“Anyway, my fawning gibberish and jar of Swarfega didn’t seem to faze her in any way, and she told me of her loneliness and yearning for those heady days at ATV…”
So… what do we know about ATV?
The A to Z of HMHB
The A to Z of HMHB
“Anyway, my fawning gibberish and jar of Swarfega didn’t seem to faze her in any way, and she told me of her loneliness and yearning for those heady days at ATV…”
So… what do we know about ATV?
BrumBiscuit
Mainly showed junk, but has a special place in my heart, being the home of TISWAS. However hard they try with their CBBC rubbish, the BBC will never match, or come remotely close to, the on-screen anarchy that was Saturday mornings.
They used to have some mini-adverts on Friday evenings for local businesses. “Phone Cradley Heath 651 11 – now!”. And Don Amott, King of Caravans.
1 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
I was sexually attracted to Helen Piddock and liked ‘Angling Today’ with Terry Thomas too.
1 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
Swap Shop was for puffs, I’m with you on that Brum, Saturday mornings was unmissable, The early days of ‘Today Is Saturday Watch And Smile’ with Tarrant, Peter Tomlinson, Sally and John Gorman out of the Scaffold was a pure delight, 7,000 City fans Doing the ‘Dying Fly’ at Hull in the Cup was a site to behold
1 November 2013
Acidic regulator
Among bridge players, ATV stands for “According to vulnerability”.
1 November 2013
warden hodges
Getting onto Tiswas, can I mention Everton fans in the cage getting gunked before the 1980 FA Cup semi-final v West Ham at Villa Park.
2 November 2013
Jonah Varc
My nan watched ATV constantly with great glee and her big favourite was Noele Gordon. It is therefore one of life’s great mysteries that she wasn’t watching Lunchbox the day that Noele Gordon read out her congratulations for nan and grandad’s Golden Wedding. I can’t describe the horror and suffering when nan found out she’d been mentioned. I used to think that ATV was rubbish but the climate change rubbish and the comedians of the BBC have made me change my opinion.
Beer at home with Davenports….
2 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
That’s the beer! Lots of cheer! …..and you can really taste the hops!
2 November 2013
BrumBiscuit
Scroll down for THAT advert!
2 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
I might have several pints of ‘Beer at Home’ after that superb result.
2 November 2013
BrumBiscuit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24761008
A former Leicester star on t’other channel…
2 November 2013
Jonah Varc
Great link BrumBiscuit. Isn’t that the wonderful Mark Williams in the first ad?
And I should have written
“Beer at home means Davenport’s.”
All those hours watching ATV and I’m not quite Manchurian Candidate material. Or am I…..?
2 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
Nice video of Gary there and his brother Wayne, Wayne was tipped to become the star out of the two, he scored 100 goals one season in the City League.
Here is Leicester’s favourite star though, A power house, A credit to the City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVXfHJf8L2U
2 November 2013
BrumBiscuit
More Sunday afternoon ATV nostalgia: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/StarSoccer.html
3 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
ATV Today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epSaKjrf7xI
3 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
And with Derek Hobson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfOQW8oT0lg
3 November 2013
Proud salopian
Star Soccer on a Sunday afternoon with the one and only Hugh Johns on the mic, as much a part of the soundtrack of my youth as Motson, Coleman et al from the other side.
4 November 2013
MISTER TUBBS
The late, great Hugh Johns – ITV’s main commentator for four world cups from 1966 to 1978, although he’d fallen out of favour by 1982, and was relegated to doing just a few first round matches in West Germanys’ group, signing off with the infamous “fixed” game with Austria, where he jokingly referred to the Germans as nazis during commentary – not sure you could get away with that nowadays?
4 November 2013
Cynical Uncle Charlie
Saturday, Saturday,
Saturday is Tiswas day,
Saturday, Saturday,
Saturday is Tiswas
Never again to miss ’cos
Saturday is Tiswas day!
5 November 2013
Brumbiscuit
Even Jim Davidson was funny on TISWAS.
5 November 2013
bobby svarc
Davidson was never funny, ask that Hinckley lass.
6 November 2013
BrumBiscuit
Sorry C.U.C., but my recollection of the words is:
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday is Tiswas Day,
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday is Tiswas,
Never a day to miss, cos,
Saturday is Tiswas Day!
