More TV Memories – Transformers.

Transformers (1984-1987)

I think that this is just about the final cartoon that I have to review. Of course there have been a huge amount of cartoons on TV throughout the decades, but I’m fairly sure that I have now shared all of the ones that were highlights for me when I was younger. Transformers was a cartoon that featured a lot of characters who would become famous for being “Robots In Disguise”.

This was a bold piece of fantasy and science-fiction even by the far-fetched standards of 80s cartoons that would go to any length to keep the viewers entertained. The show featured the planet Cybertron, where war has raged for a rather long time, between the various robots that lived there, including the Autobots and the Decepticons. The main ones were Optimus Prime and Megatron, who often fought against each other, alongside many others.

Megatron is of course yet another one of those characters who is convinced that he will take over the universe (he is often heard to say “do as I command!”), and soon those puny humans will have no option but to bow before him! All of these robots also had rather weird voices, along with the ability to transform into various things, including cars, and many other vehicles, in just a few seconds, using the latest technology. Let’s hope they have enough batteries left.

Transformers became more famous that most cartoons for its range of toys, they were very popular and often advertised. I can’t remember if I had any of them myself though, but I’m definitely certain that I would’ve wanted one or two (or five) if I had the chance. There were 98 episodes of the original version of Transformers in four series.

Rather surprisingly, I don’t think that Transformers was ever shown on CBBC or CITV, the only place that you would’ve regularly seen the show in this country in the 80s was on TV-am, usually at the weekend as part of their children’s programming including Wide Awake Club. And there were also plenty of references to the show in Family Guy, I’m sure they were thrilled.

Beyond the toys, there has been plenty of other merchandise, including computer games, and there have been many more cartoon series and films right up to the present, although the original version will always mean the most to me. Lots of episodes have been released on VHS and DVD too. It is remarkable to think that for about the price of a VHS that would’ve contained only two or three episodes in the 80s, you can now buy the whole series on DVD, how things have changed.

CBBC Memories – Roland Rat The Series.

Roland Rat The Series (BBC1, 1986, CBBC, 1988)

I know that I have written a lot about the history of TV-am, but I really do find it rather interesting. They very quickly discovered that having to produce almost 3½ hours of TV a day at a time when there weren’t going to be a huge amount of people watching was not that easy. Incredibly, the rather highbrow agenda just wasn’t attracting people.

Then, about two months after the launch when TV-am was in real trouble, a puppet character was introduced, and suddenly their fortunes began to turn around thanks to an unexpected source. Roland Rat was famously described as “the only rat to join a sinking ship”, and suddenly he was everywhere, not just in the children’s programming, but it’s almost a surprise that he wasn’t conducting the political interviews too.

After a short while this self-styled “Superstar” was a big name on TV, to the point that he even had some hit singles and appeared on Top Of The Pops, and TV-am’s ratings were soon returning to something decent. He had achieved a huge amount of “ratfans”, and was the highest-paid rat on TV. In 1985, he caused a stir when he defected to the BBC, and starred in a few more shows, and this is the one that I have picked out to review.

Roland Rat The Series was a Saturday evening show that was supposed to be shown on BBC3, many years before that channel actually existed, and Roland arrived at the Ratcave studio in his Ratmobile. Roland starred in various sketches, including a parody of EastEnders, and he always showed off his attitude. Roland would also be joined by a few of his good furry friends including Kevin The Gerbil and Errol The Hamster.

There were also some celebrity guests who didn’t mind taking second place to Roland, including Colin Baker in character as Doctor Who, and Chris Tarrant. Some pop groups also appeared to perform their latest single, including The Communards and Curiosity Killed The Cat. There were two series (the second was on CBBC as Roland Rat The Series II), and the highlights were released on an hour-long VHS.

