A History of the BBC in 100 Blog Posts: 1987.


It's been a few months since we looked at the BBC schedules and not since the start of the 1980s, so let's see what a typical day would have looked like for BBC One on the 11th December 1987.  It's a Friday, a couple of weeks before Christmas and the schedules are still in a transitional period between some of their earlier elements and what we might expect to see today.

After half an hour of Ceefax at 6am, the morning proper opens with a Christmas themed RKO short starring Edgar Kennedy, Poisoned Ivory, a kind-of proto-National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  This leads into Breakfast Time, now well into its desk bound era, with a soon to be leaving Frank Bough joined by Sally Magnusson and Jeremy Paxman.  At 8:40 the curio that was Open Air with its initial fifteen minute slot fronted by Eamonn Holmes.  

After a repeat of Neighbours from the day before, Kilroy, Going for Gold in its first series, Andy Crane on early CBBC duties with birthday greetings and just before the final hour of Open Air (a programme about television bestriding the schedules) there's Five to Eleven, a daily five minute slot in which a range of celebrities read poetry or short prose works in what was essentially Jackanory for adults.  Today's is presented by Gary Watson, who played Arthur Terrall in Doctor Who's Evil of the Daleks.

Into the afternoon and to Daytime Live with Pamela Armstrong, Alan Titchmarsh and Judi Spiers, one of the many shows presented from Pebble Mill.  Then, after the One O'Clock News (from the BBC) with Michael Burke (who'd recently been expunged from South Africa because they didn't like his reporting), Neighbours, for which the Radio Times has the uncertain billing "Mike becomes a 'lifeguard'."  

Then in the middle of everything, we find the Doris Day film By the Light of the Silvery Moon which glancing around, wasn't unusual - Wednesday and Thursday had Kevin Costner and Tommy Trinder films in the same timeslot.  Doris was followed by Ask Margo a consumer advice slot led by Margo McDonald, in the period when she wasn't an SNP politician.  CBBC follows (Corners, SuperTed, What's All This Then?, Newsround and the sit-in episode of Grange Hill).   At which point you might expect Neighbours, but it's too early in the run for it to pop enough to require a tea-time repeat so instead we have Masterteam 87 with Angela Rippon.

The evening schedule begins with the Six O'Clock News (from the BBC) with Sue Lawley and Philip Hayton, a couple of years before he was shuffled off to North West Tonight and decades before whatever this was.  After regional programmes, it's Wogan, for which the guests aren't listed on the BBC Programme Index.  His old show Blankety Blank followed at 19:40, "Special guests this week: Pat Coombs, Henry Cooper, Barry Cryer, Debbie Greenwood, Jenny Hanley, Tom Pepper" followed by the first repeat of Twenty Years of the Two Ronnies (with its writing credits which include Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Spike Milligan).

After the Nine O'Clock News (from the BBC) with Martyn Lewis and Debbie Thrower, the big prestige drama of the evening is episode two of The Marksman, a revenge thriller set in Liverpool adapted from a novel by Hugh McRae starring David Threlfall, Michael Angelis, Craig Charles, Leslie Ash, Andrew Schofield and Ray Kingsley.  Originally scheduled earlier in the year, it was postponed and apparently re-edited in the wake of the Hungerford mass shooting.  As if that wasn't dark enough, the late film is Alistair Maclean's Breakheart Pass, starring Charles Bronson about an ill fated journey into a diphtheria epidemic in 1870s California.  The night ends with edited highlights of a Chris Rea concert and the final weather before closedown.

What's noticeable about this schedule is how much of daytime is live (or as live) compared to today at least on BBC One.  After Breakfast and Morning Live, barring news broadcasts the only other slot is The One Show, at time of writing anyway.  It's also pretty homogenised, a mix of property, antiques and quiz shows and (strangely) programmes about financial fraud.  But the evenings aren't that different from 1987, surprisingly, with original documentaries, comedies and dramas.  There's even a late film from the 1970s on the day of writing (Friday 9th June 2023): The Exorcist.  


Brimstone and Treacle


"Aliya looks back at Dennis Potter's powerfully disturbing, formerly-banned 1976 television play Brimstone & Treacle..."
[Gen of Deek]

"Programme includes: playwright Dennis Potter on his TV play - and now film - Brimstone and Treacle, plus Joan Plowright on her role as Mrs Bates: Carol Churchill on her new play Top Girls at the Royal Court: Graham Payn on the newly published diaries of Sir Noel Coward. Presented by Natalie Wheen."
[BBC Sounds]

"In a BBC World Service broadcast in 1979, Dennis Potter – who would have turned 80 this weekend – talked to Michael Billington about the relationship between good and evil in his play Brimstone and Treacle."
[The Guardian]

People

"James Hawthorne, controller of the BBC in Belfast for the last ten years, retires today. Report by Linda Mitchell."
[BBC Rewind]


Places


"This social event marked the closure of Designs Department at Western House, Great Portland Street and the merging of Design Group with Equipment Department, to form Design and Equipment Department at Avenue House, Power Road Chiswick.  The boat trip on the Thames symbolised the move from central to west London."
[BBCeng.inf]

"The new BBC shop opened today on Arthur Street in Belfast. The event was attended by Lord Mayor Dixie Gilmore and James Hawthorne (BBC Northern Ireland Controller). Interview with Paul Devine (Shop Manager). Reporter: Kirsty Lang."
[BBC Rewind]


Programmes


"Spotlight finishes using film after 26 years and switches entirely to electronic video cameras for its news gathering operations."
[BBC Rewind]

"There was a gap in children’s TV for a hero like Sam. Postman Pat was around, but how much can a postman really do?"
[The Guardian]

"BBC producer Stewart Morris visits Belfast to hold local auditions for Opportunity Knocks, a new series that begins in March. Reporter: Paul Clark."
[BBC Rewind]

"While watching a 1987 episode of Spitting Image the other day, something rather odd occurred. And something odd occurring during an episode of Spitting Image has rapidly turned into this site’s speciality."
This has a lot to do with Red Dwarf, in case you're confused.
[Dirty Feed]

"The BBC's Antiques Roadshow comes to the Ulster Hall. Report by Liz Fawcett."
[BBC Rewind]

"Neil Miles is a man who, much like myself, enjoys delving through piles of old videotapes in search of long forgotten footage. And his excellent YouTube channel recently delivered an intriguing slice of late night television in the form of a BBC engineering test from 1987."
[Curious British Telly]

"A new programme on Radio Ulster called the Fathom Line was launched at the Newry Arts Centre last night by BBC NI Governor Dr. James Kincaid. Report by Sean Rafferty."
[BBC Rewind]

"Stars including Phillip Schofield, Sarah Green, Trev and the man behind Gordon the Gopher tell Adrian Chiles what it was like working on the legendary Saturday morning TV show, 30 years after it first launched."
[BBC Sounds]

""Tonight is Halloween when strange things can happen, and even here live on BBC1, all is not what it seems."  And with those foreboding words on Halloween night 1987, the BBC1 globe transformed into a pumpkin, and one of the most remarkable pieces of television ever transmitted began."
[Dirty Feed]


Politics


"Journalists from the BBC and other broadcasting organisations went on strike for up to six hours today in protest over the ban on the television programme about the secret Zircon satellite project."
[BBC Rewind]

"If in 1988 our viewers and listeners felt they understood more about the way the BBC works and its aims, we are making progress."
[World Radio History] 
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