December Detox

Further trawling towards the end of 2003 where I was having a well earned rest from the stresses of my HND Media Course at college where I was quite literally snowed under.

The lecturers had been kind enough to put some assignments on hold due to my struggles but I wasn't really enjoying it at all and was missing several people from my AVCE course who were either at University or had got jobs.

However with Christmas approaching it was an ideal excuse to just have a laugh mainly in front of the television but also with my elder and younger cousins at the holiday house that Christmas.

It was our first visit to South Creake actually.

Only having to work on Saturdays helped as well due to Christmas and New Years Day falling on a Thursday.

Anyway, one of the first things I found was a link from CiTV and possibly one of the last to feature Michael and Leah, as Michael was set to join the new Ministry Of Mayhem and Leah didn't have her contract renewed.

CiTV had gone through a recent rebranding at the time and on some days there were no presenters doing links at all which was confusing.

After Christmas two new presenters Andy and Laura joined but the puppet Swag Bag remained having been introduced around this time.

However all in vision links were dropped in Autumn 2004 as CiTV's operation left Birmingham after 21 years and moved to Granada as a result of the recent merger between them and Carlton to form ITV plc.

What you could call the beginning of the end in terms of presentation, and I wouldn't be surprised, or indeed sorry if it goes under judging by ITV's ever continuing downfall.

Anyway, returning to just over 5 years ago and immediately following the Children's programmes was yet another desperate attempt of ITV1 to fill the void left by Home and Away in the 5pm timeslot.

That being the originally titled "Christmas Show" as hosted by Eamonn Holmes who hadn't yet gone grey but was a bit weighty, alongside a dreadfully permed Tess Daly.

This programme was tacky to the point of one of the set pieces being a flat screen TV showing a burning fireplace.

The format was just a dull mish mash of lifestyle items and bog standard guests such as June Brown from Eastenders. Unsurprisingly the programme on the VHS I was watching was edited in places.

There was also an early appearance from interior desing experts Colin and Justin who became popular faces on TV the following year, although they'll be more memorable for appearing in "Comic Relief In Da Bungalow" in 2005 where they did their own version of Diddy Dick And Dom's "Cupboard Love" song.

A year later ITV1 found it's "saviour" or so to say in the form of Paul O'Grady but in the end he moved to Channel 4 in March 2006 after disagreements with the broadcaster.

However there's rumours that Paul may call time on his chat show towards the end of this year which I think is the right thing to do before it gets stale, as some parts of the programme are weaker than others.

ITV1 on the other hand in fear of having an embarassing show in that timeslot have gone out of their way and removed children's programmes altogether from weekday afternoons and now it seems they're gone from weekends as well.

Apart from Toonatik of course but despite the CiTV logo appearing on screen it's done via GMTV.

I know it's not cool to suggest such a thing but deep inside there are parts of me that want ITV to go under.

Following on from that was another edition of "All New Top Of The Pops" with Tim Kash where performances this week included future Christmas Number 1 "Mad World" by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews, Atomic Kitten's cover of "Ladies Night" by Kool and The Gang, and the highlight being Alicia Keys and "You Don't Know My Name" which reminds me quite a lot of my traumatic time around then.

The second single from the "Diary" album was "If I Ain't Got You" which I first heard on Jonathan Ross where she adapted the last line to included the host's name which was rather amusing.

Whilst I really loved the song, a lot of others mainly those who lived in London got fed up with Jazz FM playing it on heavy rotation. These were the days when GMG had started running it and wanted to turn it into Smooth FM which they had already done in the North West.

The only show I listened to on the station around that time was Peter Young's show which was the main reason I switched from Sundays to Saturdays at ASDA although the "said" reason was my new HND course which I started in September of that year.

I only listened to the final 90 minutes of PY's show however, as the first half was devoted to the Soul Cellar which I've never really gotten into with all due respect.

Back to AN-TOTP and whilst Tim Kash was the presenter, one of the songs was introduced by a surprise appearance from Avid Merrion who spent part of the link plugging his single "Proper Crimbo".

It paid off of course as it ended up in the top 3.

The number one for that show as Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne with "Changes" which was stomach churning, but nowhere near as bad as a guest appearance from Kelly in the studio who ended up breaking down when talking about her dad's recovery from his quad bike accident.

Let's hope her departure from Radio 1's airwaves is permanent.

Speaking of which Stevie McIntosh has jumped on the bandwagon of fantasy radio line ups via a note on Facebook.