Along with the TV shows and hit singles, there was also plenty of other merchandise including computer games. Roland do go on to feature on a few other shows including the CBBC game show Roland’s Rat Race, but by the early-90s he was starting to fall out of favour a little, and he wasn’t seen much on TV for a while, until he made a comeback about a decade later with a new series on Channel 5 called LA Rat, and he now lives in a solid gold mansion in Hollywood.

More TV Memories – Dappledown Farm.

Dappledown Farm (TV-am, 1990-1992, Channel 5, 1997-1999)

This is just about the final children’s show that I want to review that was shown in a breakfast slot. I remember that this one was shown at the weekend on TV-am, and it was rather an area of calm compared to the much more fast-moving and noisy shows that also featured in the strand that I enjoyed including Wide Awake Club and Top Banana.

Dappledown Farm, was, as the title suggests, set on a farm. Well, it said it was, it looked suspiciously more like it was a TV studio with a set made out of cardboard to me. Now I didn’t live anywhere near a farm at the time (and I still don’t now), so this show was a chance to find out more about the various animals that lived there, what they did, and what noises they made!

The show was helped out by being hosted by Brian Cant, someone who was a veteran of children’s TV by this point, who of course presented many other memorable shows over the years including Play School and Bric-A-Brac, so it was rather clear that this was going to be good. Also in the studio (I mean farm), there were various animals, but they were all puppets.

They included Dapple the horse, Mabel the cow, Columbus the cockerel, and Stubble and Straw, a pair of mice who were just great. There were also some features including meeting some animals, as Brian took the opportunity to tell as more about happens on a real farm. There would also be stories told that were accompanied by illustrations, and viewers could also send in their pictures. Most of them seemed to come from viewers about five or six years old, which gives you an idea of the age group the show was aimed at.

We were also shown how to make things. This led to the show having an unexpected moment of exposure on It’ll Be Alright On The Night, when Brian’s attempt to make a dinosaur went all wrong, much to the upset of the mice. Brian realised at that point that never mind the old saying that you should never work with children or animals, you should never work with toilet rolls either. Well any publicity is good publicity I suppose.

Dappledown Farm did well enough for there to be some highlights released on two tapes. Then, rather curiously, about five years after it had originally ended on TV-am, the show returned on Channel 5 as part of the early-morning Milkshake! strand. It seems that these were new shows, meaning that Brian was back, all of the puppets had to be dusted off, and it picked up where it left off really.

More TV Memories – Wacaday.

Wacaday (TV-am, 1985-1992)

A while ago I took a look back at some of the children’s programming strands on TV-am. There were plenty of enjoyable shows over the years, including Data Run, Top Banana, and TV Mayhem. But what was arguably the most popular of these shows was Wacaday, a spin-off from The Wide Awake Club that was shown live during the summer holidays and half-term.

One of the reasons that Wacaday became a success with viewers was because of the rather enthusiastic presenter Timmy Mallett (although even he was rather mild-mannered compared to Dick And Dom!). Cast your mind back to squllions of yonks ago when Timmy started out on local radio, before joining TV-am in its early days. His fashion style was two hats, big glasses, horrible shirts, and along with his high-pitched voice, he definitely didn’t mind making himself look daft for the TV.

Wacaday (usually about 35 minutes long and described as “the show your TV was made for”) was fast-moving and contained lots of features (Timmy was occasionally joined by co-host Michaela Strachan) that were much enjoyed by an excitable crowd. Timmy would often have his friend Magic The Cockatiel along with him. Timmy would also travel the world and tell stories in various countries, viewers could send in their pictures and photos or play competitions on the phone for prizes, and there was even the odd cartoon.

But the most-remembered feature was Mallett’s Mallet. This was where two children would play a word-association game, and if they gave a wrong answer, he would hit them on the head with his big mallet (and there was the appropriate silly sound effect), although this was later changed to banging buttons on a machine. The winner would get a prize of a plaster, along with a bonus prize for saying the magic word, how terrific. There would also be a smaller puppet mallet called Pinky who would often ask Timmy silly questions.

