Scene BBC Schools Series

[Arthur Pringle]

I'm sure many remember watching this series at school or at home 'off sick'  

Scene ran from 1968-2007 & was a mixture of half hour documentaries & drama intended for older children. 373 programmes were made on a wide range of subjects as diverse as Morecambe And Wise, glam rockers The Sweet, The Salvation Army & Glue Sniffing.
www.broadcastforschools.co.uk/site/Scene#Episodes

Dennis Waterman appeared in an early Scene play in 1969- 'Terry' by Alan Plater, it was last shown in 1993 during a season of classic Scene plays to celebrate 25 years of the series, I taped it & still have a copy of it. Like Waterman himself the character of Terry is a railway worker's son ( played by Bill 'Compo' Owen ).

I came across a site ( link below ) that has 9 episodes of Scene to watch. I can't imagine these programmes ever being released commercially & I can't see many of them being repeated either. One of the plays, 'A First Class Friend' from 1974, features Billy Hamon from The Sweeney ep. 'Big Spender', but watching any of these might provide a nostalgic trip back to a time of unusually big tv sets with flaps on the side ( if you were watching at school ) or pretending you had stomach ache so you could stay at home & sit by the electric fire watching tv.

archive.org/details/BBC_Schools_Progs_VHSRip

[Steve Austin]

Good find Arthur, will watch this when I get the chance. We had one of those TV's at school.  Used to love it if the teacher left us to watch whatever programme was on and was late coming back into the room, we'd get the chance to watch "normal" telly. Usually it was a Test Match or something but it beat lessons.

[Arthur Pringle]

Oct 27, 2016 22:41:10 GMT Steve Austin said:

Good find Arthur, will watch this when I get the chance. We had one of those TV's at school.  Used to love it if the teacher left us to watch whatever programme was on and was late coming back into the room, we'd get the chance to watch "normal" telly. Usually it was a Test Match or something but it beat lessons.

At primary school 'How We Used To Live' is the show I remember most as the fictional town it was set in, 'Bradley', is also my surname ( when I'm not being Pringle ) & there was a place in the town called 'Bradley Bottom' which caused the rest of the class to turn round in their chairs and laugh at my expense whenever it was mentioned.

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Remember schools and colleges programmes well, along with drawing the curtains to watch the big TV with the "Blinkers" brought in on a wheeled trolley with a hoofing great Video recorder sometimes with some programmes.

The How we used to Live we watched was the 1936-53 period, with the WW2 years in the middle. About the Hodgkins family. Who used to remember the clock with the seconds indicators disappearing gradually when it was time for the programmes to start?

There were some story serials too, including "The Boy from Space", (which stared a frightening looking white haired John Whoodnut as the alien villain bloke! - Doc Clare in the Sweeney episode Stay Lucky Eh?) and one about catching some bird thieves (which starred Catweazles Geoffrey Bayldon as the baddie). Of course the kids were the main Heros with the adults helping a little bit........

And "Picture Box" anyone? With a close up of Alan Rothwell's head before and after the main piece of featured film in the programme. Usually about something being created, or a weird foreign film story with no dialogue (only accompanying music) and you had to use your imagination about what the story was trying to get across.

[Arthur Pringle]

Who fired a pretend gun at the dots on the clock? I wonder if any teachers took the big tv home for the holidays like the school pet?

The bird story is 'Sky Hunter' from Look And Read.


There was an updated version 14 years later featuring the now grown up kids.

[Arthur Pringle]

Here's the 1969 Scene play 'Terry' starring Dennis Waterman-

[Arthur Pringle]

Came across a Scene play on yt written by Tober-

[Del Boy]

Cheers Arthur. Will try to watch it later 

[Del Boy]

Watched it and quite a few familiar faces turned up. Gordon Kaye, Sharon Duce amongst others.
Didn't have a lot if luck those lads. And woah what a crime the commit at the end. Trashing the flowers in the municipal gardens😆

[Steve Austin]

May 22, 2017 21:17:47 GMT Del Boy said:

Watched it and quite a few familiar faces turned up. Gordon Kaye, Sharon Duce amongst others.
Didn't have a lot if luck those lads. And woah what a crime the commit at the end. Trashing the flowers in the municipal gardens😆

Not forgetting Fanny Carby (Dot from Messenger Of The Gods)