Originally Posted by
Pizzatheaction:
“
I've highlighted the ones I watched. I even saw bits of Watchdog and Challenge Anneka in that 1989 schedule. If I remember correctly, that was the Watchdog era where Lynn Faulds Wood banged on about electric kettle flex every week. Streets Apart didn't rate too well in that Monday 8.30pm slot, even though I expect World in Action was on ITV at the same time. I can remember Streets Apart rating at about 7.5m in that series. I can't remember how well the first one rated. I think First of the Summer Wine was a few million behind what Last of the Summer Wine got in the Sunday 7.15pm slot six weeks later.”
I remember Fast Forward magazine having great fun when First of the Summer Wine was replaced by Last of the Summer Wine. We used to love the first series of The Challenge Programme, as Anneka used to call it, especially because they didn't say what the challenge was going to be in the Radio Times - I remember I went away one weekend with the Cubs and my parents taped it and I was devastated when my gran spoilered it. We never liked it so much from series two when they used to bill them in advance. It never seemed quite right on a Saturday night, though I suppose it was the first example of moving away from shiny floor shows to different concepts on Saturdays.
Watchdog's imperial phase as far as I'm concerned was when it was on Mondays at 7.30 with Lynn and John. My dad and I used to watch it in my bedroom while my mum watched Corrie in the living room, and then stay on for Telly Addicts. That was a great double bill, And then when Wogan and Eldorado finished, it was Telly Addicts then Watchdog.
Originally Posted by
RobbieSykes123:
“YouTube is wonderful. Just reminded me that The Two of Us was just ITV's way of getting Rodney the Plonker into one of their sitcoms (lets give him a dopey name like Ashley and have him talk posh rather than Peckham):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiI2ftcYoAs
Also, from a related clip, how naff the theme tune was!”
Yes, and it was a rehash of the theme to The Big Match as well - and also virtually the same as the theme to Alright on the Night too. All the same composers, natch.
Originally Posted by RobbieSykes123:
“Watching was a good laugh - a nice, harmless northern sitcom, with a good cast. The sort of thing Granada always used to do well. It was certainly one of the better ITV sitcoms, and although popular, I don't think it was ever a "hit" as such by standards of the time.”
It was pretty big, Watching, and it was one of those series that used to run for about thirteen episodes at a time and there were some serial aspects, very much like Bread, introducing new characters like the mad mother-in-law. I didn't like it that much, though, and one reason is because I could always "tell" it was a Granada show, the title sequence with the geometric frippery and the bright colours seemed to be such a Granada trademark in the eighties.
Amazing figures, thanks for posting those.