''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'', more commonly known simply as ''Swap Shop'', is a British
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 evenin ...
that aired on
BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
from 2 October 1976 to 27 March 1982. It was ground-breaking in many ways: by broadcasting on Saturday mornings, being live, being three hours in length, and using the phone-in format extensively for the first time on TV.
The show rivalled the growing success of rival broadcaster
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 ...
's ''
Tiswas
''Tiswas'' (; an acronym of "Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile") was a British children's television series that originally aired on Saturday mornings from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982, and was produced for the ITV network by ATV.
It was c ...
'', though the latter was initially only broadcast in the
ATV
ATV may refer to:
Broadcasting
* Amateur television
*Analog television
Television stations and companies
* Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra
* ATV (Armenia)
* ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate
* ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourne
* ATV (Austria)
* AT ...
region in the
Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
and, at the time of ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop''s inception, had yet to be taken up by other ITV franchises around the country.
Content
The show was hosted by
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...
with
Keith Chegwin
Keith Chegwin (17 January 1957 – 11 December 2017) was an English television presenter and actor, appearing in several children's entertainment shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and ''Cheggers Plays Pop''.
...
,
John Craven
John Raymond Craven, (born 16 August 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, best known for presenting the BBC programmes '' Newsround'', ''Countryfile'' and '' Beat the Brain''.
Early life
Craven was born in Leeds, West Rid ...
and, from 1978,
Maggie Philbin
Margaret Elizabeth Philbin OBE (born 23 June 1955) is an English radio and television presenter whose credits include ''Tomorrow's World'', ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and latterly '' Bang Goes the Theory''.
Early life
As a child, she became ...
.
Also featured was Posh Paws, a stuffed toy dinosaur. Edmonds once explained that his name was actually spelt "Pohs Paws", because that is ''Swap Shop'' backwards.
Another person named was "Eric" (Ilett), the often-referred-to but never-seen technician whose job was to lower a plastic globe containing postcards sent in by viewers as answers to competitions.
The content of the programme included music, visits from public figures, competitions, and cartoons. There was also coverage of news and issues relevant to children, presented by John Craven, building on his profile as the presenter of ''
John Craven's Newsround
''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'', and originally called ''John Craven's Newsround'' before his departure in 1989) is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first televi ...
''.
The cornerstone, however, was the "Swaporama" element, hosted by Chegwin, who was very rarely in the studio. An outside broadcast unit would travel to different locations throughout the UK where children could swap their belongings with others. This proved to be one of the most popular aspects of the show, often achieving gatherings of more than 2,000 children.
Generally, the primary purpose of the BBC OB unit was to
broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
a sporting event at that Swaporama venue later that day. This allowed ''Swap Shop'' to use the same unit and save programming costs which would otherwise be prohibitive.
Edmonds, Chegwin and Philbin briefly formed a pop group called
Brown Sauce
Brown sauce is a condiment commonly served with food in the United Kingdom and Ireland, normally dark brown in colour. The taste is either tart or sweet with a peppery taste similar to that of Worcestershire sauce.
Brown sauce is typically eate ...
in December 1981 and released a single called "I Wanna be a Winner". The song peaked at number 15 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
and stayed in the Top 40 for a total of nine weeks.
Telephone number
The telephone number for the show from the second series onward was 01 811 8055. The first series had a different number, 01 288 8055, before being changed to the number retained throughout the rest of the show's run, and retained for its successor, ''
Saturday Superstore
''Saturday Superstore'' is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1982 to 18 April 1987. It was shown on Saturday mornings with presenters including Mike Read, Sarah Greene, Keith Chegwin, and John Craven. The s ...
''.
The number was well known and remembered by children and was groundbreaking for the BBC, who previously had received viewer feedback mainly by letter.
History
''Swap Shop'' was a success, attracting substantial ratings not only among its target audience of children, but also students and parents. It ended in 1982, to allow the presenters to move on to other projects, notably Edmonds, who became one of the highest-profile TV presenters in the UK. It was followed by a sequence of similar programmes over the years, including ''
Saturday Superstore
''Saturday Superstore'' is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1982 to 18 April 1987. It was shown on Saturday mornings with presenters including Mike Read, Sarah Greene, Keith Chegwin, and John Craven. The s ...
