The first in a series of blogs noting little things found online that have brought some sort
of short-term happiness at an otherwise uncertain time.
Starting with something both audio and visual from New Zealand.
Suzy Cato may not be a name familiar to anyone on home shores. In fact her only real exposure on British television may be via one or two appearances on "It'll Be Alright On The Night".
But in her homeland of New Zealand, she is loved by a generation of viewers
who grew up with her special way of presenting on the pre-school series "You And Me"
and the science series "Suzy's World". A way of talking to the viewer that may or may not have influenced Miss Hoolie in Balamory.
A couple of years ago, inspired by a slightly off-colour rendition of her "See You Later"
song (with nailed East London accents!) Suzy made a guest appearance on urban radio station Flava with vocal trio Sol3Mio
The sense of excitement to the point of being close-to-tears, definitely evident from the presenters.
And with Suzy’s New Years’s Eve-on-the-radio anecdote, a possible hint of where she may have crafted her interpersonal presenting style.
For further evidence of how loved she is in her homeland, Suzy's appearance on New Zealand's "Masked Singer" dressed up as a tui.
The Talent Factory: Inside The Music Machine (BBC Sounds)
A subject matter covered not for the first time on the Sounds app, as an insightful
series from BBC Radio 4 "Unreal" probed talent shows as part of its own history of British reality TV.
This series from Radio 1 however is free of the unnecessary/unfunny asides from the presenters,
with the delightful Amelia Lily introducing revealing insights and interviews evident
right from the first episode.
Stories from X Factor contestant Niki Evans, and Pop Idol series 1 finalist Zoe Birkett,
revealing how her ambitions to be a soul singer were pushed to one side when releasing
an incredibly generic debut single.
Slightly more memorable than that from Rosie Ribbons, mind...
Am already looking forward to the rest of the series, though am a bit slack at setting aside
times to listen.
VHS UK TV Junctions (July 1989)
It's no secret that I am obsessed by old British television presentation, idents and ads,
stashing a number of them to watch at the hotels stayed at on beach weekends away.
Even more exciting if they come as compilations, not least the above snapshot of
the warmer months of 1989. A fondly remembered period my end but can never work out why.
Highlights include the intro to an episode of "MacGyver" then scheduled on BBC1's
Saturday teatimes as a warm up to Mike Smith's "That's Showbusiness" quiz.
The BBC hoping it would become their "A Team" but Patti and Selma Bouvier's
love-interest had switched to ITV himself within two years.
There's also a clip of the Broom Cupboard following a repeat of a 1988 "Really Wild Show",
and no word of lie, the roaring tiger at the end was a rather frightening sight aged 4.
And spread throughout, an awful lot of Thames XXI pres from the interim period that summer celebrating Thames Television's 21st anniversary, but also "getting ready" for the new ITV
which saw Thames' long running mirror ident ditched.
Steve Wright joked at the time on his Radio 1 show about the new "ITV 'Please Don't Take Away Our Franchise' Network" and not even Thames adapting suit was enough to save it
two years later.
Not helped by Wrighty also taking the piss out of their "Interceptor" series airing
that same '89 summer.
On a sadder note, the opening to Granada's "Connections" at the end with former
CBBC presenter turned TV exec Simon Potter who died in 2020.
So that's what I've enjoyed viewing, and may post more finds if worthy of blogging.
You'd question if some of the above were ;)