All of this became very popular, to the point that Timmy got his own CITV show that ran around the same time called Utterly Brilliant (one of his many catchphrases), and, oh yes, in 1990, he had a chart-topping single with his unique take on “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polkadot Bikini” (accompanied by a dance lots of people were briefly doing). It may have been ridiculous, but how many other children’s TV presenters can boast that they achieved that?

Wacaday continued to be a popular show until it came to an end in 1992 after TV-am lost its licence, and Timmy hasn’t been seen on TV a huge amount since (it seems that in more recent years he has had some success as an artist), but there’s no doubt that the show was always very exciting to watch in the morning inbetween the endless adverts for Lego and Frosties.

The YouTube Files – Data Run.

Data Run (TV-am, 1983-1984)

If you are a regular visitor you should know that I have been fond of a lot of the children’s programming that was shown by TV-am in the 80s and 90s, I definitely found some of what they had to offer as enjoyable as CBBC and CITV’s shows. This is a show that I don’t remember from the time though, but having a look on YouTube at some clips made me feel that it is worth featuring here.

The original format of TV-am with its “mission to explain” for breakfast viewers disintegrated about six seconds after it came on air in February 1983. After that there had to be a huge rethink as ratings plummeted compared to what the BBC was offering. One of the earliest shows for younger viewers on TV-am was Data Run, which was shown on Saturdays from 8:40-9:25am. How would it compare to my favourites including Top Banana and TV Mayhem? 

Data Run began with an eye-hurting opening sequence, accompanied by the theme music from pop group Yazoo (featuring Vince Clarke who also made the mid-90s Top Of The Pops theme). The host was Edwina Lawrie (the sister of chart-topping singer Lulu) who logged in at the start of the show and had a rather thick Scottish accent. Her co-host was Edwin The Computer, who had a suitable robot-style voice and the usual beeping noises. 

Features on the show included Dance Data, Disc Data (with the Top Ten hit singles), File Of The Fantastic, competitions for prizes, and there would be the occasional cartoon shown too. Data Run also featured lots of interviews with pop stars who had to get out of bed too early to appear, and as it was shown during the early-80s era when British pop music was considered to be at its creative peak, Edwina had the honour of meeting lots of still fondly-remembered acts including Depeche Mode, Kajagoogoo, Spandau Ballet, The Thompson Twins, and so on. They would also be asked questions by viewers. 

There was also a spin-off called Summer Run, which was just about the same format, and it was hosted by Timmy Mallett. Now this surprised me a little as I thought that he didn’t join TV-am until a couple of years later when Wacaday launched, but it seems that he was one of the few people that was a presenter for just about the whole of their few months short of a decade on air. 

Data Run came to an end though in 1984 when it was cancelled and replaced by the much longer-running The Wide Awake Club with Tommy Boyd and co. Having looked at some of the show online I’m sure I would’ve watched it if I was old enough, and I also enjoyed the endless toy adverts shown during the breaks. It doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry though. Edwin The Computer’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

The YouTube Files – A Morning With TV-am.

A Morning With TV-am (TV-am, 1988)

After some of my recent pieces looking back at TV adverts were successful, I thought that I would do another one. I was pleased to find a full edition of TV-am on YouTube courtesy of Gavin Martin, and it was recorded on 16 November 1988. This piece will concentrate on the adverts that were shown, but there will also be some comments about a few other things that are notable.

The first few years of TV-am were rather traumatic as has been well documented, with many struggles to fill advert breaks in the early days, but they were in a much better situation by this point after almost six years on air, the format had settled down. TV-am begins at 6am and the first hour is The Morning Programme featuring the latest news, sport, business and so on. 

The first break is at about 6:16am (I was never very good at being able to tell the time by TV-am’s onscreen clock) featuring only a couple of adverts, but there is a rather odd one for Wisdom toothbrushes. The next break is at about 6:40am and features one of the highlights from this video, an advert that I remember for the Early Learning Centre featuring a rather odd talking doll. 

