ITV Saturday mornings in 1974

For midlands viewers, 1974, began with nine experimental shows of Tiswas and then industrial action restored Saturday mornings to the simple diet of Gerry Anderson serials, US cartoons, Tarzan adventures and HTV’s Arthur Of The Britons. Then Tiswas returned in September for a properly planned all-year-round serving of clips, slapstick and competitions, that would run right to early summer 1976. That’s the quick way of summing it all up, but you came here for details, didn’t ya?

Okay, on the first three Saturdays of 1974, HTV’s Skillful Rugby and Yorkshire Television’s Jobs Around The House – both educational series aimed at an adult audience, were the first two shows opening up ATV from 9:05 am, the slot finishing at 10 for the embryonic Tiswas, which would end at 12 noon for World Of Sport.

From 26th January, we swap mud and egg-shaped balls for tees and clubs, as You And Your Golf (from Yorkshire Television) took over from Skillful Rugby and was ATV’s first programme of the day for thirteen weeks, ending by late April. Jobs Around The House would still be the ‘lead in’ for Tiswas. Going from a dour-looking presentation of DIY tips to this new children’s show would have been quite a clunky gear change. Also, from this date, World Of Sport moved its start time back to 12:30, so Tiswas got extended by 30 minutes to be a two-and-a-half-hour show.

That’s how things carried on until Tiswas unexpectedly ended prematurely with the 2nd March show being the final one of the first series because of industrial action. ATV dipped into their archives and dusted off the Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 reels, as that’s what replaced Tiswas the following week from 10:05, along with Funky Phantom (see Border’s listing) from 11am, followed by a cartoon shot and then the usual Ron-Ely-in-a-loin-cloth adventure as we get Tarzan at the usual time of 11:35, just where it would have been shown within Tiswas.

Jobs Around The House came to an end and was replaced with a martial arts educational show for the next three weeks. When those came to an end, the gap was filled for the next seven weeks by I Say, an adult educational series about public speaking, produced by London Weekend. From late May, when I Say had finished, The Right Course took over, then in mid-July we got Play Guitar from Yorkshire Television, which ran until the end of October. From then on, it was All In A Day’s Work for the rest of the year.

ATV itself would take quite a leading role on ITV’s Saturday mornings from 27th April 1974, although this has almost nothing to do with Tiswas. The station had shifted two shows – Angling Today and Gardening Today to the Saturday launch slot. The idea was that Angling Today would air at 9:15 one week, then the following week, Gardening Today would be in that timeslot, then returning to Angling, and so on – Angling, Gardening, Angling, Gardening, etc. That’s how it continued, right through the rest of 1974.

Unlike the other adult-orientated slots, these ongoing shows from ATV got partially networked. Angling/Gardening Today was always made during the previous week and could provide topical guidance relating to the current climate.

Angling Today – something of a personal passion for keen fisherman Chris Tarrant – was hosted by Terry Thomas (no, not the comedic actor). Sometimes he would be joined by Chris. Returning the favour somewhat, Terry would occasionally guest on Tiswas. He made his Tiswas debut in late October 1974, in series 2. Sixteen of the 93 series 2 shows would have him on and he’d continue to make the odd guest appearance, with his final Tiswas invite being on 21st March 1981.

The other show, Gardening Today, was hosted by Cyril Fletcher and Bob Price, making use of a ‘television garden’ in King’s Heath Park, from a project agreed by ATV and Birmingham City Council. When Central replaced ATV, the show was renamed Gardening Time.

LWT; Anglia; Southern; Granada and Yorkshire picked this alternating strand up immediately. Those in the LWT; Anglia and Yorkshire regions got it earlier than the others, opting to air it at 9am, or thereabouts. Tyne Tees; Border; STV; Grampian and Ulster never aired it in this year.

