01/07/81: Three of a Kind comedy series launched on BBC1

On Wednesday 1 July 1981 a new comedy series Three of a Kind was launched on BBC 1 in the UK. The show starred three British comedians David Copperfield, Tracey Ullman and Lenny Henry. (below l-r)

Three of a Kind was a funny, fast-moving, non-satirical, mainstream sketch show that made Tracey Ullman a household name and emphasised the burgeoning talent of Lenny Henry. The third member of the team, David Copperfield (real name Stanley Barlow) did not capitalise on the success of the piece as much as his two co-stars but was equally important to its balance.

The show's state-of-the-art presentation, often using early computer graphics, was ground-breaking although makes it seem dated when viewed today, more so than other contemporary comedies that were not so high-tech.

source: BBC Guide to Comedy

25/06/81: Kirsty MacColl and Depeche Mode debut on Top of the Pops

On Thursday 25 June 1981 two acts made their Top of the Pops: Kirsty MacColl with her single There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis and Depeche Mode with their second single New Life.

28/5/81: UB40 on Top of the Pops, and new album released

On Thursday 28 May 1981 Birmingham multi-cultural band UB40 appeared on Top of the Pops to perform their new single Don't Let It Pass You By. The single was at no. 16 in the UK charts that week as a double A-side with Don't Slow Down.

note: song starts at approx. 24 secs.

Both songs featured on the band's second album, entitled Present Arms, released a day later. The album would also spawn the Top Ten hit-single One in Ten later in the year.

source: musicalalphabet.com, officialcharts.com

14/5/81: Tottenham Hotspur win FA Cup after replay

On Thursday 14 May 1981 Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City 3-2 to win the FA Cup in the replay of the Final at Wembley Stadium.

On the same night Top of the Pops was brought forward and made shorter, and Tonmorrow's World cancelled, in order to accommodate the match into BBC schedules.

07/05/81: Tottenham Hotspur FC on Top of the Pops

On Thursday 7 May 1981 the Tottenham Hotspur FA Cup final squad appeared on Top of the Pops with the duo Chas n Dave to perform their single Ossie’s Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley). They were set to play the final on Saturday 9 May against Manchester City.

This particular show was actually broadcast live from the BBC Television Centre instead of going out as recording as usual. Other acts on the show included Kim Wilde, Shakin Stevens, The Nolans and The Undertones. Adam & the Ants had gone straight into no. 1 with their new single Stand & Deliver although the promo video rather than a studio performance was shown.

sources: The Sound of the Crowd, Popscene, 

30/04/81: The Human League on Top of the Pops

On Thursday 30 April 1981, on a new edition of weekly BBC music show Top of the Pops, Sheffield group The Human League performed their new single The Sound of the Crowd.

Although The Human League had appeared once before on the show in 1980, this was the first time with their new formation, including two friends Susanne Sulley and Joanne Catherall who were still in school at the time. Famously spotted by lead singer Phil Oakey in a Sheffield disco in late 1980, they were promptly asked if they wanted to join the band on tour. The girls then became an integral part of the group itself.

The Human League went on to have a number of hit singles in 1981, including their most famous song Don't You Want Me which was the Christmas number one single in the UK  that year. The group core members have continued to record and perform live. A tour entitled A Very British Synthesizer Group Tour is scheduled for November and December, 2016.

The Human League in 2014. l to r.: Joanne Catherall, Philip Oakey, Susanne Sulley

3/4/81: BBC1 continuity before 9 O'Clock News

Friday 3 April 1981, 9 p.m.

BBC One continuity announcement just prior to the Nine O'Clock News. Call My Bluff was about to start on the BBC's second channel, while a new episode of Starsky and Hutch would be on after.

 

Main news items: Ronald Reagan's recovery, West Yorkshire internal police enquiry, car bomb in N. Ireland, investigation into last year's North Sea Oil disaster and Prince Charles' visit to New Zealand.

The evening news was read by Richard Baker (b. 1925) who also introduced the first BBC television news broadcast on 5 July 1954. Baker retired as a newsreader in 1982.

see also: Richard Baker: The birth of TV news (BBC)

21/3/81: Doctor Who: Tom Baker's final episode

On Saturday 21 March 1981 actor Tom Baker made his final appearance as Doctor Who in the long running BBC TV series of the same name.

Baker (b. 1934) began his most famous acting role in June 1974, making him the 'Fourth Doctor', taking over from Jon Pertwee in the final episode of Planet of the Spiders. He completed his role in the fourth and final episode of Logopolis in 1981, which  introduced Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor at the very end of the story via the traditional 're-generation' method.

Episodes featuring Davison as the Fifth Doctor began broadcasting in January 1982.

source: tardis.wikia.com

12/3/81: Bucks Fizz: 'Making Your Mind Up' released

On Thursday 12 March 1981 the debut single by British vocal group Bucks Fizz was released. Making Your Mind Up was the UK's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, which was to be held in Dublin in April.

The release of the single came the day after Bucks Fizz won the qualifying Song For Europe contest which had been transmitted live on BBC One the previous evening.

source: BBC genome, discogs

5/3/81: Duran Duran debut on Top of the Pops

On Thursday 5 March 1981, pop group Duran Duran appear on Top of the Pops for the first time with their debut single Planet Earth.

For more of this Top of the Pops show see: TOTP81.

27/1/81 'Coming Home' sitcom begins

On Friday 28 February a new BBC sitcom called Coming Home began at 7.30 p.m. on BBC One.

