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Post by Steve Williams on Jul 11, 2011 12:58:37 GMT
TVS, Saturday Banana. And there was a big Banana outside the Maidstone TV Studios if I recall. Not a real one, a model one. Saturday Banana was a Southern production, actually, it predated TVS. So was Our Show, in fact - LWT didn't have a kids department, as they didn't broadcast during traditional kids time during the week. TVS did make a major contribution to Saturday mornings, mind, with Number 73 and Motormouth, and even when they finished, a number of Saturday morning programmes were made at Maidstone, right up to Ministry of Mayhem in 2006, there's a really strong tradition of kids shows at Maidstone, presumably thanks to its TVS roots which themselves probably owed much to Southern's heritage in kids shows. When I did a piece on every Saturday morning TV show for TV Cream last year, the Undertones clip was the only Mersey Pirate clip I could find anywhere on YouTube, until Bernard Wrigley stuck those up. I think he's put up some Fun Factory as well.
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Post by Steve Williams on Jul 11, 2011 12:59:33 GMT
Anyone else remember it? It was only shown in certain ITV regions, so it won't be familiar to everyone. Just to say, I think it might actually have been networked, as it got on the cover of Look-In. Unfortunately it was after the strike had started, so it was no use to anyone.
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Post by Ian Watlington on Jul 11, 2011 21:01:51 GMT
Saturday Banana was a Southern production, actually, it predated TVS. So was Our Show, in fact - LWT didn't have a kids department Are you sure Our Show was a Southern production? It was recorded at LWT (it wasn't live) and has an LWT ident at the front and an LWT production caption at the end! They did a special end link each week for Southern, which opted out about 10-15 minutes early. LWT made a lot of kids' shows, I don't think the lack of a formal kids' department was much of an issue.
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Post by Steve Williams on Jul 12, 2011 13:58:18 GMT
Are you sure Our Show was a Southern production? It was recorded at LWT (it wasn't live) and has an LWT ident at the front and an LWT production caption at the end! Hmm, I was wrong, then. Sorry about that, I dunno where I got Southern from. LWT made some kids shows for regional screening - like Saturday Scene - but they came from the presentation department, and they didn't make anything else formally for kids on the network, things like Catweazle and The Krankies were made by the adult drama and LE departments and shown in family timeslots in the early evening.
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Post by Chris Dabbs on Jul 13, 2011 23:17:27 GMT
The programme was shown each week on all ITV regions, with the exception of "Channel" and "Tyne Tees". I was watching it from "Yorkshire" (living in Lincoln). I'm led to believe all scheduled 12 episodes made it to screen, but I'm happy to be proved otherwise. Anyone else remember it? It was only shown in certain ITV regions, so it won't be familiar to everyone. Just to say, I think it might actually have been networked, as it got on the cover of Look-In. Unfortunately it was after the strike had started, so it was no use to anyone.
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Post by StevePhillips on Jul 19, 2011 16:47:08 GMT
There's at least one clip from MP (broadcast quality) in Channel 4's "Punk" documentary from the early 90s. Boomtown Rats, I think.
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Post by Simon Winters on Jul 22, 2011 11:57:28 GMT
There is also about two hours' worth of film and vt inserts from Mersey Pirate surviving in the Granada archive in broadcast quality.
I enquired with about this with Kaleidoscope, and was told they hold a viewing copy of this material, obtained from Granada.
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Jul 22, 2011 12:23:49 GMT
Thank you Simon. This will probably account for much of the ITN Source material, as such.
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Post by Chris Dabbs on Jul 23, 2011 18:53:33 GMT
Been offline for a week. Just got back to read the comments. Interesting about the Rats footage. I have that documentary on VHS, so I must watch that again at some point.