HTV and Westward eventually took the alternating strand on 14th September, starting with Angling Today and carrying on for the rest of the year, with 9am start times. Considering these two alternating shows had previously been consigned to a midlands-only 11pm post-News-At-Ten slot on Thursday nights, ATV did very well to have these niche shows hit half of ITV’s regions by the end of 1974.

Now, harking back to the Tiswas-less kids’ schedule of 1974, we continued with the diet of Captain Scarlet; Joe 90, Funky Phantom and Tarzan until early June, when HTV’s Arthur Of The Britons took over from Joe 90. Then from July, Clapperboard, hosted by Chris Kelly (or, sometimes, Muriel Young), was a series that looked at television and film production from a child’s perspective. This series, made by Granada Television, was usually in the weekday afternoon strand of children’s television in many other regions.

On occasions when World Of Sport would need to air at 12 noon, Funky Phantom would be dropped and Tarzan dragged to the start time of 11:10.

By 14th September, all was restored as Tiswas returned to the airwaves, with the beginning of series 2. It would ‘envelope’ the regular Saturday showing of Tarzan which preceded World Of Sport.

It’s no surprise that London Weekend Television continued with its Saturday Scene strand, launched successfully the prior year with future Tiswas star Sally James. Like Tiswas, it would encompass the components that would fill up a usual Saturday morning schedule, yet have its presenter engage with guests and introduce clips.

Saturday Scene was a lot more interested in pop music and it’s no wonder why ATV would eventually pluck Sally up to conduct rock star interviews from Tiswas’s series 4 onwards. While this show was a lot more professional and had the advantage of being transmitted in ITV’s most densely-populated area (very useful for attracting pop stars to plug their upcoming singles and albums), it lacked the live chaos of its midlands counterpart. Mostly likely because it was recorded the day before transmission! It continued all the way through 1974.

Even though LWT had a serious amount of clout as one of ITV’s ‘Big Five’ broadcasters, Saturday Scene never made it onto any other region’s airwaves. During this year, common components could vary from Tarzan and Batman, to Captain Scarlet, Junior Police Five and Arthur Of The Britons.

Later into 1974, it even cannibalised another LWT pop-centric production, London Bridge. This 30-minute show-within-a-show was hosted by Michael Wale and guests would be pop stars, sports celebrities and film/television personalities. Southern would broadcast a few editions of this show on Saturday mornings in 1975, though not at the same time as LWT.

Although LWT was a glitzy slick station, it too would fling out the dull adult education fodder from 9 in the morning. A couple of programmes like The Right Course, Play Guitar, All In A Day’s Work and ATV’s Angling Today would keep the transmitter warm for Sally James to appear at around 9:45-9:50.

ITV’s Manchester outpost would also wake up nearby citizens with a diet of angling, gardening  and guitar tutorials. The first nod of the day towards younger viewers typically began around 10am. Sesame Street was the sole offering from January into March, as the space between 11am and World Of Sport would be taken up by a vintage film, like Charley’s Big-Hearted Aunt.

From April, there was some respite from these dusty old reels, as the Jackson 5ive cartoon series would follow Sesame Street, along with Skippy, Tarzan or Fireball XL5. Bizarrely, from 12noon, the travel-based version of Double Your Money would air – The Sky’s The Limit – hosted by the dubious Hughie Green. A curious schedule placing of this Yorkshire Television game show, which ran in the slot on Granada until the end of June. From then on, it was replaced by University Challenge for much of the summer, from Granada’s own vaults.

Sesame Street was dropped around September, with Granada opting to put on old films from around 10am and following them was Rock On With 45 (often referred to as just 45). This latter show, hosted by DJ David ‘Kid’ Jensen, was Granada’s attempt to do an ITV version of Top Of The Pops. In a similar vein at this time, LWT was producing Supersonic and Tyne Tees was making The Geordie Scene.

45 would make its way to other regions, not usually at the same time as Granada’s schedule, but as we’ll see, it’s part of Saturday mornings elsewhere in the ITV map.

