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Ancient telly programmes

(145 Posts)
Merseybelle2 Thu 01-Aug-19 19:50:22

Anyone out there remember The Army Game ? My grandmother loved it that much she made us promise to put her cremation urn on the mantelpiece pointing to the telly so she could still watch it ! This was in advance of her death btw, just realised it sounds as if she commanded it via ouija board smile

tanith Thu 01-Aug-19 20:03:55

Loved Bootsy and Snudge and Corporal Hoskins lol.

Dragonella Thu 01-Aug-19 20:08:13

Remember it? My DH's father was IN it!

Merseybelle2 Thu 01-Aug-19 20:24:24

Dragonella - WOW ! How wonderful is that !
Yes we loved Bootsie and Snudge too. Alfred Marks was a wonderful actor, I remember seeing him in ‘An Inspector Calls’ many years ago at the theatre. He was great.
Other old telly programmes we loved included Crane starring Patrick Allen ( the voice of doom in the old Protect and Survive government nuclear survival video ) and Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan. No Hiding Place was another great favourite. I can still remember the outside shots of posh flats that used to have the caption St John’s Wood underneath them !
Growing up in a two up two down in a rough part of Liverpool it represented something far removed from our home environment ! We thought it was amazing and the idea of someone owning A TABLE LAMP was the sign of real success in life. How that makes me laugh now !

DanniRae Thu 01-Aug-19 20:49:05

I loved "Family at War" - I was pregnant with my first baby and my husband used to be out on the night it was on. So I used to put the electric blanket on, watch the latest episode and then pop into my lovely warm bed. All these years later I still remember what a treat this was..........it didn't continue when the baby arrived though!!

annodomini Thu 01-Aug-19 21:30:02

Does anyone remember the Grove Family? A prototype, pre-Corrie soap long forgotten. I can remember the old granny's complaint in every episode: 'I'm faint from lack of nourishment', in some kind of northern accent.
The there was another early soap - Compact, set in a women's magazine office, and much loved by my housemate, an aspiring journalist, cutting her teeth on a girls' magazine, and later to become a very distinguished editor.

sodapop Thu 01-Aug-19 21:45:33

I don't remember The Grove Family annodomini but I do remember Compact and David Hunter.
Doomwatch an early science fiction series was also a favourite.

Esther1 Thu 01-Aug-19 21:48:18

Take your Pick

Bellasnana Thu 01-Aug-19 21:50:10

Adam Adamant.

Doodle Thu 01-Aug-19 21:57:52

A for Andromeda - scary stuff

EllanVannin Thu 01-Aug-19 22:00:50

Ada and Walter----Irene Handel and Wilfred Pickles.

Yes I remember The Grove Family.
Family at War, which I saw the whole series this year on channel 81.

The Huggets

pensionpat Thu 01-Aug-19 22:29:37

I remember The Grove Family. And I’m sure there was another family programme called The Appleyards.

Merseybelle2 Thu 01-Aug-19 22:45:35

I remember a great series called Inheritance set in a Lancashire mill. John Thaw was in it. I’ve looked on line at his past tv appearances but it isn’t listed. Am I imagining this ?

WOODMOUSE49 Fri 02-Aug-19 00:20:51

Rowan and Martin's Laugh in. (Lily Tomlin grin
The Forsyte Saga
Star Trek
Department S
Likely Lads
Monty Python's Flying circus
Ready Steady Go
The Rag Trade

So many. I did get out!

Grandma2213 Fri 02-Aug-19 01:49:52

'Quatermass and the Pit' had a huge impact on me. I was about 11 and truly believed that aliens had an impact on our human life. Then in my thirties I saw another Quatermass programme that also massively affected me. It fitted in with the hippy generation and how they were influenced and 'harvested' by the aliens somehow, from Wembley Stadium.

The haunting 'Hulffity Puffity Ringstone Round' refrain still stays with me though I don't really know what it meant, in spite of drawing all the youngsters to their death.

It still feels relevant today IMO regarding mobile phones, social media, u-tube or other internet influences on young people. Did these writers know something we didn't or am I just being paranoid?

paddyann Fri 02-Aug-19 02:10:53

I remember The Sandbaggers in the 70's it was a great spy series .A Saturday afternoon when I was wee would have been the Lone Ranger ,we were the only family in the street who had TV so all the kids piled in to sit on the floor ,drink Kia Ora orange and watch .

GabriellaG54 Fri 02-Aug-19 05:15:18

annodomini
Yes, I certainly remember The Grove Family. I can even remember the theme tune.
Quatermass and the Pit had me hiding behind dad's chair and I too remember The Appleyards and many others which are mentioned here. grin

Pantglas1 Fri 02-Aug-19 05:46:08

These have all brought back happy memories of our first television being delivered when I was five.

I also thought that if I switched it off half way through Blue Peter and went back 10 minutes later the programme carried on where it left off! Took my mother ages to get through to me it wasn’t like a book that I could stop reading at page 10 then carry on later!

RosieLeah Fri 02-Aug-19 06:46:18

I have the complete series of Family at War on DVD and never tire of watching it.

Warship was another one I used to enjoy, Gunsmoke, Skippy...

What happened to all the cartoons they used to show...Tom and Jerry, The Roadrunner...

Calendargirl Fri 02-Aug-19 06:53:18

Tonight with Cliff Michelmore, Alan Whicker, Fyfe Robertson and calypsos sung by Cy Grant. My parents had it on every evening, my sister and I were so.......oo bored by it!

Dragnet, an American show, was it the one where they said “the names have been changed to protect the innocent”?

Our Man at St. Marks, with Donald Sinden and Kathleen Harrison I think..

So many old shows. Probably wouldn’t seem so good nowadays.

BlueSapphire Fri 02-Aug-19 06:55:59

Don't remember much from the 50s, except What's my Line? and This is Your Life, and of course the lovely David Attenborough's early programmes. Oh and Champion the Wonderhorse! And the early Blue Peter. Six Five Special with Pete Murray.

Lots from the 60s:
The Man from Uncle
Forsyte Saga
That was the Week that was, which my parents hated, but let me watch.
And Top of the Pops with all that great 60s music!
A series called The Franchise Affair
Lots of Dickens series Sunday teatimes
A for Andromeda which frightened me to death!
Bewitched
The Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore series
A serialization of Villette (a book by one of the Bronte sisters)

Framilode Fri 02-Aug-19 07:22:49

I loved Compact. I can't remember the name of the guy who was David Hunter, but he was such a wooden actor that, even now, if we see bad acting we say he must have been to the David Hunter School of Acting.

Sara65 Fri 02-Aug-19 07:28:49

My dad was very selective about what we watched, the television was only turned on after consultation with the Radio Times

I do remember the Forsyte Saga, which I loved, I also remember Sherlock Holmes, one episode in particular gave me nightmares, it was called The Speckled Band, I think, and was about a snake

Loved Bewitched, and The Munsters, when I was a bit older, I wanted to watch that programme with Alf Garnet (can’t remember what it was called) but my dad banned it!

Nortsat46 Fri 02-Aug-19 07:32:58

Bewitched ... I wanted to be Samantha.
I wanted to grow my short brown hair long, thinking that when it grew, it would be just like Samantha's hair, i.e. blonde and flicked up at the ends...

Sara65 Fri 02-Aug-19 07:36:59

I think it may have been called Till Death do we Part, or something similar

Nortsat

Samantha was lovely, I loved all the American sitcoms where they seemed to be living the dream