No. 73
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| No 73 | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's Entertainment |
| Created by | John Dale |
| Starring | Sandi Toksvig Neil Buchanan Andrea Arnold Nick Staverson Kim Goody Patrick Doyle Jeannie Crowther Richard Addison Tony Aitken Nick Wilton Tony Hippolyte Michael Maynard Kate Copstick Julian Callaghan Nadia de Lemeny Richard Waites Robert Debenham Jo Connor David Rubin Tessa Morton Frank Sidebottom |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Richard Leyland Anna Home J. Nigel Pickard Janie Grace John Dale |
| Producer(s) | John Dale J. Nigel Pickard Jeff Dowson Tim Edmunds |
| Camera setup | Multiple-camera setup |
| Running time | 75 to 105 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original run | 2 January 1982 – 2 January 1988 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
No 73, later re-titled 7T3, was a 1980s children's TV show produced by Television South. It was broadcast on Saturday mornings and ran from 1982 to 1988. The show starred, amongst others, Sandi Toksvig, Neil Buchanan and Andrea Arnold.
When the TVS region won the franchise to produce television for the South of England in 1980, the first thing they set up was a children's department. A team put together with a background in theatre and drama, soon decided to produce a Saturday morning show that differed from the usual 'Tiswas' and 'Saturday Superstore' formula: This show would feature actors in character as hosts, performing their own comedic storyline around the usual guests, music videos, competitions and cartoons. Much of the show was improvised, and a whole week of rehearsals plus an extensive dress rehearsal on Friday proceeded each live broadcast on Saturday morning.
[edit] Series
[edit] First series: January - February 1982
No 73 opened its door to the public for the very first time on January 2nd 1982 at 10.30 am, but only for viewers living in the TVS area (the rest of Britain remained blissfully watching Tiswas). Ethel Davis (Sandi Toksvig), an eccentric old lady who progressively got younger as the show went on, owned the place. Harry Stern (Nick Staverson) was introduced as her bumbling nephew. Dawn Lodge (Andrea Arnold), the roller boot wearing female lodger quickly became the go-to person for the animal spot with international vet David Taylor (vet). Most eccentric of all, Patrick Doyle appeared as Percy Simmonds, inventor and love interest to Ethel. Each episode ended with Ethel hosting the Sandwich Quiz, a madcap general knowledge game pitting two of that week's guests against each other.
[edit] Second series: Summer 1982
The show returned in the summer of that same year, still being broadcast from Southampton studios and only shown to TVS viewers. Neil Buchanan had unofficially joined the cast as the resident caricaturist and another major castmember, Kim Goody, first appeared this season performing at the TVS theatre in Gillingham, where Percy held a job as handyman. Neighbours Martin and Hazel Edwards (Richard Addison and Jeannie Crowther) from No 75 also started to figure into the storyline, usually with Martin being at odds with Ethel.
[edit] Third series: April - August 1983
Now broadcast across all the ITV regions, the production moved to Maidstone, changing postcodes (though the house remained the same) and Percy was now supposed to be his own Scottish cousin Alec, enabling Patrick Doyle to speak with his own accent. This did not stop him from leaving moving out at the end of this series. The combination of crazy sit-com (with soap opera overtones), music, dance and all around creativity was finally being seen all across Great Britain.
[edit] Fourth series: Summer 1984
New regular visitors (i.e. cast members) included Fred the Postman (Tony Aitken) - who had a thing for Ethel for a while, Tony Deal (Nick Wilton) - the Local con man always trying to sell Ethel everything and anything, and Eazi Target (Tony Hippolyte) - Ethel's friend from her days at the paper. With Colin Daly holding his Supersleuth competition over several episodes dressed like Sherlock Holmes, there was certainly no shortage of silly looking characters around. Meanwhile Dawn had her rollerboots spraypainted by Paul King (as per King's music video "Love and pride").
[edit] Fifth series: February - July 1985
Ethel started running a Bed and Breakfast in this series and held the memorable matchbox competition to see who could cram the most objects into one tiny matchbox (the winner somehow managed to fit in 73 items). While Fred and Eazi left the series after failing to start a radiostation in the backyard shed (aptly named "Radio Shed"), Ethel fell in love with her most unlikely suitor yet, bank manager Frederick Crossfield (Michael Maynard). The courtship lasted two episodes, with the series finale leading up to the wedding and a cliffhanger. All the castmembers (save Maynard) got the chance to act out countless different characters in three different pun-laden serials, produced by "Front Door productions"
[edit] Sixth series: January - April 1986
It turned out the wedding was canceled by mutual agreement at the very last moment. As the show grew more and more popular, it became increasingly difficult for other Saturday morning shows to compete. With the failure of a show called "TX", No 73 returned a month earlier than planned. There was no new 'Front Door Production', instead Neil and Kim held a treasure hunt across three counties to win the spare 'box room'. Kim won, but ended up sharing the room with Dawn, while Neil bunked up with Harry. By the end of the series the two rivals had fallen in love. Tony Deal appeared in two memorable episodes, first on the run from the police and then trying to lure the guest to No 75 with Martin Edwards, but disappeared by the end of the series.
