GALLOPING GALAXIES! (BBC1 1985-86)

After Rentaghost and Grandad, writer Bob Block turned his attention to this children's comedy about the 25th century merchant spaceship Voyager led by Capt Pettifer, who were being pursued by Space Pirate Murphy and his crew of Robots 7, 20 and 35.

Probably best remembered for the temperamental computers SID and Junior, both voiced by the late Kenneth Williams. Other recurring characters included the dome-headed Dinwiddy Snurdle, and back down on 20th century Earth, in Chipping Norton to be precise, the Morris Minor-driving Mabel Appleby who frequently got mixed up in the crew's shenanigans. Melvyn Hayes of It Ain't Half Hot Mum fame also put in one appearance as 'Superbeing'.

The show never had the same staying power as its predecessors; it ran out of steam after just ten episodes.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they say"; so are the chances of seeing this show again.

GAME FOR A LAUGH (ITV 1981-85)

Pre-Blind Date, your typical Saturday evening fun on the commercial channel would probably comprise Leslie Crowther's The Price is Right, Ted Rogers and Dusty Bin's 3-2-1 - and Game for a Laugh, LWT's banal entertainment show, which wins The Eighties Zone award for worst show of the 1980s.

In the first instance, Game for a Laugh is noteworthy for managing to get four of television's most annoying personalities - Jeremy Beadle, brothers Matthew and Henry Kelly (yes, I'm joking!) and Sarah Kennedy - all on the same show. Perched on stools, they would introduce, in That's Life! fashion, crazee people doing crazee things - daft pranks, silly stunts, tasteless challenges and so on, killing off the BBC's Generation Game in the process.

As the incumbants moved onto bigger and better things (not difficult, really), later incarnations saw the likes of Rustie Lee and Martin Daniels join the team.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Surely even ITV wouldn't be that desperate...would they?!

GIDEON (ITV 1979-early 80s)

This wonderful lunchtime cartoon makes my eyes mist over with nostalgia more than any other programme. In past experience I had always found that few other people remember it; but judging from the considerable number of e-mails I have received on the subject, it would seem that in fact I am far from the only one to recall with it with some fondness!

This fairly basic animation centered around Gideon, who was a duck with an unusually long neck. My personal memories are very vague, but it seems Gideon's abnormality was the subject of cruel taunts and jibes from the other ducks - who all had normal length necks - but good always came out in the end.

Gideon originated as a series of French storybooks, written by Benjamin Rabier in the 1920s, under the name Gédéon. In the 1970s French television produced the cartoon series, which then appears to have been sold to the UK and made into an English-language version.

Goodie Tim Brooke-Taylor narrated the series, as well as providing all the voices - he estimates he had to do around 57 voices in all for the various characters, which included Winston the circus dog (below middle), Cornelia the tortoise, Stalker the poacher and even flying rabbits (below right).

In one episode I can specifically remember, Gideon, for some inexplicable reason, dreams about a conveyor belt with a line of duplicate Gideons on it! In another episode, Gideon snaps a rope with his beak and traps a gang of robbers, and in another he was apparently eaten by a crocodile - but got out again all right. I have also been told about the opening titles in which Gideon sticks his neck out across a babbling brook and the other ducks use it as a bridge.

One thing I remember in particular was that the tone was unusually melancholic for a cartoon, and it seems I was certainly not the only one who burst into tears whenever it came on! (Well I was very young...)

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Highly unlikely - since Gideon finished its run on ITV in the early 1980s, there has not, to my knowledge, been any further screenings on British television.

THE GOLDEN OLDIE PICTURE SHOW (BBC1 1985-88)

An oddity from the 80s.  Pop videos were now ubiquitous, so it was inevitable someone would come up with the idea of making new videos for the hits of the 60s and 70s. Hairy Monster Dave Lee Travis presented the show from his DJ farm in Hertfordshire.

