Readers' Enquiries... Albion Market On DVD? For Maddie With Love, And The Launch Of The Space Shuttle...

Cheers! Lisa O'Shea (Sally Baxter) and Lynne Harrison (Noreen Kershaw) enjoy a cuppa at Albion Market in 1985.

Kathy has written:

I love your features on Albion Market and thought the show was ace. Do you know if there is any chance of the 100 episodes being released on DVD?

Sorry, Kathy, I don't think it's very likely. I liked Albion Market too, but I know of no plans to bring the show to DVD. If I hear anything on the subject, I'll post it on this blog.

Still on the subject of '80s drama series, Jon asks:

Do you remember anything about an 80's telly show called For Maddie With Love? Are you planning an '80s Actual article about the show, and did it make it onto video?

Hi, Jon - yes, I do remember For Maddie With Love (1980-1981), an ATV series which starred Nyree Dawn Porter and Ian Hendry. It was the story of a woman who only had months left to live. Very few people had a VCR in 1980-1981, so there was no video release of the series, but there was a novelisation, by Sheila Yegar, published by New English Library in 1980. When I last checked on eBay, there were several copies on sale.

And finally Graham P says:

I love your blog, it's the absolute best when it comes to 80's facts. Could you please post more about technology - like the development of the GSM system for mobile phones, which is the system we use today, and the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981? Also, please, PLEASE more 1980s computer pics!

Thanks for your compliments and enthusiasm, Jon. We do have a small post about the first Space Shuttle launch - it's here - and I'm hoping to revamp it soon as I now have more material. The GSM subject is fascinating and I have chalked it in as a future possible '80s Actual article - the beginning was in 1982 when Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM) was formed to design a pan-European mobile technology.

And there will be more computer pics soon!

The 1980s: Fashion Freedom For The Working Class Male (And Men In General!)

'80s fashion revolution for men...

Sunday Mirror, January 15 1984:

Boy George may be the High Priest of High Camp, but the 1984 fashion revolution extends far beyond Gorgeous George and the pop world.

You'd be amazed at the extraordinary extravagances very masculine young men are indulging in all over Britain.

And what the girls in their lives think about it...

I have few fond memories of my childhood in the 1970s. I hated that decade and I hated the way that I, as a male, was expected to dress, speak and even move in certain ways.

The dress was boring - flares, which had been around since the late 1960s - and some gawd awful acrylic tank top or jumper - if you didn't dress like everybody else, you got picked on; you had to speak macho round my way, and boys didn't cry; you even had to move in a rigidly masculine way.

I remember a New Year's party my parents threw in the late '70s. Then in my early teens, I was allowed downstairs to take part a bit - even have a "proper drink". There I sat, bemused by it all as my family bellowed at each other and shrieked with laughter over the din of 1950s music. I had my drink in one hand, one hand on my knee, when my step-father approached:

"Don't sit like that, son," he said. "It looks queer!"

WHAT?!!

And my mother was just as bad. She liked "boys to be boys" - they didn't cry, and they played with toy guns and got into fights.

Now, looking back from the vantage point of my current situation, happily married and unhappily mortgaged for the last fifteen years, with a large circle of friends from many different backgrounds, I find it hard to believe that things were so rigid in the 1970s.

But they were.

The 1980s were like a huge gale of fresh air.

Firstly, there was the New Man or Eighties Man - I've written more about that here but, briefly, this was a move towards a new breed of men - sensitive, not afraid of emotions, housework or childcare. They were hot news from around 1982 onwards.

And the 1980s also saw great strides forward in male fashion. Before the 1980s, it was OK for drag artists like Danny La Rue or male pop stars to wear make-up and/or take trouble with their grooming.

In the 1980s, it became OK for even working class ordinary geezers like me to do so. Early in the decade, nothing changed. If you'd dressed like Adam Ant on our council estate in 1981 you'd probably have got your head kicked in.

But when my tough, macho mate Pete started wearing white leg warmers and pixie boots, had his hair streaked and developed a very becoming Princess Diana fringe around 1983, I wondered what on earth was going on.

Particularly as in 1980 and 1981 his favourite fashion accessory was a Punk-style dog collar.

As the decade moved beyond its first few years, I was thrilled by the range of male fashions to buy - and the colours - glaring neons or "feminine" pastels.

And it was all so dressy!

Those linen jackets, with massive shoulder pads, looked tremendous with a cerise mesh vest and skin-tight yellow trousers.

Push up those jacket sleeves, or turn them back to reveal colourful contrasting material...

And then there was hair styling.

In the 1980s, I had my hair streaked blonde, bought gel and mousse, and had a variety of styles, ranging from bouffant mullet to glorious blonde tinged flat-top.

In 1984, I became the first man in my family ever to own a hairdryer.

Whilst I was happy simply being colourful and dressy, the influence of pop stars like Boy George and Marilyn prompted some men to go further...

The Sun, October 26, 1983:

Disco bosses have barred dance floor show-offs who wear too much make-up and revealing dresses... and that's just the lads!

Fashion-conscious fellas - who mimic chart-topping Boy George - have been blamed for falling attendances at the trendy over 18s club.

Now the "in-crowd" - who have been turning up in off-the-shoulder gowns, high heels and ostrich feathers - have been told: "Butch up or stay out."

Adam ____, manager of the Summerhill Club at Kingswinford, West Midlands, says their antics were putting the girls in the shade - and frightening away the regular guys.

One of the banned lads is Gary ____, 21, of Dudley, West Midlands.

"I was wearing my full make-up and all my best gear," said platinum blonde Gary.

Magazine advertisement from September 1985. "Looks even better on a girl"? I think he looks pretty darned striking myself!

So, what caused this sudden softening and colouring up of male dress sense in the 1980s?

The influence of Boy George cannot be underestimated. He was a real person, he didn't just dress for the stage. He sought to express himself through his varying looks.

It can be argued that there had been heavily individualistic people like the Boy around for a very long time, but his success on the pop scene and the tremendous interest he aroused says a lot about the 1980s.

Then there was the New/Eighties Man thing, a reply to the revival of the feminist movement which had come bursting out of the 1960s.