For the benefit of those who aren't on the site (not that there are many of you) here it is:

Monday-Friday

4-7am Early Breakfast with Miquita Oliver & Alexa Chung

7-9am The Chris Moyles Show (breakfast show, as it is now)

9am-11.30 Sara Cox (music & general chit chat)

11.30-2pm The Lunchtime Social with Vanessa Feltz (current affairs discussions & phone-ins, with a half hour break for the news)

12.30-1pm The Lunchtime News with Jonathan Blake & Anna Lee

2-4pm Colin & Edith in the Afternoon (Banter & Music)

4-6pm Scott Mills (Drivetime - music & features)

6-6.30 The Evening News with Jonathan Blake & Anna Lee

6.30-8pm The Request Show with Greg James (non-stop music)

8-8.30pm The Live Lounge presented by Giles Peterson (Live music in session)

8.30-9pm Evening Comedy (half an hour dedicated to original comedy. Chat, interviews and live stand-up routines from both established & upcoming comedians)

9-10pm The Specialist Hour with...

Monday: Huw Stephens
Tuesday: Rob Da Bank
Wednesday: Ras Kwame
Thursday: Zane Lowe
Friday: Trevor Nelson

11pm-12 Politics & Debates with George Galloway

12-2am Pillow Talk with Nemone (down-tempo music & chat)

2-4am R&B with Angie La Marr

Saturday

4-7am Toby Sealey (general random comedy & music)

7-10am Weekend Breakfast with Lisa I'Anson

10-10.30 Weekend News with Chris Smith

10.30-11am The Wright Radio Stuff (News & Current Affairs debates with Matthew Wright)

11-2pm Simon Amstell

2-4pm Victoria Derbyshire (chat & phone-in)

4-7pm Danny Wallace (music & chat)

7-9pm The Saturday Night Radio Project with Alan Carr & Justin Lee Collins (live music & comedy)

9pm-12 Singers with Sexy Speaking voices Speak... with Macy Gray, Brandy & Kelis

12-3am Therapy with Letita & Caroline Baird (down-tempo music & chat show)

4-7am Student Radio (featuring student DJs from all over the UK)

Sunday

7-10am Weekend Breakfast with Lisa I'Anson

10-10.30 Weekend News with Chris Smith

10.30-11am The Wright Radio Stuff (News & Current Affairs debates with Matthew Wright)

11-2pm The Lie-in Chappers & Dave

2-4pm Loose Women in the Afternoon with Colleen Nolan, Jane McDonald & Carol McGiffin

4-5pm The Golden Hour with Paul O'Grady

5-7pm The Top 40 Chart Show with JK & Joel

7-10pm Girl Talk with Shola Ama, Jamelia & Melanie Blatt

10pm-12 Showbiz, Film & Music with Natalie Jamieson & James King (news & gossip from the Entertainment World)

12-2am Rock & Roll Jumble Sale Mash Up with Derek Knight

2-4am Student Radio (featuring student DJ's from all over the UK

Interesting to say the least although Chilvers' wasn't too impressed with the idea of a show on Sunday evenings with Shola Ama etc.

I was rather stunned that Alesha Dixon wasn't included on that programme as out of all female vocalists around, her personality is second to none.
Her many appearances on the Chris Moyles Show help to elaborate that perfectly.

Simon Amstell is no stranger to radio having presented at XFM and BBC Radio 2, and I like the idea of comedy being back on the radio of that sort as there hasn't really been anything like that since the days of Victor Lewis-Smith and The Mary Whitehouse Experience.

That leads on to another story in Johnny Beerling's book where on the night MWH made it's debut on Radio 1 in 1989, Johnny recieved a phone call during a private birthday dinner, from Mary Whitehouse demanding the show to be taken off the air, only to find it was actually actress Sally Grace impersonating her and was given a special present from the team, and the show went out anyway.

I only really know Sally Grace from Radio 4's defunct comedy show "Week Ending" where Lee and Herring started off before they started their own radio series.

They're even repeating their Lionel Nimrod series from 1992 on BBC Radio 7 tonight which is good to know and it was good to hear old episodes of their Fist Of Fun Radio 1 series which lead to the TV series.

On a similar note I've decided to forgoe my visit to the Now Show on Thursday in order to save some money ahead of my visit back to Canterbury this weekend and also to lend a hand with Chris and Phil for their focus groups.

I'll have to get my own one sorted within the next week or so.