For the first eight weeks, flinging out ancient episodes of the archaic Little Rascals was how the kids’ slot began for Yorkshire viewers from 10am, after the usual hour of adult education filler. That would be followed by an episode of Skippy, then there’d be a vintage film, such as Five Weeks In A Balloon or The Prince Who Was A Thief. That’d be your lot, leading you into World Of Sport.

From mid-February, even more bland adult interest programmes, such as ‘Gardening’ would eat into the slot, meaning that children would be left with a Popeye cartoon or maybe an episode of Skippy as the sole offering, before some old film, like Robinson Crusoe On Mars, took up the space before Dickie Davies appeared.

In April, Yorkshire viewers had HTV’s Arthur Of The Britons followed by Hanna Barbera’s Wait Till Your Father Gets Home – a cartoon that’s considered to be a prototype for The Simpsons. Preceding this, so that the children’s block began at 10am, there’d be something random like Issi Noho (A Thames Television point-the-camera-at-illustrations-as-a-narrator-reads-out-the-story effort, just like Jackanory pioneers), Rupert The Bear, Mini Melodies, or Sing To The Animals. Of course, there’d still be an old movie plonked in the gap before World Of Sport. We suspect Leslie Halliwell was the culprit for bringing these ancient pieces of cinema to Granada and Yorkshire’s schedules.

“Join Pipet and his friends, Heather and Simon, for more adventures” was the usual TV Times description for Pipet And His Friends, a five-minute filler that would start the Yorkshire children’s slot at 10am from late May right into early September. Arthur Of The Britons, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home and an old cinema reel like Harem Holiday or Last Of The Buccaneers would also follow.

From mid-September, Pipet was banished and from 10am you’d have Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, followed by the usual old film (does Kid Galahad or Jailhouse Rock interest you?) but at 12noon you’d have another region’s attempt to do Top Of The Pops.

Tyne Tees over in Newcastle had come up with the heavily north-east-themed show, The Geordie Scene. Live bands would perform in a large studio with a significant audience and the host would be a radio DJ such as Dave Cash or the now-disgraced Dave Lee Travis.

The show’s name, along with the studio set being covered in Tyneside iconography, would have you believe this would be non-stop Lindisfarne and The Animals. Was there really a Geordie music scene that could be sustained for a long-running series? Actually, acts like Sweet, Dr Feelgood and Procol Harum appeared. The broadcaster would of course be renowned for continuing with music coverage in later years when it turned its hand to Razzmatazz and even more notably, The Tube for Channel 4. This was definitely a prototype for those shows.

Thankfully, old films were dropped from mid-November and from 10am, the programme menu began with Arthur Of The Britons, followed by Canada’s comedy drama serial The Beachcombers; a cartoon; an episode of Lassie; then an episode of The Lone Ranger and ending with The Geordie Scene.

The usual IBA quota of dullness for adult viewers would launch the Norwich-based station, lasting until 10:20am, when there’d be something thrilling and amazing for chi… nah, sorry, it’s an old film that Leslie Halliwell got on the cheap! The Three Musketeers, The Fast Lady and Pirates Of Tortuga were among the cinematic ‘delights’ filling the schedules in early 1974 for Anglia viewers.

However, kids did at least get a showing of the Woody Woodpecker Show at lunchtime, giving them nearly half an hour of animated entertainment just before Dickie Davies popped up to outline the day’s events in Division One football.

Things lasted this way for quite some time, although some films could start as early as 10am due to their variable length of these cinematic offerings. The odd cartoon could help buffer out the schedule where needed.

By July, Woody Woodpecker was dropped for Felix The Cat. This animated series was developed by Paramount Cartoon Series and debuted on American television in 1959.

Come September, animated moggie Felix would be shunted to 9:55am to appear before the usual old film, with the 12noon slot now being taken by The Geordie Scene from Tyne Tees. I’ve detailed that Tube prototype in the Yorkshire listing.

Things would carry on pretty much like this for the rest of 1974, although in late October, Felix The Cat was dropped for Alphabet Soup (no, me neither).

