ITV – The Thatcher Crisis Years

Jangles – ITV drama in a rock club

Posted on March 12, 2011March 16, 2018 by The Thatcher Crisis Years

ITV decided it needed to get down with the kids in early 1982 and launched a drama series called ‘Jangles’ set in a fictional night club. The main actor was an eighteen year old Jesse Birdsall – good looking cockney geezer who would go to play Marcus Tandy in Eldorado and Ron Gregory in The Bill. Thirty years ago, he was the force behind Jangles.

The resident act at the club was none other than Hazel O’Connor but each episode – I think seven went out in the end – had a guest band that included Fun Boy Three and Haircut 100. The ethos behind Jangles was to show that under-employed youth of the time could have fun while having no money. Well, that was the idea anyway.

Robert Plant on Tiswas

Posted on February 26, 2011March 15, 2018 by The Thatcher Crisis Years

Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant is humbled by the lunacy of the Tiswas set but handles it very well. Name check for new wave band Landscape at the top of the programme as well as heavy metal die hard Ian Gillan (ex of Deep Purple) and The Cure. There was a bit of a heavy metal revival going on at the start of the 80s – the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) – hence Plant’s appearance I suppose.

Tiswas versus Multicoloured Swap Shop

Posted on February 26, 2011March 15, 2018 by The Thatcher Crisis Years

swapshop In the 1970s, nice kids watched the BBC’s children’s output while bad kids tuned in to ITV. Well, that’s an over-simplification with a nugget of truth in there somewhere. On a Saturday morning, the BBC gave you a young Noel Edmonds presenting the Multicoloured Swap Shop in the mid-70s. Over on ITV, something Tiswas was evolving into an anarchic alternative.

There was nothing intellectually engaging about Tiswas – unless you think seeing custard being thrown at people in cages is high art. And whereas Noel was getting kids to do nerdy swaps, Tiswas was appealing to a young person’s more raucous instincts. While Noel chatted on the phones, bands like The Specials were getting pelted with something horrible on ITV.

Tiswas The team on Tiswas were not completely unfamiliar. Sally James had been on the telly for a while and was the heartthrob of many teenage boys – well, I think she made other organs throb but let’s not wander down that road. Can’t say I’m a huge Chris Tarrant fan now but he was the ring master of this frenetic nonsense and all credit to him for making Noel Edmonds look very old fashioned for a while.

It’s strange to read reviews of Tiswas now that refer to ‘black comedian’ Lenny Henry – because of course black people still struggled to get on TV as anything other than bit parts in dramas and backing singers. Lenny had created a character called Algernon and it was better to see him taking the rise out of the Rasta scene than the horrible Jim Davidson and his racist ‘Chalky White’ character. And I don’t care if he’s apologising for that ‘comedy’ now because he is going to rot in PC hell for all time.

Bob Carollgees had Spit the Dog was a weekly fave as well as were the Phantom Flan Flingers.

ITV had also made the BBC look a bit fuddy-duddy in the mid-1970s with Magpie – it’s rival programme to Blue Peter. At the time, it felt like Magpie was more edgy that Blue Peter though when you look at the programmes on YouTube now, Magpie is still very middle class and safe. But Tiswas was unsettling and it’s amazing that politicians and establishment figures queued up to condemn it – which of course did a wonder for its ratings.