Sunday 19 December 2010

Operation Golden Age

Open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur... what a crap song that was. Anyway, yes, dinosaurs...



Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Sunday 7th January 2001
UK Gold (8.10am-10.55am)

Pertwee's prehistoric six-parter received no less than 12 complete screenings on UK Gold over the years; twice in its original episodic format (across 5th-12th July 1993 and 2nd-9th August 1995), and ten times as a feature-length compilation (11th July 1993, 6th August 1995, 17th March 1997, 27th December 1998, 7th January 2001, 20th April 2002, 20th April 2003, 23rd April 2006, 19th November 2006 and 21st January 2007). Now that's what I call detail. The video above comes from the 7th January 2001 screening; here's how the channel looked that day:

5.00am Ask The Family (2 episodes)
6.00am 'Allo 'Allo!
6.35am Waiting For God
7.10am Blake's 7
8.10am Doctor Who Omnibus
10.55am Knots Landing
12.55pm FILM: Herbies Goes To Monte Carlo (1977)
2.50pm The Bill Omnibus
6.00pm Lovejoy
7.05pm Wallace And Gromit: A Close Shave
7.45pm Only Fools And Horses
9.00pm The Vicar Of Dibley
9.40pm dinnerladies
10.20pm Harry Enfield's Television Programme
11.00pm Real Women
12 midnight Holby City
1.15am Only Fools And Horses (shown at 7.45pm)
2.30am The Vicar Of Dibley (shown at 9pm)
3.10am dinnerladies (shown at 9.40am)
3.50am Monty Python's Flying Circus
4.30am The Lenny Henry Show

So, 'Invasion' kicked off at 8.10am and, true to form, Gold's copy of part one was just as shoddy as that shown back in July 1993; however, on this occasion there was no explanation for it being in black and white.


In between episodes, UK Gold screened trailers looking ahead to programmes on Thursday (Men Behaving Badly, Game On, Coupling, Bottom), Saturday (Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Absolutely Fabulous, Let Them Eat Cake, Live At Jongleurs) and Sunday (2 Point 4 Children, Chambers, