''Dramarama'' is a British

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a differ ...

broadcast on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

between 1983 and 1989. The series tended to feature single dramas with a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

and occasionally satirical theme. It was created by

Anna Home Anna Margaret Home ( ; born 13 January 1938) is an English television producer and executive who worked for most of her career at the BBC. Early career After graduating from Oxford University, where she read Modern History at St Anne's Colleg ...

, then head of children's and youth programming at TVS; however, the dramas themselves were produced by a total of twelve ITV regional companies. Thus, each episode was in practice a one-off production with its own cast and crew, up to and including the

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

. ''Dramarama'' was largely a showcase for new talent to television and offered debuts for

Anthony Horowitz Anthony John Horowitz, (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include ''The Diamond Brothers'' series, the ''Alex Rider'' series, and ''T ...

Paul Abbott Paul Abbott (born 22 February 1960) is an English television screenwriter and producer. Abbott has become one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain, following his work on popular series such as ...

Kay Mellor The name Kay is found both as a surname (see Kay (surname)) and as a given name. In English-speaking countries, it is usually a feminine name, often a short form of Katherine or one of its variants; but it is also used as a first name in its own ...

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, Tony Kearney,

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show '' Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

and

Ann Marie Di Mambro Ann Marie Di Mambro (born 18 June 1950) is a Scottish playwright and television screenwriter of Italian extraction. Her theatre plays have been performed widely; they are also published individually and in collections and are studied in schools f ...

. It was also one of

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's last works. One of the stories, Thames' ''Dodger, Bonzo And The Rest'' from 1984, proved so popular that it was spun off into its own series and Christmas special the following year - the series starred

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and recounted life in a large foster home. Another story, Granada's ''Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night'' from 1988, was developed into the long-running series ''

Children's Ward ''Children's Ward'' (retitled ''The Ward'' from 1995 to 1998) is a British children's television drama series produced by Granada Television and broadcast on the ITV network as part of its ''Children's ITV'' strand on weekday afternoons. The pro ...

''. The original Dramarama story was co-written by Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor - at the time, working as staff writers for Granada. The series has rarely been repeated in recent years, although two episodes - ''Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night'' and ''Back to Front'' - were broadcast on the

CITV Channel CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

as part of a 30th anniversary weekend in January 2013.

Episodes

Dramarama: Spooky (1982)

#War Games With Caroline #The Exorcism of Amy #The Danny Roberts Show #The Ghostly Earl #In a Dark, Dark Box... #The Restless Ghost #The Keeper

Series one (1983)

#Mighty Mum And The Petnappers (TVS) #Rip It Up (TVS) #Venchie (Tyne Tees) #Jack And The Computer (TVS) #Because I Say So (Central) #Bully For Cosmo (Central) #Messages (Tyne Tees) #The Young Person's Guide To Getting Their Ball Back (TVS) #Sweet Revenge (Central) #The Restless Ghost (Thames)

Series two (1984)

#Night Of The Narrow Boats (Central) #Fowl Pest (TVS) #Dodger, Bonzo And The Rest (Thames) #Que Sera (TVS) #Stalemate (Central) #Snoop! (Thames) #Mr. Stabs (Thames) - the character Mr. Stabs previously appeared in '' Ace of Wands'' and ''

Shadows A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, o ...

'' #Josephine Jo (Central) #The Purple People Eater (TVS) #On Your Tod (Thames) #The Old Firm: Two For Starters (Granada) #Rachel And Rosie (TVS)

Series three (1985)

#Easy (TVS) #The Coal Princess (Tyne Tees) #Look At Me (Central) #The Young Person's Guide To Going Backwards In The World (TVS) #The Audition (Tyne Tees) #The Universe Downstairs (TVS) #A Proper Little Nooryeff (Central) #Frog (TVS) #Private Eye (Scottish) #Emily (TVS) #Silver (Scottish) #The Golden Conch (HTV) #Purple Passion Video (HTV West)

Series four (1986)

#The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt (TVS) #A Couple Of Charlies (Central) #Wayfarers (Scottish) #Play Acting (HTV) #Last Days At Black Bert's (TVS) #Maureen Reid, Where Are You? (Scottish) #Flashback (HTV West) #Direct Action (TVS) #Waiting For Elvis (Scottish) #Just A Game (TVS) #Flyaway Friend (Tyne Tees) #Pig Ignorance (Thames) #Jessie's Place (Thames) #Frankie's Hat (Thames)

Series five (1987)

#Cannondrum (TVS) #Snap (TVS) #The Horrible Story (Thames) #My Friend Julie (Thames) #The Creature Beyond Torches' End (TVS) #My Mum's A Courgette (Scottish) #Brainwaves (Scottish) #Undertow Of The Armada (Ulster) #Stan's First Night (Scottish) #Living Doll (TVS) #Peter (Central) #The Halt (Central) #Mr Magus Is Waiting For You (Thames) #Tam (HTV West) #A Spirited Performance (HTV Wales) #Badger On The Barge (Border)

Series six (1988)

#Forever Young (Granada) #The Macramé Man (Scottish) #The Wrong Button (Central) #Bubbles (Granada) #Blackbird Singing In The Dead Of Night (Granada) #Big T For Trouble (Tyne Tees) #Room For One More (Scottish) #Making Waves (TVS) #Just A Normal Girl (Husson Productions for Central) #Now You See Them (TVS) #Bogeymen (TVS) #The Alien (Border) #The Secret Of Croftmore (Scottish) #The Bubblegum Brigade (HTV) #Playing For Wales (HTV Wales) #Snap Decision (Husson Productions for Central)

Series seven (1989)

#Codzmorf (TVS) #Ghost Story (Granada) #Badger (Granada) #Back To Front (Yorkshire) #Monstrous (HTV Wales) #The Pisces Connection (HTV West) #Rosie The Great (Teliesyn Productions for Thames) #Snakes And Loofahs (KPO Ltd/Border) #Just Wild About Harry (Tyne Tees) #Mitchin (TSW) #In The Pink (Husson Productions for Central) Only four ITV companies of the time did not contribute to the series: Anglia, Channel, Grampian and LWT. TVS produced the greatest number of episodes.

Home media

A videotape containing the episodes "Big T for Trouble", "Just Wild About Harry" and "Venchie" (all Tyne Tees productions) was released by Video Gems, c. 1990. It is now out of print. All episodes produced by

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

have been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

by Network, who have also released the 1983 series ''Spooky'' which was shown under the ''Dramarama'' banner. The home video rights to the remaining episodes are held by

ITV Studios ITV Studios is a British multinational television production and distribution company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadcas ...

, aside from those produced by Scottish, TVS and the one episode produced by TSW. The TVS episodes cannot be released commercially but some have appeared on YouTube, and STV itself placed all its episodes on YouTube in 2010, but has since removed them.

References

External links

* (

STV Player STV Player is a video on demand service owned by STV Group and available free-of-charge across the UK, online, on mobile and on all major TV platforms, including Sky Glass, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, Freeview Play and Virgin Me ...