The Saturday Show (1982 TV series)

This article is about the 1980s ITV network show. For the unrelated show broadcast by ITV franchisee TSW around the same time, see The Saturday Show (TSW TV series).

Not to be confused with the 2001–2005 BBC children's TV show or other shows of the same name.

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1982 British TV series or programme

The Saturday Show

Genre| Children's
Presented by| Tommy Boyd
Isla St Clair
Bonnie Langford
Nigel Roberts
Country of origin| United Kingdom
Original language| English
No. of series| 3
No. of episodes| 78
Production
Production location| Central House
Production company| Central Independent Television
Original release
Network| ITV
Release| 23 October 1982 (1982-10-23) –
26 January 1985 (1985-1-26)

The Saturday Show, later retitled The Saturday Starship is a Saturday morning children's television programme which replaced their previous show Tiswas. It ran on ITV for three series between 23 October 1982 and 26 January 1985. It was originally planned that popular wrestler Big Daddy would host and that it would be called "Big Daddy's Saturday Show".[1] A pilot show was recorded with Big Daddy presenting, assisted by Isla St Clair and short films were shot with Big Daddy to insert in the upcoming series; a trailer for "Big Daddy's Saturday Show", complete with logo was shown on ITV the Saturday morning before the show was due to air. It was then announced during the week that Big Daddy was dropping out and that Isla St Clair would now take the lead, with ex-Magpie host Tommy Boyd assisting and with Jeremy Beadle being used as an occasional "stand in" host. The actor David Rappaport was also a fixture playing the character "Shades" who had also been in the final series of Tiswas.

It was never made publicly clear why Big Daddy dropped out so close to transmission; no settlement was ever reached between him and Central.

The second series of the show featured a regular technology spot called "Interface". Presented by IT journalist Chris Palmer, it featured a couple of notable TV firsts. It broadcast a computer program live which viewers could record from their TV and upload to a ZX Spectrum. The initial attempt failed due to interference on the feed from the studio floor, but it was re-broadcast the following week and many viewers successfully recorded and loaded the programme. The second 'first' for the show was the game "Up for Grabs" which was a game played live in the studio by a player in their own home via a computer and a modem. The contestant had to steer a robotic arm and pick up prizes from a rotating turntable. This proved incredibly difficult as the contestants found it difficult to gauge the depth of the arm and also the response time of the robot arm was slow. Still, this pre-dated many other interactive game shows by many years.

The third series was renamed to The Saturday Starship[1] where the show was given a massive revamp with the set being themed around a space ship. Tommy Boyd stayed on as host with two new co-hosts in Bonnie Langford and Nigel Roberts. Chris Baines presented one of the first environmental strands on children's TV in the UK, and this led to The Ark series in 1988.

## Transmissions

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Series | Start date | End date | Episodes

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1 | 23 October 1982 | 30 April 1983 | 26
2 | 3 September 1983 | 14 April 1984 | 31
3 | 1 September 1984 | 26 January 1985 | 21

TSW never broadcast series 1, instead opting to broadcast its own Saturday morning programme, also called The Saturday Show, later renamed Freeze Frame. For Series 2 both TSW and Channel Television (who finally started to broadcast before noon on Saturday) finally started to broadcast the series from January 1984.

## References

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1. ^ a b "Saturday Show". www.paulmorris.co.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2025.

## External links

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* The Saturday Show at IMDb
* The Saturday Starship at IMDb
* The Saturday Show on Paul Morris' SatKids
* The Saturday Starship on Paul Morris' SatKids

* v
* t
* e

British Saturday and Sunday morning children's television programmes

BBC|

* Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
* Get Set for Summer
* Saturday Superstore
* The Saturday Picture Show
* It's Wicked!
* Going Live!
* On the Waterfront
* UP2U
* The 8:15 from Manchester
* Parallel 9
* Live & Kicking
* Fully Booked
* The Saturday Show
* Dick & Dom in da Bungalow
* Top of the Pops Reloaded
* The Mysti Show
* Mighty Truck of Stuff
* The POD
* TMi
* Basil and Barney's Swap Shop
* Transmission Impossible with Ed and Oucho
* Live 'n' Deadly
* Saturday Mash-Up!

ITV|

* Tiswas
* Our Show
* The Saturday Banana
* The Saturday Morning Show
* The Mersey Pirate
* The Fun Factory
* No. 73
* Saturday Action
* The Saturday Show
* Freeze Frame
* TX
* Get Fresh
* Ghost Train
* Motormouth
* Gimme 5
* What's Up Doc?
* Scratchy & Co.
* Telegantic Megavision
* It's Not Just Saturday
* WOW!
* The Noise
* Tricky
* Mashed
* SMTV Live
* CD:UK
* Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown
* Scrambled!

Channel 4|

* T4 (Sat/Sun)
* 4Kids (weekdays/weekends)

Five|

* Milkshake! (Daily)
* Milkshake! FM / Shake! / The Core / NGA (Sat/Sun)

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