170 World Cup 74

First  watched  : June  1974

This  is  the  first  World  Cup  I  remember  although  I  actually  watched  very  little  of  it, perhaps  no  more  than  a  portion  of   one  match  involving  one  of  the  Germanys. It  was  too  nice  outside. My  interest  in  football  was  still  a  few  years  away  from  fully  forming.

What  I  do  recall  is  the  publicity  around  Scotland  qualifying  and  their  chart  hit  "Easy  Easy  "  which  went  "Yabba  Dabba  Doo.  We  support  the  boys  in  blue  because  it's  easy  - easy  !" I  remember  hearing  about  their  elimination  and  not  understanding  how  they  could  be  knocked  out  when  they  hadn't  lost  any  of  their  games ( a  first  for  the  Finals ). Manager  Willie  Ormond  gets  some  stick  for  giving  a  sentimental  last  cap  to  34-year  old  Denis  Law  against  whipping  boys  Zaire ( the  last  African  side  to  look  seriously  out  of  their  depth  at  the  Finals )  but  the  whole  team  took  it  too  easy  and  didn't  press  them  hard  enough. Even  so  Brazil  still  had  to  rely  on  an  awful  error  by  the  Zaire  keeper  to  go  through  at  the  Scots'  expense.

The  other  thing  I  remember  is  all  the  talk  about  the  Dutch  superstar  Johann  Cruyff  who  was  staking  a  good  claim  to  be  the  best  player  in  the  world. Unfortunately  he  was  also  petulant  and  declined  to  play  in  1978. The  Dutch  didn't  qualify  in  1982  so  he  became  a  one  tournament  wonder.

169 The Small World of Samuel Tweet

First  watched : 24  May  1974

Well  here's  another  case  of  memory  playing  tricks : I'd  have  sworn  blind  this  was  on  ITV  and  broadcast  much  earlier,  around  the  time  of  Ace  of  Wands  and  Pardon  My  Genie.

The  Small  World  of  Samuel  Tweet  was  a  vehicle  for  comedian  Freddie  "Parrot  Face"  Davies,  the   grandson  of  a  music  hall  comedian. He   made  his  name  on  Opportunity  Knocks    in  1964  with   a  shaggy  dog  story  about  a  pet  shop  and  was  still  mining  the  scenario  for  laughs  ten  years  later  with  these  two  short  and  never-repeated   series   about   a  pet  shop  owner  with  a  thing  for  birds. Freddie's  gimmicks  were  a  black  Homburg   rammed  as  low  as  he  could  get  it  and  a  splutter  every  few  words. Even  back  then  I  thought  he  was  f**king  awful  and  I  very  much  doubt  the  series  has  aged  well  ( two episodes  at  least  have  survived ).  

Freddie  was  something  of  an  anachronism  even  at  the  time  and  after  the  series  ended  in  1975  he  started  slipping  out  of  view. He  started  moving  into  entertainments  management  while  maintaining  a  presence  on  TV  with  a  semi-regular  spot on  Punchlines.  The  failure  of  his  company  in  the  mid-eighties  forced  him  to  work  for  a  time  on  American cruise  ships.

When  he  returned to  the  UK  in  the  nineties  he  sought  to  re-position  himself  as  a  straight  actor   with  great  success. He  had  regular  roles  in  Harbour  Lights  and  Born  and  Bred . He  appeared  in  the  1995  film  Funny Bones  based  on  his  grandfather  and  in  one  of  the  Harry  Potter  films.

Freddie  published  his  autobiography  last  year and  at  77  is  still  treading  the  boards  as  a  comedian  in  regional  theatres. He  is  by  all  accounts  a  really  nice  guy  so  long  may  he  continue.     