The first two weeks of 1974 had ITV viewers in the south east facing an old film taking up a fair bit of the morning, preceded by The Amazing And The Chan Clan cartoon and before that, the usual dull adult fodder.

The schedules hit a pattern in mid-January as they ditch the vintage films and kids can tune in from 9:55 for The Enchanted House; Joe 90; Elephant Boy; Funny Face (no, me neither) and from 11:35 they get an episode of the Tarzan adventure series starring Ron Ely. Oh, and there’s a brief local weather bulletin at 11:05 for a few minutes.

In March, Funny Face is replaced with Untamed World, then there’s some reshuffling a week later that has Untamed World following the Enchanted House, followed by Primus (an American undersea adventure series from Ivan ‘Flipper’ Tors, made a couple of years earlier); local weather; Joe 90 and a regular dose of Tarzan.

By May, The Craftsmen has replaced the Enchanted House. They’re short-form documentaries portraying various independent craftspeople narrated by the actor Richard Bebb. Yeah, more dull tedium. That’s followed by Primus and local weather, then it’s the return of the slot for old films to fill the gap before World Of Sport. It’s pretty disappointing.

The Craftsmen gets replaced by Artists At Work in mid-June, then a week later, the old films are dropped for a double bill of TV programmes. Firstly we get the sitcom Dusty Trail, starring Bob Denver, a ratings flop in its native USA. Then that’s followed by Gerry Anderson’s live-action sci-fi series UFO, which first hit UK airwaves in 1970.

After July, Artists At Work is replaced by a show focusing on snooker skills. Then by late September, that’s replaced with The Unguarded Moment, for which I have no idea what it’s all about. At the same point, Primus is dropped in favour of Houndcats, a DePatie–Freleng cartoon series where cats and dogs get into adventures in the mould of Mission: Impossible.

By late October, ‘Martial Arts’ has taken over from The Unguarded Moment. A few weeks later, UFO finishes a run to be replaced by an edition of Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased), then the following week, the pattern has Houndcats replaced by The Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan, with the final hour being taken up by a couple of shows. The first is long-forgotten LWT sitcom The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs, an early outing for David Jason. Then we have, all the way from Newcastle, The Geordie Scene, which I heavily detailed over in the Yorkshire listing.

Along with Grampian, LWT and ATV, this station is one of a few making its own purpose-made children’s Saturday morning show. We’ve talked about HTV’s Orbit before, it’s the second Saturday morning show of its kind to broadcast on ITV, beating Saturday Scene and Tiswas to that accolade. Throughout 1974, this low budget ‘host and puppet in a spacecraft’ show airs from 11am or 11:05am for half an hour on nearly every Saturday.

Orbit is always preceded by an hour of Sesame Street from 10am, the famous educational children’s show from America. HTV was the first ITV station to show it, having a successful test run in March 1971. It soon becomes a stalwart in many region’s Saturday morning schedules.

From the start of 1974 straight into late March, Hammy Hamster acts as the ‘warm up’ for Sesame Street. After that point, it’s strait-laced dullness for adults, such as I Say, The Right Course, Play Guitar and All In A Day’s Work.

As for the programmes that came after Orbit and before World Of Sport, well, for the first three weeks of 1974 when Dickie Davies arrived at 12noon, The Partridge Family filled that gap. As soon as that compendium of wrestling, football and horse racing shifts to 12:30, HTV fill up thirty minutes with the Woody Woodpecker Show at 11:35, followed by the Partridge Family at 12noon. The following week, HTV’s own sports education series Skillful Rugby took over from Woody Woodpecker. By the middle of March, that’s replaced by another HTV sports education offering – Happy Riding shows how to build up your equestrian skills.

The Partridge Family is dropped in favour of 45 in April (see the Granada listing for what 45 was all about), then later that month, Happy Riding comes to an end and another sports education series takes its place. Waterwise is from Thames Television and focuses on swimming.

