Shows that people forget or get lost in time

Granada had a few local shows that have stuck in my memory. They sometimes followed the Saturday morning kids shows with (what I presume were) local shows aimed at the same sort of audience. I remember a cookery show called Flantastic, and a science show presented by (whisper it) Fred Talbot, both I think were live and had a studio audience.

We also had Something For The Weekend on a Friday evening at 6.30pm, which I think was previously a part of Granada Tonight that was spun off into a show in its own right. I think it was a combination of live music and local events listings, and possibly came from the Albert Dock.

Speaking of regional music shows, does anyone remember the Tyne Tees show The Roxy?

Carnal Knowledge. Graham Norton's TV debut, which Cher once saw on late night TV and tried to buy the rights for America.

There was a 1980s game show on STV called Split Second, hosted by Paul Coia. Contestants, from memory, in the early rounds, could choose a easy, moderate, or hard question. Whether the challenge version was the same format, I have no idea.

Another one from STV, but also a separate version made by and shown only by Granada, "The Business Game".

Anyone remember Giggly Bits on CITV during the 90s? It was essentially a sketch/jokes show.

Whittle's been repeated on Challenge in recent years, so not entirely forgotten.

No, a different format. The STV gameshow was based on an American format whereas I believe the Action Time version was original.

Ah, yes good point, it was Mark and Lard's Pop Upstairs/Downstairs that was on UK Play.

100% was pretty good, until that guy (forget his name now) kept winning every single episode for months. The set below is the later one. The voiceover question master was of course ex-newsreader Robin Houston.

Try watching French game shows, some of which are designed to have the same winner for months on end.

According to UKGameshows.com it was Ian from Hemel Hempstead. They had to change the rules of the show as he won 75 in a row.

Another earlyish C5 quiz was One to Win (which was basically the Going for Gold) hasn't been repeated on Challenge as far as I know. The original host was pretty useless, often stumbling over the questions, and had a strange sense of humour, even making jokes about masturbation. He was replaced part-way through the run by, I think, Robin Houston.

Dr Rob Buckman, former presenter of Where There's Life and TV's second go-to light-hearted doctor in the eighties after Graeme Garden.



It did, because I remember that when This Morning moved to London, there was a bit in Broadcast where Granada said not to worry because they would still be using the Albert Dock for things, like Something For The Weekend, as if a half hour local show would be a suitable replacement for ten hours a week of network television. That was in the 6.30 slot Granada had in 1997 in the brief period where they had Home and Away at 5.10 and Granada Tonight at six - which I know some regions always did but Granada hadn't previously - and before they extended Granada Tonight to an hour. Other programmes in that slot included Girls Who Shop presented by Trinny and Susannah, and Schools Challenge, which was exactly the same as University Challenge on the same set, and presented by Mark Radcliffe, while he was doing the Radio 1 breakfast show! And they said he was too low profile!



And one of those odd shows that crossed channels, because it started as a one-off for Channel Four as part of a sex-themed evening of programmes in 1995, but they didn't want to do anything else with it, before ITV commissioned it for a million episodes at two in the morning. That was part of the radical revamp of ITV night time in 1996 when all the old shows like James Whale and The Little Picture Show were axed, replaced by a load of new programmes like God's Gift and Hotel Babylon and so on, and famously YTV dropped them all pretty sharpish for being too rude.



Who also did the myriad spin-offs including 100% Sex. Never been more embarrassed for anyone than listening to Robin Houston reading out questions about dildoes.