Step Back in Time

I guess we'd all rather forget 2020 so in this post I'm going back a little further for the annual reviews.

To kick off, just 30 years ago it's the annual wrap-up of the news as seen through the eyes of the Week Ending team. It was a year dominated by the end of the Thatcher administration and the Gulf War. Taking part are Sally Grace, David Tate, Bill Wallis and Jon Glover. Also featured in the repeated sketches are Russell Davies, Royce Mills, Chris Emmett, John Baddeley, Neil Caple, Ian Ashpitel and Alistair McGowan. Year Ending was first broadcast on 28 December 1990.   

Quote...Unquote is now in its 44th year and for the few years always had a Christmas special. The edition I've unearthed is from Christmas Day 1980 with the panel of P.D. James, Dick Vosburgh, Brian Johnston and Sue McGregor. As usual Nigel Rees is posing the questions. Reading the quotations is veteran announcer Ronald Fletcher.     

Quote...Unquote

It’s often the simplest ideas that work best. Take a bunch of actors, broadcasters and various literary types, throw a few quotes from books, plays and popular culture at them to identify and discuss. That’s Quote…Unquote,  running on BBC Radio 4 since 1976.

The show was devised and continues to be hosted by Nigel Rees and has spawned several books. Nigel’s broadcasting career has combined both journalism and comedy. He’s presented Today, Kaleidoscope and 24 Hours but also Week Ending and, perhaps best known of all and a personal favourite of mine, The Burkiss Way.

Here’s Nigel on The Burkiss Way back in 1977:

And two years later sitting in for Jimmy Young:

I’m sharing three editions of Quote…Unquote in this post. I’ve selected them because they feature Messers Wogan and Peel.

First an edition first broadcast on 15 June 1977 and repeated on 31 August 1979 over on Radio 2. On the panel are Terry Wogan, Ian McKellen, Arthur Marshall and Anna Ford.

From the 11^th series in 1986 an edition broadcast on 18 June with John Peel, David Steel, Gemma O’Conner and Sheridan Morley.

And from later in the same series the same panel as broadcast on 20 December 1986.