prefered TisWas. miles better show and ya didnt have to put up with a twat like noel edmonds who is still annoying our screens today with a dumb show on channel 4. i wudnt say no to his millions tho lol.
After weeks of trying to get through on the phone,I finally managed it chatting to Noel and guest of the day Tony Blackburn.My name came up at the bottom of the screen,it made my day.At school on monday morning told everyone but they were watching Tiswas......totally pissed off for the rest of the day !!!! lol.
There is a memory in my head with this music being played, and it mustve been a saturday, as i was with my dad and i would only see him on saturdays, but there was a special either in 1976 or 1977, but there were men and women dancing to this, and then a split screen, and it looked like the men were wearing skirts, i could see keith chegwin was there too, it must've been in an evening though, i did think it was all star record breakers, but i looked at the airdates and they were all week days!
Tiswas was to Swap Shop, as Magpie was to Blue Peter.
You generally watched one rather than the other.
Although, I used to watch both. (Swap Shop and Tiswas, that is.) If there was a bit that wasn't as interesting, I'd switch over to see what was going on, on the other side.
get up 830, cornflakes in front of telly, sit and watch swap shop for 3 hours no channel hopping. then bowl of soup , play footie on field all afternoon, then home for wrestling and final score....was it better back then.
Actually I thought Swap Shop was great, they always had some good items on it. Tiswas was good, I watched it sometimes, but it seemed to be the same every week. There was always something different on Swap Shop.
Does anyone not remember that Tiswas started and hour later than Swap Shop? Tiswas started at 10.30. so you could watch an hour of 'swap 'Shop then change over to watch Tiswas at 10.30. What could be better?
I enjoyed Swap Shop when it started and used to watch it every week but I switched to Tiswas in 1979 and that was it! Far more entertaining and better suited to my demographic. I do wish we had something like these two iconic shows nowadays as Saturday morning TV now is not worth switching the TV on for.
My sister was about thirteen when this first came out and she used to regularly watch newsnight. She was allowed to stay up late for it. So that puts the tiswas/swapshop quality debate in some perspective.
I preferred this opening theme to the later one, I remember at the time we only had one tv and if my parents got to the tv first, swap shop always came on,......at the time I remeber liking Tiswas, tiswas always had more cartoons, lol
I don't really remember Swap Shop as it was slightly before my time (was born in 1978 here) However I do remember Saturday Superstore that followed this.
This show was GREAT! I remember I used to lie in bed watching it as it was usually cold outside with it being shown during the winter. BBC1 on Saturdays in that era was FANTASTIC!
Well it was only a 14" black and white portable with wood finish seventies style! lol The house was just a normal suburban house really. I remember you could literally watch BBC1 in the late 70's on Saturdays from 9.30am till Parkinson finished at midnight and be thoroughly entertained throughout. A golden age of television imo...
Thanks for this! it's great just to see this clip again, but this show ruined Saturday mornings for me. We had great cartoons and movies before Swap Shop, and we really didn't need to listen to Noel Edmonds for three hours! A funny thing too, was, that our landline number started with 811, and we would get bombarded with people who thought they had reached Noel Edmonds! lol
Tiswas was the Monty Python of kids Saturday morning TV.
Swap Shop was the Terry and June.
What's more fun - throwing pies, the dying fly and Sally James' huge top set.. or some nonce trying to swap his Buckaroo for a Space Hopper and Noel Edmonds' highly questionable little beard?
Hah yes I totally agree the phantom flan flinger was way better viewing than this tosh and even better than the knowles house party dingly dell crap he came out with later. I do remember this show cant say I liked it though i was more into the tiswas
@AKAKArnott it would be interesting to have a survey of people who were kids in those days and find out what the Swap Shop kids ended up doing as adults compared to the Tiswas kids who just watched custard pies and Lenny Henry fooling about. I have the feeling the Tiswas kids were probably those who messed about at school too.
Apparently, Noel had to get up at 4am to do this. Then off to presenting several hours of live telly with guests and phone-ins, a very basic script (mostly improvised), no rehearsal and yet somehow manage to hold it all together. I can't imagine having to do that even once, let alone on a weekly basis. I bet he went straight back to bed afterwards. He must have been bloody knackered.
Good post. I can't imagine doing it either. Improvising an entire show like that must have been stressful yet he made it look so easy. What a shame they don't have entertainment like this for Children on a Saturday morning any more :-(
I used to love this; I collected duckies too (I still do!) I liked Noel but thought Cheggers and Maggie were really annoying. The town where I used to live, I heard someone spread a rumour that Cheggers was coming to a local playing field that Saturday, and hundreds of idiots showed up LOL
Very strange opening line from Edmonds, conisdering it was meant to be a kids show. "....I'll come back to that paper shortly because it has quite an interesting story in it".....
You'd think the target audience were aged about 35.
@StanPomeray no it's just that these days adults are treated as if they're ten year olds :) Children were treated as intelligent people and not patronised.
@doubledeckers Hmmm. Well, 10 year olds ARE 10 year olds, oddly enough. When Swap Shop started I was 11, and a comment like that from Edmonds would have made me switch over. Come to think of it, a comment from Edmonds like that NOW would make me switch over. Anyway.......get on board or whatever.
Swap shop showed music videos and had bands on being interviewed.Come on Tiswas was shit, just crappy Lenny Henry sketches and pie throwing. People who bang on about Tiswas today are the kind of people who wear Simpsons socks to work and think they are hilarious.
@CraigG1960 A lot of things weren't as good as we remember - like Doctor Who. To an 8 year old, those monsters could be terrifying. To a 40 year old, they're laughable. But I have such fond memories of Doctor Who. Same for Tiswas ... I wouldn't enjoy it so much now, but back then it was the best thing on TV.
One of the many annoying things about Noel Edmonds is that he was the presenter of Swap Shop and was scornful of Tiswas because of their use of buckets of water, custard pies and general gunk. The scorn came from the fact that Tiswas stole Edmonds's glory really. A few years later and Edmonds became Mr Gunk himself on the Late Late Brealfast Show and the other versions later. Do not go bungee jumping with this man.
Don't the girls on the phones look like Crimewatch?? They should bring back Swap 'Shop' so if you see anything being swapped that's been stolen from you, you can fone the girls and they'll put you straight through to the police :-)
God.I forgot how old this is,i watched this every saturday morning when you listen to noel speak does he sound posh compared to what he sounds like now,or is it just my ears.
No it's not just your ears. Britain was far more class bound 30 years ago. Also reflected by the fact that Tiswas, the 'rival' on ITV was considered more 'working class' than Swapshop. Ditto Blue Peter v Magpie
I understand what you mean, but i was an anomaly.. I'm 40 now, as a teen living in a working class neighborhood etc i was slowly developing speech patterns picked up from children's TV shows, almost every presenter or person was 'posh' sounding so my accent became posh, which was a nightmare for me later on living where i did "why u speak so posh mate?" "oooh leave meee aloooone...." the posh-voiced was hounded, i should of moved, but i was only a kid...so i burnt stuff instead :)
absoloutley spot on mate my mum wouldnt encourage tiswas watching it was like going to the darkside and yep its TV but there realy was an unspoken class issue with switching channels in the 70s and very early eighties.honest to god it was a strange time.
I don't know why BBC or ITV in the '70s never recruited Dolphin Productions (New York) or Image West (Los Angeles) to do animated opens. It would've been a MILLION times better than having the networks doing them in-house!
Well, Dolphin's and Image West's clientele included various broadcasters from around the world. Look at their videos on YouTube and you'll see what I mean.
Then again, BBC/ITV at the time ensured that ALL of their IDs and show opens must be been done in-house instead of the States.
Oh, the kind of animation Dolphin/Image West did in the '70s to early '80s was "scanimation". It was the most popular kind of computer animation until CGI took over.
I've looked at the Dolphin stuff and it looks rather drab. This was funky, edgy, exciting. It made it look as though things were happening all over the place. The music added to the excitement. I know, because I used to watch it every week and would be excited by the theme song. I never felt that anything was lacking from the credits at the start, although I think at the other end it tended to just peter out.
Opening riff have a very clear T-Tex 'Get it On' influence...anyone else notice how Swap Shop (and Blue Peter) were clearly aimed at the Home Counties, parents-vote-Tory, Enid Blyton-reading kids from private schools? Tiswas (and Magpie) was for the comprehensive-educated, Old Labourite kids from the Council estates?
I don't think it's as simple as that...Because we still watched these shows even though we were slightly alienated by them. And, Tiswas had a crassness which was a turn-off. I guess your analysis left out the provincial lower middle class/ aspirational working class who are squeezed and despised by both sides of the class settlement. The strangest element of swap shop was the swapping bit- these spoilt kids who were bored with their scaletrix-little shits!
Anyone remember the Mat Bianco interview when some guy called up and said 'Matt Bianco your a bunch of wan*ers' They just sat ther pi**ing themselves, noel's face!
i remember when the MCSW gave out saftey tips on how to ride a skateboard safley.one of the tips was to get your dad to jump on it to see if it would hold 'your' weight.my dad jumped on mine and it flew out sideways from underneath him.dad nearley broke his neck,but me and the kids cried with laughter as he hobbled away muttering "bloody things are dangerous"! thanks for posting.
Kids now would prefer to sit in on a summers day and play on ther console in summer time rather than go out and play in the sun with ther friends! I dont undrstnad it.