So, taking into account the previous comment, why is it that ITV can not "find" the footage I was enquiring about? Below is a copy of my request, in accordance with the ITNSource website:
MERSEY PIRATE Please read the Disclaimer
Clip ID: 555365 Gm library type: GRA OTHER CLIPS TX date: 1979-01-01 Approx TX date: R RX date: 1979-01-01 Running time - minutes: 32 Running time - seconds: Administrator: GRANADA TELEVISION Production area: FACTUAL PROGRAMMES Clip title: Clip type: STOCKSHOT Historic programme title: Exploit Issues: Synopsis text: Mersey Pirate: title and strings. Includes opening titles, Top 20, several MPTV captions, a comic strip, Stowaways, Ship Shape, Decked Out, and the postal address. Shot timecode in: Shot descriptions: Source: Credits text: Programme ID: 1/0976 Programme title: MERSEY PIRATE Production ID: Historic Production No: Production title: Format ID: C79/243 C79/243 Format type: 16MMMAGTRACK 35MMCOLPT Format comments: Format timecode in: Format timecode out:
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Post by Chris Dabbs on Jan 26, 2013 12:37:25 GMT
Have at long last managed to find the theme tune to this missing series. Very 1979! Sounds like part of the programme was captured too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_-bznuJCTU&hd=1So a major investigation must take place, me thinks. I'm kicking myself as I audio recorded a good five or six full shows, as an innocent 8-yo! One full show I had was featuring The Undertones recording Teenage Kicks. Whistle Test used the film as an insert once. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYg5c9EL7s0ITN Source suggests - with very wrong dates - they have three full episodes and four inserts, one of the inserts may be a duplicate. According to ITN Source they have episodes 4, 7 and 6 - totally different from the real picture that Chris found out about!
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Post by williammcgregor on Jun 29, 2019 9:02:07 GMT
Does anyone know from which episode this clip come from?
TV Brain says today that
Episode 1 02/6/79 sequences exist, but the complete programme is lost Episode 2 09/6/79 sequences exist, but the complete programme is lost Episode 3 16/6/79 (missing) Episode 4 23/6/79 (missing) Episode 5 30/6/79 (missing) Episode 6 07/7/79 (missing) Episode 7 14/4/79 not listed on TV Brian so guess this episode exists Episode 8 21/7/79 (missing) Episode 9 28/7/79 (missing) Episode 10 4/8/79 (missing) Episode 11 11/8/79 (missing) Episode 12 18/8/79 (missing) Episode 13 25/8/79 (missing)
TV Pop Diaries has 02/6/79 Lene Lovich, The Dooleys 23/6/79 The Ruts - Babylon's Burning 30/6/79 The Real Thing - Boogie Down 07/7/79 The Undertones - Teenage Kicks (article on the making of a pop record) the link to this on page 1 of thread
Wiki tells us Based on board a ship (The Royal Iris) anchored at Liverpool Docks on the River Mersey. The programme presenters were Duggie Brown, Frank Carson, Bernard Wrigley aka Pierre le Oui Oui, and Billy Butler. Bad Manners and David Prowse also appeared. The show was prerecorded, Run Time 120 minutes.
Can anyone say or find out who appeared in the other missing episodes too?
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Post by markdixon on Jun 29, 2019 10:37:30 GMT
I think the Sparks clip is probably from 14 July 1979. Sparks also appeared on ‘Juke Box Jury’ on that date. 'Beat The Clock' had been released as a single on the previous day.
The clip of Echo and the Bunnymen isn’t from ‘The Mersey Pirate’. It’s from an edition of ‘Fun Factory’ from 02 August 1980. It still exists in the ITV archives. I remember seeing it listed on the old ITN Source website.
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Post by Richard Marple on Jun 29, 2019 10:59:08 GMT
A couple of heavy songs for a Saturday Morning show by the Ruts & Undertones.
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Post by williammcgregor on Jun 29, 2019 12:44:19 GMT
I think the Sparks clip is probably from 14 July 1979. Sparks also appeared on ‘Juke Box Jury’ on that date. 'Beat The Clock' had been released as a single on the previous day. The clip of Echo and the Bunnymen isn’t from ‘The Mersey Pirate’. It’s from an edition of ‘Fun Factory’ from 02 August 1980. It still exists in the ITV archives. I remember seeing it listed on the old ITN Source website. Hi Mark, Many thanks for the update on the Echo and the Bunnymen clip I have removed the clip from my post.
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Post by markdixon on Jun 29, 2019 20:02:50 GMT
Here are a few snippets of info that I found online about ‘The Mersey Pirate’.
The following were guests on the show:
09 June 1979: Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, The Real Thing 16 June 1979: Patti Boulaye (her single at the time was ‘Disco Dancer’, so she may have performed that) 23 June 1979: Don Estelle and Windsor Davies – ‘Whispering Grass’
The BFI Collections Search database lists some footage from ‘The Mersey Pirate’ that survives on video tape. This includes the following:
• the entire edition from 14 July 1979 • a segment from 09 June 1979 about the twenty best-selling singles in the UK since 1960 • various inserts from other episodes (including a ‘Ferry Cross The Mersey’ dance routine)
It’s possible that ‘The Mersey Pirate’ wasn’t broadcast on 21 July 1979. I found an old article from the Liverpool Echo that mentioned an electrician’s strike at Granada.
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