafe, wobbling the mile up the road at the mercy of all sorts of car wielding lunatics. So on Sundays, me Dad would go down in the car and pick up the newspapers for me. I still had to walk around and deliver 'em mind.
The lucrative part of the round though, was the collection of people's paper bills. I divided my labour up into two parts. First, I would walk round and deliver the papers. I'd get home around 10 or 10.30, have a cup of coffee and then go out again for another hour collecting the money. My idea was that they wanted their papers early, but they didn't want me knocking on the door too early in order to collect the money.
Anyway, this week, I collected the princely sum of £93.47, of which I think my share was 3%. I'd even written a programme in BASIC on my C64 to tot up the notes and coins and then tell me how much I'd earned.
In the afternoon of this cold and frosty day, we settled down to watch Tony Cottee score the only goal in West Ham's victory over Charlton at Selhurst Park in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. It was, I noted, "[the] first televised TV (? football, surely) for yonks." It started at 3pm and was on BBC1.
Tuesday 7 January 1986
Whooppee! Thank you Jack Frost. No, I don't mean the grumpy TV 'tec (David Jason was still busy with Del Boy). No, I mean, the Jack Frost who brings us cold and snow. Yes! We were sent home from school at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Apparently, the snow was pretty heavy. We had a snowball fight outside(!) at 7.30.
The best news of the day however, was the new series of Grange Hill. Yesssss! Get in there! We all loved Grange Hill, didn't we? The only thing slightly odd about it from a realists point of view - you know, like what I was in the 80's - was the complete lack of swearing. Yes, I know now that it was on at prime time for kids, so there wouldn't be any swearing, but it was odd to see Gripper Stebson, Roland Browning's would be nemesis, angry and frustrated with the Space Invaders machine in the local chippy, thumping it and yelling... "Sugar!" at it. Priceless.
Even Ben Elton picked it up, "Aw come on Mr Liberal, we're the only kids on telly who don't say f........"
Wednesday 8th January 1986
Thanks to the snow, we had a day off school. The diary entry looks as if the author has been blinded by the snow. I'll quote it at length "snow still here, still snowing this morning. Afternoon snow thawing slow. Snowed a bit more - not much. TV - crap. Bed at 20 to 10 early night!!" Phew! What utter drivel eh?
Thursday 9th January 1986
Whoo. Wow! This was a seminal day for 1980's television, for BlackAdder II was broadcast for the first time. It was, I noted, "Brill. Ace! FANTASTIC!!" Rowan Atkinson, who as well as playing the title role, had co-authored the first series, but had left the writing of this second series to Richard Curtis and Ben Elton.
We were back at school, which was boring and the weather was cold. It being my 'O' level year I had an interim report - unfortunately I make no mention of its contents. However, I did have an insurance policy mature, delivering me the princely sum of £250. Can't remember on what I frittered it away!
I also noted that Michael Heseltine resigned. Must have been them bloody helicopters!
![Blackadder II Complete VHS] 1986] Good VHS Videos](http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/280768505661_0.jpg)
£3.79
Sunday 12th January 1986
BBC1 3.00pm Watford v Liverpool. Liverpool won 3-2 with 2 goals from Paul Walsh and one from Ian Rush. For those of you with long memories, this was in the period of the domination of the game in England by Liverpool FC. In 1986 they were to go and and win the League and FA Cup double. This game (vs Watford) a demonstration of what all good football teams need - some steel and a never say die attitude. Poor in the first half, Kenny Jacket had given Watford a deserved 1-0 lead on 18 mins, before Walsh popped up with the equaliser just before half time. In the second half, Walsh again, and then Ian Rush made it 3-1 before Worrell Sterling pulled one back to make the final score 3-2.
The weather was windy, but without rain - an ok state of affairs for a paperboy out there all morning! And this paperboy did no homework except French, which was / is boring and hard.
Monday 13th January 1986
Felicity Kendal "does" Wogan. Now you can read this in two or more ways. Of course, I was 16 when I wrote it, so obviously, I mean that Felicity Kendal was "standing in" for the Irish charmer on his BBC1 chatshow. It aired on BBC1 at 7.00pm and was a staple of 1980's television.
But back to Felicity Kendal. According to Mr Pye, the father of Neil Pye in the Young Ones, "Felicty Kendal is sweetly pretty, and just what a real girlie should be." Now whether or not you agree with that statement, or the its sentiment, for a 16 year old young shaver, she was exactly what a "real girlie should be." That lucky beggar Richard Briers, I thought.
Apart from this televisual highlight, I complained about a school mate - "***** is a cretin!" I came home from school and listened to records, and the day was windy. Such was the way of things on 13th January 1986.
Sunday 19th January 1986
It was a rainy and windy day today. TV was boring, it must've been as I did some homework! I collected £104 on my paper round. Erm... that's it. Sunday 19th January 1986 passed with only the merest comment on my part.
Thursday 23rd January 1986
Today was boring (again!). My friend brought back my Level 42 tape that I had lent to him. I think it was World Machine, featuring such smash hits as Something About You and Leaving Me Now. There was quite a thriving trade of music swapping between us. As non-earning individuals we had no other choice, a tape or an LP must have cost at least a fiver. I earned about 6 quid a week from my paper round. Go figure...
We had a grammar test in German - easy? And the bus was late again. 'It's beginning to be a habit!'
Anything that had happened during the day however, was made alright by Thursday evening's televisual offering. Blackadder II was on again, must've been the third episode. As discussed previously, this was marvelous stuff. Simply the best.
Sunday 26th January 1986
Today was I reported, a nice day. Now, in the days before Sky and exclusive contracts to cover football competitions, the FA Cup was shared between ITV and BBC. Some might call it a cosy monopoly, but football was treated as football, as a sport. Sky's coverage had brought in many innovations, some of them beneficial, but has also introduced a level of hype which is quite preposterous. And they have Richard Keys, who should have stuck to the sofa that he was inhabiting in 1980's television land. Don't get me started on the nonsense that Andy Gray spouts.
Anyway, at 2.30pm, on ITV that afternoon, Liverpool travelled to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea in FACUP4 as Sky might have put it, with goals from Ian Rush and Mark Lawrenson seeing off the Londoners' challenge.
Before the big match, I collected £96 on my paper round, and I also managed to find the time to do some home taping. I illegally copied a school friend's tape of The Alarm's Strength album. Naughty naughty.