There was also the growing "swankiness" of the mid-1980s as money began to swirl around and style became oh so important. It was such a contrast to the early '80s, when donkey jackets had been one of the main fashion must-haves for both boys and girls.

Why the '80s male fashion revolution happened I'm not sure. I've expressed my ideas on the subject, but I'm really not sure.

But I'm very glad it did!

Two '80s popstrels, Nik Kershaw and Paul Young, on the cover of the very wonderful Smash Hits in September 1985. Nice hair! Read our hymn of praise to Black Type here.

Fashion trend leader Boy George - a sticker from the mid-1980s. Princess Margaret refused to be photographed with him at an awards ceremony in 1984, saying: "I don't know who he is, but he looks like an over made-up tart."

Marilyn had his handbag stolen in 1984.

EastEnders 25th Anniversary - Post 3

EastEnders 1980s gay couple, Colin and Barry. Colin was a middle class professional man, at home with his sexuality, Barry was a working class East-end lad, who felt pressure to conform to the "norm". The characters were criticised by some for being disgusting, and by others for not being allowed to show much warmth towards each other. But they were very much part of the brave beginnings of bringing gays out of the closet in UK TV soapland.

What made EastEnders different? Why did it originally outrage and delight to such a degree?

In my opinion, this was due to the show's uncompromising grimness - the setting of Albert Square, a few scandals involving early cast members, and the show's intense portrayal of social issues.

The show's left-wing sub text helped, too.

Soaps had "done" social issues before. Coronation Street had its moments right from the beginning, and Crossroads had bravely waded in in the mid-1960s. But it must be said that the issues were handled in a way that was thought to be suitable for the times. For instance, alcoholism could come about in the blink of an eye and could rapidly be overcome.

Were all viewers so much more "enlightened" in the 1980s that they could happily watch uncompromising portrayals of social issues in soaps? No, of course not, but what EastEnders seemed to be saying was: "Up yours, darlin', we're doin' it anyway!"

The thinking behind Producer Julia Smith's attitude to the social realism portrayed in the Albert Square saga can be found in our EastEnders 25th anniversary post 2.

Let's look at the portrayal of gay men in UK soaps from the 1960s to 1980...

The BBC radio soap, The Dales, apparently briefly featured a gay character in the late 1960s, and its successor, Waggoners' Walk (1969-1980), also approached the gay theme in the 1970s. But the character concerned "reformed" after he fathered a child with a local woman (who didn't know he was gay at the time) and got married. I've never known a gay man to "reform" - and why on earth should they?

Waggoners' Walk returned to the gay theme shortly before its axing was announced in 1980, with restaurant waiter Rob Pengelly announcing: "Girls don't turn me on at all!"

Little old working class me, brought up in a tightly bigoted atmosphere, thought: "There's going to be trouble now!" Nobody would have dared to make such an announcement where I lived!

But Waggoners' Walk was set in Hampstead, and the majority of the sophisticated, well-heeled characters took the news in their stride. Only brash, self-made businessman Matt Prior expressed any bigotry, and he soon got over it.

I seem to recall that early afternoon TV soap Together (1980-1981) introduced a gay character - perhaps even a gay couple - circa 1981, not long before the series ended. Together had got off to a somewhat dowdy start in 1980, and it seemed to me at the time that the writers were inspired more than somewhat by Rob Pengelly of Waggoners' Walk and had decided to be more up-to-date.

But it's all very hazy, and the show, tucked away in the afternoon schedules, attracted little attention and soon disappeared - as did Southern TV, which produced it.

And as for Rob of Waggoners' Walk, he got involved with Rocky Rowlands, an American who was internationally famous as a fashion designer.

Not something I could easily relate to.

EastEnders was different in that the characters were mainly working class and issues tended to explode, rather than be carefully discussed by people who would never have dreamt of dropping an aitch, as in Waggoners' Walk.

This was something that I, as a working class man from a thoroughly grotty back street, could identify with. There were sauce bottles and plates of mash on Albert Square tables, not Peter Tyson's latest experiment with herbs and spices. Lou Beale went to bingo - not to dinner with the editor of the Hampstead Herald.

EastEnders also went further than the Walk in the issues covered, shocking many in the process, and "infecting" other soaps.

And its gay men did not "reform", although poor Barry was under pressure to.

I do wonder if EastEnders would have come into existence without Brookside, another soap which sought '80s reality.

But whatever the truth of that, Albert Square's original groundbreaking impact, its thirst for social issues and "in your face" attitude, should not be ignored.

EastEnders 25th Anniversary - Post 2

Julia Smith and Tony Holland - creators of EastEnders.

On 14 March 1983, Julia Smith and Tony Holland were summoned to the office of David Reid, then head of the BBC's Series/Serials Department. Mr Reid had a proposition for the pair: the BBC had decided to start a popular bi-weekly serial (note: not "soap opera" - the BBC - and other programme producers - then frowned upon the phrase). Julia and Tony, who had previously worked together on Z Cars, Angels and District Nurse, were offered the roles of Producer and Script Editor.

The planned bi-weekly was intended to run every week of the year.

Initially, the show was to be set in a mobile home park. Julia and Tony did not like the idea at all.

They favoured a serial set in modern day London, a view later echoed by the new head of Series/Serials, Jonathan Powell.

And that led Julia and Tony to the East-end.

Filming in the real East-end presented various problems, but finally the vacant "Lot" at the Elstree Studios, previously used for the hugely successful first series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, was decided upon as the setting for the new soap, er, sorry, bi-weekly, then provisionally titled E 8.

A purpose built East-end square would be erected on the Lot.

Julia and Tony flew off to Lanzarote in March 1984 to work on creating the characters.

There was to be a crusty old battle axe called Lou Beale; Lou's daughter, Pauline; Pauline's husband, Arthur Fowler; Pauline and Arthur's children, Michelle and Mark; Lou's son, Pete; his wife, Kathy, and son, Ian.

The show was to reflect the multi-ethnic East-end of the 1980s: Saeed and Naima Jeffery, he a quarter English, three-quarters Bengali, and she wholly Bengali, would run the local shop.

