CITV Memories – The Disney Club.

The Disney Club (CITV, 1989-1992, GMTV, 1993-1998)

I’ve reviewed lots of children’s TV shows on this blog, but I’m fairly sure that I haven’t done this one yet. A while ago I shared some of my memories of Saturday morning shows on CBBC and CITV. But of course, there were also a few shows that were shown on Sunday Mornings. Some of these were spin-offs to compliment the main Saturday show including Motormouth, but this one was exclusive to Sundays.

The Disney Club was a format that was sold around the world including several countries in Europe, and the British version launched in 1989. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the show was mainly based around showing cartoons that were made by Disney. I didn’t watch this show as regularly as the Saturday ones, but in the late-80s and early-90s when there were very little else happening on TV at that time of the week, it always came across as a fun piece of entertainment. 

Although I was always more fond of the cartoons made by Warner Brothers, the Disney cartoons I did like that were shown on CITV and The Disney Club over the years include Chip ‘N’ Dale, Duck Tales, and Tale Spin (and I plan to review those all separately too), and along with the occasional Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoon, I enjoyed the Goofy ones too. 

Among the presenters of The Disney Club were Andrea Boardman, John Eccleston, Paul Hendy, Gordon Inglis, and Richard Orford. And after leaving the show, some of the hosts went on to present further shows including The Big Breakfast and Wheel Of Fortune. And despite the title, I don’t think that there actually was a club that people could join, well if there was, I never did. 

And of course, another great thing about the show was that among the features was an opportunity for all the big pop stars to turn up and perform their latest singles. And having a look online at some various clips made me realise that a few acts I am fond of appeared (usually accompanied by a big crowd of shrieking children), and any chance to see the likes of Betty Boo and Fuzzbox appear on TV in those days was welcome. 

The Disney Club ran for almost a decade, and there were a few format changes in the later series, including moving to GMTV in 1993 as part of their Sunday morning schedule (there was also a show called Saturday Disney on GMTV at this time but I think it was unrelated). The show did turn up on Saturdays once or twice though, when the hosts introduced some Disney films as an alternative to The FA Cup Final that was being shown on BBC1 at the same time. Finally, I think the last series was renamed Disney Club TV, but I had stopped watching by then.

Advertisement