I definitely remember this, excellent programme, I remember watching this, when I was growing up, I think it was shown on Saturday mornings If I remember correctly.
Watched Tiswas and Swap Shop. Swap Shop was better. People claimed to like Tiswas because it made them feel all grown up. I mean, come on, throwing custard pies and buckets of water at people is supposed to be entertainment or funny? A century ago maybe.
Ashworth, I bet you watched it with the rest of your House chums at Eton or Harrow or wherever whilst eating your tuck in a couple of stolen hours away from the older bully boy Flashmans!! Fag Fag!! Wot Wot old boy!! LOL Posh Paws!!!
If you were a poor sod like me who grew up in the Tyne Tees region you didn't have any choice but to watch Swap Shop as TTTV refused to show Tiswas, putting on their own regional kids show instead (guff it was too!). TTTV finally relented in the autumn of 1981 and showed Tiswas and guess what? ATV lost its franchise and Tiswas came to an end in March 1982 - ironically on the same day that Swap Shop ended!
My childhood i loved this programme
MsFanmail 1 month ago
He hasn't changed a bit, he's had a fantastic career
delocon36 1 month ago
posh paws, almost swap shop backwards, did,nt realise till recently.
MrLawman10 1 month ago
Swap Shop - Didn't this just pre-program a generation for eBay and FreeCycle? :o)
3Deity 1 month ago
Swap Shop was shite.
eclectica1 1 month ago
Stewpot's Junior Choice went out the window when this started in '76. A brilliant Saturday morning show, never bettered.
generalravon 1 month ago
Tiswas always had more 2 tone bands, though I did like Swap Shop for the first couple of years.
ImaniHekima 1 month ago
I was on the first show speaking to Tom Baker on the phone!
rockwellmediadundee 2 months ago
@rockwellmediadundee This one? Search Youtube for this vid...
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BabylonWhore666 1 month ago
great memories, kids now don,t have the attention span for a show like this.
n0rt0nj4zZ 2 months ago
swap shop followed by grandstand absolutely fantastic my god my childhood was awseome veen though we had nothing compared to todays kids
davesdolphins06 2 months ago
I used to watch this show every Saturday morning. Makes me feel old now. I'm only 44!!!
stevemem1 2 months ago
Can you imagine a Saturday morning kids show starting with something in the newspaper now?
emmyjo720 3 months ago
ahhhhh what fantastic memories!!..loved this show and the late late breakfast show both had funky theme tunes so retro thanks for posting this
TheWolfinspirit 3 months ago
i loved it back in the day
1966spanner 3 months ago
Ebay was a bit shit back in the day
councilglasses 3 months ago
01 811 8055 ha,ha shure that was the fucking contact number for the programme !!!!!
tomo7T1 3 months ago
I wonder if posh-paws is still around, gathering dust in the bbc basement along with Arnold the dog....woof, woof!
aodgabelogan 3 months ago
prefered TisWas. miles better show and ya didnt have to put up with a twat like noel edmonds who is still annoying our screens today with a dumb show on channel 4. i wudnt say no to his millions tho lol.
MrDjc1970 4 months ago
@MrDjc1970 You had Chris Tarrent instead, not much of a difference..it twatishness.... But I flipped channels.
emmyjo720 3 months ago
Remember on FA Cup Final day....It was "Cup Final Swap Shop" followed by "Cup Final Grandstand"...They were the days!
nealtracy 4 months ago
Tiswas came very late to the Yorkshire TV region. We had the choice of Swap Shop or some local nonsense produced by Yorkshire TV.
gingervision 4 months ago
I would like to swap a Boeing 747 for an Airbus A380, Noel
LOCOMOTIONNUMBER1 4 months ago
After weeks of trying to get through on the phone,I finally managed it chatting to Noel and guest of the day Tony Blackburn.My name came up at the bottom of the screen,it made my day.At school on monday morning told everyone but they were watching Tiswas......totally pissed off for the rest of the day !!!! lol.
kisauktak 4 months ago
'Hello Kids. Just reading the morning papers' - zzzzzzz
meisterly 4 months ago
thats a strange phonenumber im sure it was 01 811 8055 , not 01 288 8055
matskiuk 5 months ago
i keep ringing to swap my hornby train set for a singned photo of magie philpin but no one answers the phone
has the the show been axed
vania1013 5 months ago
Tiswas for ever !! swap shop was for blue peter watchers
wingman662 5 months ago
There is a memory in my head with this music being played, and it mustve been a saturday, as i was with my dad and i would only see him on saturdays, but there was a special either in 1976 or 1977, but there were men and women dancing to this, and then a split screen, and it looked like the men were wearing skirts, i could see keith chegwin was there too, it must've been in an evening though, i did think it was all star record breakers, but i looked at the airdates and they were all week days!