In the middle of June, the sports education was dropped in favour of more kid-friendly fare. The absolutely bizarre H.R. Pufnstuf, an American show from Sid and Marty Krofft takes its place. The following week, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (an animation series detailed in the Yorkshire listing) takes over from 45.

Sports education returns to the HTV Saturday morning schedule by late July, with Thames Television’s Table Tennis – a series of coaching films on, well, you can guess. That replaces H.R. Pufnstuf until mid-September, when it’s replaced by an Australian ocean-based family adventure series – The Rovers. At the same time, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home is dropped in favour of The Geordie Scene.

That’s pretty much how the rest of 1974 goes until the last few weeks of the year when both The Rovers and The Geordie Scene are replaced by Tarzan, starring Ron Ely.

Also, a footnote about Orbit taking a break. It blasted into space on 21st December 1974 as usual but was replaced the following week. This was the Saturday morning debut of It’s Time For Me, another HTV show for children which was largely focused on reading stories. Almost like a thirty-minute Jackanory, fronted by HTV Daphne Neville, who would be lowered from the studio rafters in an oval wicker chair. Orbit would return in the spring of the following year.

Down in the south west, Saturday mornings began with the usual adult fare, with things like Planting For Pleasure, Waterwise, Table Tennis, Skillful Rugby, Gardening and Angling Today. This strand would typically run to roughly half past ten in the morning, when the schedule would be orientated for younger viewers. Later in the year, that epoch would be brought earlier in the morning.

One such item, Children To Children, might have sounded appealing to kids, but this was a highbrow intellectual series made by the pan-European organisation, InterNation Television Trust. It studied modern childhood across Britain as well as countries like Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain. This aired before 10am during March, April and May.

At the start of the year, the children’s strand was pretty much a cartoon such as Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan, then there’d be an ancient film taking up roughly an hour and a half, after which kids could tune back in for Westward’s very low-budget birthday greetings slot, Gus Honeybun.

The titular Gus was a puppet of a rabbit that delighted in jumping up and down to celebrate viewers’ birthdays – awarding them these ‘bunny hops’ in relation to the age they reached. He’d be accompanied by Westward’s duty announcer. Those of you who grew up in the Anglia or Channel region will be familiar with the concept of a birthday-celebrating puppet, what with Anglia’s BC The Tiger and Channel’s Oscar Puffin, which were definitely inspired by Gus Honeybun. Of course, the concept was parodied beautifully in Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV, with Suzie Blake’s condescending television announcer character reluctantly interacting with Wally Wallaby.

Gus Honeybun would appear at pretty much any point between 11:55 and 12:30. From mid-February to late July, Gus’s appearance would precede something of another clunky gear change. Politics And The West was the station’s fifteen-minute show that looked at how local MPs and Westminster were serving the region. Again, another cue for kids to switch off.

From mid-July though, there’d be a much extended offering for children. An hour of Sesame Street, followed by an edition of Skippy, then a Ron Ely adventure of Tarzan, then the animated cartoon series Around the World In Eighty Days (an American production which aired on NBC between 1972-73). This would be tailed off with a visit from Gus Honeybun and then the aforementioned Politics And The West. Sometimes Around The World In Eighty Days would be dropped if World Of Sport needed to start at 12noon, but, as a rule of thumb, that’s how Saturday mornings carried on until mid-September

The September shuffle gave Westward viewers Sesame Street at 9:40, followed by Around The World In Eighty Days, a Tarzan adventure, then at 11:55, Granada’s attempt to do Top Of The Pops – 45 – which I detailed in the Granada listing. This would be bookended by a few minutes of Gus Honeybun after which the station would join the network for World Of Sport. Aside from 45 and Gus Honeybun swapping timeslots in November, that’s how the rest of the year 1974 played out in Westward’s schedule.

