''The Saturday Show'' is

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

-based Central Television's Saturday morning children's TV programme which replaced their previous show

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 ...

. It ran 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 ...

for two series between 23 October 1982 and 14 April 1984. It was originally planned that popular wrestler Big Daddy would host and that it would be called "Big Daddy's Saturday Show". A pilot show was recorded with Big Daddy presenting, assisted by

Isla St Clair Isla St Clair (born 2 May 1952 as Isabella Margaret Dyce) is a Scotland, Scottish singer. Life Isla St Clair was born in Grangemouth, central Scotland, in 1952; her mother was Zetta Sinclair. Her family came from northeast Scotland and it was h ...

and short films were shot with Big Daddy to insert in the upcoming series; a trailer for "Big Daddy's Saturday Show", complete with logo was shown on ITV the Saturday morning before the show was due to air. It was then announced during the week that Big Daddy was dropping out and that Isla St Clair would now take the lead, with ex-

Magpie Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one ...

host

Tommy Boyd Timothy Leslie Boyd (born 14 December 1952), better known as Tommy Boyd, is a British radio presenter. Television From 1977 to 1980, Boyd was co-presenter of the ITV children's magazine programme ''Magpie'' replacing Douglas Rae. In 1981, h ...

assisting and with

Jeremy Beadle Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE (12 April 1948 – 30 January 2008) was an English television presenter, radio presenter, writer and producer. During the 1980s he was a regular face on British television, and in two years appeared ...

being used as an occasional "stand in" host. The actor

David Rappaport David Stephen Rappaport (23 November 1951 – 2 May 1990) was an English actor with achondroplasia. He appeared in the films ''Time Bandits'' and '' The Bride'', and television series ''L.A. Law'', ''The Wizard'' and ''Captain Planet and the Pl ...

was also a fixture playing the character "Shades" who had also been in the final series of Tiswas, as was footballer

Jimmy Greaves James Peter Greaves (20 February 1940 – 19 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Greaves is regarded as one of England’s best ever players. He is England's fifth-highest international goalscorer ...

. It was never made publicly clear why Big Daddy dropped out so close to transmission; no settlement was ever reached between him and Central. The second series of the show featured a regular technology spot called "Interface". Presented by IT journalist Chris Palmer, it featured a couple of notable TV firsts. It broadcast a computer program live which viewers could record from their TV and upload to a

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

. The initial attempt failed due to interference on the feed from the studio floor, but it was re-broadcast the following week and many viewers successfully recorded and loaded the programme. The second 'first' for the show was the game "Up for Grabs" which was a game played live in the studio by a player in their own home via a computer and a modem. The contestant had to steer a robotic arm and pick up prizes from a rotating turntable. This proved incredibly difficult as the contestants found it difficult to gauge the depth of the arm and also the response time of the robot arm was slow. Still, this pre-dated many other interactive game shows by many years. The programme was shown in most ITV regions except . TSW's show was

Series guide

*Series 1: 26 editions, 23 October 1982 – 30 April 1983 *Series 2: 31 editions, 3 September 1983 – 14 April 1984 TSW never broadcast series 1, instead opting to broadcast its own Saturday morning programme, also called '' The Saturday Show'' later renamed ''Freeze Frame''. For Series 2 Both TSW and

Channel Television ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the ...

(who finally started to broadcast before noon on Saturday) Finally started to broadcast the series from January 1984.

References

External links

*
''The Saturday Show''
on Paul Morris' SatKids 1982 British television series debuts 1984 British television series endings 1980s British children's television series English-language television shows ITV children's television shows Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Central Independent Television {{UK-tv-prog-stub