The next break includes Ross (a lot of these adverts seem to be voiced by Chris Tarrant), Thomson with Cilla Black, Sellotape’s special crystals, a bowlful of Corn Flakes and the excitement of Rolo which has one extra free. At 7am we go into the second hour and the start of Good Morning Britain which is the main segment of TV-am and features Mike Morris among the hosts. 

Following Gyles Brandreth’s postbag and Huckleberry Hound, the next break is at about 7:30am, and features lots of adverts for children’s toys. I don’t think it was half-term, maybe the Christmas rush was about to begin. The only trail during TV-am for a programme coming later on ITV is for Des O’Connor Tonight with guests including the chart-topping Five Star and Les Dennis. 

Then after yet another news update, adverts include the Bed Bugs board game (I think I had that one), Commodore Amiga, Tyco Super Dough and Transformers. The celebrity guest being interviewed on the sofa that day was the singer Tiffany. Then there are more toy adverts including Super Cup Football (I want one for Christmas!), McDonald’s, Perfection (this one looks like it’s from about ten years earlier), Baby Secrets, Yawnies, Hobby Girl… well there are definitely no sale adverts shown endlessly here. 

The first break after 8am brings us more even toy adverts including Fisher-Price and Grand Prix racing (it’s faster than the real thing), I am starting to think that this is a children’s channel. Then there are even more for Nosy Bears, Mr Chimney Pot (whatever that was), Ghost Castle (another board game that I’m fairly sure I had), Cup Final, Spirograph, Tuneyville Choo-Choo, Tesco (even they’re promoting toys), and squeezed inbetween all of this is another weather update. 

Then we have a rather rare non-toy one for McCain’s Moon Waffles, tasty. We are now past 9am an into the final segment of the morning which is After Nine. Just a couple of short breaks here featuring cheese and one last lot of toys before it’s exercise time with Lizzie. And with that weird eggcup copyright picture, that’s the end for another day. 

More TV Memories – The Wide Awake Club.

The Wide Awake Club (TV-am, 1984-1990)

This is a show that I only vaguely remember watching at the time, but it definitely deserves a review. Throughout its just short of a decade on air, TV-am produced a lot of children’s programming, especially at the weekend. And in 1984 after trying a few different formats out a new live show for early Saturday mornings was launched called The Wide Awake Club.

Presenters originally included James Baker, Arabella Warner, and Tommy Boyd, someone whose TV and radio work I have enjoyed over the years, and along with TV-am he was also a presenter on CITV for about 15 years, including Magpie in the late-70s, What’s Happening in the mid-80s, and many others. There would be lots of features on the show, including the usual mix of studio guests, cartoons and competitions. 

In the early years features included Ghosts, Monsters, And Legends, WAC Snax, and Bonk ‘N’ Boob, which was a spelling competition, honest. Among the shows was Flipper (I don’t know if the story that an episode was once shown backwards and nobody noticed is true though). The show was popular enough for there to be an actual club and you could send off an SAE to join, and some annuals were released too. 

One of my favourite features on The Wide Awake Club was when musical guests took part, and they would often be asked silly questions that were chosen at random from a choice of playing cards. You should know by now that I do enjoy seeing mid-80s pop stars on these type of shows, and it was good seeing the likes of Fuzzbox, Strawberry Switchblade and Swing Out Sister being interviewed by Tommy, I hope that he enjoyed meeting them. I’d like to see a complete list of all the groups that appeared. 

As the years progressed, there were a few new features introduced including a parody called The Fast Asleep Club featuring a young Mike Myers who I’m sure will go far. Around 1987 episodes of Batman and the great cartoon Jem were shown (the only other place I think Jem was shown on British TV was on UK Gold around 1993). Timmy Mallett and Michaela Strachan had also joined the presenting lineup by this point. 

In 1989 there was a name change to Wideawake, but the format stayed mostly the same, with new cartoons including The Shoe People and Galaxy High, along with more features. There was then another name change to WAC ’90, plus even more cartoons including Alvin And The Chipmunks, along with the features The Wac Wac Game, Club Call, and the excitement of Singing In The Shower (there was also a spin-off shown on Sundays called WAC Extra). 

