Look Back – Volume 2
Before Children’s ITV there was Watch It the late afternoon slot that provided children with teatime television treats. This DVD, the second volume of Look Back, brings some of the best of those shows from the 1970s to DVD.
School’s done, the fish fingers and chips have been scoffed and now it’s time to sit down with a Texan bar and a packet of Spangles to enjoy the best kids’ television that ITV has to offer…
Back in the day when childrens’ programmes were, by turns, fun, challenging, dramatic, spooky, hilarious and fantastic, tea-time programming was a staple part of the lives of millions of kids. Diverse and highly popular, it fired imaginations and was invariably an integral part of any worthwhile playground antics the next day.
Relive those moments and be a kid again with this special two-disc set featuring the best of childrens’ ITV programming from the 1970s. ATV productions rub shoulders with classics from Tyne Tees Television, Granada, LWT, Thames Television and Yorkshire TV.
ATV classics on this release include an episode of cult series Timeslip. While Doctor Who was firmly aimed at a family audience of adults and children, Timeslip was science fiction drama for teenagers.
The series centres around two children, Simon Randall and Liz Skinner who discovers the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the “Time Barrier”, that enables them to travel in time to different historical periods in alternate pasts and futures. There is also an edition of Four Idle Hands a light-hearted series, aimed at teenage viewers, which charts the unsteady progress of Mike and Pete, two 16-year-old school-leavers who are suddenly forced to ponder the bewildering but urgent question: what are they going to do for a living?
Sticking with the older teenage audience ATV’s Raven follows a 15-year-old borstal boy as he is drawn into a world of investigation and a battle to stop a nuclear waste reprocessing plant being built.
Finally Tightrope follows the adventures of Redlow Comprehensive School and in particular Martin Clifford who is lured into a situation where good verus evil, but just who is good and who is evil? The Voice Of Truth plans to expose all…
Disc One: Ace Of Wands (Thames), Timeslip (ATV), Jamie (LWT), Follyfoot (Yorkshire), Shadows (Thames), You Must Be Joking! (Thames), Four Idle Hands (ATV), Nobody’s House (Tyne Tees)
Disc Two: The Paper Lads (Tyne Tees), Raven (ATV), The Adventures Of Black Beauty (LWT), Pauline’s Quirkes (Thames), Roberts Robots (Thames), Get It Together (Granada), Magpie (Thames) and Tightrope (ATV).
As with ‘issue one’ the DVD release is styled as if it was an edition of the Junior TV Times ‘Look-In’ with its amusing booklet as a special extra feature.
Pictured: Tyne Tees TV’s The Paper Lads, 1977
