TV Heaven
Encyclopedia
TV Heaven is a series of 13 theme nights shown on Channel 4
in early 1992, celebrating the best of archive British television
. Each programme (with one exception - see below) focused on a particular year.
Each evening featured three, four or five complete programmes, most of which were originally shown on ITV and which were repeated with their idents
intact. Several short features bookended the programmes; Opening Shots was a compilation of title sequences from the year concerned, A Choice of Viewing was a montage of clips from other programmes, and Where Were They Then? showcased a clip of a subsequently famous person early in their career. A selection of advertisements were shown; these would have been screened in the year in focus but some did not necessarily originate from the years to which they were attributed, although most did.
The programmes and clips were linked by Frank Muir
and the links between programmes produced by Illuminations Productions for Channel 4.
The complete programmes shown were as follows:
8 February 1992 - 1967:
15 February 1992 - 1963:
22 February 1992 - 1974:
29 February 1992 - 1965:
7 March 1992 - 1971:
14 March 1992 - 1978:
21 March 1992 - 1970:
28 March 1992 - 1960:
4 April 1992 - 1969:
11 April 1992 - 1976:
18 April 1992 - 1950s:
25 April 1992 - 1966:
2 May 1992 - 1968:
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in early 1992, celebrating the best of archive British television
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
. Each programme (with one exception - see below) focused on a particular year.
Each evening featured three, four or five complete programmes, most of which were originally shown on ITV and which were repeated with their idents
Station identification
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
intact. Several short features bookended the programmes; Opening Shots was a compilation of title sequences from the year concerned, A Choice of Viewing was a montage of clips from other programmes, and Where Were They Then? showcased a clip of a subsequently famous person early in their career. A selection of advertisements were shown; these would have been screened in the year in focus but some did not necessarily originate from the years to which they were attributed, although most did.
The programmes and clips were linked by Frank Muir
Frank Muir
Frank Herbert Muir was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. His writing and performing partnership with Denis Norden endured for most of their careers. Together they wrote BBC radio's Take It From Here for over 10 years, and then appeared on BBC radio...
and the links between programmes produced by Illuminations Productions for Channel 4.
The complete programmes shown were as follows:
8 February 1992 - 1967:
- At Last The 1948 ShowAt Last the 1948 ShowAt Last the 1948 Show is a satirical TV show made by David Frost's company, Paradine Productions , in association with Rediffusion London...
(with John CleeseJohn CleeseJohn Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
, Graham ChapmanGraham ChapmanGraham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...
, Tim Brooke-TaylorTim Brooke-TaylorTimothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...
)
- Coronation StreetCoronation StreetCoronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
- Elsie TannerElsie TannerElsie Tanner is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Patricia Phoenix from 1960 to 1973 and from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was one of the original core characters on Coronation Street and appeared in the very first episode...
's Wedding
- Armchair TheatreArmchair TheatreArmchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
- "A Magnum for Schneider" (the source of CallanCallan (TV series)Callan is the title of a British television series set in the murky world of espionage. Originally produced by ABC Weekend Television and later Thames Television, it was aired on the ITV network over four seasons spread out between 1967 and 1972...
)
- The Frost ProgrammeDavid FrostSir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...
- Emil SavundraEmil SavundraEmil Savundra, born Michael Marion Emil Anacletus Pierre Savundranayagam was an indigenous Tamil businessman from Ceylon who later took British citizenship. He is known for having perpetrated financial frauds in several countries, culminating in the scandal of the Fire, Auto and Marine Insurance...
15 February 1992 - 1963:
- This WeekThis Week (ITV TV series)This Week was a weekly current affairs series first produced for ITV in January 1956 by Associated-Rediffusion , running until 1978, when it was replaced by TV Eye...
- SatireSatireSatire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
- The LoverThe Lover (play)The Lover is a 1962 one-act play by Harold Pinter. Pinter leads the audience to believe that there are three characters in the play: the wife, the husband and the lover. But the lover who comes to call in the afternoons is revealed to be the husband adopting a role. He plays the lover for her: she...
