A Feast of Lycra and not-so Lycra Men/Women in Snow and Ice 1972-2002

Alright, we end our Winter Olympics special with this rough, but brilliant highlighting music video of recent Winter Olympics bar 2006 and 2010, of course. Some really good footage of the earlier Olympics which are hard to find on Youtube. The Sports genre will take a break, but we'll be back to good ol' football and more.

List of Winter Games shown:

1972 -Sapporo, Japan

1976 - Innsbruck, Austria

1980 - Lake Placid, USA

1984 - Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina)

1988 - Calgary, Canada

1992 - Albertville, France

1994 - Lillehammer, Norway

1998 - Nagano, Japan

2002 - Salt Lake City, USA

It's a very good highlights video with small clips of each Games opening ceremonies, and the features the most awe-inspiring and most excelled athletes of the games, so we see the likes on Torvill and Dean for '84, Alberto Tomba for '88 and so on. Also, period music of the time from each Olympics, If you want to know what the songs are, well, I'm horribly bad at naming these earlier ones. I've heard the 1972 one loads of times, I just can't put a name to it?

1972 -???

1976 -???

1980 -???

1984 - Irene Cara - What a Feeling

1988 -Erasure -Give a Little Respect

1992 - Snap - Rhythm Is A Dancer

1994 - Whigfield - Saturday Night

1998 - ???

2002 - James Williams - Call of the Champions

Top to Bottom, Up and Over

Words and Pictures - Noisy Neville - Part 1



Great uploads from a Youtube user here, uploading quite a few "Words and Pictures" full episodes from mid-80s era of presenter Vicky Ireland along with her animated sidekick Charlie, set in a book library. This, along with "Look and Read" was one of the BBC Schools flagship shows, and the most fondly remembered too. The series would later focus on phonics, and use and sound of certain letters, however, here there is a focus on one letter and a themed around a word that starts with that specific letter. Here it is "N" and the theme is "Noise".

Of course, the iconic part of the show was "The Magic Pencil". It was a floating pencil with a sort of guiding light at the very end, slowly showing how a letter should be written, but all that "flick" nonsense, isn't completely neccessary! However, here it is "Top to Bottom, Up and Over" as voiced by the homely Vicky Ireland off-screen for that part of the show, as the orange levitating pencil - nobody holding it, honest-in a black background.

Charlie is the little man who will pop out of nowhere to talk to Vicky or associate himself with the group of strongly multi-ethnic children. The fluidity of the animation on his face now seem rather strange, it doesn't look computer generated or stock animation, you just know it's been developed slowly in any case. This era of "Words and Pictures" was superior to what followed, which feels more detached with less child attachment and no Charlie. Vicky Ireland would later be replaced by Stuart Bradley and cat puppet Nutmeg in 1990, followed by Sophie Aldred in 1992, of "Doctor Who" fame, and the animation sections were made by the same people (Alan Rogers which brought you the early 80's children's classic "Pigeon Street".

The show began in 1970 under the guidance of Gabriel Woolf and under a different name entitled "Up in the Attic". Gabriel would summon a magic lamp to bring out various puppet characters. Then it came under another name from 1972-73, called "Sam on Boffs' Island", a 20 episode storytale about little puppet men named Boffs, a huge host of characters like What-Boff, Paper-Boof, Sell-Boff. This also starred a young Tony Robinson and Miriam Margolyes. By 1975, it was "Words and Pictures" presented by Henry Woolf and the beginning of the Magic Pencil.

This website is my reference here, and there is alot of information about those early years of the show especially. I'll add this website to my blog links soon.

http://www.broadcastforschools.co.uk/site/Words_and_Pictures

The show still runs in some form, with it's last series screened on the satellite channel "CBeebies" in 2006 named "Words and Pictures: Fun with Phonics". It also has it's own BBC interactive website. Why do you want to see it, heehee, the average age of people coming here is probably 30! It is still a widely used material used by schools today.

Rare Interview with "Carry On" Movie Star Great...

Charles Hawtrey - Rare Short Interview From The 1980s



From 1984, this was "Movie Memories" presented by the multi-talented actor/playwright/singer Roy Hudd,looking smart in a luminous light blue suit.. The series produced by Anglia, and as said by the Youtube user, this was an interview with a star who gradually went downhill on a private scale, with heavy drinking and died 4 years later in 1988.

Charles Hawtrey was great in the "Carry On" movies. He starred in 22 of the "Carry On" movies, and he was known for his skinny-as-a-rail appearance, and usually played wimp-ish characters. He had a campness too, but that was second fiddle to another comedy great Kenneth "ooooooh, yeeeeeess" Williams.

