A favourite programme of mine in this time slot was a wacky comedy half hour sketch show on BBC2 called the Goodies. The stars were three very different guys who met while studying at Cambridge and, as ever, the secret was in the writing as much as the performance.
Anyway, a young me was very tickled by its zaniness, not least because they went everywhere on a three-seater bike.
The Goodies brought us Ecky Thump, a Lancashire martial art where protagonists would hit unsuspecting members of the public with black puddings. Sadly, when this episode aired, a viewer died laughing.
The Goodies – Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor – dressed for the battle of ‘Ecky Thump’ (Image: Supplied)
They also brought us ‘kitten kong’, where a specially-designed model city was systematically destroyed by a small white cat, filmed in slow motion.
To add to the comedy moment, the BBC somehow managed to wipe the BAFTA-nominated episode, with the cat famously knocking over the Post Office Tower, because they were short of video tapes.
The programme didn’t make it out of the 1980s, but a creditable 76 episodes were produced and I was a huge fan.
So it was with great sadness that I learned this week of the passing, aged 85, of one of the trio, Bill Oddie. He was the short and hairy one and had, to my juvenile mind at least, the biggest comedic impact because of his looks.
Bill Oddie has died aged 85. (Image: Ian West / PA)
Bill reinvented himself several times since the Goodies and is very well regarded today as a conservationist and bird expert. He wrote widely and appeared on TV frequently, all while battling depression.
He truly was a polymath and touched the lives of many people, not least with daring comedy which is not really very daring at all by today’s standards. But far funnier.
My road atlas and notebook are at the ready
This week is one in which I have tried hard and failed miserably to contain my excitement for an event which many would not bat an eyelid over, and that’s fair enough.
Although retired, I note that my diary fills up alarmingly quickly and when it came to finding a few days to stick together to have a solo break in the USA, it was harder than I would have liked.
But there it is. The planets are in alignment and I have made the call to my travel agent. The outside dates are set and the flights have been booked, hell I’ve even paid for a window seat!
Now comes the best bit: sitting poring over maps and apps, working out where to stay, where to park, what day to get the train, what day to get the bus and which museums to get lost in.
Yes, there is a laptop. But there is also a Rand McNally road atlas and notebook, there is also a propelling pencil and an eraser, and with all of these things comes a whole lot of fun for a gent of a certain age.
I am counting the days.
I’ll be at the front of the queue when Obama comes to Glasgow
And no sooner was that trip booked, which involves among other treats five full days in Washington DC, than I learned that the coals are coming to Newcastle.
As I prepare to amble around the US government district drinking in the atmosphere and import of the place, a former US President is coming to Scotland.
(Image: Kamil Krzaczynski, AFP via Getty Images)
When the ticket hotline opens up this week, I will be among the first in the queue with my credit card in a grubby paw, to buy a brief to hear Barack Obama.
Apart from passing George Bush’s motorcade on the M40 near London one evening, it will be the closest I have ever been to an American President.
I suspect hanging around the stage door afterwards to grab a word or an autograph, as I might have done after a Tom Petty concert, would be an impossible ask. But I am looking forward to this gig in much the same way.