September 1973 highlights  Exactly one year after our previous Telly Year, here's an example of an early 70s weekday line-up on BBCtv.
Prime-time BBC1 got under way at 6.45 with an episode of the sitcom Sykes, followed by Star Trek, and Panorama which stayed in its pre-9.00 slot until 1985. The second series of Mastermind was shown late night, but not for much longer - a sitcom starring Leslie Phillips, Casanova 73, which was presently airing on Thursday nights at 8.00, was soon considered too racy for pre-watershed viewing. Therefore it was swapped with the quiz show, plunging Magnus Magnusson (left) into prime time where he remained for over two decades.  Besides schools programmes, there was more daytime output on BBC1 in 1973 than ever before. Sheepdog trials in Welsh featured on this day, but Tuesday afternoon viewers could see US shows such as The Governor and JJ and Petticoat Junction, while on Wednesdays Delia Smith appeared in her debut series Family Fare (right). Test card fans, though, could tune to BBC2 for most of the day to get their fix, the only interruptions being from Play School, and Service Information films which were usually shown at 10.00, 11.30 and 2.30.
Most of the schools output (with very precise timings) was still shown in black-and-white in 1973. According to the Radio Times listings, BBC1's flagship teatime show Nationwide was also still in monochrome - but I'm not convinced... There was another nightly current affairs programme on BBC1 at this point, Midweek, shown late on Tuesdays to Thursdays.  As for news, the evening bulletin was now transmitted at 5.45, while the lunchtime five minute update was at 1.25, shortly to shift to 12.55 when Pebble Mill at One was launched. And the Nine O'Clock News was a double-header, and not for the last time.
The two daily editions of Newsbeat had just launched on Radio 1. Noel Edmonds (left) had shunted Tony Blackburn from his breakfast show to mid-mornings earlier in the year, while DLT looked after the lunchtime show for a holidaying Johnnie Walker. Terry Wogan and Jimmy Young had shifted from Radio 1 to Radio 2 - and who do we have broadcasting at midnight (on both networks) but one Simon Bates!
 And in Radio Times 22-28 September 1973 Price 5p
Michael Jayston and Sorcha Cusack starred on the cover of RT and in a new serialisation of Jane Eyre on BBC2. Meanwhile Sorcha's older sister Sinead (right) could be seen in the Dublin-set drama The Shadow of a Gunman. Ernie Wise was interviewed for the My Choice column, and his choices were all BBC2 programmes, including the period drama Little Women and the 'refreshing' Gardeners' World. Readers could enter the Radio Times Drama Awards; and as for Letters, there were reservations over the recruitment of Jimmy Hill to Match of the Day, and a complaint about pointless Radio 3 phone-ins. This was the 50th anniversary edition of Radio Times, and for 50p, readers could purchase a special 100-page Anniversary Souvenir celebrating half a century of broadcasting. 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Radio Times Covers | 
