ShadeGrenade

Before B.B.C. morning television was overrun with makeover and confrontation programmes, 'Open Air' reigned supreme. Presented in the same infuriatingly cheerful manner as Noel Edmonds' 'Swap Shop', it allowed viewers to express their opinions of television programmes on air, as well as chat to actors, writers and producers. Some were very forthright indeed, as the producer of 'Rockcliffe's Babies' found to his cost when one woman angrily denounced his show as 'crap'. Mike Shaft and Natalie Anglesey ( where are they now? ) manned the phone lines, and this being the late '80's there was plenty on the box to get viewers steamed up, including 'The Singing Detective', 'The Monocled Mutineer', 'The Life & Loves Of A She-Devil' and, of course, 'Spitting Image'. The main presenters were Bob Wellings and the late Pattie Coldwell. Some of the viewers' queries boggled the mind; an old lady wondered if the winners on 'Bullseye' got to take home a car each; asked if the B.B.C. had plans to release 'Out Of Town' on V.H.S., Jack Hargreaves replied that it was unlikely seeing how the show originally went out on I.T.V.; Sharon Gless ( from 'Cagney & Lacey' ) was asked how 'Mary-Beth' was keeping. "Tyne Daly is fine!", retorted Sharon. A caller objected to a showing of the movie 'Poltergeist' on the grounds that it might encourage children to become 'possessed'. 'Dr.Who' writer Jane Baker was brassed off by a fan ( Chris Chibnall, later to write for the show ) who called one of her scripts 'routine'. But it had its heart in the right place and it was fun seeing the likes of Michael Grade squirm as viewers vented their spleens. 'Open Air' was axed in the early '90's to make way for the ghastly 'Good Morning With Anne & Nick'. Pity. As programme standards decline on a weekly basis, we badly need something like it now.

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