The Fight For Saturday Night - BBC Four
Jason C
Posts: 31,284 Forum Member
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Is anybody watching this at the moment?
If not, it's a fantastic account of the history of the Saturday night light entertainment battle between BBC and ITV with Michael Grade interviewing all the relevant people and parties.
At the moment, they're just going through Noel's House Party and discussing something I've long wondered, namely what caused its downfall and eventual axing?
The trouble with BBC Four is that it does lots of good documentaries like this which have very little promotion and as such, you only really find out that they're on when you randomly hop to the channel on any given moment.
If not, it's a fantastic account of the history of the Saturday night light entertainment battle between BBC and ITV with Michael Grade interviewing all the relevant people and parties.
At the moment, they're just going through Noel's House Party and discussing something I've long wondered, namely what caused its downfall and eventual axing?
The trouble with BBC Four is that it does lots of good documentaries like this which have very little promotion and as such, you only really find out that they're on when you randomly hop to the channel on any given moment.
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Comments
Jim'll Fix It if I remember correctly trounced most everything in the ratings, for years and wasn't even mentioned in the programme.
Micheal Grade seems to be living for pleasure alone talking to his mates/rivals/colleagues in TV, Radio and the Theatre in various docs.
Watching Parky and Tommy Cooper atm, don't remember this one been on the BBC Talk at the BBC archive page.
It did but it was a 'teatime' show, back in the days when BBC1 catered for children.
and if it'd been broadcast on BBC 2 ten times more people would've seen it. Still an interesting programme. They could've mentioned the Saturday night dramas like House of Elliot, Duchess of Duke Street, Juliet Bravo - the only one that got a mention was All Creatures Great and Small. And no mention of the big 'name' star vehicles (Lulu, Cilla, Val Doonican).
Also when they were pitching what sounded like X Factor, it was in fact Pop Idol, even though when it was pitched to the ITV exec the question was asked "well you've already got Pop Idol......".
Confusing at times, but still a good show to watch, just a little more care in post production next time.
He was always on Saturday nights in the 90s
I'd forgotten all about Bruce's Big Night..........not that it's the kind of thing I would have watched.
Matthew Kelly is on now.......Game For a Laugh !
I'd forgotten 'Henry Kelly' who was also on that show
Henry Kelly has a show every Saturday on BBC Radio Berkshire and he's awful,the only thing he's interested in is horse racing.He seems to have some sort of speech impediment, he sounds as if he's eating all the time.
Didn't Rolf Harris have an early Saturday evening show as well?
No, they said Popstars. That was the one that just pre-dated Pop Idol.
Really enjoyed the programme, among the most interesting things were seeing glimpses of short-lived pilots like O'Grady's Got Talent (with Fern Britton on the judging panel!) I was surprised though that there was no mention of the early pilot of Blind Date, "It's a Hoot!" hosted by Duncan Norvelle - I believe it was partly his outrageously suggestive take on it that led them to pick Cilla instead, as she was one of the most unthreatening, "unsexual" figures they could think of.
Aahh that explains it then. There was a lot of shows missed, Gladiators for instance.
BBC1 Saturday January 6, 1968:
1715 Tom and Jerry
1725 Dr Who
1750 News
1800 The Monkees
1825 Dee Time with Richard Chamberlain, Beryl Reid
1910 Dixon of Dock Green
1955 The Rolf Harris Show with Georgia Brown
2040 Film: Jet Storm
2205 News with Michael Aspel
2215 Match of the Day with David Coleman
2300 At the Eleventh Hour
2335 Weather, close