January 1984 highlights Just four months after our previous Telly Year, but early evenings on BBC1 had now been revamped with the universally disliked Sixty Minutes. It lumped all the news, regional news and talking points into a single programme, complete with horribly brash music and titles. Viewer pressure forced it off air seven months later, and was succeeded by the Six O'Clock News in September. Play School had also been revamped with new music, titles, set and presenters, and a slightly amended title to remind us what day it was. A third change in the autumn of 1983 had seen Schools programmes transfer from BBC1 to BBC2 (which meant the morning edition of Play School had to move in the opposite direction). However, as the Daytime on Two sequence had not yet returned from its Christmas break, and there was no Open University either, BBC2 did not show anything other than Ceefax until 5.35pm. Over on BBC1 was the late Russell Harty with his weekly chat show at 6.40. In the same slot on Thursdays and Fridays, Doctor Who starred Peter Davison in his third and final season. Meanwhile Sunday featured an extremely rare sight - a repeat of The Goodies!
And in Radio Times 7-13 January 1984 Price 28p  Thanks to industrial action by print unions, this edition of RT appeared as a national England edition. This dispute had rumbled on throughout most of the summer of 1983, then again in late 1983/early 1984  meaning that some editions were only available in some parts of the country, and a few never got printed at all!
As mentioned in 1983's review, Radio Times was looking very dated at this point. Now things were made even worse with the introduction of an ugly new typeface (left). Yet the overall 'look' of the 1984 RT still owed much to the last big overhaul of 1969. Richard Chamberlain featured on this week's cover for his role in the Sunday night epic The Thorn Birds. Inside, Penny Junor and Barbara Dickson were interviewed about their imaginatively titled The Afternoon Show, while Nerys Hughes (right) appeared in the first episode of the South Wales drama The District Nurse. In Letters, there was praise for Jimmy Hill who had just shaved his beard off for charity, but
no praise for Jimmy Savile who didn't mention the titles of singles on the Top of the Pops Top 30 chart rundown. But my favourite letter this week comes from a viewer who stated: "I am sick of tired of watching worthless programmes on television. From the moment I switch the television on at 5.30pm until I switch off about 11.30, I sit viewing the same old rubbish,
night in, night out..." The Letters Editor responded by suggesting she give radio a try! 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Radio Times Covers | 