'', ''
Going Live!
''Going Live!'' was a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 26 September 1987 to 17 April 1993. It was presented by Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene. Other presenters included Trevor and Simon, Annabel Giles, Phillip Hod ...
'' and ''
Live & Kicking
''Live & Kicking'' is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for ''Going Live!'', and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, c ...
''.
This first ever question for the live audience was, 'Where will the next Olympic games be held (1980)?'. Moscow was the answer.
''Swap Shop'' is poorly represented in the BBC archive. For some time it was believed that either the programmes were never routinely recorded in the first place, or they
had been wiped on the orders of the BBC's Archive Selector Adam Lee in 1993. The truth, as related by ex-''
Blue Peter
''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...
'' editor
Richard Marson
Richard Marson (born c.1967) is an English writer, television producer and director, best known as a former editor-in-chief of the BBC's children's television programme ''Blue Peter''. In September 2007, Marson was sacked from his post for making ...
on the archive television forum ''The Mausoleum Club'' in 2006, is that almost every edition of ''Swap Shop'' was recorded in full every week onto two 90-minute
Quad tapes. These tapes were held by the BBC until the late 1980s, at which time the Deputy Head of Children's Television, Roy Thompson, allowed many of them to be wiped and sold to Australia as recycled stock. Although Quad tape was considered obsolete in the UK, Australia was still using it extensively at that time, and as the ''Swap Shop'' tapes had no physical splices in them, they were considered ideal for reuse.
As a consequence of this action, many of the clips used in the retrospective ''It Started With Swap Shop'' and as extras on some DVD releases of other BBC shows had to be taken from domestic video recordings that had survived in private hands. Amongst the editions wiped were those featuring appearances by
Blondie,
XTC
XTC were an English rock band formed in Swindon in 1972. Fronted by songwriters Andy Partridge (guitars, vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass, vocals), the band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in ...
, ''
Trumpton
''Trumpton'' is a British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of ''Camberwick Green''. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was the second series in the Trumptonshire, ''Trumptonshire'' trilogy, which com ...
'' creator
Gordon Murray
Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946 in Durban, Union of South Africa), is a South African-born British designer of Formula One racing cars and the McLaren F1 road car. He is the founder and CEO of Gordon Murray Automotive.
Early life
Born t ...
, and numerous cast and crew members of ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
''.
Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin and John Craven reunited in 1999 for a parody of ''Swap Shop'' transmitted at the end of the last ever episode of ''
Noel's House Party
''Noel's House Party'' is a BBC light entertainment series that was hosted by Noel Edmonds. Set in a large house in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom, leading to much innuendo, it ran from 23 November 1991 to 26 March 2000 on BBC One, an ...
''. In the skit, Edmonds – playing his "younger self" – wakes up in the ''Swap Shop'' studio after supposedly dozing off, and explains to the others that he has just had a horrible dream of him being "trapped in a big house for 8 years", and recounting the events of a typical ''Noel's House Party'' episode, and then the three discover that
Mr Blobby
Mr Blobby is a British fictional character, created by British comedy writer Charlie Adams. His design involves mostly a costume of a bulbous pink figure with yellow spots, a permanent toothy grin, and green jiggly eyes, with performers often us ...
is also in the studio.
On 20 December 2007, the BBC announced that ''Swap Shop'' was returning to
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
for a 13-week run. Barney Harwood presented the new show with
Basil Brush
Basil Brush is a fictional red fox, best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet, but has also been depicted in animated cartoon shorts and comic strips. The character has f ...
. The revived show was titled ''
Basil's Swap Shop
''Basil and Barney's Swap Shop'' (known as ''Basil's Swap Shop'' in the first two series) is a British children's television series that was produced for CBBC and ran on Saturday mornings on BBC Two and CBBC Channel from 5 January 2008 to 25 Se ...
'' and lasted for three series.
