Been thinking about some old TV personalities from the past. Not mega exciting but they popped into my head. Do you remember them?
Dr. Miriam Stoppard - the thinking man's totty. Dr. Miriam was on TV all the time in the 80's and when our daughter was born we bought her book on childbirth and child development.
Michael Wood - maybe another Dr. but certainly a TV historian. With his cords and long hair, his 80's TV series about the Dark Ages was brilliant. We went out and bought the book!
Jenny Hanley - A Blue peter presenter who came after the holy trinity of Noakes, Singleton and Purves. She had starred in hammer vampire films before that!
Harry Worth - a quiet funny man from the Seventies, he always had a hat on. I think his trademark move was a reflected snow angel in a shop window.
Ian Ogilvy - one of the Seventies golden boys of British movies, my favourite flicks of his are The Sorcerers and the amazing Witchfinder General.
Anita Harris - I can't recall her songs at all but I know I was sort of in love with Anita. She had one of those beauty spots like Lyndsey de Paul.
The test card girl - this long-haired lass popped up on the test card when TV ended each day around 12pm. She was followed by a high pitch peep meant to wake you up if you'd nodded off in front of the telly!
Mystery - there was a late night 70's comedy about a young guy who worked in an office. He was a sort of bungler. The name Hywel is in my mind but not sure why.
Can you think of any old TV people you want to bring up?
Was the comedy 'Shelley', starring Hywel Bennett?
ReplyDeleteBang on. Ta Kev!
DeleteHow about Nigel Kneales ‘Kinvig’ comedy series. Wasn’t Jenny Hanley on Magpie? Ian Ogilvy was made famous with Return of the Saint. Miriam Stoppard was a bit of a medical Nigella, she was a big hit with the blokes until she started advocating cooked placenta!
ReplyDeleteNever heard of Kinvig. Soz. Jenny Magpie? if u say so. Don't recall the return of the Saint. I must have missed his return. Doctor Stoppard was a big hit with me too.
DeleteIan Ogilvy did a presentation at a hairdressing seminar,he actually was a guest and the original presenter was sick so he pops on stage and is clearly very drunk and slurring his words, my boss wasn't impressed, Ian did do a very blue routine and was hilariousm
ReplyDeleteAnita Harris has done the Panto across the road from my shop, always the villain, her version of Michael Jackson's Bad is inspired - MJ Southcoast base
ha ha, great Ogilvy story that MJ! I associate him completely with horror. Ah, Anita in Panto. I would have loved it!
DeleteI dont remember anything from Harry Worth other than the opening credits. I know we watched it every time it was on. I remember seeing it in b&w and colour so although the show ran only until 1970, it must have been repeated at some stage (we got our first colour TV in 1971).
ReplyDeleteIt needs to be shown again....
I agree TT. All those gentler TV comics like Harry, Charlie Drake and Marty Feldman should be reshown on mainstream telly. We usually just get the stars like Morecambe and Wide and Les Dawson.
DeleteI saw Anita Harris live in a show at the London Palladium with Tommy Cooper and Clive Dunn, in 1971.
ReplyDeleteAnd I actually shook hands with Harry Worth after a summer show in Bridlington in the mid 60s. He walked down the centre aisle, shaking hands as he went and I happened to be on the end of the row, so got a shake.
Mish.
A Worth handshake! I am impressed Mish! Clive Dunn, wow that's a blast from the past. Didn't he have a sort of fit after every few sentences or am I mistaking him with another comic?
DeleteJohnny Morris, Animal Magic. Arthur Negus, going for a song. Desmond Morris, Zoo Time. Those spring to mind first. Hilda Baker? Arthur Askey? The best comedian, Dave Allen. Billy Cotton
ReplyDeleteAh, Johnny Morris, along with the country guy on How he was God really Khusru! Arthur Negus, wow, the original Antiques Roadshow! Desmond Morris was the TV brain of his generation. Loved Hilda Baker and all those female comics like Hatty Jakes. Arthur Askey always makes me think of a ghostly flick about a train. Dave Allen was my dad's fave TV comic, with his burning ciggy. Billy Cotton I don't know.
DeleteBilly Cotton Band Show was a pleasant sort of show. As the title suggests it was a big band show, Not to be mistaken for The Black and White Minstrels!
DeleteNope. No bells ringing. Is it a Lancastrian thing? My siblings sometimes talk about a comic called Wandering Walter who was a North West character but again I've no recollection. Someone at work mentioned Cleveleys yesterday and my ears pricked up. I spent hours and hours there just outside Blackpool in the Sixties. Just down the road from Preston and my family loved it. It was nice to hear the name again considering I'm in west Yorkshire now!
DeleteActually, Jenny Hanley replaced Susan Stranks on Magpie. As far as I recall, she was never a presenter on Blue Peter.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Kid. I wrote this from memory which is always risky! I need a Google chip inserting!
DeleteThe Return of the Saint was a 1978-79 series that ran for 24 episodes. It was made by ITC. This time Templar had a Jaguar XJS rather than a Volvo P1800. Corgi again produced both regular and Junior sized versions of the car, with the Saint stick-figure on the bonnet. The bigger, 1/36th scale version was re-issued as part of a Corgi series of Star Cars aimed at adult collectors in about the 1990s - several of these came with metal figures of the human stars, and that included a figure of Ian Ogilvy. There was also a 1/25th scale plastic kit by US company Revell.
ReplyDeleteThis site gives a run down of the various Saint cars.
http://www.saint.org/the-saints-car.htm
Thanks for that Paul. I have found a couple of the plastic Sant XJS's at car boot sales over the years. Quite big toys.
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