TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 -
Having made himself indispensable in Eric Idle's Rutland Weekend Television and its
spin-
From the Radio Times "In this new musical diversion, the sounds of today echo back nostalgically from a loophole in time." The opening credit sequence for the first series made reference to Innes' biggest hit The Urban Spaceman, a song which we would perform in the third series.
The three series of six shows each gave Innes the chance to remind people what a
versatile and under-
Innes' musical partner John Altman was credited as musical director in all series, while Innes appears not to have used his band Fatso. An album of songs from the first series was released by Polydor, rather than the BBC who had previously released the Rutland Weekend Songbook.
For the second series beginning in June 1980 the Radio Times boasted that "the song parodies were filmed on location", which either meant that this was seen as an act of generosity by the BBC, or location filming was actually cheaper than studio recording, but they did allow him some animated sequences this time around.
The third and final series in 1981 saw Innes competing with himself as he was a weekly guest on Thames' Frankie Howerd Strikes Again, while he had also found regular work writing songs for TV commercials which he would do for several years.
Although this was the end for the show Innes popped up again in 1982 performing songs for BBC2's Jane, a TV adaptation of the Daily Mirror's cheeky wartime heroine cartoon strip.
The series was repeated in the early days of UK Gold TV which is the source of many
of the on-
THE INNES BOOK OF RECORDS
BBC2
17th January 1979 -