... Crawfords gets a piece of the Action MANCHESTER-BASED independent production company Action Time is to join forces with Australian studio Crawfords to form a new company supplying quiz and game shows to broadcasters down under. Based in Melbourne, Crawford Action Time will target the Australian market initially with formats from the Action Time catalogue. Both compa nies hold a 50 per cent ...

... Wheel Of Fortune SCOTTISH TV IT MAY HAVE been unconscious irony but the opening edition of this new 13-week game show, with specials due at Christmas and New Year, included the proverb All That Glitters Is Not Gold in the posters. Yes, glitters not glisters! Nothing glittered more than the £165,00 set with its flashing lights, rainbow of colours, and wavering sear chlights. The trouble with ...

... A family affair down on the Farm THE McKAY family have staged a coup at Yorkshire Television: not only have young actors CRAIG and GLENDA (above, left and right) landed starring roles in the compa ny's twice-weekly drama Emmerdalc, they've even roped their mum PATRICIA (centre) into the programme as a studio tours guide. A former bank cashier, Patricia will show visitors around the show's ...

... Grade's franchise deal warning PROGRAMMING deals drawn up between broadcasters and independent producers as pan of ITV franchise applications may be meaningless without the approval of the commercial channel's new central scheduler, Channel 4 chief executive, Michael Grade, warned this week. The majority of applicants for ITV franchises have signed up output and development agreements with ...

... The cutting edge of BBC cutbacks KEN GORMAN on the tough job that awaits the political hard man in his new job as controller of the BBC in Northern Ireland ONE HUNDRED jobs are to be axed by the BBC in Northern Ireland within the next few weeks. New controller Robin Walsh faced with the task of creating a leaner, more efficient organisation concedes that an economic sis carried out last ...

... When the sky was the limit Not all clouds have a silver lining as the production team for the BBC's new thriller, Thacker, discovered. However, despite the heavy weather, rain didn't stop play. JANE GARNER reports from the front line MANY an eye was cast skyward in the tiny village of Shennington in Oxford during filming of the BBC's gently humorous new thriller, Thacker. There seemed to be a ...

... Blakemore's on film CONRAD BLAKEMORE, (far right) former photographer for The Stage, makes his television directorial debut this week with The Big Shilling, a documentary about crane driver George I overgrove The film, part of the BBC's 10 x 10 series, will be shown on BBC 2 at 10.20 pm on June 28 and profiles the life of demolition man Love- grove in his own words from his first job as a ...

... Proud and prejudiced NICOLAS DAVIES on a cultural 'soap with a touch of grit' BBC 2 Shaom Salaam SHALOM Salaam is the latest drama offering from the BBC's second channel and could perhaps be described as a soap with a touch of grit. Written by Gareth Jones, the series offers a contemporary angle by looking at the power struggle between two Leicester families both of ethnic origin one of whom ...

... Eurovision Song Contest BBC-1 THERE WAS only one major defect to this travelogue about the scenic beauty of Switzerland and such local delights as cheese, wine, chocolates, and watches, and that was some alleged songs kept interrupting the commercial. It could have been Wish You Were Here although the cuckoo-clock land might have been flattened if all the estimated 600 million audience had ...

... Here Comes Huxley Pig CENTRAL THERE'S NOT a transformer in sight, not a trace of violence, no American accents and no blaring music making anyone over ten switch off immediately. What we do have are the innocent and charming adventures of Huxley Pig, the latest puppet animation creation from FilmFair London for Central T.V. With the help of his granny's suitcase of old clothes and some vivid ...

... I' m Sorry I II Read BBC RADIO 2 AS The script makes clear, John Cleese could buy the BBC today. Nevertheless Cleese and the ageing gang have had a reunion at the Playhouse Theatre to record a 25th anniversary edition of the cult comedy show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. It will run for one hour and be heard on Radio 2 at lunchtime on Christmas Day. The team originally got together while ...

... Stay Lucky ITV THIS starts with the kind of pace that is suitable for a climactic end to a thriller. There's no gradual build up. The pace from the beginning is fast and the storytelling succinct. Dennis Waterman, television's favourite cockney bloke down the pub is in fine form as Thomas who is very like a matured Terry McCann. Within one minute Waterman has chatted up a Chinese girl, been ...