BBC children's television series (1976?1982)
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
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Genre
| Children's
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Presented by
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Theme music composer
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Country of origin
| United Kingdom
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Original language
| English
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No.
of series
| 6
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No.
of episodes
| 146
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Production location
| BBC Television Centre
[1]
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Running time
| 150?180 minutes
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Network
| BBC One
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Release
| 2 October 1976
(
1976-10-02
)
?
27 March 1982
(
1982-03-27
)
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Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
, more commonly known simply as
Swap Shop
, is a British
children's television series
that aired on
BBC1
from 2 October 1976 to 27 March 1982. It was groundbreaking 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
's
Tiswas
, though the latter was initially only broadcast in the
ATV
region in the
Midlands
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
[
edit
]
The show was hosted by
Noel Edmonds
with
Keith Chegwin
,
John Craven
and, from 1978,
Maggie Philbin
.
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
.
[
citation needed
]
Craven had a stuffed toy lamb as an inpromptu sidekick, known simply as "Lamb".
[2]
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.
[
citation needed
]
Generally, the primary purpose of the BBC OB unit was to
broadcast
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.
[
citation needed
]
Edmonds, Chegwin and Philbin briefly formed a pop group called
Brown Sauce
in December 1981 and released a single called "I Wanna be a Winner". The song peaked at number 15 in the
UK Singles Chart
and stayed in the Top 40 for a total of nine weeks.
[3]
Telephone number
[
edit
]
The telephone number for the show from the second series onward was 01 811 8055.
[4]
[5]
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
.
[6]
The number was well known and remembered by children
[7]
and was groundbreaking for the BBC, who previously had received viewer feedback mainly by letter.
[8]
History
[
edit
]
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
,
Going Live!
and
Live & Kicking
.
This first ever question for the live audience was, 'Where will the next Olympic games be held (1980)?'. Moscow was the answer.
Spin-off programmes were created to widen the appeal of
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop:
- On Boxing Day 1976,
Swap of the Pops
was broadcast on BBC1, featuring pre-recorded performances by pop acts of the era, linked by Noel Edmonds.
- The first
Swap Shop Star Awards
were shown in March 1978, in which special awards ('Erics') were given to sportspeople, actors and other celebrities, as voted for by viewers of
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
. The programme returned for subsequent editions in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982.
- A live outside broadcast,
Noel Edmonds presents Multi-Coloured Swap Shop's Rock Garden Party
, was shown in May 1978 with Edmonds presenting numerous musical acts performing at the Jubilee Gardens on London's South Bank.
- The Multi Coloured Music Show
was shown on BBC1 on 26 May 1979, a programme similar to
Swap of the Pops
where Edmonds introduced some of the most popular music from the previous series of
Swap Shop
.
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
editor
Richard Marson
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.
[9]
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
,
Trumpton
creator
Gordon Murray
, and numerous cast and crew members of
Doctor Who
.
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
. 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
is also in the studio.
On 20 December 2007, the BBC announced that
Swap Shop
was returning to
BBC Two
for a 13-week run.
[10]
Barney Harwood presented the new show with
Basil Brush
. The revived show was titled
Basil's Swap Shop
and lasted for three series.
Noel Edmonds presents Multi-Coloured Swap Shop's Rock Garden Party
[
edit
]
Noel Edmonds presents Multi-Coloured Swap Shop's Rock Garden Party
was broadcast live on BBC1 at 5pm on Monday 29 May 1978, Spring Bank Holiday Monday in the UK. The title of the programme, as listed on
BBC Genome
, is different to that which appeared in the programme's opening titles -
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop Presents Noel Edmonds Rock Garden Party
.
Readers of the
Radio Times
were informed that there would be entertainment at 'a garden in Central London', however the location remained a mystery prior to broadcast. The open-air concert, presented by Edmonds, was in fact the
Jubilee Gardens
on London's South Bank, near to the modern-day site of the
London Eye
.
Performing on stage (though not singing live) were
Showaddywaddy
,
Darts
,
The Goodies
and
Patti Boulaye
. In between each of the performed songs, young members of the audience were invited on stage to play party games in order to win prizes.
It Started With Swap Shop
[
edit
]
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
' Unique TV company. Highlights of the programme saw the original presenting team reunited, other presenters from its successor shows
Saturday Superstore
,
Going Live!
and
Live & Kicking
make an appearance and celebrity fans came along to 'make a swap'.
[11]
The 130-minute programme was recorded in front of a studio audience at
BBC Television Centre
on 15 December 2006 and was broadcast on
BBC Two
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
. The shortened version of the programme was broadcast on
BBC Four
on 28 May 2007 at 7.00pm as part of the channel's
Children's Television on Trial
season.
Annuals
[
edit
]
Swap Shop
was so popular that during its run four annuals were published.
[12]
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
, 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
interview by Noel on the programme. The fictional character's name is a pun on the host's love of
helicopters
. This comedic picture of Noel has now made Book 4 extremely collectable.
Transmissions
[
edit
]
Series
|
Start date
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End date
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Episodes
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1
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2 October 1976
[13]
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26 February 1977
[14]
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21
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2
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8 October 1977
[15]
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25 March 1978
[16]
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24
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3
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30 September 1978
[17]
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24 March 1979
[18]
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26
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4
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29 September 1979
[19]
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22 March 1980
[20]
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26
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5
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27 September 1980
[21]
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28 March 1981
[22]
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27
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6
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3 October 1981
[23]
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27 March 1982
[24]
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25
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Out of the 146 episodes that were made in total, 41 survive. These are episode 21 of series 1, episodes 4, 5 and 21 of series 2, episode 24 of series 3, episodes 1, 2, 7, 12, 15, 17, 21 and 25 of series 4, episodes 1, 2, 12, 14 to 18, 21, 23, 25 and 27 of series 5 and episodes 1, 3, 5 to 7, 11, 13, 15 to 17, 19 to 22, 24 and 25 of series 6.
[25]
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 the following morning. 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
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
British Saturday and Sunday morning children's television programmes
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BBC
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ITV
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Channel 4
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- T4
(Sat/Sun)
- 4Kids
(weekdays/weekends)
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Five
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