In this clip, the interview was cut short because of Hawtrey's drunken antics, we don't what, off-screen.

2 Goliaths of the Cartoon World Meet, the Very Thought of it Will Send Trembles Down Your Spine: Bananaman vs. Appleman

Banana Man



A full episode, and I can provide more information on this, by saying (in smug mode) it's from 1984's Season 2, episode 3, entitled "Trouble At the Mill".

There quite alot of Bananaman episodes on Youtube. The more I watch, the more I appreciate that instrumental theme song. As regards to the best British cartoon theme songs, this has got to be up there with "Dangermouse". The theme is composed by Dave Cooke.

Bananaman was originally a comic strip for one of the lesser-known British comics called "Nutty". Created in 1980 by John Geering, "Bananaman was an anti-thesis to the USA's Marvel's serious God-like superheros like Batman, Superman, Spiderman etc, this was a jovial poking at the fun, as although Bananaman was extremely strong, he was also extremely thick and awkward in British eccentric kind of way, but somehow saving the day, but almost always giving Chief 'O Reilly grief. Unlike other superhero's, Bananaman, is just really as kid called "Eric Twinge" and whenever he eats a banana, well, you know the rest...

In this episode, Bananaman meets his arch-nemesis and suppoesed weight-lifting buddy Appleman. He doesn't feature much in the cartoon, and his south-west country accent, does bring him down a few notches as a worthwhile opponent. The main villains that feature the most are Dr. Gloom and General Blight. Blight is supposed to be a parody of Hitler, but it's Dr. Gloom who looks more Nazi-ish in my view. Plus they always seem to look like midgets.

The cartoon ran from 1983-1986, in a 5 minute format. The voice work is done by the comedy trio "The Goodies", at probably the tail-end of their career as a comedic force. This included Bill Oddie voicing Eric's/Bananaman pet "Crow", Chief 'O Reilly and Dr. Gloom. Bill also voices the worm in this episode. Fellow Goonies Graeme Garden voiced Bananaman and General Blight and Tim Brooke-Taylor voices Appleman here, as well as Eric.

Although the cartoon ended in 1986, it was re-runned well into the 1990's on CBBC, and it has featured in the Dandy comic since 1985. It still runs today, with new material and a new illustrationist.

Youtube Sports Sweepstake

The umpteenth edition of the Sweepstake series, this time for sport.

Gary Newbon & Jimmy Greaves Football argument Central TV 1983



Let's start off with a lesser-known gem. An argument ensues over whether injustice is being served in Football, when it comes to there being no TV evidence or replay, that a referee and double check with, in certain events in a football match, because even with the ref and linesman monitoring, they still can't see everything, as the view may be obscured by a crowded penalty box.

Gary Newbon in this argument, supports a call for TV evidence, while Greaves is against, as the coverage could be prone to edit and interference. Greaves also attacks Newbon's personal favourite team Birmingham City, in a heated moment. The youtube user claims their friendship was ended after this. Can anybody clarify this? Comment if you know, folks!

Torvill & Dean - 1984 Olympics - Bolero - HQ



Historic moment for Britain at the 1984 Winter Olympics. Probably our most celebrated Gold Medal at the Winter Games. Now 25 years ago, Jean Torvill and Christopher Dean achieved an all-perfect score in Sarajevo. 12 sets of 6.0 for Maurice Ravel's "Bolero"! Never been achieved before or since. The couple won a bronze at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, and can now be seen on celebrity talent show "Dancing On Ice" on ITV, on round about February every year, and they are the mentors.

Did Torvill and Dean ever get it together. Rumours were rife, at the time afterwards, and the answer was simply no., although many wanted to believe it. The 2 managed on a business only basis, but it is a true friendship. Dean married French Canadian World Ice Dance Champion Isabelle Duchesnay in 1991, but divorced in 1993. He then went on to marry second wife, US skater Jill Trenary, in 1994. Torvill has been happily married to Phil Christensen, since 1990.

BBC Grandstand April 1990



This clip is a brilliant flashback to an age before the Premiership, the ridiculously high wages and the multi-million foreign chairmen that make teams into overnight sensations. The now elusive Bob Wilson presents the league standings at the end of Saturday matchday. Spot the teams that are now Premiership regulars like Bolton Wanderers, in the lower divisions, and the others in their former glories like Norwich City, Sheffield Wednesday and Wimbledon.

Not to mention the great instrumental track from Bruce Hornsby and the Range's "That's Just the Way It is".

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.