TV clashes

[SgtPepper]

Something said in one of the other threads got me wondering about this. I wasn't the most avid of TV watchers but I do remember at school a lot of people moaning that they were missing their favourite programmes because their parents wanted to watch a different channel or they had to take it in turns with brothers and sisters to have first choice of channel. This was mainly from the late 60's to mid 70's when more than one TV in a household wasn't commonplace.
I was really only affected once that I can remember when the World Cup Qualifier between Poland and England was on at the same time as Crossroads in 1973 (this being the 2-0 defeat in Poland and not the famous return match at Wembley on the night England failed to qualify). I did eventually find a friend whose mother didn't want to watch Crossroads but missed about 10 minutes of the match.

[Brock]

We had a portable black-and-white TV in the kitchen, so this sort of thing didn't arise much in our household. However my grandmother often used to get the raw end of the deal at 9pm when my grandfather and I wanted to watch the comedy on BBC2 and she wanted to watch the drama on ITV. (At least she got the second half in colour.)

Budget day was an annual point of contention for many of the neighbours, when children's programmes were shunted over to BBC2 for the afternoon. I was the most popular child in the neighbourhood on that day because the other kids could come round to watch our set!

[Ross]

My brother liked Swap Shop; I preferred Tiswas. We seldom saw full versions of either as we'd have to keep compromise each Saturday.

And Doctor Who would often clash with exciting American film series on ITV. If memory serves, this included Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica and The A Team.

[ian b]

I was really only affected once that I can remember when the World Cup Qualifier between Poland and England was on at the same time as Crossroads in 1973 (this being the 2-0 defeat in Poland and not the famous return match at Wembley on the night England failed to qualify). I did eventually find a friend whose mother didn't want to watch Crossroads but missed about 10 minutes of the match.

6th June 1973? Episode 1925 of CROSSROADS - which can be found on the second volume of the Archive releases, should you wish to see what disrupted your plans back in 1973...

Joan Hilary has been a godsend to Mrs. Scott. But others with handicapped dependants need help, too, and Meg finds that her involvement snowballs.]


Though Thames were showing #1829, while Granada were even further back with #1740, (neither of which survive).

[fatcat]

6th June 1973? Episode 1925 of CROSSROADS - which can be found on the second volume of the Archive releases, should you wish to see what disrupted your plans back in 1973...

Joan Hilary has been a godsend to Mrs. Scott. But others with handicapped dependants need help, too, and Meg finds that her involvement snowballs.]


Though Thames were showing #1829, while Granada were even further back with #1740, (neither of which survive).

Amazing coincidence ! A bit of quantum physics going on here I reckon. :-)

[murphy1961]

Something said in one of the other threads got me wondering about this. I wasn't the most avid of TV watchers but I do remember at school a lot of people moaning that they were missing their favourite programmes because their parents wanted to watch a different channel or they had to take it in turns with brothers and sisters to have first choice of channel. This was mainly from the late 60's to mid 70's when more than one TV in a household wasn't commonplace.

It probably depends on when you went to school, but for me (mid 60s to mid 70s) different shows on at the same time didn't mean a great deal. Most of the things my parents liked, I liked (honestly!). There was the odd occasion when I got a bit older that I would say to them could I change channels during the ad break to watch some of the show I wanted to see and they would let me, except when we/they were watching the ABC (Australia) and there were no ads. I started working in 1977 and bought my own portable TV the following year, so that solved the problem of two (or more) things on at the same time. Of course I was heavily criticised by my parents for "wasting my money" on a TV at the time, and a colour one at that, when we still had only a B&W one, but they soon warmed to it as having two tellys in the house was a boon to TV viewing.

[ctraynor]

I wanted to watch Joe 90 or Skippy. My mum quite reasonably preferred Malcolm Muggeridge's The Question Why. These days I'm inclined to agree with her. I'm not sure how much of Question Why survives but I suspect not much.

[brigham]

Doctor Who used to clash with something called 'Orlando'. I never did find out what it was.

[ian b]

ORLANDO was the kid's spin-off Fromm CRANE, starring Sam Kydd.

But, unless there's a regional variation I haven't got a note of, it didn't go out on a Saturday.

[brigham]

ORLANDO was the kid's spin-off Fromm CRANE, starring Sam Kydd.

But, unless there's a regional variation I haven't got a note of, it didn't go out on a Saturday.