[edit] Seventh series: September 1986 - April 1987
The show was rescheduled to the winter season, with the location bound Saturday morning show 'Get Fresh' taking over summer duties. It was revealed in passing that Ethel had emigrated to Australia to live with her cousin, leaving Harry, Dawn, Neil and Kim collectively in charge. The Sandwich Quiz was replaced by the 'Duster Muster', the winner of which got to clean the house on Saturday afternoon. There was also a new serial, spoofing The A-Team, called 'The Z-Team'. Former member of Copycats Andrew O'Connor moved in, while Scottish housekeeper Maisie McConochie (Kate Copstick) became the new resident clutz. Martin introduced his nephew Geoffrey (Nicolas Barnes), but none of these three stuck around for the next series. At the end of November the gang started introducing a line up of children's programmes on Sunday morning, which developed into "Sunday at 73" by January. This was a shorter, less elaborate version of the show, with fewer guests and more breaks for cartoon. The new and evil landlord, J.C. Birch (Bill Steward) started threatening to demolish not only No 73, but the entire neighbourhood and replace them with luxury flats. Indeed the house started to crumble down around it's inhabitants. The series finale had the bathroom crashing down into the lounge and Martin Edwards losing his mind. He and Hazel left the series at this point.
[edit] Eight series: September 1987 - March 1988
More new characters seemed to join the household each week, including Julian Callaghan, American Nadia de Lemeny and Rob 'the builder' Debenham. But with all of them around the same age (or younger) as the four regulars, it became increasingly hard to tell them apart. The eccentric Hamilton Dent (Richard Waites) moved into No 75. Harry premiered his latest and last film epic, "From Flusher with love". J.C. Birch finally saw fit to tear down the entire street and build a Wild West park in January, and from then on the show was called "7T3". This devopment saw the entire cast move into some kind of saloon and had them run around a mock western town (in winter) with the same old musical guests and dancers. It only lasted until March 1988 and that was it. Next September saw the premiere of a more traditional Saturday Morning show called Motormouth, presented by, amongst others, Neil Buchanan and Andrea Arnold, as well as using part of the 7T3 set.
[edit] Front Door Productions
Front Door Productions was a fictional production company located in Maidstone, Kent and founded by Ethel Davis (Sandi Toksvig) in January 1985 to produce serials in five to six parts starring herself and all the regulars from the Saturday morning children's variety programme "No 73". Local shop keeper Mr Pattels gave the residents of No 73 a special offer on developing their super 8 home movies, and even went to the trouble of editing the scenes together. Ethel and the rest made all the costumes, built all the sets and played every part.
In reality of course, TVS Television provided the sets and costumes, while Sandi Toksvig and Nick Symons wrote the pun-invested scripts. The regulars did play every part though. There were five mayor Front Door Productions, all of which can only be described as 'spoofs'. Broadcast as part of No 73's Saturday morning line up, the 1985 season featured three in a row, while the two following years only had one each.
[edit] "Roman Around"
This first production starred Ethel (Sandi Toksvig), Harry (Nick Staverson), Dawn (Andrea Arnold) and Neil (Neil Buchanan) in an epic set in ancient Rome (but filmed in Hever Castle, Kent). Between the four of them they played up to 34 different parts. Clearly the aim was to create a less smutty version of the classic Carry On movies.
[edit] "How many for dinner?"
Having missed out of the first production, four other prominent members of the revolving No 73 cast got a 1920's murder mystery of their own, inspired by, if not exactly written by Agatha Christie. Kim (Kim Goody), Martin (Richard Addison), Hazel (Jeannie Crowther) and Fred (Tony Aitken) divided all speaking parts between them, though they started off with considerably less characters than the Roman production, and the cast-list predictably grew slimmer by the episode.
[edit] "The Three Musketeers"
(1 June 1985 - 29 June 1985) An extremely loose adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel, Ethel, Tony Deal (Nick Wilton) and Eazi (Tony Hippolyte) starred as the titular musketeers, Athos, Bathos and Pathos as well as every other character (though some of the horses were not portrayed by them). This five parter was shown over the last five episodes of the fith series, and with three serials to one series, every castmember had gotten a change to show his or her vercitality (and almost all of them had to play different genders at one point or another).
[edit] "The Z-Team"
(20 September 1986 - 25 October 1986) Coflicted as totlers of a crime they did not commit, Corporal Tom "Cannibal" Stiff (Neil), Dimpleton 'Skates' Wreck (Dawn), (Marginally Mental Murky (Kim) and Mr. P as B.A. Brat (Harry) are still on the run from the Parks Department. Police 5's Shaw Taylor appeared in the first and last chapter as kidnap victim of the evil Pirates (also played by Neil, Dawn, Kim and Harry). Both teams were hunted (for different reasons) by Agent Perkus (Martin) and social worker Mrs Goose (Hazel). In the finale it was revealed that Perkus and Goose were actually the parents of both the Z-Team and the Pirates.
[edit] "From Flusher with love"
(3 October 1987 - 7 November 1987) Written and directed by Harry and starring Dawn as a female spy called Janice Bond (agent 0073). This Bond took her orders from 'Erm' as opposed to 'M', who had a male secretary called Spendapenny. Gadgets were provided by 'Cue'. Harry himself appeared as Janice's American counterpart Aaron Dreck.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- No 73 at the Internet Movie Database
