North TV’s new high built on past glory
CURRENT SHOWS ARE LATEST IN LONG LINE OF HITS FOR REGION
GEORDIE TV is conquering the airrwaves – but it’s not the only time it hasas happened.
Vera and Saturday Night Takeaway, with Ant and Dec, are both grabbing viewers in the latest of a long line of success stories fromf our region.i Wi Withh onlyl B Broadd church doing better, it means that lovely accent is again getting the attention it deserves on the small screen.scre AccordingA to the website Telemix, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway last week had 6.5 million viewers – toppingto the weekend charts. TheyTh said: “The Geordie duo toppedtop the weekend ratings for a fifth SaturdaySat running, with Saturday NightNig Takeaway currently enjoying its bestbe viewing figures in years. TheTh second instalment of the new four-partfou series of Vera won an audienceen of 5.3 million. Here we take a look at some of the vin vintage shows that highlighted G Geordies on the box.
Who could forget the antics of three Geordie building site workers and theirth mates looking for work in Ger- many?? Th The showh l launchedh d theh e careers of Jimmy Nail, who playedd Oz, Kevin Whately, who playedd Neville, and Tim Healy, who tried too make sense of all the chaos going onn around him as sensible Dennis.
All three went to enjoy successfulul careers, with Nail going on to star inn Crocodile Shoes and Spender.
Kevin had a long stay on Morsee and Lewis, while Tim became a Geordie god with many roles, includding Les/Lesley in Benidorm.
Episodes were mainly written by Dick Clement and Whitley Bay’s Ian La Frenais, who also wrote The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Porridge.
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
“Oh what happened to you, whatever happened to me, what became of the people we used to be?”
The theme tune summed up the nostalgic feel of a pair of lads from the
region who got backk back together after years apart.
James Bolam played Terry Collier, who breezed through life without a care in the world, while Rodney Bewes played the more practical Bob Ferris.
Later, James Bolam moved from one success to another culmiulmi- nating in the popular New Tricks.
Rodney Bewes was less fortunate and his attempts to kick-start a new series of Lads were unsuccessful.
This was another vehicle for James Bolam.
He starred as Jack Ford, returning home to the fictional Gallowshield after the First World War.
The show, the brainchild of James Mitchell, showed his struggle against poverty and was heavily political with a strong left-wing bias.
It also had a great theme tune, sung by Alex Glasgow, which stayed in the mind long after the closing credits.
When the Boat Comes in was a series born and bred in the North East and was successful enough to last four series.
All the stars wanted to appear in the Catherine Cookson dramas.
Robson Green, now firmly established in North East hearts, made an early TV appearance as The Gambling Man.
Heartthrob Sean Bean was in The Fifteeen Streets, and even Catherine Zeta-Jones had a part, in 1994’s The Cinder Path.
Other notable actors attracted to the stories produced by Ray Marshall include Nigel Havers, Anne Reid, Emilia Fox, and David Threlfall.
Some of the cast may have struggled with Geordie but they made valient attempts to get the local feel right.
And all of them kept true to Catherine’s work, which lifted the lid on what it was really like to live in the North way back when.
Supergran
She may have been Scottish but Supergran was an honorary Geordie.
Granny Smith was a super-powered pensioner who took on the villainous Scunner Campbell in two series of the show made by Tyne Tees Television.
She was played by Gudrun Ure, while Campbell was played by Iain Cuthbertson.
A product of the late 1980s, Supergran was filmed in locations such as Tynemouth and Beamish Museum.
The action was set in the fictional town of Chisleton and featured local stand-ups Alan Snell and Brian Lewis as Campbell’s gang “The Muscles”.
It was one of Tyne Tees Television most successful shoes and stars were falling over themselves to appear.
They included George Best, Spike Milligan, Roy Kinnear, Geoff Capes and Charles Hawtrey.