I HEART 80s

1985 TV

1985 saw a major relaunch of the BBC.  Gone was the mechanical spinning globe, replaced with a new computer generated version.  We also saw the launch of Wogan - the genial Irishman's 3 night's a week effort.  Hands up who remembers him falling over as he went to greet Elton John at his piano?  Nobody?  Surely not.  Anyway, I digress.  We were also treated (if indeed 'to treat' is the correct verb) to EastEnders for the first time.  We also had Three Up, Two Down, the toe curling Howard's Way and Mr Tidy Beard's Telly Addicts, which was strangely addictive and saw the genesis of the term doofer, as in remote control - well I'd never heard it before.

Amongst other things ITV gave us Supergran, Busman's Holiday, Albion Market and the seminal Girls On Top, written by and starring French and Saunders with Ruby Wax, alongside Tracey Ullman and Joan Greenwood.  We also saw the launch of Blinddddddddddddd Date (required viewing before going out on Saturday night for a long time!) and The Cook Report.  Channel 4 had scraped some cash out from the back of the sofa and gave us A Woman of Substance, taken from Barbara Taylor Bradford's book.

Leaving our screens were The Comedians, Are You Being Served?, Open All Hours, Tenko and cult TV show, Juliet Bravo.  There was only one TV related death in 1985, that of Ted Moult, star of 80's Everest commercials as well as the first ever edition of Countdown.

Oh yes, and as if I could ever forget, in 1985 we had Live Aid.  Nuff said.