A character originally called Alan Carpenter (later changed to Tony) hailed from the Caribbean and would live with his son, Kevin (later changed to Kelvin) in the Square.

Then there was Chris (later changed to Ali) and Sue Osman. Ali was a Turkish Cypriot, Sue was English. They would run the cafe just off the Square.

Dr Harold Legg would be the area's wise, Jewish doctor. He'd lost his wife when a bomb was dropped on Albert Square during the Second World War.

And, as this was the 1980s, what about "upwardly mobile" types? Julia and Tony came up with Debbie Wilkins and Andy O'Brien. They weren't yuppies, Andy was a nurse, Debbie worked in a bank, but they weren't typical Albert Square types by any means.

Back down-to-earth again: Ethel May Skinner was an elderly local woman who doted on her dog, initially intended to be a Yorkie, but, as it turned out, a Pug. This was, of course, "Ethel's little Willy".

Mary Smith was to be a semi-literate young Punk, from the North of England. A single parent, she brought her baby daughter, Annie, to live in the Square.

"Lofty" George Holloway would be the area's misfit, a gawky young man who worked at the local pub, cash in hand.

And what about the family at the pub? Whilst in Lanzarote, Julia and Tony fleshed out the characters of Jack, Pearl and Tracey Watts - Den, Angie and Sharon to you and me. The family was originally intended to have an Alsatian dog called "Prince", but this later morphed into an apricot Standard Poodle called Roly.

A later dreamt-up addition to the original cast of EastEnders characters was Nick Cotton - a thoroughly nasty geezer!

The building of Phase One of the permanent Albert Square set at Elstree in the summer of 1984. It wasn't real. But it sure looked it. The Queen Vic and Lou Beale's house are well on the way, and the gardens in the centre of the Square are looking good.

The first episode of EastEnders was originally intended to be broadcast in January 1985, but this was postponed to February.

And what a shock the show was!

Old Reg Cox was found in his grubby bedsit - close to death, Nick Cotton stuck his fist through one of the Queen Vic's windows, Pauline Fowler was pregnant and her loving mother, Lou, told her to get rid of the kid...

And all in episode one!

Brookside, which began on Channel 4's opening night in November 1982, had already begun the process of de-cosying English soap opera, but EastEnders took things to the next level.

Like Brookside, the show had a left wing sub text ("Don't blame me - it's that cow in No 10!" said Lou Beale to son-in-law Arthur Fowler when he was feeling down because he was unemployed and "Community spirit went out when the Tories came in!" said Pete Beale) but Albert Square was also a place of pot boiling secrets...

Who was Dirty Den Watts' mistress - he'd been seeing her for five years? Who was the father of teenager Michelle Fowler's baby? Who was the terrifying Walford Attacker - was it someone who lived in the Square? Was Pete Beale really Simon Wicks' father?

Often at the centre of the drama, were Den and Angie Watts at the Queen Vic - a married couple who had a spectularly destructive relationship. and yet, bizarrely, seemed to need the other.

Compelling viewing.

Mrs Mary Whitehouse, clean up TV campaigner, didn't think so:

"It is at our peril that we allow this series. Its verbal aggression and its atmosphere of physical aggression, its homosexuality, its blackmailing pimp and its prostitute, its lies and deceit and its bad language, cannot go unchallenged."

And fancy showing the omnibus on a Sunday!

Julia Smith said:

"I think I'm just as moral as Mrs Whitehouse. And I care possibly more deeply. The difference is she believes in sweeping things under the carpet and pretending they don't exist. I believe in showing what does exist and preparing people for the world they live in. My prime aim is to entertain, my second is to inform. I do not preach. All I do is lead viewers to reach their own conclusions by having different characters representing different points of view. It would be nonsense to portray the East-end without any semblance of violence. It is a very violent place. The people there are not very literate. They express themselves in raucous laughter and hugs, not careful discussion, and it can all turn into anger very quickly. It's a much more physical way of life. I've never been frightened of handling controversial subjects. You can tackle anything, however early in the evening, providing you do it in the right spirit."

The shock waves sent out by Brookside and EastEnders ensured that the 1980s would change English soap opera. Forever.

Soaps today are far less political, far more sensationalised, but the grittiness and the up-front approach to social issues can all be traced back to the Close and the Square. TV soaps did issues before the '80s, but the approach was far less "in your face", far less relentless, and sometimes just plain daft.

Looking in on the action at the Rovers, or at Emmerdale Farm, or at the Crossroads Motel, you could spend lots of time feeling cosy.

But not in Brookside Close - and most certainly not in Albert Square!

Sandy Ratcliff was champion moaner Sue Osman in the early years of EastEnders. And yet somehow I liked the character. The cot death of Sue and husband Ali's baby son, Hassan, in episode 36, broadcast in June 1985, was a shattering piece of drama.

Click on the "EASTENDERS" label below for much more '80s Actual Albert Square info.

1983: President Ronald Reagan Invites Us To Visit America...

Pages from a 1983 magazine advertising feature on America. The pictures on the right features the Twin Towers, the Statue of Liberty and a stretch of desert, whilst on the left, US President Ronald Reagan, elected in November 1980, issues an invitation:

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

On behalf of the American people, I am very proud to invite you to visit the United States.

Our nation's beauty, unique heritage, and hospitality are yours to see and enjoy. I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to make new friends and participate in social and cultural exchanges with our people.

Remember that America's doors will be open to you during your travels. We will be delighted to provide you with an exciting and educational experience.

Ronald Reagan

Hertz car rental and the Amtrak U.S.A. Rail Pass offered opportunities to see America once you arrived there.

More on President Reagan here.

Trivial Pursuit In The UK - How The Game Came About, And How We First Pursued It In 1984...

Did you pursue the trivial in 1984? Many people did as the UK edition of Trivial Pursuit made its debut in January.

Trivial Pursuit (originally to be called "Trivia Pursuit") was conceived by two Canadians, Chris Haney and Scott Abbot, on 15 December 1979. The general format was worked out very quickly, but devising the scoring system took three months! Chris and Scott spent the next couple of years setting up their own company and researching marketing techniques.

