'70s Afternoon Repeats

[Deleted]

(New thread started for this topic now as it was diverting from Doomwatch).

Growing up in the '60s, I used to wonder why it was that film series like The Avengers were frequently rescreened whereas VT shows such as Top Of The Pops or The Wednesday Play were not. Usually a studio-based series would get one repeat (if it was lucky or was a prestige item). A studio-based SF series like OOTU being repeated was certainly a rarity back then. I remember some of Rediffusion's Half-Hour Story being given a late night repeat screening in 1971, which stuck in my mind as it was so unusual!

[Deleted]

JOHN WALL:

I suspect it might have had something to do with the arrangements with the actors. I think that they generally received a one-off payment which was a bit higher but meant that they got nothing for repeats, overseas sales, etc.

JEFF LEWIS:

During the seventies most of us can well remember ITV regularly re-running their major nine o'clock dramas during the afternoons. This was always fun if you happend to have a day off school and missed a show first time around.
One that sticks in my mind is "Hunter's Walk" and it's afternoon repeat failed to stop most of the episodes from getting junked. Is this another arbitary decision?

LAURENCE PIPER:

Yes, that welcome afternoon slot happened a bit later though and came in more after the relaxing of broadcasting hours in October 1972. In the London area (at least) ITV had moved most of their schools programmes to the mornings and were starting to fill their afternoons in gradually a bit by the beginning of the '70s. But I was really talking about the '60s when repeats of that kind were almost inheard of.

It was still a pretty unique slot for repeats though but I remember it well: Public Eye, Danger Man and other ITC shows, some single plays, Danger UXB, The Squirrels, Jokers Wild and lots more. You still weren't getting repeats of anything much outside of drama series and sitcoms though (no TOTP or other genres, for instance).

MARK SMITH:

Out of curiosity Laurence, were these daytime repeats in the 70s the full versions, or were they edited because of the earlier broadcast times (in the way daytime repeats were in subsequent decades)?

[Deleted]

I think those daytime repeats were complete but can't be sure now, Mark. I recall that some things were originally post-watershed and so you did sometimes get what today would be regarded as adult material (e.g. swearing, occasional sexual stuff etc.). Presumably in the pre-home video age, it was thought that kids would generally be at school so the only audience watching would be adults (it's strange though that the more "adult" episodes of UFO were shunted to a very late slot due to what was really quite mild content whereas much more adult stuff was happily shown mid afternoon)!

I can recall other repeats (in late night slots particularly) such as The Avengers etc. being cut at times but with the afternoon stuff, they seemed to be shown straight, possibly as they were mainly VT series and therefore not so easy to edit. Maybe they also wanted easy programming "straight off the shelf" to fill the hours without recourse to fiddling around with it.

I'd be interested to hear other people's recollections of these afternoon repeats. They were at the time an excellent way of catching up with things you'd either missed first time around or wanted the chance to see again!

[Deleted]

Just remembered a few more: repeats of The Crezz and later on Strangers / Bulman. London area ITV also only got it's first screening of YTV soap Castle Haven in the post-lunchtime slot in '72 (which began in '69 elsewhere)! Not a repeat as such but interesting all the same.

It might be interesting to piece together a map of the repeats over the years. If anyone has access to TV Times, perhaps they can add titles / slots? One of the earliest of the weekday afternoon drama repeats I can recall was Danger Man in late '71 / early '72, which I used to audio tape. Were the Callan repeats at this time in the afternoons or evenings? I used to watch them and seem to think afternoons. But I could be wrong on this; as Public Eye was afternoons a few years later, I might be merging the two.

[Peter Stirling]

This topic is red rag to a bull Lawrence.

you have got the old memory cells going.

I doubt if Callan (being a bit too heavy ) was repeated in the 70s afternoons ?
The B/W Callans did get a late night repeat though, along with 'The Gold Robbers' ' A Man of our Times' and 'Wicked Women' which they too were perhaps a bit too heavy for the afternoons?

Here is some typical early 70s afternoon fayre.

Public Eye (only starting from 71)
The mind of Mr JD Reeder (only the second series for some strange reason)
Kate
Armchair Theatre (post 70 only)
Mad Movies
Family at War
The Misfit (only the second series for some strange reason which had colour strike episodes, wheras the first was full colour)
various ITC of course
Hine
Edgar Wallace (hacked to pieces because they often had running times over the perscribed 50 minutes for an hour slot)
Douglas Fairbanks Presents (in the 70s his intro was chopped out and it was renamed Matinee)

Southern kids were spoiled during the school holidays they showed stuff like The Saint, Seaway, Mr Piper and Richard the Lionheart every morning .