Protagonist Donald Maddocks (Philip Jackson), a chemistry teacher, is happy with his disorganised life. His wife Sheila (Sharon Dukes) isn't happy with hers and when she receives a letter from her sister, she knows things can only get worse.

The British Comedy Guide website has reviewed the show as "eminently forgettable". The sitcom ran for just one series of six episodes.

Sources: BBC Genome, comedy, British Comedy Guide

26/2/81: Kim Wilde's debut on Top of the Pops

On Thursday 26 february 1981 pop singer Kim Wilde made her television debut on Top of the Pops on BBC One, performing her single Kids in America which was just outside the Top 40. This was the start of a successful career for Wilde (b. 1960) who would go on to have several hit records throughout the eighties and into the nineties.

Kim was the eldest child of Marty Wilde who had also been a successful singer and songwriter in the late fifties and early sixties. Brother Ricky co-wrote and produced Kim's recorded output until she took a break from pop music to focus on her family and take up gardening.

pic.: wilde-life.com

Kids in America went to no. 2 in the UK charts.

source: BBC, official charts archive,
video via lee nichols

7/2/81: The final 'Dick Emery Show' aired

On th evening of Saturday 7 February 1981 BBC One aired what would be the final Dick Emery Show, featuring the comic talents of comedy actor Dick Emery (b. 1915).

During the programme, Emery would showcase a number of invented characters, each one with their exaggerated cartoon-like characteristics, such as the buck-toothed parish priest, the gormless youth - playing 'son' to 'father' Roy Kinnear, or the voluptuous middle aged blonde with her catch phrase "ooh, you are awful...but I like you".

pic: britishclassiccomedy.co.uk

The show had become a firm favourite with British viewers throughout the sixties and seventies, although the actor had left the BBC in 1979 for ITV where he made three one hour specials, returning to the BBC in 1980.

Emery died in January 1983.

source: British Comedy Guide, BBC genome

1/2/81: Sense and Sensibility (BBC TV Series)

On Sunday 1 February 1981 BBC One began showing a new adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Sense and Sensibility.

The series, which ran for seven episodes, was adapted from the novel by Alexander Baron and directed by Rodney Bennet. It starred Tracey Childs as Marianne Dashwood and Irene Richard as Elinor.

The website austinprose.com called the series "a solid but flawed adaptation of Jane Austen’s masterpiece". Sense and Sensibility was adapted for television again by the BBC in 2008.

Source: BBC Genome, Imdb.

17/1/81: Parkinson (BBCTV) with Freddie Starr and Muhammad Ali

British comedian Freddie Star (b. 1943) and boxer Muhammad Ali (b. 1942) were guests on Michael Parkinson's Saturday night chat show, which ran on BBC1 from 1971 to 2004.

source: BBC genome, youtube

11/1/81: 'Solo' (TV sitcom)

On Sunday 11 January 1981 BBC 1 started airing the new sitcom Solo, written by Carla Lane and starring Felicity Kendall as Gemma Palmer, a newly single girl intent on making her own, independent way in the world, with varying degrees of success and failure.

pic. comedy.co.uk

Kendall (b. 1946) had previously starred with Richard Briers in the highly successful BBC sitcom The Good Life which had run from 1975 to 1978. She has made several television appearances during her career with roles as varied as Viola in the BBC production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (shown January 1980) and more recently as "gardening detective" Rosemary Boxer in ITV's Rosemary & Thyme which ran over three seasons from 2003-2007.

Solo writer Carla Lane was still enjoying success at the time with Butterflies, another BBC sitcom centering on the hapless middle-class wife and mother Ria Parkinson, played by Wendy Craig.

The half-hour episode of Solo was usually followed by Sunday night regular That's Life!

sources: BBC genome, wikipedia

10/1/81: Titbits magazine (UK) / Joan Collins

pic: joancollinscollection.com via pinterest

In this week's issue archetype MILF Joan Collins (b. 1933) explains "how to be a hit with younger men", while one reader retells their dramatic horror plane crash story. 

Although already an established actor in 1981, Collins became most famous for her role as the scheming Alexis in the US soap Dynasty which started airing in the US on January 12, 1981. Collins' character, however, did not appear until the first episode of Season 2, appropriately entitled Enter Alexis, first broadcast in November '81 in the US. The programme started running in the UK in May 1982, and the second season with Collins appearing, from 1st January 1983.

The Titbits magazine/periodical was published in Great Britain from 1881 - 1984. In reporting its closure, the Financial Times described Titbits as 'the 103-year-old progenitor of Britain's popular press'.

Sources: Wikipedia, BBC Genome (Joan Collins); Magforum.com (Titbits)

On TV:

• BBC One, 7.10 pm Nanny  A new series in ten parts starring Wendy Craig as Nanny Barbara Gray. Spring 1932. After a broken marriage Nurse Gray has completed her college training and is ready to embark on her first job. (source: BBC Genome, see also pop-culture-scrapbook entry)

5/1/81: Triangle (TV series)

On 5th January 1981 BBC One began screening the soap opera ‘Triangle’ set on a ferry boat and starring sexy actress Kate O’Mara (d. 2014). The show ran for three series before being cancelled, but is still generally remembered as “some of the most mockable British television ever produced”.
In 1981 Triangle was shown twice weekly during the early eveneing spot on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB, BBC Genome.

1981

Welcome to 1981.

 

source: Put the Telly On