[lookoutwales]

The latest offering from MiM is (I think, without getting into the 'lost media' notion) the sole surviving full episode of Southern's Saturday Banana.

And if you've never seen it, it really is quite something - lots of references to being off the air for the last two weeks due to strike action, Streetband performing 'Toast' in the middle of a bread strike, lots of gratuitous Goddies plugs, a mini live game of Runaround, and to cap off the fun, Bill Oddie and John McCririck arguing about fox hunting.

Are we sure this is what they want?

www.youtube.com 

[Stooky Bill]

Interesting to see that Runaround started in Saturday Banana.

I don't know if it's true or not but there is a theory it was supposed to be called Saturday Bonanza, but someone misheard the title

[Steve in Pudsey]

The young girl co-presenter is Susan Tully, who would go on to Grange Hill and EastEnders

[James2001]

On both sides of the camera. .

[Stooky Bill]

The year before she was one of the child presenters on LWT's Saturday morning programme 'Our Show'. The most famous moment of that was her saying 'Grand Pricks' which appeared on It'll be Alright on the Night.

There's a full episode here, which includes a special link they did for Southern who didn't show the last 10 mins
youtu.be 

[Bluecortina]

Interesting to see that Runaround started in Saturday Banana.

I don't know if it's true or not but there is a theory it was supposed to be called Saturday Bonanza, but someone misheard the title

I'm pretty sure Runaround (or Runaground as it was known by somewhat cynical staff) started way before Saturday Banana. The story of the actual title of Saturday Banana was certainly drifting around the building even before it got on air - but who knows the real story?


The 'Six' in the gate at the start is telecine 3 tweaked up to give nice clean ident, quite why it cuts to the rolling ident instantly is a bit of the mystery as TC3 was a standard Rank Cintel telecine that required a 5 second run up to lock up etc - and you would never put a programme start like that to network or even local presentation.

[James2001]

That our show is quite cringeworthy, I don't think kids tend to make very good presenters.

Looks like that's an unedited studio tape as well, as there's some fluffs and retakes in there. Didn't realise Shakin' Stevens was around as far back as 1977 either.

[Milkshake]

Only Southern really picked up "Our Show" after dropping Tiswas pretty quickly in autumn 77. I wonder if this is where the got the idea for its own show. Unfortunley the last 5 episodes made it on to the network in June 78 when Anglia, HTV and STV picked it up as stop gap between Tiswas and Sat banana.

[lookoutwales]

Runaround launched in September 1975 - Saturday Banana launched nearly three years later (and you can't really blame Southern for reusing a proven format to prop up this show)

The Daily Echo's book on the closure of the Northam studios ('The Dream Factory') went into some detail about Runaround's production - Mike Reid claimed Southern managed to put out the first episode just eight weeks after buying the format.

[Nobby]

The year before she was one of the child presenters on LWT's Saturday morning programme 'Our Show'. The most famous moment of that was her saying 'Grand Pricks' which appeared on It'll be Alright on the Night.

Is this true? Other sources say it was Melissa Wilkes rather than Susan Tully. Please check.