The Film forum has a similar thread to this and I thought it would be a good idea to do it for the Television forum.
Mod - don't post unsubstantiated BS on this thread.
RiP, Gráinne Uí Mhaitiú, former Bosco presenter
Former Bosco presenter Gráinne Uí Mhaitiú dies at 72 https://share.google/pi2BP8TkxcOj4tgmd
Just including a link.
Remember her well on Bosco and SBB, RIP.
I'm getting old 😕
Bosco was repeated for years. They just showed the same episodes over and over again. So a new audience kept finding it.
I remember TV3 (before they were VM1), showed a lot of these old kids shows, including Bosco, to kids in secondary school. And they were well above the age of the intended audience, but were like 'I'd watch that myself'. Couple that with gay presenters, and Bosco was very much ahead of the time. Frustrating how 'safe' a lot of entertainment is now. Too many shows follow a template, afraid to try something new. RIP.
That program, they visited my then school, though I wasn't in class with those kids at that point (I didn't do TY so i got moved up)
What was the purpose of showing kids TV shows aimed at under 7s to teenagers in schools? What was the educational or otherwise benefit?
The second Bosco presenter to pass on.
The third, Philip Tyler died in 1988 and Frank Twomey in December 2023.
Didn't know Philip Tyler died, he passed away very young.
Today Tonight reporter Brendan O'Brien died aged 82. Famous for confronting Martin Cahill in the street.
Brendan O'Brien also turned up briefly as a presenter on Newstalk after nearly 30 years with RTE.
He was very familiar from his Today Tonight reports. Remember well the one on Cahill.
It was a broad spectrum of ages. National Schools, secondary schools, and possibly a few adults I think as well. It's been a while since I saw it. It was showing the TV of old, and showing how TV has evolved through the ages. Compare if they still hold attention, or if they're passé. They retained many's an attention.
They even interviewed the presenters and the puppets. Apparently, the higher ups were not too fond of the singing voices of one presenter on Bosco. And as Bosco himself stated, this one presenter sounded like a 'crow singing' according one of the higher ups. One of the reasons RTE kids shows got away with so much and seem so progressive compared to now is that there were no eyes on them. Nor was there any money either. So they got away with a lot of things the BBC and others didn't. When the money started pouring in, suddenly there were more eyes on them, and that meant strings were suddenly attached.
TV mogul Ted Turner has died aged 87. Founder of TNT, CNN Cartoon Network and many more.
Scottish actress Claire Nielson has died aged 89. She appeared in the Fawlty Towers Waldorf Salad episode as the wife of Bruce Boas belligerent American guest. Also Aunt Antonia in the Crow Road and numerous TV guest appearances down the years, Z Cars, Bergerac, Rab C Nesbit et al
Jake Hall, who had been in the Only Way Is Essex, has died following a fall aged 35.
Barry W. Blaustein has died aged 71. Wrote for Eddie Murphy on SNL including the Buckwheat, Gumby and Mr. Robinson sketches before moving into films like Police academy 2, Coming to America Movies and Nutty professor movies.
Alan Rothwell has died aged 89. He played Ken Barlows brother, David, for the first nine years of Coronation Street.. He was in the opening episode and his death leaves William Roche and Ann Cunningham (Elsie Tanners daughter) as the only surviving cast members from it.
Also had a supporting role in the early 60s ITV spy drama Top Secret and turned up in Heartbeat, Emmerdale, Doctors etc.
Host of kids show Picture Box. Of creepy intro fame.
Also made by Granada.
Didnt know he was a presenter on that. Famliar with the intro through Scarred For Life, it would certainly have put the s**ts up me as a youngster if we could have received ITV. Here he is reading the Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.
Looked up Picture Box on YouTube there as it rang a bell, totally forgot about it!, around the same era of Children of the stones as well. , the theme tune to that too 😱, that show really frightened me, never get away with that nowadays for children.
thats where I know him from - dont remember him in Corrie. We used to wash picture box in school, the TV and primitive VCR with big keys was wheeled into classroom on castors
Claudine Longet, French born singer and actress has died aged 84. She became a tv star in the States in the 60s, was married to Andy Williams (divorced in 75) and appeared often on his show. Also starred in the 1968 movie the Party alongside Peter Sellers. She achieved notoriety when she shot dead her boyfriend, olympic skier Spider Sabitch in 1976. Was controversially cleared of manslaughter and her career never recovered.
You'd have to be quite "mature" to remember him in Corrie as he last appeared on the soap in 1969!
David Burke has died aged 91. Best known for playing Dr. Watson in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Stalin in Reilly, Ace of Spies. His son Tom is also an actor who played Cormoran Strike in the BBC series.
A great Watson to Jeremy Brett's Holmes.
Another notable series he was in was the Guardians from 1971. LWT show set in a near future Britain which has come under the control of a far right authoritarian government . UTV were the only ITV region not to screen it, probably down to storylines involving an underground resistance movement carrying out bombings and assassinations against the regime.
a near future Britain which has come under the control of a far right authoritarian government
Pah, the far-fetched scenarios they used to use on TV…
yeah I would have been 4
Tom Burke stars in the new Netflix series Legends, one of the better new series.
