The Adventures of Francie and Josie

[Ken Griffin]

Your venture seems like a worthy one - I'll try to get some details together about the Northern Irish transmissions, which should provide you with some of the missing episode titles, and may answer the question about whether STV held them on tape for long after broadcast.

[Ken Griffin]

Okay. The initial Northern Irish screenings were late-night affairs, running from September 1963 to February 1964. I have no clue regarding how to reconcile them with the original STV screenings. Towards the end, there's a few episode titles which William doesn't have yet.

Sundays @10.40pm
28/09/63 – Unknown episode
05/10/63 – Unknown episode (tx @10.45pm)
13/10/63 – Unknown episode
20/10/63 – Unknown episode

Fridays @ 11.10pm
25/10/63 – Unknown episode (tx @11pm)
01/11/63 – Unknown episode
08/11/63 – Unknown episode
15/11/63 – Unknown episode
22/11/63 – Unknown episode*
29/11/63 – Unknown episode (tx @10.55pm)
06/12/63 – Unknown episode (tx @10.55pm)
13/12/63 – Unknown episode (tx @10.55pm)
20/12/63 – Unknown episode (tx @11pm)

Wednesday @ 11.10pm
25/12/63 – Unknown Episode

[No listings available for 26/12 and 27/12]

Sunday @ 10.40pm
05/01/64 – Unknown episode
12/01/64 – Unconfirmed; no listing available
19/01/64 – The Odd Job
26/01/64 – The Holiday
02/02/64 – The Glesca Gallents

* There is something odd with the listing for this episode. The next programme ‘TV Award Winners 1963’ supposedly starts at 11.22pm.

[Ken Griffin]

The second batch of Northern Irish screenings ran from April to August 1964 and were broadcast on Sunday afternoons among various adventure and kids series. They appear to start with repeats of 1962 episodes followed by episodes from the Winter 1963 series. I am not sure they follow the original STV order - The Holiday is repeated in a different position within the run.

Sundays @ 4.05pm

05/04/1964 – Unknown Title
12/04/1964 – Unknown Title (Unconfirmed)

Sundays @3.05pm
19/04/1964 – The Pen Pal
26/04/1964 – The Doners
03/05/1964 – Unknown Title
10/05/1964 – Unknown Title (tx @ 3.10pm)
17/05/1964 – The Princess
24/05/1964 – The So’Jers
31/05/1964 – The Holiday
07/06/1964 – The Rivals
14/06/1964 – Night Club
21/06/1964 – Banditos
28/06/1964 – Unknown Title

Break caused by technician's strike

Sunday @ 5.15pm
12/07/1964 – The House Warming (tx @ 5.10pm)
19/07/1964 – The Wallet
25/07/1964 – Unknown Title
02/08/1964 – Unknown Title
09/08/1964 – Unknown Title

[Ken Griffin]

The third and final run of Francie and Josie on UTV is quite fascinating as UTV attempted to broadcast the first and second batches of 1965 episodes as one continuous block. This means that four episodes, starting with Luck of The ---?, debuted on Northern Irish screens rather than Scottish ones. This had a consequence at the end of the run though as UTV ran out of episodes, meaning that the final two episodes were eventually screened almost three months later than the rest.

It is interesting to note that, despite having repeated Francie and Josie episodes from 1962 the previous year, UTV didn't fill the gap with further repeats. This raises the question as to whether the tapes of the pre-1965 episodes were still existent at that point.

Saturdays @ 6.35pm

17/04/1965 – The Good Deed
24/04/1965 – The Decoy
01/05/1965 – Unknown Episode
08/05/1965 – The Stowaways
15/05/1965 – Unknown Episode
22/05/1965 – Unknown Episode
29/05/1965 – The Toff
05/06/1965 – The Luck of The ---?
12/06/1965 – Unknown Episode
19/06/1965 – Lovebirds
26/06/1965 – Unknown Episode

Tuesdays @ 8.25pm
07/09/1965 – Unknown Episode
14/09/1965 – The Songmakers

[williammcgregor]

Thanks for the information Ken...I'll try and get extra information on the 1964 series

[williammcgregor]

Just back from the library today and it appears that their were no new episodes of The Adventures of Francie and Josie shown in 1964?(only repeats!?) this could have been due to their heavy theatre workload?

Anyway the 1963 series was repeated like this on STV...

Sunday's 5:15 to 5:45pm

09/02/64 The Princess

16/02/64 The So'jers

01/03/64 The Rivals

08/03/64 Night Club

15/03/64 The Banditos

22/03/64 The Stamp Collectors

29/03/64 The Matchmakers

05/04/64 House Warming

12/04/64 The Wallet (*updated thanks to Mike Jones information)

19/04/64 The Odd Job

P.S. I've updated a bit episode information on the previous 1963 series post

[mikejones]

There was a episode on the 12 April 1964, Franice is wanted for passing forged notes in The Wallet.

[williammcgregor]

Thanks for letting me know Mike

[mikejones]

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2mus-XyGPC0C Glasgow Evening times fills in many gaps if you know the dates

[williammcgregor]

Thanks Mike! that website helped me to update the 1963 episode list on page 2 of this thread,I'd been struggling to associate episodes and dates.

Meantime here's an article that shows how popular a show "The Adventures of Francie and Josie" was at the time

[williammcgregor]

Here's another couple of articles from the great Viewer magazine...

[mikejones]

Anglia and Tyne Tess TV broadcast the show? that a bit of a shocker.


It seems Tyne Tees also had it in 65 so there must have broadcast the full series. 

[williammcgregor]

Good to know it was broadcast on 5 different stations Anglia,Grampian,STV,Tyne Tees and Ulster that improves the chances that some footage survives?...

although not looking good for STV to have any footage as previous posters have mentioned,same goes for Grampian?

I wonder how good or bad Anglia,Tyne Tees and Ulster were at preserving their archive?

[mikejones]

Not great, I dont even think Anglia broadcast the full series. ATV would have also been a bad bet. Only company which would have been the best chance would be Granada, OR the stations which become Thames in 68.

[williammcgregor]

I found the synopses for two Francie and Josie 1963 episodes at the library today in the wee gem of a TV Magazine named "The Viewer"

13/11/63 "The Housewarming" Auntie Jessie moves out. And Josie moves in. This, he claims, is an event to be celebrated...with a house warming party, but no hot peas and totty crisps for them. They mean to do it a la latest women's magazine.


11/12/63 "The Glesca Gallants" a clout on the head - and Josie is transported back to days of old when knights were bold. And when he, Sir Josie of Sauchiehall, and Sir Francie de Gorbals - two Glesca Gallants fought two "Sassenach Sody-heids" for the fair hands of two comely bits of stuff!

I have updated this information onto the 1963 series details on page 1 of this thread.