Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Apr 20, 2021 18:02:17 GMT
Might have been "The Tom O'Connor Roadshow" (BBC) ? There was also "I've Got A Secret", a kind of "What's My Line" clone in the 80s. I remember him presenting a mid-week evening variety show on ITV in the summer of 1977. "Name That Tune" was just a little ten minute feature in the show back then. I'm pretty sure the show was called "Tom O'Connor's Blackpool Night Out" or something similar. There was usually a Mike Harding, Bob Williamson, Max Boyce type act each week on the show. It was quite good as variety shows went - far better than the disastrous "Bruce's Big Night In" that would follow the year after.  Yes it was the "Tom O'Connor Roadshow" - used to be on at lunchtimes; think it was BBC. Used to catch it on the rare occasions I'd come home from school for dinner. Must have been around 1987ish.
Yes it was the first half of 1987. At that time I worked at a place in Sale, and this lad I worked with lived about five minutes from the office so three or four of us used to go to his house at dinner times and Tom I Connors roadshow programme was on. I think his assistant in it was Debbie Greenwood who was some sort of ex miss Great Britain contestant who branched out into miscellaneous bits of TV work at about that tine time. Seem to remember Frank Sidebottom being quite keen on her! |
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Apr 20, 2021 18:16:37 GMT
Yes it was the "Tom O'Connor Roadshow" - used to be on at lunchtimes; think it was BBC. Used to catch it on the rare occasions I'd come home from school for dinner. Must have been around 1987ish.
Yes it was the first half of 1987. At that time I worked at a place in Sale, and this lad I worked with lived about five minutes from the office so three or four of us used to go to his house at dinner times and Tom I Connors roadshow programme was on. I think his assistant in it was Debbie Greenwood who was some sort of ex miss Great Britain contestant who branched out into miscellaneous bits of TV work at about that tine time. Seem to remember Frank Sidebottom being quite keen on her! Frank Sidebottom! Yay! 
I can't remember much about the Tom O'Connor Roadshow - apart from the links he did. I can only guess who he had guesting on it. For some reason I think the Shadows may have put in an appearance.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Apr 20, 2021 18:45:52 GMT
There are a few clips of the Tom O'Connor Roadshow on yt. I think O'Connor was the bloke they got when Tarby wasn't available or maybe the people who booked him thought he was Des O'Connor. Tom is a bit on the dull side is what I'm saying  |
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Apr 20, 2021 19:09:58 GMT
There are a few clips of the Tom O'Connor Roadshow on yt. I think O'Connor was the bloke they got when Tarby wasn't available or maybe the people who booked him thought he was Des O'Connor. Tom is a bit on the dull side is what I'm saying  I remember him doing the gameshow Gambit either in the late 70s or early 80s - Fred Dineage also used to present it. I think Debbie Greenwood may have also been on Gambit too. May be wrong though.
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Post by Dirty Epic on Apr 21, 2021 11:00:42 GMT
There are a few clips of the Tom O'Connor Roadshow on yt. I think O'Connor was the bloke they got when Tarby wasn't available or maybe the people who booked him thought he was Des O'Connor. Tom is a bit on the dull side is what I'm saying IIRC didn't Tom get a bit typecast as the host of Name That Tune and a few similar daytime quiz shows back in the '70's-80's?
Didn't actually dislike him but not a snappy personality lets say.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Apr 21, 2021 15:19:00 GMT
O'Connor was in the news years ago I remember- "There was one dark episode when a Sunday newspaper splashed a story about me having an affair. It was all nonsense and luckily it didn’t have any harmful effects on my career".
Tom could've ended up a priest as he went to Upholland College seminary near Skelmersdale, as did Johnny Vegas. I know that as one of my brothers went there. He looks like a priest that's for sure.
The college has long been closed & was a favourite of urban explorers. Note the horrendous petrified rat on the windowsill, I remember my brother used to tell me about rats crawling on the beds in his dormitory.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on May 26, 2021 14:43:18 GMT
Back to comedians who have acted, I saw Mick Miller in 'Scully's New Years Eve', Alan Bleasdale's Play For Today first shown 3 Jan 1978. He was about 28 at the time, yet to grow his hair long he makes a few jokes about his bald head- 'I'm wearing a pink crash helmet'. Miller appeared in another Play For Today, 'The Spongers' soon after on 24 Jan 1978, this has recently been released on blu ray as part of the BFI's second volume of Play For Todays.
Another comedian Stan Stennett, best known for playing Sid Hooper in 'Crossroads', plays Scully's dad.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Jul 28, 2021 6:08:10 GMT
I've just remembered another one who I haven't seen for a long time - Stan Boardman. His act was based around Germans bombing the chippy, and Fokker fighter planes. He was terrible, remember him once on the Des O Connor show, making Des seem a bit uncomfortable
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Nightfly
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Post by Nightfly on Jul 28, 2021 11:26:07 GMT
He was terrible, remember him once on the Des O Connor show, making Des seem a bit uncomfortable I remember that one. Unfortunately it was even worse for Des as after Stan told his Fokker plane joke, his next guest was Oliver Reed. Des asked Oliver if the rumour about him having a tattoo on an intimate body part was true to which Ollie answered, "Yes - it's on my....." and proceeded to use a more crude, Anglo-Saxon term for it than Des was expecting  . All on live pre-watershed show too |
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Post by Cartman on Jul 30, 2021 13:54:29 GMT
Another one I haven't seen for a while is Vic Reeves. He used to be on quite a bit, probably 90s, usually with Bob Mortimer. I actually liked him and found him funny, in a kind of absurdist kind of way. Although I wasn't keen on the remake of Randall and Hopkirk.
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. All on live pre-watershed show too