17:35 – Sheepy’s opening caption and music.
17:40 – Thames TV morning start-up music.
17:45 – Only When I Laugh – S01E06 – Tangled Web – A sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for ITV, written by Eric Chappell (Rising Damp, Home to Roost). It stars Christopher Strauli as Norman, a rather naive middle-class man who is admitted to a hospital ward and finds that he is sharing it with a working-class layabout called Figgis (James Bolam) and an upper-class hypochondriac called Archie (Peter Bowles). All three of them cause headaches for the hospital staff, led by Richard Wilson with Derrick Branche. This week, Norman is reading ‘Tangled Web’, a hospital romance, when he sees new nurse Sally, who is exactly like the book’s heroine. He is keen to express his feelings for her but finds he has rivals in Archie, Dr Thorpe and Gupte, who are all keen to pursue. First broadcast on Mon 3rd Dec 1979 by ITV. Repeated from Sheepy’s Show #33 – Thu 2023/01/02.
18:10 – Michael Bentine’s Potty Time S03E08 – The Pilgrims / The Blotting-Paper Bomb – a British children’s TV show, written by and starring Michael Bentine, and directed and produced by Leon Thau for Thames Television. This week, the Potty Pilgrims recount their adventures after leaving Plymouth on the April-Flower. But their stirring tales could never equal the excitement of the famous mission of the RAF – a hazardous flight far into enemy territory to drop a Blotting-Paper Bomb. First broadcast on Tue 22nd Feb 1977 by ITV.
18:32 – Come Back Lucy S01E04 – a six-part children’s drama series made by ATV in 1978, based on a 1973 novel by Pamela Sykes. The story centres on a little girl named Lucy who lived with her Aunt Olive in an old Victorian house. Upon the death of her aunt and the subsequent loss of her home, Lucy is welcomed into her cousins’ house though she does not know them very well and has difficulty feeling at home. As time moves on, Lucy is visited by the ghost of a Victorian little girl who wishes for Lucy to become her friend. This week, Lucy is about to tell her family where she has been, but the mysterious Alice prevents her. First broadcast on Mon 14th May 1978 by ITV.
18:56 – Clangers (New CBeebies Version) S01E21 – Baby Soup Clanger – the 2010s reboot of the famous early-1970s Oliver Postgate / Peter Firmin stop-motion children’s television series about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet. This week, Baby Soup Dragon decides he wants to be a Clanger instead of a Soup Dragon. But after a little while, the Clangers are not so sure this is a good idea! First broadcast on Mon 13th Jul 2015 at 5.30pm by CBeebies.
19:07 – Intermission, courtesy of Monty Python.
19:09 – Star Trek (The Original Series) S03E07 – Day of the Dove – This week, both humans and Klingons have been lured to a planet by a formless entity that feeds on hatred and has set about to fashion them into a permanent food supply for itself. First broadcast in the USA on Fri 1st Nov 1968 by NBC.
20:00 – Tales of the Unexpected S02E05 – Poison – a British television series that aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Every episode of series one, eight episodes of series two, and one episode of series three were based on short stories by Roald Dahl, who provided introductions for the first two series. This week, Harry, a young teacher working in India but about to return home, is petrified when a venomous snake creeps into his bed and sits on his belly, keeping him prisoner. How can he escape from its evil glare? First broadcast on Sat 29th March 1980 by ITV. With Saeed Jaffray and Judy Geeson.
20:25 – Special Branch S03E11 – You Won’t Remember Me – After a two-and-a-half-year break (Nov 1970 – Apr 1973) on original transmission, this show returned in a completely revamped form, now made by Euston Films in their first-ever production for Thames TV. It now stars George Sewell as DCI Alan Craven, with support from an on-off combination of Roger Rowland as DS Bill North and Patrick Mower as DCI Tom Haggerty. This week, a recently-engaged couple is placed under heavy surveillance due to the groom-to-be’s international ties. While Craven is skeptical of their guilt, he doggedly purses the case nonetheless. First broadcast on Wed 20th June 1973 by ITV. This episode’s suspect is, amusingly, Michael Latimer, who played Van der Valk’s sidekick Kroon in the first two series (1972-3); indeed, this SB episode actually aired during VdV’s S2 run! It also features an appearance by Tony “Kinvig” Haygarth in one of his earliest roles, and Tony Thawnton in his last.
21:16 – Eurotrash S07E04 – The legendary late-night magazine show starring Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier, exploring unusual and bizarre topics from Europe and around the world. This week, we have French Pig Squealer Champions, Lou De Prijck, Sarah Young, The British are Coming, Romeo Cleaners, Lederhosen Festival, Lolopops, Ysa Ferrer. First broadcast on Fri 4th Oct 1996 by Channel 4.
