494 Sweet And Sour

First  viewed :  June / July  1981

No  stills  found  for  this   and  I  expect  that's  the  way  it  will  stay   as  it  will  certainly  never  be  broadcast  again.

I  wrote  the  TV  Cream  entry  ( getting  the  dates  wrong  I  must  confess )  so  I  might  as  well  reproduce  it  here ; do  bear  in  mind  it  was  written  long  before  news  of  Mr  Hall's  transgressions  broke  

HISTORIANS OF punk rock remain blissfully unaware of the hapless BILL GRUNDY’s twilight career on regional TV, here playing the “sour” in this pre-Grade space-filler in the 10.15pm spot on Friday nights. The ultimate cheapo conceit, it consisted of a weekly face-off in the studio wherein “sweet” STUART HALL would spout bollocks on any subject that came into his head in his usual fashion before the baton was passed to lugubrious GRUNDY for a sober (not a word normally associated with him) putdown. Occasionally it worked the other way – Grundy liked dogs while Hall complained about crap on his lawn. Limited, perhaps wisely, to viewers only in the North West.

I  forgot  to  mention  that  one  episode  in  the  second  series  had  a  guest  ranter  in  Crewe  MP  Gwyneth  Dunwoody  who  vented  her  spleen  on  journalists.

The  show  did  have  a  small  cult  following  at  my  school  where  we  were  fascinated  by  the  cheapness  of  the  conceit  and  Hall's  way  over  the  top  verbosity.  It's  sad  that  you  can  only  whisper  an  affection  for  the  latter  now.