There another also a spin-off shown during the school holidays called Wacaday with Timmy Mallett, I thought that was utterly brilliant and I’ll review that soon. In 1990 after about five years the show finally came to an end and was replaced by various others including Top Banana, TV Mayhem, and Hey Hey It’s Saturday! I enjoyed all these shows, they were definitely worth getting up at a ludicrously early time for.

More TV Memories – Jem.

Jem (1985-1988)

This is a show that I have wanted to write about on here for a long time, but my memory of watching it is just too vague, so I was very pleased when I discovered that it had been released on DVD. In recent months I have written about various quirky female pop stars with strange hairstyles from the 1980s that I have enjoyed, when I remembered that there was yet another singer who perfectly fitted that description… and this time they’re animated!

Jem is a cartoon that was launched in 1985 and starred a young lady called Jerrica Benton. After the death of her parents, she inherited their music company Starlight, and also their foster home for orphaned girls. Jerrica has a special pair of earrings that are connected to a computer called Synergy (“the ultimate audio/visual entertainment synthesizer”), and when she says “showtime, Synergy!” into them (one of the show’s catchphrases), she is transformed into her pink-haired pop star alter-ego Jem (Jerrica’s mother Jacqui was also a successful singer in the 70s). 

Jem is the frontwoman of a pop group called The Holograms and only her bandmates are aware that she is both Jerrica and Jem. They are Jerrica’s younger sister Kimber (who also has the show’s other famous catchphrase “truly outrageous!”), along with Aja and Shana (who are later joined by a fifth member Raya). Jerrica also has a boyfriend called Rio who isn’t aware of her double life, and he soon falls for both Jerrica and Jem, not realising that they are the same person, meaning that he is in a love triangle featuring only two people. And you thought Gary Sparrow had it bad. 

Also featuring are a band called The Misfits, who have slightly more of an edge to their sound and they often compete with The Holograms to be the most successful. They also have a very distinctive look and are a trio consisting of Pizzazz, Roxy and Stormer (who are later joined by a fourth member, the English-born Jetta, and in a terrific piece of useless TV trivia, Jetta was voiced by the daughter of crooner Engelbert Humperdinck), and along with their boss Eric Raymond they are convinced that they are the best band around. 

As the episodes progress we see what life is like for Jem (who had a different actress provide her speaking voice and her singing voice), and it is rather glamorous, as we see her do things like work on her songs, appear on TV shows and radio stations, star on the cover of magazines, attend award ceremonies, make music videos, and perform at concerts and festivals around the world. You really could say that she’s lived the life of an international pop star. 

We also meet a few other characters along the way including The Misfits’ biggest fan Clash who is always trying to become a member herself, Jerrica’s friend Danse, the TV presenter Lindsey, and many others. And of course, there is always a big cliffhanger conveniently placed just before the advert break (the breakbumpers have been left in on the DVD), but Synergy usually comes to the rescue just in time. 

A lot of songs are also performed, and about 150 of them (all about a minute long) were specially written for the show, accompanied by a stylish music video. By the third series a third group was added to the show. They were The Stingers, who featured a male lead singer called Riot, accompanied by the German-born Minx and Rapture, and Riot would also fall for Jem, but he was more in love with himself than anyone else seemingly. 

I couldn’t remember if Jem was shown on CBBC or CITV in this country, but it must have been shown on some children’s TV show, and doing a little more research it seems that it was actually shown on TV-am’s Saturday Morning show The Wide Awake Club that was hosted by Tommy Boyd for a while around the 1987/1988 mark, so if I did see it anywhere on TV, it must have been there. 

Jem was popular enough for there to be a lot of merchandise released, including dolls of all the main characters that were usually accompanied by an audio cassette of some of their songs from the show, and various episodes were released on VHS. It seems that there was also a short-lived comic of Jem published in this country around 1986/1987, featuring strips along with features about the big pop groups around at the time including Five Star! 