Loverboy19691 5 months ago
@Loverboy19691 Are you thinking of Seaside Special?
themeekwanderer 5 months ago
Woah hang on - what's that 288 in the phone number ?
As I recall, it was 01-811-8055 !
slider2732 7 months ago
@slider2732 I remember the 811 number too, though considering my age at the time it's fair to consider that I didn't remember everything :)
EKpaul1 7 months ago
@slider2732 This must be a very early show, they changed the number latter on. This must be from around 1976 - 77 when it started.
themeekwanderer 5 months ago
BARNEY? two words for you you purple paedosaurus rex COPY + RIGHT!
KY0UJlN 8 months ago
Never watched it I was always watching TISWAS!! Nice intro.
Littlelambism 9 months ago
Tiswas was to Swap Shop, as Magpie was to Blue Peter.
You generally watched one rather than the other.
Although, I used to watch both. (Swap Shop and Tiswas, that is.) If there was a bit that wasn't as interesting, I'd switch over to see what was going on, on the other side.
JFredUK 9 months ago
Noel Edmunds is a twat and always will be
mkbuddy 10 months ago
@mkbuddy Fuck you Noel Edmonds hater. Also, learn how to spell properly.
Feisty1967 9 months ago
brown sauce - i wanna be a winner
TheSliderzone 11 months ago
Well I'm a 90s kid
I grew up on Live and Kicking (BBC) and SMTV (ITV)
they where just as epic and brilliant as each other
but looking back nearly 12 years ago
Live and Kicking was better
bit like an 70s kid looking at Swap Shop and Tiswas
LANBritain1 11 months ago
get up 830, cornflakes in front of telly, sit and watch swap shop for 3 hours no channel hopping. then bowl of soup , play footie on field all afternoon, then home for wrestling and final score....was it better back then.
n0rt0nj4zZ 1 year ago 2
Actually I thought Swap Shop was great, they always had some good items on it. Tiswas was good, I watched it sometimes, but it seemed to be the same every week. There was always something different on Swap Shop.
watchpotch 1 year ago
Does anyone not remember that Tiswas started and hour later than Swap Shop? Tiswas started at 10.30. so you could watch an hour of 'swap 'Shop then change over to watch Tiswas at 10.30. What could be better?
Feisty1967 1 year ago 10
@Feisty1967 Turning on Swap Shop and sticking with Swap Shop until Grandstand came on.
flares 1 year ago 32
@flares Sod that tiswas ruled and anyone that disagrees will get a visit from the phantom flan flinger.
tonymontana1974 7 months ago
@flares I so hated Grandstand :( lol
gosst60 6 months ago
@flares Correct! :-D
cylon6 4 months ago
@Feisty1967
no swap shop at all would have been better.
barnessutcliffe 5 months ago
Never forget the telephone number 01 811 8055.
midscully 1 year ago
@midscully yes and they always said it like "O - one, eight double one, eight O five five" (never "double five" for some reason)
watchpotch 1 year ago
Used to hate this always used to get some stupid kid wanting to swap an action man for half of Hamlys.
1965CAPTKIRK 1 year ago
"I've just spotted a rather interesting story in the newspaper. I'll read it out to you later."
Gripping, Noel.
boydegg 1 year ago
I liked them both as well. Think I stayed with TISWAS more than swap shop, but Tiswas came later than Swap Shop.
paulreno1 1 year ago
i want to swap my grifter bike for a train set omg
squeegybits 1 year ago
i liked them both!
ooeyb 1 year ago
I loved Swap Shop...had no time for Tiswas at all...I thought that was BORING tbh
teresajoh 1 year ago
love this on saturday mornings the kids programs are crap now
musicmad65 1 year ago
Couldn't stand Swap Shop, used to turn over when it came on.
wayneleon100 1 year ago
The show that debuted Noel Edmonds and that daft twat Keith Chegwin!
RichXbox360 1 year ago
I'm still waiting to get through to swap my action man for Maggie !
ecfcman 1 year ago
I enjoyed Swap Shop when it started and used to watch it every week but I switched to Tiswas in 1979 and that was it! Far more entertaining and better suited to my demographic. I do wish we had something like these two iconic shows nowadays as Saturday morning TV now is not worth switching the TV on for.
Andyhinds 1 year ago
posh paws
MrDavy86 1 year ago
My sister was about thirteen when this first came out and she used to regularly watch newsnight. She was allowed to stay up late for it. So that puts the tiswas/swapshop quality debate in some perspective.
