Youtube Schools TV Sweepstake

Continuing the Sweepstake series. Not really a "Best of..." but a generalised sweep-a-round of the variety of genres that will be posted in this blog!

For the sad people like myself, i've included "Schools TV" as a genre. It's a range of educational programmes, shown by the big 2 forces of UK TV, the BBC and ITV(later Channel 4) aimed for childen and older children, along with accompanying information packs to help school teachers make the most out of the programming for his/her class in after-math projects or tasks.

The genre reached it's peak in the late 70's - early 80's. It remained strong throughout the 80's, but began to demise in the 90's, due to possibly improved computer learning (CD-ROM) and then...the internet. In 2009, the genre has now been shunned, and hardly any new programming has been made in recent years. Just evolution or lazy-bum-budget-shrinking-ratings-obsessed terrestrial TV? You decide.

ITV Schools - Scientific Eye



"Scientific Eye" was a textbook no-frills ITV Schools and later Channel 4 schools programme, it has been popular in schools mainly for it's large array of archive or experiment footage. The starting year of the programme is a little unclear to find, but it ran in the mid-80s, right up to the early 2000's.

This clip features car crash footage, demolition works and all that other good stuff along with the usual scientific jargon. From what I recall, for most of it's tenure, it had out-of-vision announcers. In the mid-90s, it was similar, but there was a silent comedy character featured doing chores in the house as such. However, by the early 2000s or late-90's, they had in-vision presenters, and that for me RUINED the show. I enjoyed the no-frills commentating and being able to concentrate on the topic matter solely. Your getting more out of it really, at a quicker pace, but now that every bloody body wants to be a face on TV, it lost it's edge. By the time of 2002/2003, "Scientific Eye" along with many others were dumped forever as Channel 4 got rid of schools programme completely, and replaced with loosely based reality-tv, teen diary whiners or episodes of "Friends". Reason being because, Schools TV never did know how to compete with ratings, they never wanted to be cool, and that's what I liked about them, they dared to bore, so much that they were actually good.

BBC Schools - Music Time



From probably 1984, presented here by Helen Spiers Johnathon Cohen. This was a regular feature of BBC Schools in the late 70's and for all of the 80's. A great variety of instruments were shown in the show, and the presenters would be musically trained too.

I think it was later presented by former 60's music band member of "Manfred Mann" Paul Jones, who was a natural on the show.

Everybody's favourite part of the "Music Time", were the "Listen" section, which encouraged you answer the question by listening to the music, encouraged by the symbol of a random Gnome cartoon character holding onto his ear, in the pose of a Hulk Hogan celebration. In this clip the gnome indeed turns up, and you have to watch as well as listen, whether the musical band is in time with Johnathon Cohen conducting, with his hands.

Good Health - White Ivory (ATV Schools film: 1974) Part 1



"Good Health" was another long running ITV schools programmes, that ran into the 80s/90s including after the transfer of schools from ITV "We've got TV-AM to contend with now!" Schools to Channel 4 Schools. There's a couple of othe clips from this show on youtube, I'll try and fish out more for the Schools section. Hopefully they are still on there!

So this is a gem from the archives, as it's a full episode from 1974, a time when video recorder were practically non-existant. So a true gem. Watching this show, will immedietely make you want to brush your teeth, as the so-called doctor on the show what can happen to your teeth f you don't brush! There's also a quite cute sectio where the kids present plague invading your teeth and the dangers of not brushing your teeth through theatrical art. It also highlights, what you may still get at the Dentist, is this red liquid that stains your teeth red, and the plaque shows out like a sore thumb, once again another jibe to brush your teeth at least twice a day. It may be 35 years old, the message still works.