But invariably the videos bore no resemblance to 'real' pop videos, often being a very literal interpretation of the song, eg people kung-fu fighting in 'King Fu Fighting', the sun setting over Waterloo Bridge for 'Waterloo Sunset' (well, actually, I made that one up).

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Hopefully not

THE GOODIES (BBC2 1970-80, ITV 1981-82)

Mainly a seventies show, to be honest. But I had to include it as it was possibly one of the best, and certainly the wackiest, comedy series of all time - and the biggest joke is that it hasn't been repeated on terrestrial telly since 1985.

There were no rules in The Goodies - it was a free-for-all of bizarre plots, camera trickery and speeded up film, with most earlier editions containing mock advertisments. In many ways it was a like a live action version of a cartoon; the shows relied on a lot of visual comedy and used a higher proportion of film sequences than on most sitcoms.

The three goodies - who would do anything, anytime, anywhere - played exaggerated personalities of themselves: boffin Dr Graeme Garden, royalist Tim Brooke-Taylor and hairy environmentalist Bill Oddie.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Following a reunion special at Christmas 2005, on 4th March 2006 The Goodies receive its first BBC repeat in no less than twenty years! For more episodes, see the two recent DVD releases.

GRANDAD (BBC1 1979-84)

Clive Dunn revived the 'Grandad' character that gave him a no 1 hit in 1971 for this children's sitcom by Bob Block, best known for creating Rentaghost.  In the series Dunn played Charlie Quick, the doddery old caretaker of the Parkview Rehearsal Hall, who had frequent run-ins with the council, and in particular Mr Watkins. Grandad also had two pets - Captain the parrot, and the never-seen Nero the dog.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Last known repeat was in 1991; future showings seem unlikely.

GRANGE HILL (BBC1 1978-date)

One of the chief drawbacks of acting in a programme like Grange Hill is that your shelf life is limited to just a few years before you are forced to move on. However this did not prove a problem for Grange Hill pupils in the early 1980s - a teenage Todd Carty won his own spin-off series on BBC2, Tucker's Luck, while EastEnders provided a new home for about half of the cast when it began in 1985.

Although many familiar Grange Hill faces were still around in the mid 1980s, such as Roland Browning, Stewpot Stewart, Pogo Patterson, the grumpy bearded PE teacher Mr Baxter, and headmistress Mrs McClusky, a new generation was beginning to emerge. Amongst the new starters were wheeler dealer Gonch Gardner, scouser Ziggy Greaves, school hunk Ant Jones, and the spiky-haired bully Imelda Davis.

Grange Hill was not afraid to tackle important issues in the 1980s, such as Zammo McGuire's drug addiction (cue the Grange Hill Gang's no 5 hit single 'Just Say No'), but on the other hand the programme was developing a tendancy to veer into comedy, such as caretaker
Mr Griffith's ill-fated attempts to hide a donkey called Harriet in the school, and the long-running battle between toupee-wearing demon deputy head Mr Bronson (who became something of a cult figure) and Danny Kendall, although this ended in tragedy when Kendall was
found dead in the back of Bronson's car.

Come 1990, the classic theme tune was ditched, and things never seemed quite the same again - or maybe I just got too old...

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Not for much longer...after thirty years, the final series airs in 2008.

THE GREAT EGG RACE (BBC2 1979-86)

Best remembered for mad German inventor, Professor Heinz Wolff who was the regular judge in the earlier years of this serious but entertaining 'design and build' game show, and then progressed to presenter.

Each week saw three teams - the reds, the yellows and the greens - being set a task to use their ingenuity and build something suitably daft -a hovercraft out of a lawnmower, a bicycle that will ride on water etc, a device to play the piano etc. And how we loved watching them fail.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? In 2000 BBC Choice ran The Great Egg Race Rides Again, a condensed 15-minute 'look back', and also a brand new 'son of Egg Race', Simply Complicated - complete with regular appearances from Johnny Ball and Heinz Wolff!

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