September 1983 highlights  New season time for children's programmes on BBC1 - launches this week included Henry's Cat, The Roger the Dog Show (which featured The Chucklehounds some time before they landed their own show), Johnny Ball's Think Again and a new series of Puzzle Trail presented by a pre-Tomorrow's World Howard Stableford, and Kirsty Miller, who had previously starred in the BBC2 teen drama Maggie. Meanwhile, Play School was shortly to relaunch.
Early morning television had arrived on 17th January, and the original format Breakfast Time with Frank Bough and his woolly jumpers (left) was beating its opposition, TV-am, convincingly. Nationwide had gone on 5th August, but Sixty Minutes was yet to begin, so filling the 6.30 gap was Bugs Bunny and Kick Start. Following this was the memorable twice-weekly hospital drama Angels, American sitcom Taxi and John Nettles in Bergerac. There were several other 'period' early 80s shows on BBC2, including That Was the Year, The Great Egg Race and Best of Brass. Airing that Saturday night on BBC1 was The Dukes of Hazzard, Noel Edmonds Late Late Breakfast Show, Terry Wogan's last series of Blankety Blank, and Lenny Henry, Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield in Three of a Kind. The 26-part childrens drama Heidi was reaching the end of its run this week, and younger viewers could also see Captain Zep - Space Detective and Stopwatch. And there was BBC1's long-forgotten The Show Me Show with Maggie Philbin and John Craven. Having presented almost every weekday show on Radio 1, DLT went to the weekend in 1983 where he would stay for another ten years. New boy Mike Smith, also seen with Noel on BBC1, took over lunchtimes, although Kid Jensen was sitting in for him this week; and Boy George - one of the biggest chart stars of the moment - was standing in for him...
 And in Radio Times 10-16 September 1983 Price 28p
Radio Times marked its 60th anniversary - curiously two weeks early - with a rather mundane cover, and a special pull-out supplement, which included a gallery of classic covers. The Letters page was made up of readers' memories of the early days of the magazine. However, on its 60th birthday, RT was clearly showing its age. The design had changed relatively little in over a decade; for example, it was still using typefaces introduced some 12 years earlier. It was to be another year before a completely new look would be introduced. There was a feature on BBC2's new music discussion series Eight Days a Week, and on Blue Peter's summer expedition to Sri Lanka (Janet Ellis, left). Johnny Mathis was profiled ahead of his BBC2 Monday night special, while the return of The Twilight Zone to BBC2, late on Saturday nights, was marked by a RT feature. 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Radio Times Covers | 