The famous Trivial Pursuit logo and board was designed in 1981 by artist Michael Wurstin. A trial run of games was released in the Toronto and Vancouver areas in November 1981. All were sold.

Trivial Pursuit creators Chris Haney and Scott Abbott in the mid-1980s.

In November 1982, Chris and Scott signed a contract with the manufacturers of Scrabble to distribute the game in the USA. Work began on the British edition in April 1983 and, at the start of '84, we discovered we could all pursue the trivial to our hearts content.

The game has cheese shaped wedges, general knowledge questions and a box design which looks good on any coffee table. We fell for it big time here in England - and for the many versions released since, like the "Genius" edition pictured at the top of this post.

The original British edition of Trivial Pursuit was our 1984 and 1985 Game of the Year.

New UK Trivial Record - from the Times, November 1984.

Trivial Pursuit questions (and answers) as featured in the Sun, December, 1984.

The '80s Actual Trivial Pursuit Timeline

(Details culled from a mid-1980s magazine interview with Chris Haney and Scott Abbott)

15 December 1979 - conception:

Chris Abbott and Scott Haney were having a friendly argument in the kitchen of Chris's Montreal home over who was the better Scrabble player. To resolve the dispute, Chris went to buy a Scrabble set, and realised that it was the sixth he'd bought in his life. The pair decided then and there to invent a new game. "It took us forty-five minutes to design the game," explained Scott in a 1985 interview, "and three months to figure out the scoring."

January 1980:

Carrying an expired press pass and a camera without film, Chris and Scott visited a toy fair in Montreal. There, they pumped manufacturers about marketing strategies. According to Scott, the pair "collected about $10,000 dollars' worth of information in one afternoon."

Chris and Scott decided to set up their own company to produce the game, recruiting Chris's older brother John and a lawyer friend, Ed Werner. Chris left his job and began to contact companies who could manufacture the various game components.

October 1980:

Work began on preparing the all-important questions. Chris, his wife, Sarah, and two-year-old son went to Spain to begin the work. John later joined them there. The next five months were spent amassing mountains of trivia.

March - October 1981:

During the summer of 1981, Chris and Scott spent six weeks on the final editing of the Trivial Pursuit questions. Artist Michael Wurstin was hired to design the board and logo - he was paid with shares in the company. The game creators pored over colour combinations and package designs.

They decided to go for a chunky box, bearing the words "Trivial Pursuit" in elegant script, something that would look good on coffee tables, as well as in toy cupboards.

A test run of 1,200 copies was produced after thirty-two friends, relatives and former colleagues bought shares in the venture. In late October 1981, the game components arrived and work was carried out round the clock putting the boxes together.

November 1981 - September 1982:

The stage was set for the first test run of Trivial Pursuit games to make their debut in shops in the Toronto and Vancouver area in November 1981. All were sold.

Orders from retailers began to come in, but the supply of games had been exhausted and its creators had used up all their funds. Various banks were approached, but credit to produce further Trivial Pursuit games was refused. "We'd really hit rock bottom," recalled Chris a few years later.

In March 1982, they found a bank willing to lend them enough money to produce a further 20,000 games.

An old boat-yard on Lake Ontario became their assembly plant, and Scott left his job to become the company accountant. A computer was bought to store the questions in.

October 1982 - October 1983: The four man team working at the Trivial Pursuit assembly plant were finding it difficult to cope with the flood of orders for the game. In October 1982 they handed over the distribution to a Canadian game manufacturer, which immediately ordered 80,000 games. In November 1982, Chris and Scott signed a contract with the distributors of Scrabble to manufacture and distribute the game in the USA.

In the spring of 1983, Chris phoned Steve Birch, a friend in England: "Can you come over? The game is going pretty well and we want you and Ray to do a British version."

Steve Birch and Ray Loud went to Canada and, with Chris and Scott, pored over the Trivial Pursuit questions, deciding which would need replacing for a British edition.

By the end of August 1983 the British game was ready to be manufactured.

January 1984:

Trivial Pursuit went on sale in Britain.

1989: A Talking Remote Control For Your VCR...

Video recorders were wonderful but so bloomin' difficult in the 1980s.

In 1980, only 5% of UK households had them.

In 1983, nearly 20% of UK households had a machine, and in early 1985 it was 25%. The sky was now the limit and it would not be long before a VCR in the home was regarded as essential by the majority of us.

Most people I knew rented their first VCR.

And most people I knew had difficulties setting the timer.

"What a load of vidiots!" I chortled.

My mother was one of the first VCR renters I knew. She obtained one in 1983, just before I left home, so I had little time to familiarise myself with it.

I began renting one in 1987.

I wanted to watch the American comedy series The Golden Girls, but as it aired on Channel 4 on Friday nights I had to rent a VCR to be able to see it. Fridays and Saturdays were nights I went out and no way was I staying in.

Having got a video machine, I confronted the timer and entered into battle.

It won.

I couldn't set it, no matter how I tried.

When I tried to tape Channel 4, it taped BBC1, when I tried to tape ITV, it taped grey fuzz...

So, I used to pop a video cassette in and put the machine on record just before I went out on Fridays, leaving it to tape hours of Channel 4 just so I could wade through and watch one half-hour programme.

Perhaps I could have done with the remote control featured in the September 1989 magazine ad above.

One that would have talked me through the process...

WHOEVER'S PROGRAMMING THE VIDEO NEEDS A GOOD TALKING TO.

The Sharp video with Talking Handset.

If you're still wondering why your "Neighbours" didn't turn up.

Or wondering why the Big Film turned into the big fiasco.

Why Ivan Lendl bore a remarkable resemblance to Sandy Gall.

And why J.R. was cut off in his prime.

If all these wonders of conventional video leave you wondering why you keep programming things incorrectly, Sharp now have the solution to your video nasties. The Sharp Video with Talking Handset.

The unique Handset has its own voice to guide you through all of the various stages of programming. Accurate talking instructions for you to follow, from "Let's set the Timer for recording" to "Which channel do you wish to record?"

The 44 function remote control is a handy size with an easy button layout that's simple to operate.