It’s a strong commitment to the north east to show schools-level basketball from the region at around 10am on Saturday mornings. That’s how Newcastle-based Tyne Tees broke away from the usual adult education filler that was largely networked. This coverage would then end around 10:40 or so, at which point they’d chuck on an old film. That’s how the schedules were for January and February, anyway.

From March, the pattern would be giving the kids a cartoon from 10am, followed by the adventure series Elephant Boy. That would usually mean the vintage film appearing around 10:35-10:40, which could be followed up by a cartoon just before World Of Sport if time allowed.

Arthur Of The Britons and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home would be introduced as the items before the old film during April. If the film was shorter than usual, then Scottish Television’s five-minute cartoon Curly And Coconut could be inserted at 10am to push these items along to meet the World Of Sport epoch of 12:30. That arrangement became the norm during May, June and July.

In mid July, Around The World In Eighty Days took the place of Arthur Of The Britons (see the Westward listing for more about that).

21st September 1974 saw the broadcaster launch their pop music show The Geordie Scene (see the Yorkshire listing for more details on that) at 11:30am, due to World Of Sport starting that day at the earlier time of 12noon. Other regions simulcasting it from Tyne Tees were Anglia; Yorkshire; HTV and Border. Subsequent screenings would be from 12noon. From mid-November, Southern and STV picked up for their Saturday mornings, albeit STV showed it at the earlier time of 10:35.

Bizarrely, later in the year, Tyne Tees stopped transmitting their home-grown show on Saturday mornings, having switched to Granada’s competing pop show 45 from 26th October onwards. This was while the other aforementioned regions continued to show it on Saturdays. The reason was that Tyne Tees decided to give it a slot on Thursday afternoons at 5:20pm. It had earlier been screening 45 at that time, so it was a straight swap.

Returning to the rest of Tyne Tees’s Saturday morning schedules around September, it would be old films from 10am. Sometimes this could be pre-empted by an edition of American undersea adventure series Primus if the film was of a relatively short running time.

By the start of November, Primus was a permanent fixture at 10am, then the old films were dropped for a more kid-friendly pattern of Captain Scarlet; a cartoon; Lassie; The Lone Ranger and a showing of Granada’s 45. There was a shuffle in the last two weeks of 1974 where Captain Scarlet began from 10am, followed by Canada’s comedy drama serial The Beachcombers (which had replaced Primus); a cartoon; Lassie; The Lone Ranger and 45 (albeit The Geordie Scene replaced 45 in the 12noon slot on 28th December as a one-off for some reason).

On 3rd August, Border was one of four northern regions to take Granada’s live cricket coverage from 10:55 as they covered the rivalry of Lancashire vs Yorkshire taking place at Manchester’s Old Trafford. This was Border’s sole Saturday morning offering that day! (It ended in a draw.)

The Sri-Lankan series Elephant Boy would kick things off at 10:15 from the start of 1974 for viewers in the far reaches of north-west England/south-east Scotland. That would then be followed by a vintage film, such as The Gun The Won The West or The Littlest Rebel, taking Border right over to World Of Sport. On the occasions this networked sports compendium started at 12:30, then your diet of Elephant Boy and an ancient film would be pushed later to a station launch time of 10:45.

In April, the station launched at 11:05 with Funky Phantom. No, this isn’t anything to do with Tiswas’s pie-flinging villain having broken out into disco moves (and he didn’t even exist at this point in time anyway). It’s a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series very much in the mould of their hit show Scooby Doo (as many of them were). A gang of teenage detectives travelled around in a bizarre vehicle (in this case, a dune buggy). The ‘Scooby’ of this situation was a Revolutionary War-era ghost. The cartoon ran in a thirty-minute slot and was followed by the Tarzan adventure serial, starring Ron Ely.

The following week, the schedule changed to an 11:05 start with Milton The Monster. This was a late 1960s American cartoon created and directed by Hal Seeger (who also produced Batfink). Milton was a kind-hearted Frankenstein-style monster, living in a castle with his ‘father’ professor. Then at 11:35, Ron Ely dons the loin cloth to be Tarzan for an hour. As usual, if World Of Sport started at 12noon, then Border would simply start half an hour early to get these items in without any substitutions.

