Tonight’s Yorkshire Television… in 1976 

24 January 2018 tbs.pm/14952

‘Tis Saturday 24 January 1976 and Yorkshire Television starts the day with an hour of Adult Education. We cast our rods at 9.30am with Angling Today, followed by Parents Day at 10am.

Fear not though kids, as children’s programmes FINALLY kick in at 10.30am with the rather trashy Hanna-Barbera cartoon comedy, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, the original Family Guy. That’s followed by Pipet & His Friends at 10.55am and then we’re off to meet Uncle Alan Taylor for Flower Stories at 11am. It’s American storybook drama at 11.10am with Daniel Boon followed at midday by music show The Geordie Scene. Nice to see a mix of ITV companies being used this morning: ATV, Granada, HTV West and Tyne Tees.

And, so to the afternoon’s big attraction and World of Sport at 12.30pm, which today includes skiing, racing, football and wrestling. This is followed by the ITN News at 5.15pm and a quick cartoon at 5.25pm.

Onto the evening now and a great mix of programming begins with New Faces at 5.30pm, Fluff Freeman and Lionel Blair prop up the panel this week, with Derek Hobson, as always, on hosting duties. Classic gameshow Celebrity Squares follows at 6.30pm, with one of the campest cast lists I’ve ever seen; John Inman, Danny La Rue, Pat Coombs and Mrs Mills… amazing, Willie Rushton holds his own in the middle square. I do miss Bob Monkhouse! Another guest from that show appears in his own sitcom at 7.15pm, step forward Arthur Mullard in Yus My Dear.

The Big Film at 7.45pm is Tick, Tick, Tick… no, me neither! A crime drama made in 1970. A glorified repeat of Upstairs Downstairs begins at 9.30pm and then, after the news at 10.30pm, it’s up the arts with Aquarius at 10.45pm. We end the evening with the Canadian drama, The Collaborators with Michael Kane (no, not the one on the front cover). An early close for YTV at 12.25am.

As for the ITV variations, the ITV Network only really stays together during World of Sport and then mid evening, everything else is a moveable feast.

ATV starts at 9.15am with Plain Sailing, followed by Parents Day at 9.40am. Then, the mighty Tiswas, still only a regional programme in 1976, brings us up to World of Sport. On the other side of that is the cartoon version of Planet of Apes at 5.25pm. Then, 20 minutes later than Yorkshire, it’s New Faces. Action drama with Lee Majors starring as the Six Million Dollar Man at 6.50pm, brings us up to the film: Hell on Frisco Bay. As YTV until 11.30pm then, it’s Pick of the Week.

ANGLIA starts at 9am with Angling Today, Parents Day at 9.25am and we squeeze a bit of Chess in with Checkmate at 9.50am. Kids TV now at 10.15am with Hammy the Hamster. NOW… at 10.30… Baldmoney, Sneezewort, Dodder and Cloudberry! A cartoon, made by Anglia, based on a book called ‘The Little Grey Men’, about four gnomes… the theme tune for this cartoon was later also used for In Loving Memory starting Thora (not on the eiderdown) Hird. Canadian drama at 10.45am with Adventures in Rainbow Country is followed by Chris Kelly’s Clapperboard at 11.05am and, to top an eventful morning off, Tarzan at 11.30am. As YTV at 12.30pm, as ATV at 5.25pm, New Faces at 6.15pm and Sale of Century at 7.15pm. The Anglia Movie is The Karate Killers at 7.45pm, then as YTV until 11.30pm and is it or is it NOT, Russell Harty.

TYNE TEES Not surprisingly, TTTV stick to most of the YTV schedule, opting out at 10.50am with Paulus The Woodgnome, 11.05am Opportunity (Knocks?) and a touch of Indoor League at midday.


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9 responses to this article

steve brown 24 January 2018 at 12:06 pm

The Alan A Freeman is not Fluff-he was a record producer

steve brown 24 January 2018 at 12:10 pm

Out of the nine celebs playing Celebrity Squares that night,there are only two still alive as I write this

Dave Rhodes 24 January 2018 at 1:25 pm

Enjoyable write-up, Jason.

Just when you think you know everything Alan Taylor did for HTV, along comes ‘Flower Stories’! Truly the Welsh Whiteley when it comes to his range of presenting roles…

‘Opportunity’ on Tyne Tees turns out to be a 5 minute local spot before Daniel Boone. Possibly something to do with apprenticeships/training for youngsters? They already had ‘Where the Jobs Are’ for adults in the Northeast.

Note that Tyne Tees don’t show ‘Geordie Scene’ at 12 noon – presumably they gave it a better slot locally, as one of their own productions.

The Celebrity Squares guest I can’t wrap my head around is Jenny Agutter. Always welcome, but a little incongruous. ATV of course, so likely missing, unless it’s in Bob’s own archive.

That ‘Best of UpDown’ might conceivably be a third chance to see the featured episode – perhaps fans can clarify? IMDB gives the original showing as 13 February 1972.

And how remarkable to see 45 minutes of classical music on ITV – late but not ridiculously so for a Saturday evening. By the way. a scan of the BBC4 schedules for the fortnight from 17/1/18 reveals no classical music whatsoever. Everybody needs a place to think, as someone once said.

Alan Keeling 24 January 2018 at 3:31 pm

11.10 is an ideal Saturday Morning slot for the Daniel Boone TV series based on the legendary character, Fess Parker dons his coonskin cap once again as he did in Disneys mini series Davy Crockett in 1955. This is episode 3 from the series’ second season now filmed in colour by 20th Century Fox TV.

Alan Keeling 24 January 2018 at 3:42 pm

YTV’s final programme on Saturday night is Canadian Crime drama, The Collaborators (1973/74) produced by CBC. We are now onto episode 10 which is the last episode of season 1 with Michael Kane starring as Inspector Brewer. This series was filmed on 16mm film stock.

Arthur Nibble 24 January 2018 at 4:41 pm

Battle of the gnome programmes!

There must have been a change of lead cartoonist for “Wait Till Your Father Gets Home” since the lead titles, as the father has a strange egg shaped lump atop his head in the ‘action footage’.

It’s been a while since we had a cheery / less serious face on the front cover of “TV Times”.

Mark Jeffries 24 January 2018 at 11:34 pm

I’m guessing here that the title sequence was animated by Hanna-Barbera in LA, but the series was farmed out to their just-opened studio in Australia. If the character is not drawn exactly (or within reason) as the model sheet the character designer comes up with, it’s called “off-model.” Even though the animators in Australia spoke English, unlike so many of the Asian studios American TV series were animated in to save money, it would seem that Hanna-Barbera didn’t want the Australians fiddling around with anything, so they did a lot of the pre-production work in America–but they were a, ahem, thrifty studio.

Paul Mason 25 January 2018 at 8:46 pm

Steve Brown- Of the two Celebrity Squares panellists only Jenny Agutter is still working. Of the deceased panellists Arthur Mullard is now like Harris a figure of disgrace having driven his wife to suicide and abused his daughter.

Paul Mason 25 January 2018 at 8:52 pm

Regarding Aquarius Sir Peter Hall died last year at as good an age as Artur Rubinstein.

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