[Alan Turrell]

Ive got a feeling some episodes of Richard Greene's Robin Hood were repeated possibly around 64 or 65 im sure it was around that time i watched them also gerry anderson shows like Stingray and also u.s shows were repeated especially cartoons like The Flintsones etc.

[Jeff Lewis]

Aug 11, 2010 16:45:44 GMT Alan Turrell said:

Ive got a feeling some episodes of Richard Greene's Robin Hood were repeated possibly around 64 or 65 im sure it was around that time i watched them also gerry anderson shows like Stingray and also u.s shows were repeated especially cartoons like The Flintsones etc.

Robin Hood and Stingray certainly were shown in the mornings during in 1974. I can recall it was my staple diet of holiday television around the time of that year's World Cup Finals.

[paulwelton]

Around 1972 Anglia had Randall and hopkirk,the saint,danger man weekday afternoons.
The champions was on at sunday lunchtimes after weekend world.
And the avengers tues or wed nights around 11.30.
Have been hooked on all these ever since!

[Deleted]

Aug 11, 2010 14:13:48 GMT Peter Stirling said:

I doubt if Callan (being a bit too heavy ) was repeated in the 70s afternoons ?
The B/W Callans did get a late night repeat though, along with 'The Gold Robbers' ' A Man of our Times' and 'Wicked Women' which they too were perhaps a bit too heavy for the afternoons?

Here is some typical early 70s afternoon fayre.

Public Eye (only starting from 71)
The mind of Mr JD Reeder (only the second series for some strange reason)
Kate
Armchair Theatre (post 70 only)
Mad Movies
Family at War
The Misfit (only the second series for some strange reason which had colour strike episodes, wheras the first was full colour)
various ITC of course
Hine
Edgar Wallace (hacked to pieces because they often had running times over the perscribed 50 minutes for an hour slot)
Douglas Fairbanks Presents (in the 70s his intro was chopped out and it was renamed Matinee)

Southern kids were spoiled during the school holidays they showed stuff like The Saint, Seaway, Mr Piper and Richard the Lionheart every morning .

That's an interesting little list, Peter. I'd forgotten about J.G. Reeder but I also remember seeing it in that slot. Some of the stuff repeated in the afternoons was quite heavy though when you think about it: Public Eye, Armchair Theatre etc. I can't definitely recall about Callan but you may be right that those repeats were in the evenings. I can't recall the exact slot (either 9pm or 10.30?) as I get the repeat slots mixed up with the original transmissions, which I also saw.

I don't remember seeing The Misfit in the afternoons though so thanks for pointing that one out (do you have a year date for the transmissions?). I must have slipped up there as I saw it in 1970 in the evenings and would have welcomed a chance to see it again! Edgar Wallace, of course, was ever present back then. A pity we don't get a chance to see them again now though.

[stevefreestone]

I do remember the afternoon repeats of Bulman and being very surprised that they kept in a topless scene at a morgue.

[Mark Smith]

Aug 19, 2010 8:36:29 GMT stevefreestone said:

I do remember the afternoon repeats of Bulman and being very surprised that they kept in a topless scene at a morgue.

Perhaps that brief scene was allowed through as it was of a non-sexual nature.

[Stephen Doran]

When Horse Racing was postponed or cancelled in 1972 Thames TV showed The Avengers episode False Witness.

[Jeff Lewis]

Aug 23, 2010 8:58:16 GMT Stephen Doran said:

When Horse Racing was postponed or cancelled in 1972 Thames TV showed The Avengers episode False Witness.

Possibly as early as 1970 Granada broadcast another Tara King episode "Fog" which I saw during school holidays. A rare treat as The Avengers was considered silly by my father who stuck to the alternate programmes on BBC.

[Stephen Doran]

The Saint was on in the afternoon back in 1973 and went on till around 1978 was then shown in the early mornings around 11.00AM

[Matthew Brannigan]

I used to really enjoy repeats of The Saint in the 70's as a kid, but Thames only ever showed the older B&W episodes; some years later I was quite surprised to see the show was later made in colour.