So who remembers Splash? It was CITV's rival to Blue Peter back in the 80s (after Magpie had finished), made by Thames and presented by Michael Groth, Victoria Studd, and Nino Firetto. A magazine programme - absolutely not to be confused with the more recent celebrity diving show - which was desperate to be cooler than anything the Beeb would dare allow to hit the airwaves, it featured letters, competitions, pop videos, interviews, and more. Judging by the mention of next week's edition being cancelled because of the budget, I reckon that this may have been broadcast on Tuesday, 11th March, 1986, but I'm willing to be corrected on that.
In this particular one, we open with a slightly long fashion segment with Mizz Magazine's Laura Hardy (I hope her middle name is Lynn), before "something very odd" happens. Then there's the Super Sleuth contest, which isn't properly explained as it was presumably long-running, but it does feature the familiar face of Rory McGrath and a joke about The Bill, which was roughly five months old at the time and very much not the sanitised pre-watershed drama it would become. The music video is Move Away by Culture Club, and we end on a feature about a new CITV series about the environment. Young stars Rhiannon Rawlings, Hughie Murray and Maxine Beuret are all interviewed about The Making of the Ark and the ecological issues discussed therein. All good wholesome fun.
The aforementioned "something very odd" is particularly odd in that, given they're a bunch of students trying to raise money for charity, you'd have thought they'd have made some sort of appeal for funds or explained what muscular dystrophy is or *something*. Instead, they pull a bit of a prank, demand a ransom, and walk off with 20% of what they asked for, presumably out of the Thames budget. Overall, this show is pretty much how I remembered it (except with no Nino or Lisa Maxwell), though it's a little stilted in places, and the pretending they're live and surprised at what's happening strikes me as unnecessary. Then again, maybe this wasn't a 'usual' episode. A handful of other random things: (1) Mike Batt wrote the theme tune, (2) presenter Victoria is married to Edward Bonham Carter, brother of Helena, and (3) hopefully you didn't notice the mess during the fashion segment where a background clip of A-ha's Take On Me had to be munged to stop the video being blocked.
Pink Windmill corner: see if you can spot the Pink Windmill Kid. I'll be surprised if you can - barely two years on from her last appearance, she's virtually unrecognisable. She was one of the originals.
Many thanks indeed to Jayne for lending me this tape.
(To the best of my knowledge, the contents of this video have never been available commercially anywhere in the world. Please also note that I don't monetise any of my uploads. Nevertheless, if you are a copyright holder and have an objection, please don't hesitate to contact me.)
Негізгі бет Ойын-сауық Splash (11/3/86) - FULL EPISODE
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