''It Started With Swap Shop''
A special programme celebrating the 30th anniversary of BBC children's Saturday morning shows was recorded in December 2006. The show, called ''It Started With Swap Shop'', was made by
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...
' Unique TV company. Highlights of the programme saw the original presenting team reunited, other presenters from its successor shows ''
Saturday Superstore
''Saturday Superstore'' is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1982 to 18 April 1987. It was shown on Saturday mornings with presenters including Mike Read, Sarah Greene, Keith Chegwin, and John Craven. The s ...
'', ''
Going Live!
''Going Live!'' was a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 26 September 1987 to 17 April 1993. It was presented by Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene. Other presenters included Trevor and Simon, Annabel Giles, Phillip Hod ...
'' and ''
Live & Kicking
''Live & Kicking'' is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for ''Going Live!'', and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, c ...
'' make an appearance and celebrity fans came along to 'make a swap'.
The 130-minute programme was recorded in front of a studio audience at
BBC Television Centre
Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, London, White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for ...
on 15 December 2006 and was broadcast on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
on Thursday 28 December 2006 at 9.00pm with a shortened repeat (110 minutes) on Sunday 31 December 2006 at 6.10pm, again on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
. The shortened version of the programme was broadcast on
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 on 28 May 2007 at 7.00pm as part of the channel's ''Children's Television on Trial'' season.
Other than the original ''Swap Shop'' team of
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...
,
John Craven
John Raymond Craven, (born 16 August 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, best known for presenting the BBC programmes '' Newsround'', ''Countryfile'' and '' Beat the Brain''.
Early life
Craven was born in Leeds, West Rid ...
,
Keith Chegwin
Keith Chegwin (17 January 1957 – 11 December 2017) was an English television presenter and actor, appearing in several children's entertainment shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and ''Cheggers Plays Pop''.
...
,
Maggie Philbin
Margaret Elizabeth Philbin OBE (born 23 June 1955) is an English radio and television presenter whose credits include ''Tomorrow's World'', ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and latterly '' Bang Goes the Theory''.
Early life
As a child, she became ...
, live appearances were made by
Mike Read
Michael David Kenneth Read (born 1 March 1947) is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter. Read has been a broadcaster since 1976, best known for having been a DJ with BBC Radio 1, and television host for musi ...
,
Andi Peters
Andi Eleazu Peters (born 29 July 1970) is a British television presenter, producer, journalist and voice actor, currently employed by ITV and known for presenting Children's BBC, roles on breakfast TV shows ''Live & Kicking'', ''GMTV'', '' Good ...
,
Emma Forbes
Emma Katy Forbes (née Clarke; born 14 May 1965 in Hammersmith, London) is an English radio and television presenter.
Biography
Forbes's parents are Nanette Newman and Bryan Forbes (né John Theobald Clarke). She attended Hurst Lodge School.
...
,
Trevor Neal
Trevor Neal (born 1963, Dorchester, Dorset) and Simon Hickson (born 1962, Salford, Lancashire) are a British comedy duo (known as ''Trevor and Simon'' or ''Trev and Simon'') and are best known for a family-friendly version of anarchic alternative ...
and
Simon Hickson
Trevor Neal (born 1963, Dorchester, Dorset) and Simon Hickson (born 1962, Salford, Lancashire) are a British comedy duo (known as ''Trevor and Simon'' or ''Trev and Simon'') and are best known for a family-friendly version of anarchic alternative ...
. A recorded contribution was made by
Phillip Schofield
Phillip Bryan Schofield (born 1 April 1962) is an English television presenter who works for ITV. He is currently the co-presenter of ITV's '' This Morning'' (2002–present) and ''Dancing on Ice'' (2006–2014, 2018–present) alongside Holly ...
and
Sarah Greene
Elizabeth Sarah Greene (born 24 October 1957) is an English television presenter and actress. She co-presented ''Blue Peter'' from May 1980 until June 1983, and hosted the Saturday-morning series ''Saturday Superstore'' and ''Going Live!''.
Ea ...
. Telephone calls (some prerecorded) were taken from
Delia Smith
Delia Ann Smith (born 18 June 1941) is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. One of the best known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers t ...