In September, a bit of a reshuffle. Primus would usually start the morning off at 10:40, followed by Tarzan at 11:05, then Border would show Tyne Tees’s The Geordie Scene at 12noon (as detailed in the Yorkshire listing). By late November, Milton The Monster returned to this pattern, replacing Primus.

On the final Saturday of 1974, it was a complete change for a one-off. Merrie Melodies began at 10:15, followed by the film Willie McBean And His Magic Machine.

Adult educational series would fire up this Glasgow-based broadcaster a while after 9am, with things like Adventures In Words, Jobs In The House And Garden, What Industry Did For The British, You And Your Golf, Saga Of Western Man and All In A Day’s Work. All deeply non-thrilling stuff, I’m sure, but there was a point in September where CBS sitcom Anna And The King (from 1972) got an airing from 9:35.

With two or three adult-orientated programmes shown, it was around 10am in early 1974 when there’d be something for kids. The first two weeks gave STV viewers Joe 90, followed by Flipper. Joe 90 would get replaced by The Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan for the next thirteen weeks.

Following Flipper would be a vintage film, such as Susannah Of The Mounties or Just Around The Corner, then World Of Sport would strike up at 12noon. In February, when the sports compendium would be pushed over to 12:30, STV would fill the gap at 10:55 with an edition of The Rovers (I have no idea what this is), starting their cobweb-covered films from 11:25.

By April, the pattern had changed. The adult dreariness continued up until 10:30 or 10:35, with a sole offering for kids, like The Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan in the first week, then it was replaced by Skippy. The ancient film would begin at 11am.

When July hit, things got even duller for ITV viewers in Central Scotland. Saga Of Western Man, an hour-long history series made in the 1960s and imported from America’s ABC, would air from 10am and then you’d have the ancient film. That was your lot.

On 14th September, you could at least enjoy some mirth from the aforementioned Anna And The King. That’d be followed by a celebration of Gilbert And O’Sullivan where one of their operettas (Yeoman Of The Guard, Pirates Of Penzance, etc) would be the subject. Then yer usual old film at 11am.

By October, there was no pretence at offering anything for children. Imported from Canada’s CTV network, The Pig And Whistle would air from 10:30, which gave a Canadian view of Celtic music and other entertainment. There’s certainly a Caledonian angle to this offering, even though it must have had children switching over to any other channel.

Then in late November, The Geordie Scene (see Yorkshire listing) took over from The Pig And Whistle, injecting some chart music into the Saturday morning schedules for those living in the central belt of Scotland. This pattern carried on into early 1975.

All herald the station that was the first in the UK to create a purpose-made Saturday morning television show for children! Exactly a year after it launched, Grampian’s Ron And Friends still on the airwaves at the start of 1974, running in a forty-five minute slot from 11:15, right to the start of World Of Sport at 12 noon.

When World Of Sport changes its start time to 12:30, Grampian decide to plug in the gap between Ron and the sport by chucking in the cartoon Funky Phantom (see Border’s listing for details) from 12 noon. This pattern continues until 30th March, when Funky Phantom is replaced by an edition of The Flintstones.

Don’t get too comfortable with the prehistoric family, because that was a one-off. From April, Ron And Friends began from 10:50 and the Ron-Ely-fronted Tarzan adventures find a home on Grampian airwaves from 11:35.

It continued that way right to the end of June, when the last ever edition of Ron And Friends was broadcast. Not that it would put creator and host Ron Sawdon on the dole queue, as we saw from the new schedule from July onwards.

