Thursday 21 July 2016
450 Looking Good Feeling Fit
First viewed : August 1980
For the first two of its four seasons this was a summer replacement for Tomorrow's World and so watched for much the same reason i.e it directly preceded Top of the Pops. It was presented by Richard Stilgoe , musical wit for Nationwide and That's Life, though he presented this in straight fashion alongside Gillian Reynolds ( better known as a critic for the Daily Telegraph ) and a doctor named Mike Smith.
The programme was an early attempt to latch on to the burgeoning interest in personal health maintenance. The first season of four programmes covered broad topics such as diet, stress relief and the beauty industry and talked to ordinary people and expert practitioners. It was fairly humdrum stuff and with Stilgoe on board it was sometimes difficult to tell when Nationwide had finished and this begun.
From the second season onwards there was much more of an emphasis on celebrity guests such as Roger Daltrey, Felicity Kendall , Jimmy Savile ( ahem ) and in the first episode of season two Kate Bush . n a pre-recorded item Stilgoe went down to Pineapple Studios to film her rehearsing an energetic dance routine for the video to Sat In Your Lap. Kate then gave Stilgoe an interview in situ in which she, possibly unintentionally , undermined all the rationale for featuring her on the programme.
RS : You do not have pimples, spots and all the things that the rest of us get if we stay up if we stay out late all night. How do you manage that ?
KB: Well I do . I do get pimples and things but luckily I've found some creams and things that are incredibly good for my skin and I use them morning and night and seem to be OK. But I do get spots, everyone gets spots.
RS : You obviously enjoy yourself and you're obviously very happy . Do you think that is why you're a healthy person ?
KB : I don't think I'm a healthy person. You see I dance because I want to dance not cause I want to keep fit and it's just a sort of side thing that I happen to keep fit at the same time.
Whether she meant to or not she conveyed the impression that Stilgoe had just gone along to gawp at her and tried to find a justification for it afterwards.
Alas the programme was never so interesting again. For the fourth and final season only Smith survived as Sarah Kennedy and Christopher Lillicrap took over presenting duties. The last episode was broadcast on 5 July 1983.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment