CREAMGUIDE: 30th August-5th September 2025
All these years and we've never had one
Hullo there!
Welcome to Creamguide, back on a Thursday just as the holidays are over, certainly judging by the weather, which would in the past have meant a proper new season, but we don’t seem to get that these days. A bit of a shame, but the reason they made such great play of that was because the previous three months had been non-stop repeats. Do pass on your autumnal musings to creamguide@tvcream.co.uk.
SATURDAY 30th AUGUST
BBC2
21.10 Later... with Jools Holland: Van Morrison
22.10 Van Morrison: Up on Cyprus Avenue
23.10 Van Morrison at the BBC
Just quickly delving in to the postbag, an apology to Scottish readers for potentially winding them up as much as Jimmy Hill, with David Pascoe pointing out we spelt David Narey’s name wrong. However, in response to other correspondence, we did know that Pat Jennings was Northern Irish, rather than from the Republic, but Brian Moore did specifically refer to requests coming in from the island of Ireland. Another of Northern Ireland’s favourite sons gets the tribute treatment tonight on the occasion of his eightieth, the new programme to kick things off stringing together performances from the grumpy grandpa of pop on Jools’ show over the past three decades.
CHANNEL 5
19.30 The Big Drought of 1975
At first glance you may think this is a typo, because the summer of 76 was famously the one with the hosepipe ban. But one reason why the water shortage was so acute was because the previous twelve months had indeed been exceptionally dry, so the reservoirs were already running dry before weeks and weeks of baking sunshine. Always entertaining to look back at this period with its Minister for Drought and ladybird infestation, though on this programme it’ll be via some newsreel footage and famous faces repeating stuff the researchers have told them, rather thinly stretched over ninety minutes.
21.00 The Day Diana Died
The days fall the same way this year as they did in 1997, which means the anniversary of Diana’s death takes on extra resonance. At the time we really did find the whole period utterly fascinating, because it was just so completely unprecedented – as TVC Towers inmate Matthew Rudd, who was charged with overseeing one radio station’s response, pointed out, the previous category one royal death had been so long ago that not even John Peel was broadcasting the last time anyone needed to do it. So all the BBC Television From London business was truly bizarre, like nothing we’d ever seen in our lifetimes. Looks like we’re going to see some of the rolling coverage here and hear from the people who broke the news, some of whom have since said they felt like they were dreaming.
BBC4
22.45 Parkinson
Here’s another chance to finally see the most famous telly moment you’ve heard quoted a million times but, until last year when they first repeated this, you’ve never seen. We never thought Parky gave Rod Hull enough credit for the most memorable moment of his chat show, getting plenty of mileage from it in interviews but barely even mentioning Rod’s name, never mind thanking him for creating such a funny and iconic moment. Up until they repeated this last year we’d barely seen more than the money shot itself and not the rest of the “interview”, such as it is, and despite Parky mentioning it ten million times since, we hadn’t ever heard fellow guest Billy Connolly’s response to it either. But here are both of those things, again.
ITV4
10.30 The Big Match Revisited
Funny to think that in the days when so few matches were televised but those that were got huge attention that whole careers could hinge on one performance. The ultimate example is probably Glenn Keeley who played hundreds of matches in the Football League but is now remembered pretty much only for his single disastrous appearance for Everton in front of the Match of the Day cameras. And there was perhaps another one here last week, as Man U’s Paddy Roche never quite made it as a top keeper, and indeed is often cited as one of their worst, but we wonder how much of that reputation is based on his dreadful performance on this show last week when he was badly at fault for two of Arsenal’s goals (though Brian Greenhoff’s own goal was probably the funniest cock-up), and no matter how well he did when the cameras weren’t present, there was no getting over that high profile disaster. Sad to hear that in the last week Gerry Harrison has died, a familiar presence on this programme as the voice of Anglia for some twenty years. He’s not actually in this one, but we’ll hear from him again soon. Been a good series for Keith Macklin so far not least because Leeds seem to have turned on the style every time YTV show up.
SUNDAY 31st AUGUST
Talking Pictures TV
20.00 Sergeant Cork
Always nice to see this channel extract something different from the archives, and this series was a popular show in its day, pulling in big audiences and critical acclaim in five series from 1963. Created by Ted “Nock Green Dick” Willis for ATV, it was set in Victorian London and was seemingly much cherished for its pleasingly evocative atmosphere, though the preponderance of pea-soupers probably also had the happy side effect of saving money on scenery. John Barrie played the titular ‘tec with William Gaunt as his sidekick Marriott, and Gaunt, happily still with us at the grand age of 88, has recorded a new introduction, BBC4-style.
BBC Radio 2
17.00 Pick of the Pops
Despite Goodie bags skipping The Crown we had great fun with 1983 the other week, and more excitement here with an always welcome jaunt to 1979. You’ll have heard some of these tracks on BBC4 the other night but loads of them will be worth hearing again at the height of the brief flowering of Look-In Pop. Then we’re in 1987 when Look-In had a bit less impact on the charts but the likes of Pseudo Echo and Then Jerico were regulars in their breezy features on how bands got their names and so on.
MONDAY 1st SEPTEMBER
BBC2
19.30 Mastermind
If you’re in Scotland the kids have been back in school for a few weeks and if you’re elsewhere in the UK then the kids will probably not be going back for another few days, but today would indeed have been the start of the new season in the past, and quite a few big shows are back on our screens over the next week or so as the nights start drawing in. We’re not desperately downhearted at the end of summer as we like the idea of being all cosy in front of the telly on a dark winters’ night, though the Monday quizzes have had a head start as they all started weeks ago. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond and the Great Britain rugby league team among the subjects tonight, along with something the Radio Times used to receive a steady stream of letters about from people demanding more coverage of, Esperanto.
BBC4
21.00 I Am Martin Parr
22.05 Martin Parr: Think of England
22.55 The Great British Summer Holiday
We’ve always been very fond of Martin Parr’s photography, we know it can sometimes be criticised for seemingly laughing at its subjects rather than with them, but Parr himself has never come across as someone doing it to take advantage of people, but just someone with an eye for a naturally comedic scene, his work being a fascinating snapshot of Britain at play over the past fifty years. Not often we hear from him as well so this new documentary should be well worth a watch, followed by his musings on Englishness for Modern Times in 1999 and an entertaining Timeshift on the traditions of the British summer that Parr has captured so wonderfully.
Continuing our attempt to catalogue the careers of everyone who’s ever appeared on television, this week we feature one of those you can file under “national treasure”, we reckon, given that when she died she got tributes from the Prime Minister and the Royal Family. Get our of her pub, it’s...
BARBARA WINDSOR
Born Barbara Deeks in the East End, Babs always wanted to sing, dance and act, and took on her stage name in aged sixteen in 1953 having been inspired by the Coronation. Like many female performers of the time, she made many of her first appearances on stage and on film in dolly bird roles, but she was more than just a big bust and was a member of Joan Littlewood’s radical Theatre Workshop, and through that appeared in the portrait of East End life Sparrows Can’t Sing, being nominated for a BAFTA.
By that point she’d also become a familiar face on TV as she joined the cast of The Rag Trade, a hugely popular show in its day as one of the first sitcoms that weren’t relentlessly middle-aged, middle-class and middlebrow. Interestingly Babs played two roles in this show, as after appearing in a minor role as one of the factory girls in the first series, she then returned in the third series as a different character in the thankless role of love interest for Reg Varney. Given how many birds his character pulled in On The Buses, clearly writers Wolfe and Chesney were under the impression Varney was quite a catch.
Wolfe and Chesney, the other Two Ronnies, were pleased enough with Babs’ performance to remember her when a few years later they tried out another spin on the format. The difference with Wild, Wild Women was that it was set in 1902, so the female staff of a milliners weren’t just at war with the management, but were also getting carried away with the new air of female emancipation in the country and relishing their new-found freedom. Babs did her usual energetic job but seemingly nobody was especially interested in The Rag Trade but with bonnets, so a pilot in 1968 and one series the following year was considered enough.
By that point Babs had already appeared in her first Carry On film, and despite appearing in less than half of the films, she became probably its most iconic figure, and deserves extra kudos for bailing out in 1974 before the really awful films. She was lured back in 1977 to introduce That’s Carry On with her old friend Kenneth Williams, and certainly if you had to sum up the series in an image it would be her memorable scene in Carry On Camping. Like the rest of the cast, Babs got paid next to nothing for the films but was happy enough to do them as there were few other opportunities for the fine comic actors in the UK to appear on the big screen given the state of the film industry at the time.
Even more pratfalls and innuendos in one of her other telly vehicles around this time, giving Patrick Cargill sterling support in Ooh La La, a brave attempt by the Beeb to translate classic French farces to television, with two series in 1968 and a revival in 1973. With Ned Sherrin translating the scripts, this was a pretty classy affair – or as classy as anything relentlessly revolving around bums and tits can be – and the whole cast including Babs flung themselves into proceedings whole-heartedly, but like all other attempts to bring farce from stage to screen it was never able to replicate the excitement of seeing the expertly-timed stunts happening right in front of you.
The seventies were a bit less successful for Babs, as she entered her fourth decade and the sexist blokes who ran film and TV got less interested in her, unable to see her as anything but a busty blonde. But the Carry Ons continued, as well as plenty of work on stage including loads of pantos, and there was the occasional telly job where she could illustrate she was actually a really good character actor. Kids of a certain age will remember some scene-stealing appearances as Saucy Nancy alongside Worzel Gummidge.
Around this time, though, the papers were all a bit more interested in Babs’ life off screen, and specifically her marriage to, cough, legitimate businessman Ronnie Knight. Knight was an associate of the Krays and an owner of nightclubs that were frequented by members of the underworld, and in 1980 Knight ended up on trial for murder, though the old trooper Babs continued to work throughout it, even with an ITN camera crew in her face. Knight was acquitted but Babs eventually had enough and divorced him in 1985 after he went on the run after being wanted for armed robbery, later being sentenced to seven years in prison for handling stolen readies.
In the early eighties Babs’ career was at a bit of a low ebb, with the Carry Ons long over, along with the rest of the British film industry. Happily nostalgia was always in fashion and she kept herself busy with a host of panel games and chat shows. Here she is in 1981 sporting Bo Derek hair in a chair that makes her look even shorter than usual on Tyne Tees’ afternoon filler Play It Again, where stars reflected on their favourite films in conversation with Tony Bilbow. Although they weren’t making anymore the Carry Ons were still a familiar fixture on TV, on both channels, and Babs was always happy to discuss her memories, in 1986 doing so on Wogan when it was being presented by her old friend Kenneth Williams. Although Ken famously despised most of his co-stars, he loved Babs dearly and even accompanied her on her honeymoon.
There were some memorable cameos in the late eighties too, often sending up her familiar screen persona, notably on Norbert Smith: A Life with Harry Enfield plus also a suitably raucous appearance on Filthy Rich and Catflap. Also around that time she appeared as Neil Tennant’s mum in the Pet Shop Boys’ magnum opus It Couldn’t Happen Here. This is an, er, interesting production, and a former inmate of TVC Towers was a huge Pet Shop Boys fan but had never been able to watch it all the way through without falling asleep. Certainly Chris Lowe suggested it was “very complicated” and you weren’t expected to actually understand what was happening but just enjoy the ride. For a while this was a bit of a holy grail as it was never available on DVD or shown on TV and VHS copies were precious bounty on the tape trading circuit, but it’s now been on telly a few times and you can see the whole thing up there. Good luck!
A rare starring role for Babs on TV in 1989, albeit on kids TV in the CBBC drama Bluebirds, which we remember Fast Forward being all over. Actually like so many kids dramas in this era it was made to the absolute highest standards and Babs was part of a stellar cast, as the premise was that a bunch of kids joined forces with a gang of older people to keep their housing estate free from vandalism and petty crime, but not as vigilantes or anything. Babs appeared alongside fellow veteran performers Sheila Staefel, Pauline Delaney and Lance Percival, while there was a future star among the child cast in the shape of Martine McCutcheon.
And the nineties saw Babs enjoy a real renaissance in her career. Now, at the time this all seemed to be thanks to imperial phase Big Breakfast, as the Question of the Day on how to improve ‘stEnders led to one viewer suggest that Babs join the cast and Chris and Gaby thought that was a brilliant idea and campaigned on air for several weeks to ensure it happened. However Babs later said that ‘stEnders had already had the same idea and she was already in negotiations to join, but however it happened she was always very grateful for The Big Breakfast for putting her back in the public eye, and just before she went to Albert Square she even stood in for Cheggers for a week on Down Your Doorstep, though seemingly she found it something of a trial and you’ll note she refers to it as “The Big Breakfast Show” which we always used to find intensely irritating.
Anyway, no need to bother with all that after 1994 as she took on the role of Peggy Mitchell. Undoubtedly the biggest name to join the show, Babs was very nervous about it but was fascinated by the chance to play a character her own age and to play against type, even trying to cultivate a different laugh lest the audience get reminded of who she was. What could have been stunt casting turned out to be absolutely inspired and Babs became one of the show’s biggest stars, adding humour but also getting plenty of meaty plotlines, such as contracting breast cancer, to get her teeth into and doing it all really well. Over 22 years, off and on, Babs appeared in over 1500 episodes and was one of the most watched and most famous people on telly.
In 2000 that success was celebrated when Babs was the first inductee into the BBC Hall of Fame, interred via a gala special, and indeed the only inductee because they never did another one. She was also made an MBE that year, upgraded to a Dame in 2016, and while she was still a chat show regular, she was now very much the star guest rather than the nostalgia turn. She was always great value on these shows, now with loads of ‘stEnders stories as well as Carry On classics to tell, and in 2001 she appeared on Nick Hancock’s son-of-Room-101-that-nobody-remembers You Only Live Once, a low concept comedy chat show where the guests were invited to relive turning points of their lives.
Sadly Babs suffered from dementia in later life, though she continued to campaign to ensure a better life for those who contract it, and there was much sadness when she died aged 83 in 2020. But she’d had an incredible career, and few people have enjoyed such a spectacular comeback, enjoying even more success and critical acclaim in her sixties than she did in her thirties.
TUESDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER
BBC4
21.00 Arena: The Peter Sellers Story
00.25 Parkinson: The Peter Sellers Interview
It seems that for a lot of people that Peter Sellers was the first famous person they can remember dying, so much was he a household name in his heyday and so shocking was the announcement in 1980 that he’d died aged just 54. Indeed his work with the Goons especially was so cherished that there seemed to be a sense of national disappointment when he seemed to be wasting his talent on some ropey film or seemingly distracting himself with yet another turbulent episode in his private life, but when he was on form he was spectacular. He would have been a hundred this week, and back in 1995 Arena spent three hours plus exploring this enigmatic man for the definitive biography. After that it’s another Parky interview that seems to have been distilled to a brief clip and an anecdote, Sellers’ appearance in 1974 where he famously came on in disguise, but there’s more to it than a silly costume.
WEDNESDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER
BBC4
22.00 The Trial
BBC4’s archive drama slot is currently home to some of the Beeb’s more literary dramas from over the years, which is all very classy but, as far as the philistines in the Creamguide office are concerned, less fun to write flippant billings about. Still, here’s one of BBC2’s big festive treats from 1993, a star-encrusted production of the Franz Kafka novel, adapted by Harold Pinter. It doubtless got a bit more attention that it might otherwise have got given it starred the then smoking hot Kyle MacLachlan, while the stellar supporting cast includes a familiar face in every scene, from Anthony Hopkins down to David Schneider.
THURSDAY 4th SEPTEMBER
BBC Radio 4
13.45 (More Of) Ian Hislop’s Oldest Jokes
A second run this week of the series where Hislop illustrates that there’s no such thing as a new joke and that in ancient history we can see the same set-ups and targets of so much of today’s humour. Elsewhere this week he’ll exhume vintage gags mocking mothers-in-law, useless men and funny foreigners, while today he’s joined by Al Murray to reflect on the long, long tradition of mocking those who refuse to put their hands in their pockets.
FRIDAY 5th SEPTEMBER
BBC4
19.00 Top of the Pops
If Busta Rhymes can get that enthusiastic while performing to three bored people sat on a sofa in what looked like a garage, imagine what a performance he’d put on for a proper audience. Some top dance tunes on the last show before the revamp, topped off by Judge Jules reading the charts (as he’d done the Radio 1 Top 40 that week) though on this one the playlist rarely ventures from the middle of the road, once more illustrating there sometimes appeared to be more seventies songs in the chart than originals in this era.
19.30 Top of the Pops
That episode the other week pretty much entirely made up of repeats and videos was a pretty miserable affair, though there was no problem in the studio or strike or anything, it’s just that now Pops is very much a compilation of footage recorded over several weeks rather than an as-live show with a beginning, middle and end. Here’s a similar affair with more than half the show devoted to stuff we’ve seen before, though one of the few new performances comes from Lutricia MacNeal who was in the charts for months before her last single got an outing but is right on time for this one.
21.50 Top of the Pops
Sound the Cypher graphics klaxon! For the first time in a while we’re in 1991, for an episode shown on a Friday night to make way for Hospital Watch, and the last presented by Jakki Brambles with Year Zero just a few weeks away. And it’s always interesting to alight on this period as in many ways it’s reminiscent of the months just before the previous big revamp in 1980, a back to basics approach with the presenter stood alone away from the audience and most of the features binned off in favour of non-stop music, in many ways just as different to the neon ‘n’ streamers eighties as the revamp would be though much more fun than that, not least as it embraces dance music rather than penalises it. Among the items on offer is what was at the time Kylie’s worst performing single ever.
22.20 Top of the Pops
Been some fun episodes in this slot in recent weeks, and here’s another one as we head back to 1981 and the first live episode from the eighties that’s still broadcastable, with no technical or Yewtree issues. That means Peter Powell is even more excitable than usual, though you can also excuse that because it’s a top line-up with loads of brilliant synthpop, including a banger from Dollar accompanied by not just Trevor Horn but also Howard Goodall.
CBBC
17.00 Blue Peter
This used to be a regular fixture in Creamguide and we do like to keep an eye on it, and it’s worth a special look today as after one of the longest summer breaks for some time, it’s a new look Blue Peter, in a new studio in the middle of Manchester city centre and with a new digital-first approach, though while you might shudder at that, that’s where the kids are these days and they’re making the show for them, not you. Certainly as part of the promo they invited the likes of Konifer Huq and Diane Louise Jordan to have a look round and see the rehearsals and they’ve given it the thumbs up, so who are we to argue? And as Konnie points out, it’s not live anymore, but neither was Lulu the elephant. Joining Joel, Abby and Shini will be Hacker T Dog every week, who’s always a welcome presence, and we’re hopeful there’ll be a bit of time to pay tribute to Biddy Baxter as well, of whom more next week.
And that’s that!
But there’ll be another Creamguide in this space next week.