The video itself (VC-T310HM) enables you to pre-programme a full year of recordings with a 365 day eight programme facility.

There's a super search feature which locates any recordings you're looking for.

There's even a child-proof lock.

Sharp really do think of everything.

As well as this particular model, there's an alternative in the Talking Handset range. The VC-T510HM. A 4 head system, providing improved picture quality, an extended recording playback of up to 8 hours, variable slow motion, frame by frame advance and double speed playback. To list just a few features...

The wonders of modern technology. Love the Radio Times Neighbours synopsis featured in the ad:

Charlene breaks out in a mysterious rash.

I would have been so hacked off if the VCR timer had made me miss that...

EastEnders 25th Anniversary - Post 1

EastEnders first burst on to our screens on 19 February 1985. And that's almost twenty-five years ago.

February 2010 sees the BBC soap celebrate its 25th anniversary, and '80s Actual will be adding to its current Albert Square posts with a short series looking back at some of the behind-the scenes-folk, characters and story-lines from the soap's birth decade, the 1980s.

The photo above shows Pete Beale (Peter Dean), his son (well, at least Pete thought it was), Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) and the fearsome Pat Wicks (Pam St Clement) enjoying a happy evening in the Queen Vic.

Pam St Clement had cut her soap teeth in that other ITV saga Emmerdale Farm. She briefly played a Mrs Eckersley. Debuting in episode 561 on 10 March 1980, she appeared in the Yorkshire farming saga for five episodes, bowing out in episode 565 on 25 March 1980.

Pam's character actually deputised for Emmerdale matriarch Annie Sugden, looking after the cooking and the kitchen at the farm whilst Annie took a holiday in Ireland.

Mrs Eckersley sang hymns as she trundled around Beckindale on her trusty old bike and was a thoroughly nice woman.

Pam St Clement made her debut as Pat Wicks in EastEnders in episode 138, broadcast on 12 June 1986.

Of course, Pat didn't sing hymns. And whilst many Walford locals regarded her as an old bike, she didn't ride one and nobody in those early days would have described her as trusty. Or as a thoroughly nice woman, come to that.

Not even after ten pints of Churchill's strong ale.

But times and soap characters change, and Pat is now an EastEnders favourite.

Click on our EastEnders label below for lots more '80s Albert Square stuff and look out for further 25th anniversary posts.

Power Showers....

Power, darling - don't you just love the idea? And Power Dressing, didn't you just love that, too?

20th Century Words by John Ayto - published in 1999 - defines Power Dressing thus:

noun (1980) a style of dressing for work and business intended to convey an impression of efficiency and confidence. Applied particularly to clothing adopted by some women to fit in with the ruthless business ethic of the 1980s, characterised by the use of shoulder-pads to create a more masculine-looking outline.

Of course, looking back at the 1980s from our current vantage point, we can see that the shoulder-padded look was also part of lots of 1980s fun fashion - and that many men employed it, too.

I did. I thought it so stylish. And the choice of colours for jackets back then, together with the patterned material inside that you could roll up your sleeves to reveal and contrast, was a wow.

Power dressing was followed by a range of "power" prefixes - you could have a power walk, power nap, power breakfast, power washes and, of course, a power shower...

There's nothing like a Power Shower - to pamper, to soothe, to invigorate, to leave you tingling-fresh.

And now they start at an even better price.

For less than £300 inc. VAT, you can have, installed - a shower with an adjustable head that puts you in control, to choose the spray that suits your mood.

A shower with a powerful pump which, when added to your gas central heating, keeps the luxurious water flow constant, and maintains the temperature you choose.

And a shower that can still cost less to take than a bath. Even more of a bargain when you remember that heating your water by gas is your cheapest option - 24 hrs a day.

The Power Shower. Saving you money all-round.

See them and other energy saving gas appliances at British Gas showrooms now.

British Gas - ENERGY IS OUR BUSINESS

I do love the black tiles with red grouting effect featured in the ad photograph. Very '80s indeed!

1980s Food - Posh Nosh For The Masses...

From an August 1986 ITV ad break - talk about conspicuous consumption! A witty salad cream ad (many of us were experiencing mayo for the very first time), posh potatoes (baked, of course!) and very posh biscuits with yogurt and muesli in them...

What was it with baked spuds? Perhaps the F-Plan Diet had a lot to answer for, as spud fever gripped the nation in the mid-1980s. There was a very fancy potato cafe near me, decorated with old fashioned advertisements from the early 20th Century, where you could go and eat spuds filled with wonderful things. Now, who's for a nice jacket with prawn mayo, sliced hard boiled egg and grated cheese? Baked beans on top? Well, OK, if you insist...

In the early 1980s I was happy to simply give a baked spud a quick dollop of marge and a bit of grated cheese before wolfing it down. Not any more. In the mid-'80s I began scooping out the potato and mashing it up with butter and chopped chives, before replacing it in the jacket, placing grated cheese on top and then browning it under the grill. Or the potato might be mixed with tuna, chopped peppers and mayonnaise (I didn't meet peppers or mayo until the 1980s - before that I was only acquainted with salad cream and spring onions!).

Me, a humble working class lad, was suddenly scoffing posh nosh. I was eating food I'd never even laid eyes on back in 1982.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, supermarkets had reflected our thrifty (and ignorant of posh nosh) ways. Food ranges on offer increased - they always had - and there was a move in the early 1980s away from processed, tasteless products (more further on) - but there was still a rigid class thing when it came to food.

There was what "posh" people ate and what we ate.

And never the twain shall meet.

And there wasn't much point in supermarkets offering food that customers could not afford or were going to reject out of hand.

Remember the wide range of "Basics" and "Economy" products on sale at supermarkets in the early 1980s? These were dead cheap versions of everyday necessities to help us through the ravages of the recession. They started a trend, and you can still buy similar "cheap-as-can-be" supermarket items today.

Back then, Sainsbury's and Tesco's were different planets compared to the supermarkets of today. There simply wasn't the range of foods on sale we take for granted today.

My wife recalls a flatmate of hers making her own pasta from scratch in the '70s - the dried varieties were not available on supermarket shelves. The only dried pasta I saw back then in the supermarkets was of the long spaghetti or macaroni varieties.

