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Chock-A-Block
''Chock-A-Block'' is a BBC children's television programme, created by Michael Cole (writer), Michael Cole and Nick Wilson. It was first shown in 1981 and repeated through to 1989 and shown as part of the children's programme cycle ''See-Saw (TV programme), See-Saw'' (the "new" name for the cycle originally known as ''Watch with Mother''). "Chock-A-Block" was an extremely large yellow computer, modelled to resemble a Mainframe computer, mainframe of the time; it filled the entire studio and provided the entire backdrop for the show. The presenter of the show played the part of a technician maintaining the computer. There were two presenters, Fred Harris (presenter), Fred Harris ("Chock-A-Bloke") and Carol Leader ("Chock-A-Girl"), but only one appeared in each episode. At the start of the show, the presenter would drive around the studio towards the machine in a small yellow electric car, the chock a truck, before saying the catchphrase "Chock-A-Bloke (or Girl), checking in!"). The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Leader
Carol Leader (born 10 November 1950 in Colchester, Essex) is a former English theatrical and television actress, and senior psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She played Barbara Charlton in '' Young at Heart'' from 1980 to 1981, and Sadie Tomkins in ''Casualty'' from 1988 to 1989, and has also been in ''Flambards'', ''Sally Ann'', ''First and Last'' (1989), ''Peak Practice'' and 1992 TV series ''Kevin and Co''. She has also appeared in UK television series including ''Late Starter'', '' Tales of the Unexpected'', ''The Bill'' and ''The Knock''. She is perhaps best known, however, to those who were young children in the 1970s and 1980s as a presenter of long-running UK children's TV series '' Play School'', and children's TV show ''Chock-A-Block'', which she co-presented with fellow former ''Play School'' host Fred Harris. Leader's acting career began at the University of York where she studied History and feature in drama productions, including the role of Charlotte Corday in Y.U. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Harris (presenter)
Fred Harris is a British comedian and children's television presenter. Formerly a schoolteacher, he began his television career as a presenter of the BBC children's programme '' Play School'', on which he appeared regularly between 1973 and 1988. During this time he was also a presenter on ''Ragtime'' and '' Chock-A-Block''. During the rise of the microcomputer in the early 1980s he fronted several home computing BBC programmes, including '' Micro Live'' (which formed part of BBC's ongoing Computer Literacy Project). He also presented a number of educational and schools programmes on the subject of maths, including ATV's ''Figure it Out'' (memorable for having a set which included a giant pocket calculator), Central Television's ''Basic Maths'' and Channel 4's ''Make It Count''. In 1980 Harris appeared as a contestant on the first episode of ''The Adventure Game''. His career in comedy involved regular appearances in radio shows such as ''Huddwinks'', ''The Half-Open Universi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Cole (writer)
Michael Cole (17 March 1933 – 4 August 2001) was a British writer. He created a number of children's programmes from the 1970s to the 1990s, including ''Alphabet Castle'', ''Heads and Tails (TV series), Heads and Tails'' and ''Ragtime (TV series), Ragtime'', for which he won a Society of Film and Television Award (later known as a British Academy of Film and Television Arts, BAFTA) for Best Children's Programme. Together with his wife Joanne Cole, he created ''Bod (TV series), Bod'', originally published as four books in 1965 and made into a TV show in the 1970s, as well as ''Fingerbobs'' and ''Gran (TV series), Gran''. Life and work Michael Cole was born in Willesden, London on 17 March 1933. During the war he and his family were evacuated to Cheltenham where after junior school he went to Cheltenham College. He trained as an intelligence officer during national service in the army and was sent to University of Cambridge, Cambridge University to learn Russian. In 1959, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Children's Television Series
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evening, allowing younger children to watch them after school. The purpose of these shows is mainly to entertain or educate. The children's series are in four categories: those aimed at infants and toddlers, those aimed at those aged 6 to 11 years old, those for adolescents and those aimed at all children. History Children's television is nearly as old as television itself. The BBC's ''Children's Hour'', broadcast in the UK in 1946, is generally credited with being the first TV programme specifically for children. Television for children tended to originate from similar programs on radio; the BBC's '' Children's Hour'' was launched in 1922, and BBC School Radio began broadcasting in 1924. In the US in the early 1930s, adventure serials such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reel-to-reel Tape
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is placed on a spindle or hub. The end of the tape is manually pulled from the reel, threaded through mechanical guides and over a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of the second, initially empty ''takeup reel''. Reel-to-reel systems use tape that is wide, which normally moves at . All standard tape speeds are derived as a binary submultiple of 30 inches per second. Reel-to-reel preceded the development of the compact cassette with tape wide moving at . By writing the same audio signal across more tape, reel-to-reel systems give much greater fidelity at the cost of much larger tapes. In spite of the relative inconvenience and generally more expensive media, reel-to-reel systems developed in the early 1940s remained popula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1980s British Children's Television Series
__NOTOC__ Year 198 (CXCVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 951 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 198 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire *January 28 **Publius Septimius Geta, son of Septimius Severus, receives the title of Caesar. **Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus, is given the title of Augustus. China *Winter – Battle of Xiapi: The allied armies led by Cao Cao and Liu Bei defeat Lü Bu; afterward Cao Cao has him executed. By topic Religion * Marcus I succeeds Olympianus as Patriarch of Constantinople (until 211). Births * Lu Kai (or Jingfeng), Chinese official and general (d. 269) * Quan Cong, Chinese general and advisor (d. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
