Old RTE listings

cml387 · 06-05-2026 07:57AM

Week beginning 21st October 1968

George White · 06-05-2026 04:14PM

I notice Many Happy Returns in the schedules earlier. Was popular enough to be noted when star John McGiver came to Dublin to do Da in 1973, and then in his obit. He even appeared in the Late Late Show. Probably best remembered from Breakfast at Tiffany's and Midnight Cowboy, and Disney movies. I can do a pretty good impression of his distinctive West Brit harrumphing cos Gilbert Gottfried on his podcast was always doing an impression of him.

cml387 · 07-05-2026 07:53AM

Week beginning 28th October 1968

There's an interesting studio drama on Thursday 31st October (Hallowe'en). The plot involving a case of food poisoning on a plane that affects the two pilots, which requires one of the passengers who has some basic flying experience to land the plane.

Apparently Arthur Hailey wrote the play to be performed live on Canadian televsion back in 1956 (according to Wikipedia), and RTE staged it themselves on this Thursday.

And yes, it's the plot of Airplane!, but that's a slightly different treatment.

odyssey06 · 07-05-2026 07:59AM

The original Canadian TV version of Flight Into Danger starred James Doohan aka Scotty from Star Trek.

L1011 · 07-05-2026 08:09AM

Airplane! is specifically the movie Zero Hour remade satirically, they bought the script rights. But the basic plot probably goes back to the first years of commercial flight

George White · 07-05-2026 08:09AM

I was just watching the film of Maya, and wondering if RTE showed the series (no one in Britain did).

Seems Flight into Danger - Telly Eireann stylee starred Eddie Byrne (then a well-known Dublin comedian and variety star as well being in various films, but now best remembered like so many British-based character actors, for being in Star Wars).

George White · 07-05-2026 10:28PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124225690#Comment_124225690

Found 'a Hanna Barbera production' for the Great Grape Ape.

cml387 · 08-05-2026 07:43AM

Week beginning 4th November 1968. Saturday and Sunday were unavailable.

Those who stayed up late on Tuesday night could watch Richard Nixon getting elected as 37th President of the United States.

cml387 · 09-05-2026 08:03AM

Week beginning 11th November 1968.

cml387 · 10-05-2026 08:26AM

Week beginning 18th November 1968.

cml387 · 11-05-2026 07:50AM

Week beginning 25th November 1968.

George White · 12-05-2026 07:16AM

Must be a repeat considering Alma Cogan was dead for two years

cml387 · 12-05-2026 07:46AM

Week beginning 2nd December 1968.

Hotblack Desiato · 12-05-2026 06:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124434349#Comment_124434349

In fairness it's not just RTE who let themselves down with archiving.

During the recent snooker world championships the BBC were showing footage of Steve Davis' first win in 1981, final shots and trophy presentation, severe dropouts on what is presumably the best copy they have of it and something which would have been regarded as important at the time. This issue wasn't present when it was (often) re-shown years ago so something bad happened to their archival videotape at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3DBYu6NuoA

It's fine for the first 6.5 minutes or so and then gets gradually worse, suddenly stops just after 16 minutes then reappears before the trophy presentation

cml387 · 13-05-2026 07:42AM

Week beginning 9th December 1968.

cml387 · 15-05-2026 08:33AM

Week beginning 22nd December 1968.

A possible Mandela moment are famous tv pictures of Apollo 8 orbiting the moon and the astronauts reading from the Boook of Genesis. This actually happened at 2am on Christmas Eve, so unless I was awake then (I wasn't) then it was a recording I saw rather than live, possibly at 21:15 on Christmas Eve which has an Apollo 8 report.

It was the end of a turbulent year, the assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the Paris riots, the riots at the DNC in Washington and of course the beginnings of the Troubles; dated by some to the first Civil Rights march in Derry in October.

The highlight of RTE's Christmas Day schedule seems to be an hour and a half of Gilbert and Sullivan and a pantomime written by Wesley Burrows

cml387 · 15-05-2026 11:07AM

I may have been a bit dismissive of "Titipu", which was an adaptation of the Mikado made for BBC2 with an all star cast including Hattie Jacques, Richard Wattis and an early appearance of John Inman. Appaently only an audio track survives.

Hotblack Desiato · 15-05-2026 11:53AM

Film: 100 Men and a Girl sounds a bit racy for RTE… not sure what I'd get if I search for that 😯

cml387 · 16-05-2026 08:23AM

Week beginning 30th December 1968.

Hotblack Desiato · 16-05-2026 12:17PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124469969#Comment_124469969

And Harry Worth - my mother used to love him

cml387 · 17-05-2026 08:54AM

Week beginning 6th January 1969.

cml387 · 17-05-2026 08:57AM

RTE showed the series Maigret, the BBC adaptation from 1960 starring Rupert Davies. Unusually for a series of that age, all episodes exist and were show on Talking Pictures television recently.

odyssey06 · 17-05-2026 05:23PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124475389#Comment_124475389

The BBC series was first rate for its time, although the definitive Maigret for me is the French version with Bruno Cremer, which will get another run on Talking Pictures starting tomorrow night (Monday May 18th).

RTE are currently showing the recent 'reimagined' Maigret which updates the stories into the present day - couldn't hack that one.

(For those who don't have TPTV on satellite, the player is accessible from ROI but there's a ton of ads you have to sit through before the programme starts)

George White · 17-05-2026 08:55PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124476821#Comment_124476821

The Rupert Davies Maigret was heavily internationally syndicated (it was considered too racy for US, before PBS caught on, but it was shown in Canada), at a time when most BBC shows weren't.