The early '80s were hard times. There were, of course, the (then) super doopah out-of-town hypermarkets of the late '70s and early '80s, but you needed a car to get to them, and decent nosh didn't come cheap. And even then, the food ranges couldn't hold a candle to the posh nosh explosion hitting even humble, everyday supermarkets in the mid-1980s.

But the 1981 newspaper article below reveals some hopeful trends...

The '80s saw us cheap and common chaps and chapesses turning away from tasteless, processed foods and towards tasty, quality nosh. Even in the recession-ridden early 1980s, the move was back towards food that you could taste!

From the Daily Mirror, January 2, 1981:

Do yourself a flavour for 1981

Mmm! Delicious, that smell of fresh-baked bread!

And it's an aroma you're likely to savour more this year as shoppers elbow aside bland, over-processed foods in favour of good old-fashioned flavours.

Natural foods, till now a speciality of health food shops, will be popping up on supermarket shelves and - costing less.

We are already drinking more natural fruit juices - stand by for the "long life" type that don't need to be kept refrigerated.

We'll also be brewing more of our own money-saving beer and wine.

Tastier non-alcoholic drinks are on the way. And there will be more flavoured pintas to boost sales of ordinary milk.

Look out too, for new varieties of yogurts and cheese.

There will be no let-up in the High Street price war. Sales will run and run.

Retailers will be enticing customers with ever-more ingenious promotions. Tesco, for instance, are tying up with Heinz in a scheme based on prices 50 years ago when the supermarket group was founded.

Coupons will be a real snip - manufacturers make those offers on the basis that not everyone will take them up so there are some good bargains to be collected.

Watch out for new money-saving offers arranged between British Rail and the Post Office.

More stores will switch to electronic check-outs where prices are "read" by a laser beam and customers get itemised bills [Andy's note: Sainsbury's began the switch in 1982].

Food labels will be fuller. For instance, added water in products like tinned ham will have to be listed. You'll be told exactly what variety of potatoes and melons you are buying. And claims that products provide special benefits will have to be explained on the label.

Turkey will gobble up more of our money in unexpected ways - turkey bacon, burgers and bangers.

Fewer vegetables and more Continental made-up dishes and gooey gateaux will fill frozen food cabinets.

Personally I thought some of those new turkey products were "Bootiful!" - more here.

Supermarkets truly underwent a revolution during the mid '80s boom period, introducing many shocked shoppers to such oddities as avocados, peppers, olive oil and courgettes for the first time ever. The working classes would never be the same again.

These things were suddenly available in large numbers, were affordable, and there was a brash spirit of adventure in the air.

Yes, we were going to eat classy nosh!

There were even posh new potato crisps ranges - cheese and onion? No, ta, cream cheese and chive, please!

I giggled when I first heard of carrot cake. Carrot cake?!! Oh please - surely it was a joke? But it wasn't. And it was delicious.

As Andrew Marr, referring to the mid-1980s, said recently: "This is the moment when British shopping goes turbo charged."

And our supermarkets reflected that. Sainsbury's started to seem quite classy back then - I'm sure I was rubbing shoulders with vicars and school teachers whenever I nipped in - and more than a few yuppie types. It all seemed very strange.

Cosmopolitan magazine, July 1983: "Good Food Costs Less At Sainsbury's" - and don't forget the fancy water to go with it! Sainsbury's had its own varieties in 1983 - from Shropshire and Perthshire.

As affordable posh nosh trickled down to the working classes, we also loved prawn cocktail - which was being slagged off by Fanny Cradock as long ago as 1967! But Nouvelle Cuisine was really "it". I could probably have eaten about nine Nouvelle sized portions in one sitting, and wouldn't give it house room.

My own personal favourite was all those fancy salad dressings suddenly so widely and cheaply available. When I was a kid, and indeed into the early '80s, salad to me meant cold meat or a wedge of pork pie, cheese, some limp lettuce, a few spuds, maybe a few spring onions, and a dollop of salad cream. Eating salad was a chore. Not any more!

The supermarket revolution wasn't just confined to expanding ranges of food. A female friend of mine was working at our local branch of Sainsbury's in the mid-'80s, and witnessed the arrival of bar code scanner tills there.

The beeping sound was dreadful, she told me. Completely unused to it, the awful repetitive sound echoed in her head when she got home, and many of her colleagues experienced similar difficulties. On her honeymoon in 1986, my friend halted things at a very romantically-charged moment to ask: "Was that a beep?" Fortunately, her new husband also worked at Sainsbury's and was entirely sympathetic!

A Tesco magazine advertisement from December 1984. Pasta was just becoming exciting in the UK. Before the 1980s, my only experience of pasta was confined to tinned spaghetti - and the only dried ranges I ever saw in Sainsbury's and Tesco's were of the spaghetti and macaroni varieties. But in the 1980s, we truly woke up to culinary pasta possibilities as new dried pasta ranges burst onto UK supermarket shelves.

WHERE DO YOU GO FOR A GOOD ITALIAN?

While Italian restaurants have been popular for years, we're just beginning to recognise how versatile pasta can be in our home cooking.

It comes in so many different forms, it can be used for main meals, snacks, soups or salads.

In creating the Tesco pasta range we use Durum wheat, which is the finest quality you can buy.

Then in some cases we addd eggs to give a richer taste and spinach to make our distinctive pasta verde.

Our range includes spaghetti, tagliatelle, lasagna, macoroni, shells, vermicelli, quills, conches, wheels and bows.

Whichever you choose, you can be sure the Italians can't buy better...

To anybody who doesn't know/remember what it was like to be working class and the food we ate before the 1980s, I'm sure all this must seem bizarre.

Mind you, it wasn't all posh nosh once the mid-'80s had arrived - I also ate TONS of Batchelors Savoury Rice, and Bejam "bubble and squeak" portions and mini pizzas were a wow!

More about 1980s food soon...

Some jacket potato recipes from The F-Plan Diet. I can personally recommend the sausage and mustard pickle.