Now that's interesting. I don't know anything about 'Orlando' except the name. We tossed a coin at a school-pal's party, and it came down 'Orlando'. The 'Who' faction studiously didn't watch it.
If I ever meet 'Noka' again, I'll ask if he remembers it!

[Ian Wegg]

I was thinking the same thing, I was a big fan of both Orlando and Dr. Who and I don't remember them ever clashing. A look at the listings would confirm it.

It probably depends on when you went to school, but for me (mid 60s to mid 70s) different shows on at the same time didn't mean a great deal. Most of the things my parents liked, I liked (honestly!)

Yes that was my experience too. We kids would have what we wanted before tea time and possibly afterwards too on weekdays. Our parents might decide at the weekends but mostly we all liked the same things anyway.

One major conflict I do recall is when I wanted to watch the film Paper Moon and my mother refused to have it on because it was black and white and we now had a colour television!

~iw

[Simon Coward]

There was a time when Orlando was shown by RTE on Saturdays, but this was in the second half of 1969, when Doctor Who wasn't running. I'm not aware of it running at the weekends any other time, but it may have done.

[SgtPepper]

I like the way people are checking the archives to see if the programmes people say clashed actually did.
Another one suddenly sprang to mind. When I used to watch the Test Cricket on the BBC my mother always turned over at 5:45pm to watch the ITV News. This happened at Headingly in 1977 when Geoff Boycott reached his 100th century in First Class Cricket during the Test against Australia. He was 96 NOT OUT when we turned over. Usually you could depend on Sir Geoffrey to take more than 15 minutes to score 4 runs but Greg Chappell bowled him a half-volley about 5 minutes into the news so I missed it. :-)

[ctraynor]

First half of 1970, I remember I was almost the only boy of my age, or maybe a lot of ages, watching Pertwee's first Dr Who season, still one of the top three Who seasons imo. Practically every other boy and their dad was watching Granada (local ITV station) instead for Garrison's Guerillas, an American World War II series. It was a bit more boysy to be fair. I'd still like to catch it actually. It was a clash once as I had to miss the first episode of Pertwee's Inferno at a friend's party as GG was clearly the overwhelming favourite for everyone present.

[ctraynor]

Early 1974, I'd read Day of the Triffids and the film was on that (Saturday) night. It clashed with my sister's favourite at the time, The Pallisers (Again actually, I'd like to catch up with that again). I won out and my sister went to our neighbour's house to watch the Pallisers while he was away while I watched Triffids in comfort. Reason being, my sister had commandeered the telly beforehand, recording on the big reel-to-reel tape recorder Petula Clark in concert on BBC2 just beforehand. I think our dad adjudicated that she'd had a fair run of her viewing so...

Result! Although I don't know if that Petula Clark concert still exists in the TV archives.

[ian b]

9th March 1974

BBC1, 7:30pm - PETULA CLARK IN CONCERT part 1
BBC1, 8:15pm - THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS

BBC2, 8:45pm - THE PALLISERS episode 8 (repeated 8:05pm the following Thursday)

[Simon Coward]

I like the way people are checking the archives to see if the programmes people say clashed actually did.

In the case of Orlando, it was more the astonishment that it ever ran at the weekends, to be honest, given that it was a programme made by ITV weekday contractor Rediffusion.

[DavidT]

In our house I can remember my parents having an agreement where one week Mum would watch Upstairs Downstairs and the next Father could watch Match of the Day.

[ctraynor]

9th March 1974

BBC1, 7:30pm - PETULA CLARK IN CONCERT part 1
BBC1, 8:15pm - THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS

BBC2, 8:45pm - THE PALLISERS episode 8 (repeated 8:05pm the following Thursday)

Wowie, you are Paul Daniels (or an archive researcher). March the 9th! I liked early 1974, it was a decent first half of the year at school.

[Mark]

I also watched "Orlando" and "Who", so they can't have clashed.

Can't say it was ever a problem in our household as we were also a two TV house in the 60's ( most of my friends had portables as well)

[ctraynor]

9th March 1974

BBC1, 7:30pm - PETULA CLARK IN CONCERT part 1
BBC1, 8:15pm - THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS

BBC2, 8:45pm - THE PALLISERS episode 8 (repeated 8:05pm the following Thursday)

Wowie, you are Paul Daniels (or an archive researcher). March the 9th! I liked early 1974, it was a decent first half of the year at school.

The other TV attraction for me that night would have been Dr Who - Death to the Daleks episode 3. Halfway through Jon Pertwee's last season.