Pyramus4Thisbe 1 year ago
I preferred this opening theme to the later one, I remember at the time we only had one tv and if my parents got to the tv first, swap shop always came on,......at the time I remeber liking Tiswas, tiswas always had more cartoons, lol
MrGrotbags 1 year ago
I don't really remember Swap Shop as it was slightly before my time (was born in 1978 here) However I do remember Saturday Superstore that followed this.
Markjuk 1 year ago
Igor (or eegor) ruled !!
VoiceInTheDarkness1 2 years ago
dukeofpearl....no mate, you're wrong, Noel Gallagher nicked the Cigarettes and Alcohol riff from T.Rex's "Get It On"...
1450davey 2 years ago
so this is where noel gallagher stole the intro to cigarrettes and alcohol from!
dukeofpearl 2 years ago
This show was GREAT! I remember I used to lie in bed watching it as it was usually cold outside with it being shown during the winter. BBC1 on Saturdays in that era was FANTASTIC!
MrBlueSky1978 2 years ago 23
it certainly was.
gwelsh123 2 years ago
@MrBlueSky1978
you must have been in a very posh house to watch that in bed (own tv in bedroom). Unusually lucky fella. (jealous)! x
sussexpenguin 1 year ago
@sussexpenguin
Well it was only a 14" black and white portable with wood finish seventies style! lol The house was just a normal suburban house really. I remember you could literally watch BBC1 in the late 70's on Saturdays from 9.30am till Parkinson finished at midnight and be thoroughly entertained throughout. A golden age of television imo...
MrBlueSky1978 1 month ago
Tiswas Rules lol
Stev50 2 years ago
Thanks for this! it's great just to see this clip again, but this show ruined Saturday mornings for me. We had great cartoons and movies before Swap Shop, and we really didn't need to listen to Noel Edmonds for three hours! A funny thing too, was, that our landline number started with 811, and we would get bombarded with people who thought they had reached Noel Edmonds! lol
KELVINTHECREATOR 2 years ago
SWAP SHOP was seen by more people, tiswas wasnt seen by most of the country until about 1979.
JAYROX1969 2 years ago
The great divide, im a magpie/ tiswas person this vid is for enemy blue peter/ swapshop people, you are still being watched
porbello9 2 years ago
That's so true!! You're the enemy!!
lisasthrills 2 years ago
Damn right.
Tiswas was the Monty Python of kids Saturday morning TV.
Swap Shop was the Terry and June.
What's more fun - throwing pies, the dying fly and Sally James' huge top set.. or some nonce trying to swap his Buckaroo for a Space Hopper and Noel Edmonds' highly questionable little beard?
AKAKArnott 2 years ago
@AKAKArnott HAHA spot on mate
porbello9 2 years ago
@AKAKArnott Ohh you lucky sod are you in thailand, i will be there in 4 weeks and 3 days, not like im counting though lol
porbello9 2 years ago
I know - I've lived here on and off for about 5 years now and yes it is as good as it sounds and no you don't get bored with it even after 5 years.
4 weeks, two days and 21 hours to go....
AKAKArnott 2 years ago
Hah yes I totally agree the phantom flan flinger was way better viewing than this tosh and even better than the knowles house party dingly dell crap he came out with later. I do remember this show cant say I liked it though i was more into the tiswas
seonidh 1 year ago
Ha ha .. yeah the dingly dell . What was the deal with that ??
AKAKArnott 1 year ago
@AKAKArnott it would be interesting to have a survey of people who were kids in those days and find out what the Swap Shop kids ended up doing as adults compared to the Tiswas kids who just watched custard pies and Lenny Henry fooling about. I have the feeling the Tiswas kids were probably those who messed about at school too.
doubledeckers 1 year ago
Apparently, Noel had to get up at 4am to do this. Then off to presenting several hours of live telly with guests and phone-ins, a very basic script (mostly improvised), no rehearsal and yet somehow manage to hold it all together. I can't imagine having to do that even once, let alone on a weekly basis. I bet he went straight back to bed afterwards. He must have been bloody knackered.
UncleFeedle 2 years ago 12
Good post. I can't imagine doing it either. Improvising an entire show like that must have been stressful yet he made it look so easy. What a shame they don't have entertainment like this for Children on a Saturday morning any more :-(
mack89464 2 years ago 4
I used to love this; I collected duckies too (I still do!) I liked Noel but thought Cheggers and Maggie were really annoying. The town where I used to live, I heard someone spread a rumour that Cheggers was coming to a local playing field that Saturday, and hundreds of idiots showed up LOL
Jojoseahorse 2 years ago
I used to love that show, it's so nostalgic watching snippets of it here today on the internet.
Brings me right back.
KenfromDublin 2 years ago
Very strange opening line from Edmonds, conisdering it was meant to be a kids show. "....I'll come back to that paper shortly because it has quite an interesting story in it".....
You'd think the target audience were aged about 35.