EastEnders

It's the day after the first episode, and the Sun gives EastEnders the thumbs up, 20/2/1985. Created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland, EastEnders, like Brookside, was a real kick up the backside for staid, tightly permed soap operas.

Sun writer Charles Catchpole opined:

Ethel is what they call a Character. But she's a cardboard cut-out compared with loud-mouthed Lou Beale. Gravel-voiced granny Lou makes Hilda Ogden look like Mary Poppins.When she lashes out at her friends and family, she makes Ena Sharples sound like Mother Teresa.

Meanwhile, the rest of Albert Square is seething with sex, spite and savagery.

The main man in Albert Square was Dennis "Dirty Den" Watts - landlord of the Queen Vic, husband of Ange, adopted father of Sharon and lover of Jan.

Daily Mirror, 27/2/1985...

There's no doubt that articles like the one above did the show no harm at all. The consensus of opinion was that Leslie Grantham had served his time and there was no reason why he shouldn't be in EastEnders. But the actor's background somehow added something to the character of Den Watts. To many viewers, the boundaries between fiction and reality became blurred.

Emotionally topsy-turvy Angie Watts coped with her pig of a husband by hitting the bottle. She was well used to putting on a brave face behind the bar at the Queen Vic, where she said things like, "Wot can I git ya, darlin'?" and, "yew, yew, aht - go on, git aht."

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It's hard to imagine, but Anita Dobson was a last minute appointment to the EastEnders cast, and the role of Ange had very nearly been played by somebody else!

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Tom Watt made a terrific job of playing gawky, spiky-haired misfit Lofty Holloway, who seemed far too naive and vulnerable to be roaming Albert Square.

Tony Carpenter was a cheerful soul, crying out for cheerful situations, but the scriptwriters gave him miserable son Kelvin and nagging wife Hannah instead.

Oscar James, the man behind Tony, was unhappy with the Carpenter family:

"The Carpenters were always arguing and at each other's throat. Having a black family in a top TV show should have been a wonderful method of educating the nation to treat each other as individuals, not according to their colour. That is the way to world peace. EastEnders has done a lot of good. It's just that the BBC could do so much better - and recognise that the ethnic minority in EastEnders deserves better."

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Dr Harold Legg was the Square's affable Jewish doctor. He'd practiced there for years and had been a confidante to many - including local hubble, bubble, toil and trouble merchant Lou Beale.

Leonard Fenton, the actor behind the good doctor, had appeared in television shows such as Z Cars, Secret Army and Shine On Harvey Moon before becoming Dr Legg - the TV role that made him a household name.

Lou Beale said what she thought to her family or anybody else and there's no doubt she was absolutely right.

As far as she was concerned.

Actress Anna Wing on her interview for the role:

"I knew the producers were looking for the real thing, so I turned up at the interview for the part with my birth certificate, my gran's picture and a family album. You see, I was born in Hackney, the daughter of a greengrocer, and although off-screen I talk with a proper English accent I still have an East End accent in my heart."

Lou was a memorable creation who certainly stamped her mark on the Albert Square saga. Sadly, the character was killed off in 1988 when Anna Wing left the show.

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The photograph above, signed by Anna "from Lou with love", is my favourite '80s Actual EastEnders item.

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Wendy Richard - saucy Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served? - made the leap to dowdy Pauline Fowler in EastEnders in 1985. Wendy was an exception to producer Julia Smith's rule not to use established stars in the show.

Pauline struggled with monstrous Mum Lou and a new baby on the way. She also served up some awesome dollops of grey mashed spud.

BT laid on a special "catch-up" service for fans who missed an episode. By dialling 01-482 4042, they could hear Wendy Richard/Pauline explaining what had gone on in the previous episode.

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The way we talk in my neck of the woods isn't that different to the east-end cockney accent, and whenever I watched EastEnders back in the '80s, I liked to shout questions and advice at the characters on screen and "tork the lingo".

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September 1985 found me saying:

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"Awright, 'Chelle, wass goin' on 'ere? You're up the duff, tha's plain, an' I wanna know oo the father is. I've gotta right - I pay me licence fee!"

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The BBC kept us guessing as young EastEnder Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) discovered she was pregnant and arranged to meet the father by the canal.

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Was it Ali from the cafe?

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"Surely not, 'Chelle - bloke's a loser an' you wait till 'is missus gets 'old of you..."

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Was it soppy nurse Andy?

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"Bit of a wimp, 'Chelle - that Debs walks all over 'im..."

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I was pretty sure it wasn't Tony Carpenter...

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And what about...

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Several men were seen leaving Albert Square at the time Michelle was making her way to keep the appointment with the father of her child. Who would it be?

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A certain Dennis Watts of the Queen Victoria public house, Albert Square, Walford, E20, joined Michelle by the canal.

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"HIM?! Oh Gawd, 'Chelle," I howled at the telly, "what 'ave you done?!"

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Ethel Skinner was Albert Square's very own mistress of the malapropism, and also a friend to many. But her number one priority was always her little Willie.

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Gretchen Franklin, the actress behind Ethel, once said:

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"I think she was popular because she was simple, kind, generous and brave. But the only thing she and I really had in common was our height."

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"'Ere, I'm just poppin' over to see Lou..."

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Dot Cotton arrived in EastEnders in episode 40 - broadcast in July 1985 - and was soon to become one of the show's most popular characters. Hot flushes, fag after fag, 'orrible Charlie (her ever loving) and nasty Nick (her git of a son, who had first appeared in episode one) - Dot's lot was not a happy one.

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She moaned.

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She gossiped.

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She smoked for England.

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And we loved her.

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I well remember the time she won a personal stereo in a competition and went round the Square with her headphones on upside down, listening to James Last.

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Classic.

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June Brown, the actress behind Dot, was actually born in Suffolk, not the East End of London. But you'd never guess, listening to her on EastEnders!

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For more EastEnders fun and info, click on subject:

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Colin and Barry - 1980s gay characters

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EastEnders star in the pop charts - and Anita Dobson makes personal appearance at bingo hall

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Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins...

Computers In 1980 - The Acorn Atom, The ZX80, The World's First PET Show And Prestel News At View Data '80...