168 Val Meets The VIPs

First  watched  : Uncertain

The  lack  of  any  stills  knocking  about  and  a  very  terse  summary  on  TV  Cream  would  suggest  that  my  own  reaction  to  this   Blue  Peter  spin-off   was  widely  shared. I  thought  it  was  an  unwarranted  intrusion  into  the  children's  TV   schedules  of  adult  material. Blue  Peter's   most   boring  presenter  doing  po-faced  interviews  with  mostly  boring  people  in  front  of  a  bunch  of  swotty-looking  kids  was  an  immediate  invitation  to  change  channels.  Singleton  was  probably  the  first  TV  face  I  actively  hated  and   I  wouldn't  have  included  this  here  except  I'm  pretty  sure  I  would  have  watched  the  Les  Gray ( of  Mud )  edition  broadcast  on  7th  May  1974  even  if  I  can't  remember  anything  about  it.

The  show  ran  for  three  series  of  six  programmes  each  between  1973  and  1974* . It  was  probably  the  high  water  mark  of  Singleton's  career  though  she  was  pretty  active  on  radio  and  TV  for  the  next  two  decades  and  has  always  participated  in  the  various  Blue  Peter  anniversary  programmes. She's  now  78  and  lives  in  Dorset.

* In  1980   her  successor  on  Blue  Peter ,  Lesley  Judd,  hosted  the  very  similar  In  The  Limelight  With  Lesley  but  only  five  programmes  were  made.

167 Look - Mike Yarwood / Mike Yarwood In Persons

First  watched  : 1974

My  mum  loved  this  guy  and  always  sang  his  praises  but  it  was  1974  before  he  was  on  at  a  time  when  we  could  stay  up  and  watch  him.

I  half-enjoyed it  because  I  didn't  know  who  many  of   his  targets  were. I'd never  heard  of  Robin  Day  or  Alf  Garnett  and  only  became  aware  of  the  politicians   in  a  meaningful  way   after  we'd  done  some  work  on  newspapers  at  school  at  the  beginning  of  1976. Like  most  people  watching  I  was  also  exasperated  when  he  broke  the  spell  with  "And  this  is  me"  then  proceeded   to  do  some  variety  club  number  in  his bog  standard  voice, a  bad  guest  on  his  own  show ! Nevertheless  Yarwood  was  insanely  popular  ; his  Christmas  show  in  1977  had  half  the  UK  population  tuning  in  and  set  a   light  entertainment  record  that's  never  likely  to  be  beaten.

Mike  Yarwood's   subsequent  slide  into  obscurity  has  been  much  discussed . He's  still  only  74 yet  has  been  largely  off  screen  for  decades; only  Simon  Dee  stands  out  as  a  more  famous casualty. A  common  explanation  has  it  that  his  decline  started  with  the  rise  of  Margaret Thatcher. I  remember  him  early  on  trying  to  do  her  himself  then  wisely  turning  the  job  over  to  Janet  Brown.  I  don't  think  that  holds  much  water  actually.

Much  more  damaging  was  his  jump   to   ITV  in  1982  where  he  never  got  the  same  ratings   leaving  him  vulnerable  as  a  new  generation  of  satirists  started  to  take  over . They  didn't  want  to  lightly  tease  and  appear  with  the  politicians  like  Mike; they  wanted  to  be  sued by  them. When  Spitting  Image  got  going  in  1984  he  looked  hopelessly  out  of  touch  and it's  no coincidence  his  show  was  cancelled  the  same  year.

By  his  own  admission  Mike  didn't  take  the  decision  well. His  confidence  shredded,  he  took  to  the  bottle  to  control  his  stage  fright . In  1985 his  marriage  broke  up  and  in  1986  he  was  banned  from  driving  for  being  three  times  over  the  limit. In  1990  he  had  a  heart  attack  and  was  forced  to  become  teetotal. He  entertained  hopes  of  a  comeback  and  perfected  a John  Major  impersonation  but  now  he  was  up  against  Rory  Bremner  and  faced  the  same  problem  as  all  older  impressionists - young  guys  can  impersonate  their  elders  convincingly  but it  doesn't  work  the  other  way  round. He  was simply  too  old  to  do  Tony Blair.

