500 Get Set For Summer

First  viewed  : Summer  1981

I  now  realise  I  brought  Hi -De-Hi  in  too  early  because  I  first  saw  the  ghastly  Su  Pollard  on  this  which  didn't  start  until  a  month  after  the  first  repeat  of  the  comedy  series.

Get  Set  For  Summer  was  a  curate's  egg  of  a  show . Broadcast  from  Manchester  on  a   Saturday  morning ,  it   seemed   to  be  a  ragbag  of  ideas  from  elsewhere  with  a  pop  band performing  live  and  doing  a  short  interview  with  host  Peter  Powell, a  guest  presenter  also from  the  world  of  pop  (e.g  Toyah, Pauline  Black ), a  "comedy"  weather  spot  c/o  the terminally unfunny  Pollard  and  "fun"  ideas  features  straight  from  Why  Don't  You ...?  Apart  from  some of  the  musical  performances,  it's  hard  to  imagine  anyone  recalling  it  with  much  affection.

The  first  series  started  on  11  July  with  the  summer  nearly  half  over  and  ran  for  5  weeks.  The  second  series  began  more  sensibly  in  April  1982  after  the  last  Multi-Coloured  Swap  Shop   and  was   quite  a  different  beast. Pollard  was  no  longer  involved  and   actor  Mark  Curry  had  been  promoted  to  co-presenter  instead  of  the  guests.  Ostensibly  it  ran  for  an  extra  half  hour  but  in  reality  this  was  filled  by  cartoons  and  a  repeat  screening  of  the  hoary  old  Robinson  Crusoe  serial. The  programme  now  ran  to  a  strict  timetable  with  the  band  doing  their  first  number  at  10.15, an  open  invitation  not  to  bother  switching  the  TV  on   until  then.

That  version  of  the  show  ran  until  June  1982. Six  weeks  later  it  was  back  without  Powell  and  re-branded  as simply  Get  Set .  This  ran  until  the  beginning  of  October  and  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  thing  I  saw  on  our  new  colour  television  that  summer .The  only   other   thing  I    remember  from  it  was  the  Video  Vote  where  the  youngsters  in  the  studio  judged  which  was  the  best  of  four  pop  videos  from  small  snippets   although  strangely  enough  the  winner  was  always  the  group  with  the  largest  fan  base.  I  was  disgusted  that  what  turned  out  to  be  Talk  Talk's  breakthrough  hit , Today ,  got  about  three  votes though  I'd  have to  admit  it's  not  a  great  video.

 It  was  then  re-branded  again  as  The  Saturday  Picture  Show  , still  with  Curry , but  I  think  I'd  given  up  by  then.