First viewed : December 1988
This was ITV's first dedicated overnight programme beginning in 1987 but Granada didn't buy into it until the summer of 1988 by which time some of its campy excesses like the Nicholas Parson game show and Batman repeats had been shaved off. The programme was produced by Jill Sinclair, late of The Tube and was pretty similar in style.
Granada put it on after The Hit Man and Her so I think I only saw a couple of episodes.
The two incidents I remember both occurred in the Video View section where a couple of celebrity guests reviewed a handful of the latest single releases. As per The Gong Show , the guests could bring the song to a premature end if they all voted against it. I recall Kevin Rowland coming on during his first attempt at a solo career and being extremely mellow. They dropped in some children's choir singing a Christmas lyric to the Eastenders theme tune quite obviously to get an early veto but Kev just let it play , nodding his head and seeming to enjoy it to stares of disbelief from the host Steve Allen and the audience .
The other memorable incident occurred when Sandie Shaw and Dieter Meier of Yello were reviewing The Pogues ' Yeah Yeah Yeah ( far from their best single ). Meier was being fairly diplomatic and referred to the video as "going for a sixties vibe" or words to that effect whereupon Shaw cut in with , "It's Ready Steady Go you dickhead !" I don't know if something had passed between them backstage or Sandie was a little sozzled but it was a bit extreme , particularly when you consider the programme may never have been broadcast in Switzerland. Meier took it very calmly, merely raising a debonair eyebrow at her rudeness.
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