StanPomeray 2 years ago
@StanPomeray no it's just that these days adults are treated as if they're ten year olds :) Children were treated as intelligent people and not patronised.
doubledeckers 1 year ago
@doubledeckers Hmmm. Well, 10 year olds ARE 10 year olds, oddly enough. When Swap Shop started I was 11, and a comment like that from Edmonds would have made me switch over. Come to think of it, a comment from Edmonds like that NOW would make me switch over. Anyway.......get on board or whatever.
StanPomeray 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Hate's a strong word.
I just found it extremely dull. Comparing Swap Shop and Tiswas is like comparing GMTV with The Big Breakfast. Boredom vs fun.
Although Swap Shop did give us Cheggars.
boydegg 2 years ago
"Although Swap Shop did give us Cheggars"
You say that as if it's a good thing.
You say Swap Shop was for boring people but I could say Tiswas was just for people with a 5 second attention span.
flares 2 years ago 18
Keith Chegwins a great bloke and he's done some good, entertaining TV over the years.
As for my attention span, I did have something to say about that, but I forgot what it was.
boydegg 2 years ago
@flares
Keith Cheggwin is a great man. And his positivity and cheerful outlook have carried him through some dark and difficult times in his life.
boydegg 1 year ago
@boydegg
Swap shop showed music videos and had bands on being interviewed.Come on Tiswas was shit, just crappy Lenny Henry sketches and pie throwing. People who bang on about Tiswas today are the kind of people who wear Simpsons socks to work and think they are hilarious.
TheBalthazarr 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Saturday morning TV for boring people. Everyone else was enjoying total anarchy on the other side. TISWAS forever!!!
By the way - is the opening bit of this theme tune ripped off totally from T-rex, 'Get it on'??
boydegg 2 years ago
So everyone was watching Tiswas. The theme was nicked from T Rex. Why didn't you just say I HATE SWAP SHOP.
flares 2 years ago 4
@boydegg TISWAS was a lot shitter than you remember.
CraigG1960 1 year ago
@CraigG1960 A lot of things weren't as good as we remember - like Doctor Who. To an 8 year old, those monsters could be terrifying. To a 40 year old, they're laughable. But I have such fond memories of Doctor Who. Same for Tiswas ... I wouldn't enjoy it so much now, but back then it was the best thing on TV.
boydegg 1 year ago
One of the many annoying things about Noel Edmonds is that he was the presenter of Swap Shop and was scornful of Tiswas because of their use of buckets of water, custard pies and general gunk. The scorn came from the fact that Tiswas stole Edmonds's glory really. A few years later and Edmonds became Mr Gunk himself on the Late Late Brealfast Show and the other versions later. Do not go bungee jumping with this man.
Alembic25 2 years ago
Ah... Ebay in 1977 :)
ajdown 2 years ago
i am headbanging to this
n136ha 2 years ago
TISWAS was on the other side. Who cares what Edmonds was doing.
Alembic25 2 years ago
Yep, our house was in the Tiswas camp too. Swap Shop was for poshies :)
PoppyMonsterMunch 2 years ago
Don't the girls on the phones look like Crimewatch?? They should bring back Swap 'Shop' so if you see anything being swapped that's been stolen from you, you can fone the girls and they'll put you straight through to the police :-)
kingligger 2 years ago
Brilliant!
jratt2 2 years ago
They don't make them like they used to anymore because people are going to Cable TV
BRU11ROAD 2 years ago
Mike Batt wrote this theme
palexandersquires 2 years ago
Ohh, that was that show where you could swap toys with other children. We never had something like that in Germany.
wrtlpfmpf 2 years ago
I say, he sounds RATHER different then than he does now
irishranger11 2 years ago
God.I forgot how old this is,i watched this every saturday morning when you listen to noel speak does he sound posh compared to what he sounds like now,or is it just my ears.
multicolour1 2 years ago
No it's not just your ears. Britain was far more class bound 30 years ago. Also reflected by the fact that Tiswas, the 'rival' on ITV was considered more 'working class' than Swapshop. Ditto Blue Peter v Magpie
TomthatiscalledTom 2 years ago 2
I understand what you mean, but i was an anomaly.. I'm 40 now, as a teen living in a working class neighborhood etc i was slowly developing speech patterns picked up from children's TV shows, almost every presenter or person was 'posh' sounding so my accent became posh, which was a nightmare for me later on living where i did "why u speak so posh mate?" "oooh leave meee aloooone...." the posh-voiced was hounded, i should of moved, but i was only a kid...so i burnt stuff instead :)
b6gm6n 2 years ago
absoloutley spot on mate my mum wouldnt encourage tiswas watching it was like going to the darkside and yep its TV but there realy was an unspoken class issue with switching channels in the 70s and very early eighties.honest to god it was a strange time.
downhillspill 2 years ago
dear noel can i swap my wife for beyonce or rhianna, rsvp(if she reads this im dead)
lostbhoy2 2 years ago
Tiswas
ATVLand
Birmingham
B1 2JP
fodsaks 2 years ago
I don't know why BBC or ITV in the '70s never recruited Dolphin Productions (New York) or Image West (Los Angeles) to do animated opens. It would've been a MILLION times better than having the networks doing them in-house!
johnnyafairbanks 2 years ago
..because they probably knew a few years later the kids would be poisoned enough by cheap animated shit from the US (Hanna-Barbera excluded).