In the spirit of this wonderful site, I shall have to be pedantic.
6 November 2013
Cynical Uncle Charlie
You’re right. Thanks for the correction Brumbiscuit
6 November 2013
Bobby SVARC
Sid Hooper RIP
http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/445242/Coronation-Street-and-Crossroads-actor-Stan-Stennett-has-died-at-88
27 November 2013
Ron w
They gave us Pipkins – the first puppets with regional accents. Was casting the chimp as a cockney and a pig for the Black Country stereotyping of it’s day?
They gave us Bullseye – apparently ‘Bully’ was ambidextrous. It’s the show that taught me how to Moo properly.
But they also inflicted Chris Tarrant and Micky Most on an otherwise unsuspecting public and therefore rightly lost their franchise.
29 December 2013
Brumbiscuit
Chris Tarrant was anarchically brilliant in TISWAS early on, but started to believe his own press towards the end, so branched out into the flop that was OTT. Thereafter began his descent into TV mediocrity and vast wealth.
29 December 2013
Eric olthwaite
The Golden Shot. Highlight of many childhood Sundays. Bernie, the bolt!
29 December 2013
Lazlo Woodbine
In the Tyne Tees region we only ever got the last series of Tiswas, before that we got locally made programmes such as Lyn’s Look In. Only ever saw it visiting my Grandma in Leicester, have felt cheated for years. Also while I’m on the subject of Tyne Tees couldn’t even watch The Tube as channel 4 wasn’t available on Tyneside, so not only cut off regionally but culturally as well, bah!
11 October 2014
Dr Desperate
I lived in Granadaland, where TISWAS was regular viewing on Saturday mornings (natch). I never forgave them for pre-empting the very last episode in mid-show, cutting to Old Trafford for the Roses match just as Chris Tarrant was leading a cow across the studio. The cricket was rained off, so we sat watching rain commentary for an hour instead.
11 October 2014
BrumbiscUit
DrD, sorry for the pedantry, but Tarrant didn’t do the last series of TISWAS. He left with Lenny Henry, Bob Carolgees and John Gorman to do the ill-fated OTT. Sally James took the helm with some bloke called Gordon and the lanky one from Darts for the last series that fizzled out in April ’83.
12 October 2014
Bobby SVARC
Gordon Astley and Dan Heggerty, complete rubbish
12 October 2014
BrumBiscuit
Exactly. The biggest problem it had post-Tarrant was that it was aimed at kids. Whoever heard of aiming Saturday morning TV at kids, FFS?!
12 October 2014
EXXO
We had school on Saturday mornings, for which I shall probably claim some sort of compo one of these days, and so Tiswas never really entered my consciousness (though I spose I could have watched in the hols). It kind of explains why NB10 didn’t put much effort into passing the exam to get into that particular establishment. Wirral’s finest my arse.
12 October 2014
peter mcornithologist
Anyone remember The Strange World Of Gurney Slade?
12 October 2014
brumbiscuit
Having bought an internet radio, I find myself listening to Radio Sverige’s P1. When they they move to the news, they play the first three notes of the 6-note ATV intro. I cannot help but belt out, well, hum, the last three notes, ‘dur, dur dur – da, da, da!’ It’s almost better than futilely trying to write on the sole of my Birkenstocks. Feck, pass the Haliborange…
2 June 2015
Pirx the purist
The very first series of TISWAS was Midlands-only and was fronted by Tarrant, Tomlinson, Trevor East (who I think was Head of Sport at the station by then, and a fanatical Rams follower) and John Asher, who had a minor hit with a cover of “Let’s Twist Again” in ’75.
6 May 2019
this leaden paul
Mark Perry and Alex Fergusson (not the red-nosed Mason); friends of Throbbing Gristle (q.v.); one single had guest piano from Jools (q.v.). Never appeared on TISWAS though.
9 August 2019
Pirx the purist
Just to add some more pointless historic info: ATV was the second ITV company on air in 1955, being the provider of the weekend programmes in London (Associated Rediffusion got on air first, being the weekday contractor).
ATV also held the weekday franchise for the midlands (ABC had the weekends there).
This continued until 1968, when ATV lost its London licence but was compensated by getting the midlands seven days a week.
Techically speaking, ATV lost that at the end of 1981, but Central (which took over at that point) was little more than a rejigged ATV.
15 October 2020