Saturday Mornings
With the tradition started by Swap Shop, Saturday morning BBC TV has become something of an institution over the years.
Having watched all of Saturday Superstore, Going Live, Live and Kicking, The Saturday Show and TMi (I drew a line at the antics of Dick and Dom), I think I know a fair bit about this category of TV.
TMi, the newest show goes back to some of the format that made Live and Kicking so good (including the spookily familiar full screen graphics.
One web site that offers a huge amount of information about all BBC Saturday morning TV shows is the excellent site at www.saturdaymornings.co.uk - check it out and relive those memories...
Over Christmas 2006, Noel Edmonds was reunited with the original Swap
Shop team for a one-off special show to celebrate 30 years of Saturday
mornings. I was at TV centre for the recording of the show in December
2006 and it was a fantastic night - the atmosphere in the studio was
great and Noel and everyone involved seemed to be genuinely excited at
doing the show.
Everyone in the audience had a really good time and the show captured
much of the atmosphere of what made Saturday mornings so good for so
many people.
The programme only focused on shows up the end of the Andi and Emma era
of Live and Kicking, so maybe when the 40th anniversary comes around,
the door is open for a later team to be reunited and continue the story.
And of course the doors of the brand new Swap Shop are now open with
Basil Brush and Barney Harwood in charge of the new version of the
legendary show. OK so it's not quite the same, but the desk is
round, there's a studio audience asking questions to a celebrity guest
who brings their own swaps each week, viewers on the phone with their
swaps and in series one there was even the Swaparama with a hampster
called Keith!
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