There's nothing wrong with this intro. So back off - the US has caused enough damage already to tv (and our kids).
rooneylooney73 2 years ago 5
Well, Dolphin's and Image West's clientele included various broadcasters from around the world. Look at their videos on YouTube and you'll see what I mean.
Then again, BBC/ITV at the time ensured that ALL of their IDs and show opens must be been done in-house instead of the States.
johnnyafairbanks 2 years ago
Oh, the kind of animation Dolphin/Image West did in the '70s to early '80s was "scanimation". It was the most popular kind of computer animation until CGI took over.
johnnyafairbanks 2 years ago
I've looked at the Dolphin stuff and it looks rather drab. This was funky, edgy, exciting. It made it look as though things were happening all over the place. The music added to the excitement. I know, because I used to watch it every week and would be excited by the theme song. I never felt that anything was lacking from the credits at the start, although I think at the other end it tended to just peter out.
quelian 2 years ago
I do believe that theme tune was one of the first vinyl singles I ever bought.... God forgive me!
annababe30 2 years ago
Thot it was gonna burst into "rock n roll star" by oasis there
chookter1 2 years ago
01 811 8055
Marvellous!
DonathCoolath 2 years ago
i feel old im now 39
copie38 2 years ago
01 (if your outside london) 811 8055. lol. bbc televison centre, wood lane, london w12 8 qt. omg etched on my brain since i was 5
pharbi1 2 years ago
Oh my god. Me too. I'll never forget that phone number and address, as long as I'll live.
potato73 2 years ago
omg! awesome memories.
bilshut 2 years ago
headphone355-it was shown on BBC 1
on saturday mornings i know cos i never
missed it!!!!!
tardistuner 2 years ago
What channels aired this show?
headphone355 2 years ago
Aah, brings back memories of watching for an hour then switching over when Tiswas started.
michtyme3 2 years ago
Yeah, the BBC were always nauseating, and even more so now with their PC bullshit everywhere.
PIGGYMONGOL 2 years ago
i found a rather intresting story
SquareHeads09 2 years ago
Those were the good old days of TV. Makes me feel old! Ha ha
stevemem 3 years ago
Omg...fantastic..haven't heard that tune since the 80's.Used to love the show.
carlpfitz 3 years ago
Always prefered this tune to the later one!
JAYROX1969 3 years ago
I agree. It has a Bolan-esque feel to it
putthetellyon 3 years ago
oh my god, i'm an old bastard now !!! :-(
itsablack1 3 years ago 3
Wow now That brought back some childhood memories!! Cool.
Wolfenfang 3 years ago 2
im a rock and roll starrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
longlivetheroses 3 years ago
I still have that bloody phone number etched into my subconscious.
TXF9a 3 years ago
Notice the number on the desk is different to the famous 01-811-8055. The 01-288-8055 was used for the first series.
cylon6 3 years ago
I bet no one can remember where the very first episode sent Cheggers out to do his "on the road" thing.
Glyndwr65 3 years ago
Opening riff have a very clear T-Tex 'Get it On' influence...anyone else notice how Swap Shop (and Blue Peter) were clearly aimed at the Home Counties, parents-vote-Tory, Enid Blyton-reading kids from private schools? Tiswas (and Magpie) was for the comprehensive-educated, Old Labourite kids from the Council estates?
TomthatiscalledTom 3 years ago
I don't think it's as simple as that...Because we still watched these shows even though we were slightly alienated by them. And, Tiswas had a crassness which was a turn-off. I guess your analysis left out the provincial lower middle class/ aspirational working class who are squeezed and despised by both sides of the class settlement. The strangest element of swap shop was the swapping bit- these spoilt kids who were bored with their scaletrix-little shits!
phunboy 3 years ago
what about the lib dem kids with a catholic mum and a jewish dad from macclesfield?
pomomatthew 3 years ago
Anyone remember the Mat Bianco interview when some guy called up and said 'Matt Bianco your a bunch of wan*ers' They just sat ther pi**ing themselves, noel's face!
GT2TODO 3 years ago
Think that was on Saturday Superstore.