June 1980: word has arrived from Personal Computer World's distributor that he would like to increase the number of copies printed by 70% - immediately. A move almost unprecedented in the annals of specialist magazine publishing, writes the editorial team, very chuffed about it indeed.

Here, PCW is proclaiming itself as being EUROPE'S LEADING MICRO MAGAZINE on its front cover. At some point between June 1980 and November 1982, it would be demoting itself to BRITAIN'S LARGEST SELLING MICRO MAGAZINE (see here) as interest in computers began to increase, creating an upsurge in computer-related magazines.

Computing 1980 style... (yawn)... sorry, but before the World Wide Web I couldn't see the point. OK, in 1980 something called "Usenet" was established in the States, but it was the invention of the Web in 1989 and its implementation in the early 1990s which led to me joining the computer brigade - and millions of others. In 1980, I never dreamt I'd ever use a computer.

It is worth noting that World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee took the first steps towards his wondrous 1989 invention in June to December 1980 - he wrote ENQUIRE, his first computer program for storing information. At this time he was working a six month stint as a consultant software engineer at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

He left CERN for a spell, returning in 1984, and in March 1989 invented the World Wide Web. Read more about 1989 and the World Wide Web here.

Back to 1980, when most people didn't even have a VCR, let alone a computer, and I must say those Verbatim minidisks in the photograph above don't look very "mini" to me!

A brand new arrival in 1980 - the Acorn Atom:

New! - The Acorn Atom - £120

An outstanding personal computer kit

Also available ready-built for £150 plus VAT and p&p

The ATOM - a definitive personal computer. Simple-to-build, simple-to operate, But a really powerful full-facility computer. And designed on an expandable basis. You can buy a superb expanded package now - tailored to your needs. Or you can buy just the standard Atom kit, and, as you grow in confidence and knowledge, add more chips. No need to replace your equipment. No need to worry that your investment will be overtaken by new technology. As you need more power, more facilities, you can add them!

The standard ATOM kit includes:

*Full sized QWERTY keyboard

*Rugged polystyrene case

*Fibreglass PCB

*2K RAM

*8K ROM

*23 integrated circuits

*Full assembly instructions including tests for fault-finding (once built, connect it to any domestic TV and power source)...

MSI 6800: At the root of every good system...

TANDY - ANOTHER BREAKTHROUGH

TRS.80 MODEL II

5 FIGURE COMPUTING POWER AT A 4 FIGURE PRICE!

COMPLETE SYSTEMS FROM £1999
(plus V.A.T) Delivery 30-60 DAYS

*Built-in 1/2 Megabyte 8'' Floppy Disc

*32 or 64k Random Access Memory

*12" High Resolution Video Monitor

*24 Lines of 80 or 40 (wide) characters

*Upper/Lower Case

*Two RS-232c Serial Interface Ports

*"Power-Up" Self Testing

*One Centronics Parallel Interface Port

*Two Programmable Special Function Keys

*Direct Memory Access

*Vector Driven Interrupts

*Full 4 Megahertz operating speed

*Provisions for plug-in Expansion Boards

Tandy was apparently "THE BIG NAME FOR LITTLE COMPUTERS":

Tandy are opening specialist TRS-80 microcomputer centers the length and breadth of Britain - many are already open and new ones will be appearing all the time. So you'll be able to drop in and experiment with the TRS-80 range, discuss your needs with a TRS-80 expert and buy one over the counter. Each store will be backed by a service engineer to iron out any problems you may encounter when commissioning your system.

1980 saw saw the world's very first Commodore PET show...

There are over 18,000 Commodore PET Microcomputers in regular operation throughout the UK.

The list of PET applications is endless - ledger, payroll, word processing, stock-control, business information, activity planning, time recording, incomplete record accounting, graphics, voltage stabilisation and so on.

One user uses his PET to compose poetry, another even composes musical scores. All on the PET Microcomputer.

Commodore felt that it was high time approved PET Products, PET User Clubs, Special Interest Groups and potential and present PET users were brought together.

So they have asked Baroness International to organise the World's First PET Show, in the Empire Napoleon Suite at Cafe Royal.

Over 50 stands will be demonstrating a range of approved PET Products...

PRESTEL REPORT

One of the highlights of the recent Viewdata '80 exhibition was the announcement of three major enhancements to Prestel - "Picture Prestel", "Telesoftware" and "Dynamically Redefinable Character Sets" (hereinafter referred to as DRCS). The publicity for these developments seems to have been particularly ill-timed considering the fact that, just as Prestel seems to be getting off the ground, along come some new features which demand the use of radically different Prestel receivers. Nevertheless the facilities announced are quite interesting and well worth a closer look.

Click on the image for more details!

Cromenco Micro Systems Ltd, Edinburgh - a lovely display of computers. The thrill of the new in 1980, so quaint today.

The dear old floppy disk... somewhat larger in the 1980s film and TV footage I have seen than the dinky little things prevalant when I first purchased a PC in 2004...

And last, but by no means least, this brand new 1980 arrival needs no introduction - Clive Sinclair's ZX80 - Britain's first complete computer kit - £79.95:

You've seen the reviews... you've heard the excitement... now make the kit!

This is the ZX80. 'Personal Computer World' gave it 5 stars for excellent value. Benchmark tests say it's faster than all previous computers. And the response from kit enthusuasts has been tremendous...

'Excellent value' indeed!

For just £79.95 (INCLUDING VAT and p&p) you get everything you need to build a personal computer at home... PCB with IC sockets for all ICs; case; leads for direct connection to a cassette recorder and television (black and white or colour), EVERYTHING!

Yet the ZX80 really is a complete, powerful, full-facility computer, matching or surpassing other personal computers at several times the price.

The ZX80 is programmed in BASIC, and you can use it to do quite literally anything from playing chess to managing a business.

The ZX80 is pleasantly straightforward to assemble, using a fine-tipped soldering iron. It immediately proves what a good job you've done: connect it to your TV... link it to an appropriate power source... and you're ready to go...

Fascinating - I don't fancy the bit with the soldering iron, though!

Compare computers in 1980 with computers in 1982 here.