[Focus II]

Perhaps related to this is when the only TV set in the house broke down! I remember my disappointment when the set broke down for the umpteenth time when the Sex Pistols were due to appear on TOTP!

The episode exists in the archives so I was able to see it 35 years on. My enthusiasm for the group had diminished somewhat by then!

[Mark]

9th March 1974

BBC1, 7:30pm - PETULA CLARK IN CONCERT part 1
BBC1, 8:15pm - THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS

BBC2, 8:45pm - THE PALLISERS episode 8 (repeated 8:05pm the following Thursday)

Wowie, you are Paul Daniels (or an archive researcher). March the 9th! I liked early 1974, it was a decent first half of the year at school.

The other TV attraction for me that night would have been Dr Who - Death to the Daleks episode 3. Halfway through Jon Pertwee's last season.

Same here with regards "Who", but it was over to ITV for "Thriller" later that evening.

[Alice80]

I remember babysitting for a family of girls in 1979 when I was 15, and wanting to watch the last episode of Blake's 7 Series 2, Star One...but the 2 oldest of the girls wanting to watch something else on ITV...I tried to negociate but there was nothing doing...I managed to see a bit here and there in the ad breaks, but it wasn't until the 80s when I was at uni that I saw the whole thing...

[Mark]

I remember babysitting for a family of girls in 1979 when I was 15, and wanting to watch the last episode of Blake's 7 Series 2, Star One...but the 2 oldest of the girls wanting to watch something else on ITV...I tried to negociate but there was nothing doing...I managed to see a bit here and there in the ad breaks, but it wasn't until the 80s when I was at uni that I saw the whole thing...

No less than "Charlie's Angels" on the other side.!

Shame, "Star One" is a great episode.

[perov]

Orlando was first transmitted on Tuesday 13/4/65 at 5.25pm, originally for 13 episodes.

The second series, also on Tuesdays ran from 5/4/66 for 40 episodes ending on 10/1/67.
The Third series, again on Tuesdays ran from 17/1/67 to 27/3/67 for 11 episodes.

The final series started on Monday 25/3/68, but after 4 episodes changed to Fridays for the final 8, finishing on 14/6/68.

So sign of Saturday's unless they were repeats.

Hope this helps.

[Simon Coward]

Orlando was first transmitted on Tuesday 13/4/65 at 5.25pm, originally for 13 episodes.

The second series, also on Tuesdays ran from 5/4/66 for 40 episodes ending on 10/1/67.
The Third series, again on Tuesdays ran from 17/1/67 to 27/3/67 for 11 episodes.

The final series started on Monday 25/3/68, but after 4 episodes changed to Fridays for the final 8, finishing on 14/6/68.

So sign of Saturday's unless they were repeats.

Hope this helps.

It's not quite as straightforward as that, because the seasons weren't all networked. So, series 2 was shown on Tuesdays in London and most of the rest of the country, but on Wednesdays in the midlands. There seem to be weeks where the south west and the Channel Islands didn't get it at all, and other weeks where they followed ATV.

Although most regions switched from Monday to Friday part way through for the final season, the west and south Wales continued to get the series on Mondays.

But you're right about Saturdays, I'm not aware of any UK company showing the series at the weekends.

[Brian F]

I'm sure I remember the ending of one episode of Orlando near Christmas. When they had defeated some agents from a group called Mint he joked that they were "Mint Spys".

[Simon Coward]

I'm sure I remember the ending of one episode of Orlando near Christmas. When they had defeated some agents from a group called Mint he joked that they were "Mint Spys".

That would have been M.I.N.C.E. (Ministry Investigating National Crime and Espionage) but you're quite right, they did have spies.

[VintageFan]

I was really only affected once that I can remember when the World Cup Qualifier between Poland and England was on at the same time as Crossroads in 1973 (this being the 2-0 defeat in Poland and not the famous return match at Wembley on the night England failed to qualify). I did eventually find a friend whose mother didn't want to watch Crossroads but missed about 10 minutes of the match.

6th June 1973? Episode 1925 of CROSSROADS - which can be found on the second volume of the Archive releases, should you wish to see what disrupted your plans back in 1973...

Joan Hilary has been a godsend to Mrs. Scott. But others with handicapped dependants need help, too, and Meg finds that her involvement snowballs.]


Though Thames were showing #1829, while Granada were even further back with #1740, (neither of which survive).

Wow Ian. Do you know which episode of Crossroads that those regions were showing on all dates prior to the point in April 1975 when they were all brought up to date in time for Megs wedding?