(by Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
)
- The AvengersThe Avengers (TV series)The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
- "Gilded Cage"
22 February 1992 - 1974:
- Thick as Thieves - "The Homecoming"
- Regan (the pilot of The SweeneyThe SweeneyThe Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
)
- This WeekThis Week (ITV TV series)This Week was a weekly current affairs series first produced for ITV in January 1956 by Associated-Rediffusion , running until 1978, when it was replaced by TV Eye...
- The National FrontBritish National FrontThe National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
29 February 1992 - 1965:
- The SaintThe Saint (TV series)The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...
- "The Scorpion"
- The Woody Allen ShowWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
- The Human JungleThe Human JungleThe Human Jungle is a British TV series about a psychiatrist, made for ABC Weekend Television by the small production company Independent Artists and screened by the ITV Network...
- "Struggle for a Mind"
- Tempo - "A Tale of Two Talents"
7 March 1992 - 1971:
- Six Dates With BarkerRonnie BarkerRonald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...
- Upstairs, DownstairsUpstairs, DownstairsUpstairs, Downstairs is a British drama television series originally produced by London Weekend Television and revived by the BBC. It ran on ITV in 68 episodes divided into five series from 1971 to 1975, and a sixth series shown on the BBC on three consecutive nights, 26–28 December 2010.Set in a...
- "On Trial" (colour version)
- The PersuadersThe Persuaders!The Persuaders! is a 1971 action/adventure series, produced by ITC Entertainment for initial broadcast on ITV and ABC. It has been called "the last major entry in the cycle of adventure series that had begun eleven years earlier with Danger Man in 1960", as well as "the most ambitious and most...
- "Overture"
14 March 1992 - 1978:
- Edward and Mrs SimpsonEdward and Mrs SimpsonEdward & Mrs. Simpson is a seven-part British television series that dramatises the events leading to the 1936 abdication of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, who gave up his throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson....
- "The Abdication"
- The South Bank ShowThe South Bank ShowThe South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television , presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States...
- Ken DoddKen DoddKenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...
- Rumpole of the BaileyRumpole of the BaileyRumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...
- "Rumpole and the Younger Generation"
21 March 1992 - 1970:
- On The BusesOn The BusesOn the Buses was a British situation comedy created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney which was broadcast in the UK from 1969 to 1973. The writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife were for the BBC, but the Corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential...
- The Tribe That Hides From Man
- Manhunt - "Intent to Steal"
28 March 1992 - 1960:
- Police SurgeonPolice SurgeonPolice Surgeon was a television series made by the Associated British Corporation and starring Ian Hendry as Dr Geoffrey Brent. Its twelve half-hour episodes were broadcast on ITV at 7pm on Saturday nights from 10 September to 3 December 1960....
- "Easy Money"
- Living for Kicks with Daniel FarsonDaniel FarsonDaniel Negley Farson a British writer and broadcaster, was a popular television personality and prominent public figure in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Early life:...
- Armchair TheatreArmchair TheatreArmchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
- "Lena, O My Lena" (by Alun OwenAlun OwenAlun Owen was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television, but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night ....
)
- The Strange World of Gurney SladeThe Strange World of Gurney SladeThe Strange World of Gurney Slade is a British six-part television series made by ATV which was transmitted by the ITV network between 22 October and 26 November 1960. A surreal series devised by Anthony Newley, who also starred, it was written by Dick Hills and Sid Green...
(with Anthony NewleyAnthony NewleyAnthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...
)
4 April 1992 - 1969:
- Galton and SimpsonGalton and SimpsonRay Galton OBE , and Alan Simpson OBE , are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based...
Comedy - "An Extra Bunch of Daffodils"
- Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)Randall and Hopkirk , first transmitted during 1969-70, is a British private detective television series starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk, respectively. The series was originally created by Dennis Spooner and produced by Monty Berman...