21:40 – The Persuaders! E08(P16)/24 – Anyone Can Play – A British action comedy television series starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, produced by ITC Entertainment. It was filmed in Britain, France, and Italy between May 1970 and June 1971. The series’ synth-laden theme music was composed by John Barry. The Persuaders are two equally-matched men from different backgrounds who reluctantly team together to solve cases that the police and the courts cannot. This week: with a fail-proof betting system, Danny walks out of a Brighton’s gambling club with a suitcase full of money, but when he is mistaken for a Soviet paymaster, things are bound to get hairy. First broadcast on Fri 5th Nov 1971 by ITV. Featuring Richard “Slartibartfast” Vernon and Ed Devereaux (who played Matt Hammond, the head ranger in the Australian television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo). The DVDs have the episodes in (P)roduction Order, however after some thought and research I’ve decided to show them in their original LWT broadcast order (which matches IMDb & Wikipedia). Some ITV regions varied the date and order (Granada and Anglia, for example, transmitted a day earlier).
22:30 – NEW! – Keep It In The Family S01E01 – Downs and Ups – a British sitcom, made by Thames Television for ITV, that aired for five series between 1980 and 1983. It was about a likeable and mischievous cartoonist, Dudley Rush (played by CABTV favourite Robert Gillespie), his wife Muriel (Pauline “Mrs Reggie Perrin” Yates), and their two daughters, Jacqui and Susan. Eccentric and childlike, Dudley insists on wearing his large lion ventriloquist glove-puppet on his hand whenever he draws the “Barney, the Bionic Bulldog” comic strip. Unhappy about having to spend what he considers valuable time working, he always procrastinates, so he’s always late meeting the strip’s deadlines, which frustrates his long-suffering agent, Duncan Thomas. This week, when the basement flat in the family home becomes vacant, Dudley and Muriel’s daughters, Jacqui and Susan, conspire to move in to it. First broadcast on Mon 7th Jan 1980 by ITV.
22:54 – NEW! – Whoops Apocalypse E01/06 – Road to Jerusalem – a six-part 1982 television sitcom by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, made by London Weekend Television for ITV. The series features a chaotic and increasingly unstable global political situation in which nuclear alerts are accidentally triggered by malfunctioning Space Invaders machines. The naive and highly unpopular Republican U.S. President Johnny Cyclops (an obvious Ronald Reagan parody, played by Barry “Victor” Morse) is advised by an insane right-wing fundamentalist security advisor, called The Deacon (John “CJ” Barron), who claims to have a direct hotline to God. In the Eastern Hemisphere, things are similarly unstable; Soviet Premier Dubienkin (Richard Griffiths) is in fact a series of clones, which keep dying and being replaced. Meanwhile, the deposed Shah of Iran, Shah Massiq Rassim (Bruce “Leonard from Butterflies” Montague), led by his advisor Abdab (David Kelly) who is always blindfolded to avoid looking upon the Shah’s magnificence, is shunted around the world in search of a refuge. The Soviets have a new ally in British Prime Minister Kevin Pork (Peter Jones), a parody of left-wing Labour politicians Michael Foot and Peter Shore. Pork, who has gone insane and believes himself to be Superman, heads an especially left-wing government (a parody of Foot’s Labour Party). The British Foreign Secretary is blackmailed by the Soviets to join the Warsaw Pact. This situation so unnerves the foreign secretary (Geoffrey Palmer, in a role based on David Owen) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Richard Davies) that they also lose their sanity, don Green Lantern and Hawkman costumes, and are locked up in a padded cell at 10 Downing St. This week: it is election year on both sides of the Atlantic, the world is in a state of nuclear jumpiness, US President Johnny Cyclops is as popular as rabies. He realises there is only one option if he is to save the economic stability of the West. First broadcast on Sun 14th Mar 1982 by ITV. Also appearing across the series are Ed Bishop, Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Matt “Alan Tracy” Zimmerman, Ed “Skippy” Devereaux (again!), Stuart Milligan & Carmen Silvera.
23:20 – NEW! – Annika E01/03 – The Beginning – a three-part mini-series from 1984, written and produced by Colin Nutley and Sven-Gösta Holst, made by Central Television for ITV. It tells the story of a romance between Pete, an eighteen year old Isle of Wight deck chair attendant (played by Jesse Birdsall) and a Swedish foreign language student, the titular Annika (played by Christina Rignér). This week: Pete is working another summer as a deck chair attendant in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. His life changes when he meets Annika, a Swedish foreign language student visiting the Island for the summer. First broadcast on Fri 10th Aug 1984 by ITV, which happened to be the day of the infamous Zola Budd / Mary Decker collision at the L.A. Olympics!
00:13 – Closedown music.
00:18 – Closedown.