It all started with Swap Shop
ON the whole the telly was seriously sh*te over the Christmas break but I did enjoy 'It all started with Swap Shop' which was on over the last couple of days a programme which we watched religiously in our house every Saturday in the 1970s.
Swap Shop is one of the programmes which gets a mention when people talk about their favourite childhood shows like Top of the Pops on a Thursday night, or Bagpuss or whatever.
I have made the mistake of talking to friends from down the country about Swap Shop only to get this puritanical mantra 'we only had RTE in our house'. Oohhh sorry.
Well in our house we did have BBC and ITV and in the early 1980s we got an RTE aerial, I think by that stage I had either stopped watching Swap Shop or it had finished.
My Daddy was the double of Swap Shop presenter Noel Edmonds and people would tell him that all the time. I remember a neighbour saying to me when I was about seven that I was very lucky to have Noel Edmonds for a Daddy and I remember thinking 'what an eejit'.
Given the splurge of kid's television, much of which is quality, it is mad to think there was a time when kids were not catered for in the way they are now.
I remember Saturday mornings (just about) before Swap Shop when the vast majority of kid's programming involved half hour dramas from Eastern Europe which were badly dubbed and involved kids going around solving mysteries and the like. Then there were the old favourites like Champion the Wonder horse or The Flashing Blade.
Course it was RTE that broadcast the magical HRPufNStuff.
So for all of you who liked Swap Shop too here are some outtakes. In fairness they aren't that hilarious, but sure.
Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs swap shop Noel Edmonds television
3 comments:
Yep Swap Shop was THE programme on Saturday mornings alright. I hear Tiswas is to make a one off comeback as well. Was never a Tiswas fan myself though. Of all the kids television programmes, Blue Peter was my favourite. To win a Blue Peter badge would have been my dream come true. Jim'll fix it was also another favourite and Wanderly Wagon of course.
There is just so much kids tv today and a lot of it is American which is killing out regional accents. Far too many inflections at the end of sentences and WAY too many "i'm like, so..." for me. Talk to hand kid, coz the face ain't listening :-)
OMG!!!!!!!
My dad used to sing Champion the Wonder Hoooooooorse out loud ALL the time! I totally remember that!
and of course Swap Shop. I was actually on Saturday Superstore!
Alan: I loved Jim'll Fix It too and once wrote to him asking could I met Tony Harte (remember Take Hart). I was about seven and put the letter in an addressed envelope and asked my Daddy to post it.
I found the letter in his jacket when I was about 10 and was devastated. That was why I never got to paint with Tony Harte. Course it makes me all emotional to think of it now, him holding onto the letter and keeping it close to him.
I agree with the American-speak... It is SO like.... WhatevvveerRRR. I have no problem with it on Americans, it is the Irish kids doing that I want to swing for.
Andi: Ha Saturday Superstore, I would have been so jealous of you though I was never a Superstore fan, not the way I was about Swap Shop.
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