- "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner"
- Johnny CashJohnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
in San QuentinAt San QuentinAt San Quentin is a recording of a live concert given by Johnny Cash to the inmates of San Quentin State Prison. As well as being released on record the concert was filmed by Granada Television....
11 April 1992 - 1976:
- The FostersThe FostersThe Fosters is a British sitcom, produced by London Weekend Television which aired on ITV from 9 April 1976, until 9 July 1977.It was created and developed by Jon Watkins, who adapted the American sitcom, Good Times, developed by Norman Lear, and created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans...
- "God's Business is Good Business"
- Ready When You Are, Mr McGillReady When You Are, Mr McGillReady When You Are, Mr McGill is a feature length TV drama, written by Jack Rosenthal. ITV produced two versions, in 1976 and 2003. The 1976 version was the first in a series of six single television plays called "Red Letter Days" each of which showed the events in a single, special day in...
(by Jack RosenthalJack RosenthalJack Morris Rosenthal CBE was an English playwright, who wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations.-Biography:...
)
- Bouquet of Barbed WireBouquet of Barbed WireBouquet of Barbed Wire is a British television series based on a 1969 novel by Andrea Newman. The series – whose title comes from an incident that occurred to Newman and her mother while on a walk – was made by London Weekend Television for ITV in 1976...
- "Repercussions"
- AquariusAquarius (TV series)Aquarius is a British arts television series, produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network. It ran from 1970-1977 when it was replaced by The South Bank Show....
- ReggaeReggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
18 April 1992 - 1950s:
- Oh Boy! (the last original edition from 1959)
- The Bob Monkhouse HourBob MonkhouseRobert Alan "Bob" Monkhouse, OBE was an English entertainer. He was a successful comedy writer, comedian and actor and was also well known on British television as a presenter and game show host...
(1959)
- Double Your MoneyDouble Your MoneyDouble Your Money was a British quiz show hosted by Hughie Green. Originally broadcast on Radio Luxembourg, it transferred to ITV in 1955, a few days after the commercial channel began broadcasting. It was produced by Associated-Rediffusion until 1964 and then by Rediffusion London, and it finished...
with Hughie GreenHughie GreenHughie Green was the host of numerous British television shows.-Early life:Hugh H. Green was born in London; his Scottish father was a former British Army Major who made his fortune supplying tinned fish to the Allied forces in World War I, while his mother Violet was the Surrey-born daughter of...
(the first edition from 1955)
- The Adventures of Robin HoodThe Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)The Adventures of Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV in London in the...
- "The Moneylender" (1955)
- Dial 999 - "The Killing Job" (1957)
25 April 1992 - 1966:
- George and the Dragon - "George Meets the Dragon"
- Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn
- Danger ManDanger ManDanger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
- "The Paper Chase"
2 May 1992 - 1968:
- Please Sir!Please Sir!Please Sir! was a London Weekend Television produced situation comedy, created by writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey and featured the actors John Alderton, Deryck Guyler, Joan Sanderson, Noel Howlett, Erik Chitty and Richard Davies...
- The World of WhickerWhicker's WorldWhicker's World is an award-winning British television documentary series that ran from 1959 to 1988, presented by journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker....
(with Alan WhickerAlan WhickerAlan Donald Whicker, CBE is a British journalist and broadcaster. His career has spanned over 50 years.-Background:Whicker was born to British parents in Cairo, Egypt...
) - "The Cats Eyes Man"
- Do Not Adjust Your SetDo Not Adjust Your SetDo Not Adjust Your Set was a children's television series produced originally by Rediffusion, London, then by the fledgling Thames Television for British commercial television channel ITV from 26 December 1967 to 14 May 1969....
(with Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
, Michael PalinMichael PalinMichael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
, Terry JonesTerry JonesTerence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
, David JasonDavid JasonSir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...
, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)
- The PrisonerThe PrisonerThe Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
- "The Girl Who Was DeathThe Girl Who Was Death"The Girl Who Was Death" is a television episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on 18 January 1968...
"
External links
- TV Heaven at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...