,
Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, th ...
and
Sir Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
. Other guests included
Johnny Ball
Johnny Ball (born Graham Thalben Ball; 23 May 1938) is an English television personality, a populariser of mathematics and the father of BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball.
Early life
Ball was born in Bristol and attended Kingswood Primary School on th ...
,
Nicki Chapman
Nicola Chapman, known professionally as Nicki Chapman (born 14 January 1967) is an English television & radio presenter, talent show judge and public relations agent who previously worked in the British pop music industry.
Chapman was a judg ...
,
Fearne Cotton
Fearne Wood ( Cotton; born 3 September 1981) is an English broadcaster and author''.'' She began her career in the late 1990s presenting various children's television shows for GMTV, CITV and CBBC. In 2007, she presented '' The Xtra Factor'', ...
,
Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.
Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...
,
Arlene Phillips
Dame Arlene Phillips (born 22 May 1943) is an English choreographer, talent scout, television judge and presenter, theatre director, and former dancer, who has worked in many fields of entertainment.
For many years, she was most noted as the c ...
,
Chris Moyles
Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) is an English radio and television presenter, author and presenter of ''The Chris Moyles Show'' on Radio X.
Previously he has presented ''The Chris Moyles Show'' on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 20 ...
and
Michael Crawford
Michael Patrick Smith, (born 19 January 1942), known professionally as Michael Crawford, is an English tenor, actor and comedian.
Crawford is best known for playing both the hapless Frank Spencer in the sitcom ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'' an ...
who appeared on a video link from Australia. A surprise appearance came from
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Laurence Roderick Llewelyn-Bowen (; born 11 March 1965) is an English interior designer and television personality best known for appearing on the BBC programme '' Changing Rooms''.
Name
He is sometimes credited as "Laurence Llewelyn", and th ...
as part of Trev and Simon's Draper Brothers sketch.
Annuals
''Swap Shop'' was so popular that during its run 4 annuals were published.
The publishing dates for the books were as follows:
*Book 1 – November 1978
*Book 2 – September 1979
*Book 3 – September 1980
*Book 4 – November 1981
The annuals are full of quizzes, funny stories, pop group pictures, knitting patterns plus features on the shows stars.
Each book has presenter photos in which the hosts are seen separately as a comedy character. A memorable example of this is Book 4 which features
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...
, then in his 30s, as traditional English schoolboy Harry Copter. The character of Harry Copter is referenced throughout the annual, following a humorous
split screen
Split screen may refer to:
* Split screen (computing), dividing graphics into adjacent parts
* Split screen (video production), the visible division of the screen
* ''Split Screen'' (TV series), 1997–2001
* Split-Screen Level, a bug in the vid ...
interview by Noel on the programme. The fictional character's name is a pun on the host's love of
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s. This comedic picture of Noel has now made Book 4 extremely collectable.
Transmissions
Out of the 146 episodes that were made in total, 41 survive. These are Episode 21 of Series 1, Episodes 4–5 & 21 of Series 2, Episode 24 of Series 3, Episodes 1–2, 7, 12, 15, 17, 21 & 25 of Series 4, Episodes 1–2, 12, 14–18, 21, 23, 25 & 27 of Series 5 and Episodes 1, 3, 5–7, 11, 13, 15–17, 19–22, & 24–25 of Series 6.
Due to industrial action by the ABS union at the BBC over Thursday 21 and Friday 22 December 1978, the edition which should have aired on Saturday 23 December 1978 was not transmitted. The reason being that the strike was only settled between the union and the BBC at 10.00pm on Friday 22 December 1978, and it was impossible for the live Swap Shop to be up and running in time for the 9.30am start that next day. Instead BBC One returned to the air after being blacked out for two full days, at 3.00pm on Saturday 23 December 1978. Swap Shop finally returned on Saturday 30 December 1978.
References
External links
*
*
*
Swap Shopat Saturday Mornings
on Paul Morris' SatKids
{{British Saturday morning television
BBC children's television shows
1970s British children's television series
1980s British children's television series
1976 British television series debuts
1982 British television series endings
Lost BBC episodes
English-language television shows