Tonight’s Granada and Channel 4… in 1985 

25 July 2018 tbs.pm/67101

ITV begin the day at the slightly unusual time of 6.15, as that mid-80s power couple of Ann Diamond & Nick Owen say Good Morning Britain. Honeycombe, Willis et al present and correct. It’s the school summer holidays, so after the 9.25 picture roll and startup, we get a couple of old cartoons and an episode of Gerry Anderson’s Fireball XL5. About Britain follows at 10.00 – a year in the life of the music organiser for Gwent, so presumably Lord Harlech’s minions behind this one.

Crown Green Bowling with Elton Welsby is at 10.30, taking us up to 12.00 and the first Children’s ITV slot of the day – Alfie Atkins and Mooncat entertaining the little ones.

RTÉ serial Glenroe gets an outing at 12.30, before the ever dependable Leonard Parkin brings us the News At One.

A check in on progress in the Crown Green Bowling for an hour, before Roy Hudd and Peter Jones bring us their Movie Memories at 2.30.

We Take The High Road at 3.00, then a quick local news bulletin follows before a chance to see the Neighbours cast before they were famous in The Young Doctors.

Children’s ITV gets its second outing at 4.00 – a repeat of the earlier Alfie Atkins, then Victor And Maria, Inspector Gadget and Dramarama form today’s package.

Now You See It is at 5.15 – apparently this quiz show was shown mostly in Scotland, so presumably a rare foray into Granadaland?

News At 5.45 is followed by social action in This Is Your Right before we are Midland-bound to visit the wobbly sets etc of Crossroads. Granada Reports is at 6.30, then we are off to Emmerdale – still with the “Farm” at this stage.

Paul Newman and James Mason star in The Mackintosh Man – the evening film at 7.35 – when did films stop being shown in prime time?

Seeds Of Hope at 9.30 looks at what has happened in Ethiopia since the famine became world wide news in 1984.

The bongs of News At Ten are followed by US comedy Barney Miller, then at 11.00 Database looks at the problems facing Apple – competition from IBM and Macintosh look-alikes. Something tells me they’ll be OK.

The Jackson Route tells the story of two rival teams of mountaineers before closedown at 12.25 – Not even Music Box to take us through the night in 1985.

So, what of Channel 4? Opening at 2.30 with Barbara Stanwyck film The Miracle Woman, we get to ask What Are The 1985 World Games? at 4.05 – taking a look at some of the lesser known sports represented in the games – one of them – Ttaekwondo – making its Olympic debut in 2000.

Alan Coren and June Whitfield play Television Scrabble before WWI film Three Comrades at 5.00.

Ten minutes of Magic Fluke take us up to Channel Four News at 7.00.

From The Face Of The Earth takes a look at modern medical achievements at 8.00, before comedy with Saeed Jaffrey in Channel Four’s first Asian sitcom, Tandoori Nights.

Jonathan Pryce and Tim Curry star in Film On Four: The Ploughman’s Lunch at 9.30, with a repeat of comedy series Dream Stuffing taking us to closedown at 12.00.

More factual programming, more films and far less reliance on soaps to fill the prime hours – a far cry from today’s schedules.


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1 response to this article

Arthur Nibble 25 July 2018 at 11:02 pm

“Now You See It” was apparently shown in an early afternoon slot by LWT for about three years.

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