Yes, Ron Sawdon returned immediately the following Saturday with a new children’s show called Zoom! This lasted an hour and what was in it? Well, you know how we struggled to tell you what was going on in Ron And Friends because no video of it exists, all we’ve seen is a photo and a brief description in Look-In? Zoom! is even more enigmatic, because that’s all we’ve got to go on, just that title and the time slot. We know Ron was involved, because it’s mentioned in The Scotsman’s obituary for him. Knowing his work on Ron And Friends and Mathman, it wouldn’t be surprising for it to feature wacky characters.

Zoom! aired from 11:30, unless World Of Sport began half an hour earlier, which would have Ron’s new show starting from 11am, so it remained unaffected. It continued right to the final Saturday of 1974 and that was it! The following year would have the show replaced by a vehicle for Scottish singer Isla St Clair (who would also have a role in something that replaced Tiswas), but more on that when we touch upon 1975.

Back to July and the thing that preceded Zoom! was a thirty-minute slot given to a show called Thrillseekers. This was a syndicated series from America, hosted by actor and former sportsman Chuck Connors. Thrillseekers, made between 1973 and 1974, focused on people who did death-defying stunts.

Thrillseekers came to an end in September when it was replaced by The Woody Woodpecker Show.

Then from November, the boisterous animated bird was no more on the Grampian Saturday morning schedules, as the Aberdeen-based broadcaster opted to show a common stalwart of regional filler – old films! Yes, these would start around 10am and wouldn’t affect the run time or start of Zoom! You’d have the likes of Namu The Killer Whale, Green Grass Of Wyoming and Tarzan’s Greatest Adventures (no Ron Ely here).

The penultimate Saturday of 1974 saw the film dropped for an edition of the Pippi Longstocking series (Pippi Långstrump) imported from Sweden’s public broadcaster, Sveriges Television.

Finally, the last Saturday of the year just had Grampian starting with Zoom! at 11:30, with no preceding items. As mentioned above, this was its final edition.

Over in Belfast, they didn’t seem to get up until well after 10am. The Ulster Television Saturday morning schedule at the start of 1974 began with a pattern of Yoga For Health to open the station at 10:20am, followed by an hour of Sesame Street from 10:45, then Thames’s bizarre pre-school children’s fifteen-minute show The Enchanted House from 11:45, so they could network over to World Of Sport at 12noon. This pattern continued right to the end of March, but could start half an hour later from 10:50am on the days when World Of Sport started at 12:30 (which would eventually be its permanent start time).

During April, the pattern was Yoga For Health at 10:50, followed by Manfred. This was a ten-minute British cartoon about an upper class grasshopper, produced by the London-based Marall-Smith Studios. Sesame Street at 11:30 would give Northern Irish viewers an hour of Muppet-based education just before World Of Sport turned up.

From May, Yoga For Health was replaced by Children To Children (see Westward’s listing for what this was all about). That continued for a while, then on 29th June, the pattern was thrown out of the window to show an old film from 11am.

July’s pattern was Children To Children kicking off the station at 10:30, then at 11am, we’d have Woobinda. This was an Australian children’s television series about a New South Wales veterinarian. Sesame Street rounded things off at 11:30 as usual.

From August, the fifteen-minute sign language series Talking Hands replaced Children To Children, which meant the station could open up a bit later at 10:45 (or 10:15 if World Of Sport needed a 12:00 start time, which happened on a few occasions). By mid-September, Skippy had replaced Woobinda, and that’s how Saturday mornings continued right to the end of 1974 if you were watching Ulster Television.

The farthest flung outpost of ITV, this region is the smallest (both in terms of geographic area and potential viewers). Its domain is the Channel Islands, technically not part of the United Kingdom and roughly half the area of the Isle Of Wight. It was still broadcasting in black-and-white at this time, not embracing colour until two and a half years later. As such, it can’t be much of a surprise that this franchise did not air anything on Saturdays until past midday, when it usually kicked off with a few minutes of birthday greetings in Puffin’s Pla(i)ce (featuring puppet Oscar Puffin), followed by ITV’s staple World Of Sport at 12:30. (Except that networked sports compendium starts at 12:00 around this part of 1974, at least.)