Jem was cancelled in 1988 after three series and I was pleased to discover that all 65 episodes have been released in a DVD boxset over ten discs. There are no extras as such (it seems that the American DVD release did come with an 11th disc of special features) but a small amount of episodes end with the equivalent of a Public Information Film so make sure you always do as Jem says. 

In more recent years, there was a brief revival in the popularity of Jem when in 2015 a live-action film was made to try and bring the show to a new generation. I haven’t seen it myself but just about all the reviews have said that it was terrible and not like the 80s cartoon version at all, and it is best forgotten, being an unsatisfactory addition to the story. However, it was great to finally see all the episodes of this show, there’s no doubt that Jem really is a chart-topping star.

The YouTube Files – The Polkadot World Of Strawberry Switchblade.

After having a look back at the careers of Shakespear’s Sister and Danielle Dax, I wondered if there were any more charismatic female singers with a distinctive look who made some unusual songs in the 1980s. I then remembered that there was a group who I felt fitted that description who turned out to be one of the more extreme examples of how quickly fame can come and go.

Strawberry Switchblade were a female duo who consisted of Rose “the black-haired one” McDowall and Jill “the red-haired one” Bryson who were both born in Glasgow in 1959 and 1961 respectively. They both had an interest in punk music in the late-70s and formed the group in 1981. They wrote their own songs and had some of their earliest exposure in 1982 when they recorded some sessions for various BBC Radio 1 programmes, and their first single “Trees And Flowers” was released in July 1983. It wasn’t a hit but it was well received. Around this time they also moved to Muswell Hill in London. It wasn’t until their next single was released a year later that there started to be a buzz around them. This piece will look back at their various TV appearances and music videos on YouTube because it’s a story worth telling. 

The decision was made to give their new single “Since Yesterday” which had been released in October 1984 to a quiet reception a big promotional push, and this started when in December 1984 they appeared on the cover of fortnightly music magazine Smash Hits for the first and only time. This was something of a surprise because also in this issue there was a behind-the-scenes article on Band Aid, and the fact that the pop music exclusive of the decade was passed over for the cover in favour of an almost unknown band does seem something of a curious editorial decision. It did give them a boost though, little did these self-described “scabby witches from Scotland” know that 1985 would be their year, they wouldn’t be unknown for much longer. 

“Since Yesterday” eventually peaked at No. 5 in its 11th week on the chart and in January 1985 they made two appearances on Top Of The Pops. Unfortunately, both of these editions have been “Smithed” so it seems that they won’t be repeated and viewers will miss the chance to see their three minutes of fame on TV again, although these performances have been shown in more recent years on TOTP2 and the Goth At The BBC compilation. 

They were now famous and suddenly they were everywhere, being interviewed on various TV shows including The Paul Coia Show, TV-am’s Wide Awake Club, BBC Breakfast Time, and many others, and also frequently performing this song, including one where they seemed to be stood on a snooker table for some reason. Also around this time they featured in various other music magazines including NME and Melody Maker, plus Lookin and Jackie. 

I was only 18 months old when “Since Yesterday” made the Top Ten, my first memory of seeing the video was a while ago on The Hits Video, a VHS that was released in 1985 which featured 23 music videos of the biggest hits of the year, Hits being a rival to the Now compilation series at the time. The video has also had about two million views on YouTube so clearly some people out there remember them. Of course, I do have to refer to their famous look. They both had rather long hair with multicoloured bows in it along with heavy makeup and lots of fancy jewellery, and they both wore polkadot dresses. You certainly couldn’t mistake them for anyone else, and their music stood out just as much. Because I enjoyed this song, I thought it would be a good idea to find out more about them and was I pleased to discover that I liked their subsequent singles. 

