Chess Masterpieces - Tyne Tees - early 70s?

[Deleted]

I wonder if anyone remembers, or could tell me about the origins of this series which used to be regularly scheduled on Tyne-Tees during the early 70's. It used to be screened on a Sunday morning at 9.25 (first programme of the day), and was often used as filler material when programmes underran their timeslots.

All I can recall is that it was in black and white, shot on film, and that each episode reproduced in stop-motion animated form classic chess games from the 19th and 20th century. The unseen presenter had a plummy English accent. It sticks in my memory because during one episode the projector overheated and the film melted away on screen - a somewhat flustered continuity announcer (Neville Wanless) had to read out birthday greetings to fill in the gap ! - the other notable time I saw this happen was during an airing of an episode of The Time Tunnel - I believe this episode was missing from UK airings of this series for many years afterwards (not sure if Channel 4 managed to get a new print when they used to show the old Irwin Allen series during the 1980's.)

Chess Masterpieces looked like it had been probably produced in the 50's (or even earlier) - Google searches have proved fruitless - I've asked on other forums about this show and no-one seems to remember it !
Any help in tracking it down would be appreciated.

[iankmclachlan]

I remember watching this series but it was definitely in the early 60s when I was at Primary School. The programmes were quite short as I remember them. My region was STV at that time. I used to play chess at Primary School but I haven't played it in years.

[Deleted]

Dec 18, 2011 14:47:07 GMT iankmclachlan said:

I remember watching this series but it was definitely in the early 60s when I was at Primary School. The programmes were quite short as I remember them. My region was STV at that time. I used to play chess at Primary School but I haven't played it in years.

That's quite possible Ian, the episodes were 10-15 mins long, and were a fixture in the schedules in the Northern England and Scottish regions for many a year - I suppose the prints were on their last legs when I saw them !