David Challinor

I have a friend who would like to know is there any record of UK tv schedules pre-multi channel which were changed at almost the last minute due to a rare event, and certainly not recorded by the Radio Times/TV Times. His interest is sparked from being a Beatles fan, and wants to be reminded of the BBC schedule following John Lennon's death in December 1980, and what special changes, if any, were made.

nandywell

I believe A Question of Sport was cancelled.

faginsgirl

I remember a lot of things were cancelled that night but dont know what was origionally meant to be on. From the tea time news onwards the mainstream (dont know what else was available then) t.v stations seemed to be about 80 % John Lennon tribute.

xx

We`re changin` lodggggggggings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

batman

Radio 1 played Beatles/Lennon music all day IIRC.

Grey Wyler

I remember that on the BBC it was pretty much saturation coverage. The extended news was dominated by the murder, and programmes were dropped.

I recall that HELP was given a screening, but vividly remember a BBC2 discussion show with Anne Nightingale (went out around 10.30)

Funny, it all seems just if it was a few weeks back, and not more than a quarter of a century back.

Mr Cosmo

I know there was a programme from Granada hosted by Tony Wilson shown at around 10:45 across the ITV network. It wasn't that good and the only clips were of "I Want To Hold Your hand"and some footage of John travelling either in a coach or train and in the background they played "There's A Place". I may even still have that clip somewhere as I used to tape individual music acts from TOTP and other shows and I think I kept that.

CaptainWaggett

I think you'd need to contact the archives departments of the relevant broadcasters (some of which, of course, no longer exist) to find the exact schedule changes as they were too late to be reported on the papers on the 9/12/80 (the death happened overnight in British time). I can't spot any Lennon-related material on the 10th but they may have been some at the weekend - I can check if you want. I do remember the saturation music on Radio One - we were having an all-day school fete on the 9th and it formed a rather depressing backdrop to the event.

bhowells

I remember seeing the Tony Wilson show and thought it was a bit of a mess.

winsfordtown

I was a postman at the time and we were unable to get any news off the radio because they didn't start broadcasting until 6 am

Mr Cosmo

Although it happened overnight it did not break for the start of radio day. I was listening to Dave Lee Travis on THE BREAKFAST SHOW and the news had already been on at 7 and again I think at 7:30 and around 7:40 (I think) a record played out and it was silent. I thought it was typical DLT as he wasn;t particularly good at doing that show and I remember slagging him off, and then he came on clearly shaken saying he had just heard some terrible news and then he said what information he had. I remember coming to really fast and then trying to get another radio station to verify. (There was no Breakfast TV at the time.)


Abd yes - the Tony Wilson tribute was a complete shambles.