JAYROX1969 3 years ago
LOL fuckin hell lol memories
johnmcgrath6827a 3 years ago
i remember when the MCSW gave out saftey tips on how to ride a skateboard safley.one of the tips was to get your dad to jump on it to see if it would hold 'your' weight.my dad jumped on mine and it flew out sideways from underneath him.dad nearley broke his neck,but me and the kids cried with laughter as he hobbled away muttering "bloody things are dangerous"! thanks for posting.
ddandyy 3 years ago
Kids now would prefer to sit in on a summers day and play on ther console in summer time rather than go out and play in the sun with ther friends! I dont undrstnad it.
scrog77 3 years ago
what fantastic memories,getting up on a sat morning to watch noel,thay so were the days !!!
11111225 3 years ago
anybody want to swap my scalextric for a ps3
romero72pjb 3 years ago
I definitely remember this, excellent programme, I remember watching this, when I was growing up, I think it was shown on Saturday mornings If I remember correctly.
PatrioticandProud73 3 years ago
AARGH we'll never know what the story was! lol! Oh happy days.
sorvad99 3 years ago
much better than ebay, and no postage costs! LOL
madhobbit 3 years ago
I remember watching this as a kid. thanks for the video. I guess this was the predxessor to e-bay?
dbwokc 3 years ago 2
Noel's accent is a lot more affected than it is now. BBC English.
dannysroda 3 years ago
Sally James and the phantom flanflinger or Noel Tidybeard and Posh paws,, hmmm! lets think.
dooombringerrr 3 years ago
Its very clear which one you watched:-
1.Swap Shop-Watched by middle class,semi-gay,cricket loving,home county,sons and daughters of accountants.Lawyers etc
2.Tiswas-working class,gay hating,football loving.Northeners and midlanders,sons and daughters of miners,engineers and hard grafters etc
Personally i preferred the "Open University"on BBC2
gmaccruyff5 3 years ago 6
swap shop i mean
GRAHAM2109 3 years ago
hated tiswas. swap swap was great
GRAHAM2109 3 years ago
What this show needed was some gunge and some dodgy off colour comedians.
ossyrefugee 3 years ago
Fluffy toys? Twee BBC garbage.
ossyrefugee 3 years ago
Putting it in football terms:-
Swap Shop 3 v Tiswas 1 -- Home win.
and a late resultfrom Broadcasting House
Blue Peter 2 v Magpie 0
rivernith 3 years ago
it was Tiswas for me too.
atvmidlands uk
ATVmidlands5581 3 years ago
Wow Look at Noel & company from back then! What a lot of memories that brought back.
Lynn-Marie
Tenerifelynn 3 years ago
It was Tiswas for me
abhudson14 3 years ago
fantastic blast from the past
Noodlemip 3 years ago
The best bit was when they named the dinosaur Posh Paws. Very clever.
penkentony 3 years ago
Not EXAAAAACTLY swap shop backwards though is it mmmMMMM??
rooneylooney73 3 years ago
Tiswas any day. As a 7 year old watching it I felt a strange feeling for Sally James wearing some leather boots. Quite an awakening for a snotty kid!
When Tiswas finished I played football for the cubs, freezing cold, touched the ball about 4 times in 90 mins....wished Sally was back!!!
Northernlightshow 3 years ago
Watched Tiswas and Swap Shop. Swap Shop was better. People claimed to like Tiswas because it made them feel all grown up. I mean, come on, throwing custard pies and buckets of water at people is supposed to be entertainment or funny? A century ago maybe.
Damien558 3 years ago
never watched this. Swap Shop was for the kids thats parents wouldnt let them watch Tiswas!
haroldbhoy67 3 years ago
What tosh! Swap Shop was for kids who were too sophisticated for Tiswas and all those kids screaming and throwing custard pies at each other.
Ashworth6 3 years ago 2
Ashworth, I bet you watched it with the rest of your House chums at Eton or Harrow or wherever whilst eating your tuck in a couple of stolen hours away from the older bully boy Flashmans!! Fag Fag!! Wot Wot old boy!! LOL Posh Paws!!!
haroldbhoy67 3 years ago
So true - swap shop was tin tin to Tiswas' asterix
sibionic 3 years ago
If you were a poor sod like me who grew up in the Tyne Tees region you didn't have any choice but to watch Swap Shop as TTTV refused to show Tiswas, putting on their own regional kids show instead (guff it was too!). TTTV finally relented in the autumn of 1981 and showed Tiswas and guess what? ATV lost its franchise and Tiswas came to an end in March 1982 - ironically on the same day that Swap Shop ended!
pratt68 3 years ago
yes the basil brush version is an insult to the original that was successful because of the hard work by the heads of childrens tv in the 1970s
spookyphill 4 years ago