In  the early  nineties  he  retired  from  stage  work  to  spend  more  time  with  his  family and  contented  himself  with  odd  guest appearances  on  TV  e.g  Have  I  Got  News  For  You  . Although  he  was  treated  at  The  Priory  for  depression  in  1999  he's  generally  been  able  to  discuss   his  rise  and  fall  in  a  good  humoured  way  on  nostalgia  shows  and  will  always  be  fondly  remembered  by  people my  age  and  beyond.  
   

166 It's A Knockout

First  watched  : Uncertain

I  might  have  caught  this  earlier   but  it  was  Friday  evenings  from  May  1974  when  I  started  watching  it  regularly.

It's  A  Knockout  was  a  strange  show  for  the  BBC  to  be  broadcasting    and  it  was  probably  the  fact  that  it  was  an  international  competition  like  the  Eurovision  Song  Contest  that  persuaded  the  bosses  to  give  it  the  go  ahead. It  had  been  running  since  1966  and  the  basic  premise  was  that  teams  of  ordinary,  but  reasonably  fit,  people  would  compete  against  each  other  in  silly  games  that  usually  involved  either  dressing  in  ludicrously  impractical  costumes  or  falling  in  giant  inflatable  pools. It  started  off  with  regional  heats  in  Britain  with  teams  from  particular  towns  - I've  no  idea  how  the  selection  process  was  organised-  battling  it  out  and  then  the  winners  went  to  Europe  for  the  international  contest  under  the  title  "Je  Seux  Frontiers".

For  better  or  worse  the  show  is  remembered  for  the  manic  presenting  style  of  compere  Stuart  Hall   whose  laughter  at  the  slapstick   sometimes  sounded  genuinely  deranged. Now  I'm  going  to  put  my  head  over  the  parapet  here  and  say  I  still  have  a  certain  amount  of  sympathy  for  Stuart  Hall. Most  of  the  crimes  he  admitted  to  ( and  let's  not  forget  that  which  puts  him  alone  among  the  celebrity  offenders  )  were  minor   and  the  more  serious  ones  were  committed  within a  close  circle  of  family  friends  in  a  short  time  frame  when  Hall  seems  to  have  had  some  sort  of  mid-life  crisis.  None  were  more  recent  than  1986. He  doesn't  deserve  to  be  bracketed  with  Jimmy  Savile. Yes  he  was foolish  to  make  that  speech  outside  the  court  but  at  the  time  he  was  being  charged  with  a  rape  that  later  got  dropped  and  expecting  a  guy  in  his  mid-eighties  to  exercise  good  judgement  under   such  strain  is  a  big  ask.

Anyhow  I  enjoyed  the  programme  at  the  time  but  gradually  my  interest  fell  away  and  I  wasn't  still  watching  when  it  was  axed  as  a  regular  series  in  1982. Thereafter  it  has  been  periodically  revived  in  one-off  specials  most  notoriously  in  1989  when  the  BBC  ill-advisedly  allowed  failed  paratrooper  Edward  Windsor  to  launch  his  so-called  broadcasting  career  with  a  special  Royal  edition. Even  without  Hall's  damaged  rep,  his  interview,  dressed  as  Henry  VIII  ,with  a  clearly  highly  reluctant  Princess  Anne  would  stand  out  as  a  buttock-clenching  embarrassment. And  of  course  Edward's  flouncing  out  when  reporters  failed  to  hail  him  as  the  new  Lew  Grade  for  reviving  a  camp  old  favourite  with  his  famous  relatives   has  been  identified  as  a  key  moment  in  the  British  media's  loss  of  deference  towards  the  Royal  Family.

Nevertheless  the  revivals  have  continued  including  a  two  year  run  on  Channel  5  around  Millennium  time  and  a  recent  revival  on the  BBC  in  a  flimsy  disguise  as  Total  Wipeout.      