How could they follow the success of “Since Yesterday”? In March 1985, the next single “Let Her Go” was released. In the same month they appeared on the cover of weekly music magazine No. 1. Although it was seen by some as simply “Since Yesterday Part Two”, this was another good one with a fun video. They also performed this on CBBC’s Saturday SuperStore, but it reached just No. 59 on the chart. In April 1985, their self-titled debut album was released which reached No. 25. 

In May 1985 the next single “Who Knows What Love Is” was released, which was a ballad with a nice video where the ladies were featured in a strange dreamy world. They performed this song on various shows, they were also interviewed on CBBC’s The Saturday Picture Show, and they even appeared as contestants on Sandi Toksvig’s Sandwich Quiz on CITV’s No. 73! However, this song reached a rather low No. 84 on the chart. 

In September 1985 there was still hope that they would have another big hit when their next single “Jolene” was released. This was a cover of the Dolly Parton song. Now I must admit that Country music isn’t one of my favourite musical genres, but this electropop reworking was much more to my taste, and this was accompanied by a video that was made in Paris. They also performed this song on Channel 4 music show Bliss, CBBC’s Cheggers Plays Pop and BBC1’s Pebble Mill. “Jolene” reached No. 53 on the chart to become their second-biggest hit, but it was still rather disappointing. 

Although their fame in the UK was just about over, the ladies did have some success in other countries. Although they never broke America, they were rather popular in Japan, where they released a couple more singles exclusively in that country, made a few more TV appearances, and for a short while a lot of young Japanese women liked to dress like them. By the start of 1986 though, just a year on from their breakthrough, it was all over. 

It was another case of the all-too familiar story in pop music of a up-and-coming group at the beginning of the year being eager and looking forward to success, and then after having it a year later being left frustrated and with a broken friendship. After the split, Rose and Jill went their separate ways and haven’t worked together since, although they have continued to perform in various bands in more recent years, and a best-of album was released in 2005. 

They are both still around and nowadays also have something of a presence online with various fansites dedicated to their work. Although they are all but forgotten now and they only had one Top 50 hit over 30 years ago I do think that Strawberry Switchblade were something terrifically different and their brief moment in the spotlight is one of the more interesting stories in 1980s pop music.

More TV Memories – Top Banana.

Top Banana (TV-am, 1990-1992)

Here’s another look at the world of children’s programming on breakfast franchise TV-am. Along with TV Mayhem (which I still insist is one of the best things that Chris Evans ever did), another show that I looked forward to that was shown early on Saturday mornings in the early-90s was Top Banana, and I enjoyed it as much as anything that CBBC or CITV could offer. 

Top Banana was a children’s entertainment show that was hosted by the Australian Mike Brosnan (who also hosted the other TV-am show Hey Hey It’s Saturday! around the same time) that was supposed to be set in a jungle. He was joined by a wide variety of unusual puppets and guests, and he also had a couple of co-hosts who were Captain Keyboards who provided the music and some woman who was called P-Nut I think? 

There was also a game show element to Top Banana. Contestants would have to answer questions on various categories when a wheel was spun, and the one that it landed on would also be followed by an appropriate sound effect such as someone shouting “ping-pong!” when the question was about sport. They could also ask for “a piece of cake”, a question that is much easier but they would have to eat some cake while answering, and there were plenty of prizes on offer for everyone. 

Another thing that I remember about Top Banana was that every chaotic edition ended with everyone in the studio jumping around (accompanied by myself watching at home) to a version of the old pop song “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye”, meaning that by the time CITV’s Motormouth or some such show came along I had already been watching for hours and was vaguely exhausted. 

I think that Top Banana lasted until 1992, but by this point it had been announced that TV-am had lost their licence and I thought that most of their children’s programming had been dropped, although there is a chance that it could have been a repeat run, but either way the show definitely made an impact on me in the early-90s, and watching a few clips again on YouTube reminded me of the way that I can’t remember much about what I did yesterday, yet I’ve never forgotten the “ping-pong!” sound effect from this show. Isn’t life strange.