Everything 80's

Kids TV is always a favourite talking point and I remember a few good ones. We had of course Grange Hill, Blue Peter and the Watch with Mother stuff(Bagpuss, Chigley, Camberwick Green etc) but then there were some others you might remember. One was called Hope and Keen's Crazy Bus. Now this starred comedians Mike Hope and Albie Keen travelling around the country looking for a treasure and being dogged by a sinister Flan-flinger type called The Shadow. Another was a comedy set around a gang of kids-called 'Graham's Gang' and had one girl in it. They got up to all sorts of things including one episode where they decide to make a film and it ends up like Monty Python with things going wrong. I also liked this series because one of the main characters had my name(real name) and you rarely got that name in many programmes for adults let alone children.

For the Children's BBC strand we had various presenters in a 'broom cupboard' or continuity announcer's box where every afternoon they would transform it with pictures and presents and people like Philiip Schofield, Andy Crane, Andy Peters and Debbie Flint(man she looked so hot in those pink woolly jumpers of hers) would introduce each programme, such as cartoons Bucky O' Hare, The Mysterious Cities of Gold which ran for what seemed an eternity and Around the World With Willy Fogg, gaining its own day where Andy Crane dressed up and sang the title tune-very catchy. To think Philip started off like that with a sidekick puppet Edd the Duck and Andy Crane had an inanimate thing called Bobby the Banana. We also had great quizzes like Beat the Teacher-Howard Stableford/Bruno Brookes and Finders Keepers with Richard Stilgoe, but the great Johnny Ball gave us his Think series Think of A Number, Think Backwards and Think Again. Happy Days!

I always liked The Really Wild Show as a kid in the 80s.The original line up I think was Chris Packham,Nicola Davies and the late Terry Nutkins.It wasn't done in a patronising way either so as it was educational and enjoyable for young people interested in the natural world.

I remember that show I think you're right about that line up-whatever happened to Nick Davies? Nutkins had the distinction of being around the original Tarka the Otter with the author of the book giving him an interest in wildlife. He also appeared regularly with Johnny Morris on Animal Magic(oh hello Johnny!) I think in later series Michaela Strachan joined it.

Speaking of Animal Magic-that was a programme I always used to watch because I liked Johnny Morris. He was never patronising and did funny voices for the animals. I remember one show he did at London Zoo taking a camel around it. He also had a very good singing voice and wrote a song for the seal that belonged to Terry Nutkins "Geminee, Gemini" which he performed on one of his shows. I was fishing about for something in a draw and came across a Scholastic book(A book club for schools where you could buy them through a scheme at school- it was called CHIP) called the Animal Magic Quiz Book. Must have had that about 40 years.

I was thinking about another television sci-fi/weird programme called Ace of Wands(maybe late 70's early 80's), about a magician called Tarot(after the cards and Ace of Wands being one of them too) It had a funky theme tune but it didn't last very long.
Finally there was a comedy series about a man Ellis Dale who finds an old lamp and lo and behold conjures up a genie played by Hugh Paddick. It was called Pardon My Genie-anyone remember that or Ace of Wands?

Not sure if I've mentioned this before but does anyone remember around the mid 70's(before Multi-coloured Swap Shop began later) a Saturday morning show called OUTER SPACE? The only things I remember was a story about The Ice Dragon and an Autocat and Motormouse cartoon shown. I've asked about this so many times but no-one seems to remember it.

I don't remember Outa-Space! myself but found this little clip.

https://twitter.com/BriggsNicholas/statu...3501484032

some articles you may find interesting.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1397575/index.html

https://www.tvcream.co.uk/telly/saturday...-mornings/

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/446013/index.html

Ah it would appear I was right but spelt it wrong-great find thanks andy-you're a star mate. interesting that Nicholas Briggs posted that, it says he is the voice of the Daleks-great voice too. Would also seem that some of the programmes I thought were 80's were in fact mid to late 70's instead. Good to know that someone else remembered Outa-Space or however it's spelt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_B...Doctor_Who

Speaking of Doctor Who-the first one I remember watching would have been Jon Pertwee and then Tom Baker(fancy a jelly baby?) who was probably the best one. Some of the storylines were a little far-fetched but the action wasn't bad and of course there was liberal use of the famous BBC Quarry as a substitute for far-off planetry moons. We all feared the Daleks and right up the present they could only really roll about(now they are capable of flight) but probably the most frightening was Davros, the half human, half dalek leader. Some sexy companions helped of course and the introduction of K-9, a dog-like robot.

Another good sci-fi drama(at least I thought it was) was Blakes' Seven. This started late 70's early 80's and it was a group of mercenaries who fought for justice and against tyranny of the government led by the evil but deadly sexy Servalan(the late Jacqueline Pearce) and her minions. Gareth Thomas was very good as Roj Blake and Paul Darrow just genius as Kerr Avon with his irritating portable computer friend, Orac. The Liberator was a Star-Trek-esque ship and then later replaced by a flying door wedge, the Scorpion with a very annoying computer called Slave.

I remember watching a good show called V,it was originally on from 1984-1985 but I watched it on tape in the late 80s.The V stood for Visitors,an reptilian alien race who were staging an invasion of earth.They remade it not long ago but I didn't bother with it.