165 Alias Smith and Jones

First  watched : Uncertain

This  one  first  moved  over  from  BBC2  to  BBC1   at  the  end  of  April  1974  but  I  might  have  caught  it  earlier.  I  do  remember  that  long  before  I  actually  saw  an  episode  of  this  I  was  familiar  with  Ben  Murphy    who  was  never  out  of  the  teen  magazines  my  sister  and  I  were  buying  from  1973  onwards.

There  was  a  not  exactly  good  reason  why  co-star  Pete  Duel  wasn't  featuring. He  had  committed  suicide   ( probably  my  first  introduction  to  the  concept  ) on  New  Year's  Eve  1971. Inevitably  there's  been  silly  speculation  around  it  but  the  facts  seem  pretty  clear. He was  a  pretty  moody  guy  with  a  long  standing  alcohol  problem, couldn't  enjoy  himself  on  set  ( he  and  Murphy  didn't  speak  off  camera )  and  was  getting  depressed  over  the  show's  falling  ratings. After  a  couple  of  drinks  that  evening  he  went  into  his  living  room  and  shot  himself.

The  show  was  based  on  Butch  Cassidy  and  the  Sundance  Kid   ( Murphy  was  cast  for  his  resemblane  to  Paul  Newman  ) with   Smith  and  Jones  the  aliases  of  Hannibal  Heyes  ( Duel ) and  Kid  Curry   ( Murphy )  who  were  outlaws  on  the  run  but  really  just  trying  to  stay  out  of  trouble  until  it  became  politically  possible  for  them  to  be  pardoned. The  drama  came  from  their  interaction  with  the  guest  stars  in  which  ever  town  they  visited - a  formula  also  used  in  The  Incredible  Hulk  and  The  A-Team  to  name  but  two.

Duel's  death  has  cast  a  long  shadow  over  the  series  and  you  rarely  hear  anyone  mention  it  these  days  ( although  it  was  re-run  as  recently  as  1997 ) . Astoundingly,  Universal  contacted  the series ' narrator  Roger  Davis  the  same  day  instructing  him  to  take  over  the  role  and  they  were  re-shooting  scenes  with  the  rest  of  the  cast  before  h'd  even  been  buried.  It  was  more  bad  publicity  for  an  already  struggling  series  and  poor  Davis  had  no  chance. The  show  was  cancelled  at  the  beginning  of  1973.

Murphy  re-surfaced  in  the  short-lived  Gemini  Man    in  1976  and  has  continued  working   down  to  the  present  day  in  TV  but  has  never  recaptured  the  high  profile  he  had  with  this.

164 Lassie's Rescue Rangers

First  watched : 19  April  1974

Well  here's  another  one  dragged  from  the  outer  edge  of  the  memory  banks. I   don't  think  I've  given  this  one  a  second  thought  since  it  was  last  broadcast  nearly  forty  years  ago.

The  series  transplanted  everybody's  favourite  collie to  a  fictitious  national  park  Thunder  Mountain   run  almost  singlehanded  by  the  Persil-white  Turner  family, the  youngest  kid  being  blind  for  an  extra  yuk  factor. Lassie  and  her  motley  band  of   animal  buddies  such  as  Toothless  the  mountain  lion  were  the  Rescue  Rangers  helping  the  Turners   plus  docile  Indian  Gene  Fox  protect  life  and  limb  from  natural  disasters   and  the  usual  tame  criminals.

It  was   the  first  time  I'd  heard  of  Lassie   but  in  America  it  followed  directly  on  from  the  cancellation  of  the  long  -running  live  action  series  and  was  coolly  received  to  say  the  least. Only  15  episodes  were  made . Even  without  that  cross  to  bear  it  was  poor  stuff.  Made  by  Filmation  rather  than  Hanna-Barbera  the  animation  was  cheap  and  repetitive  and  the  scripts  were  tame  and  boring  making  it  very  easy  to  forget.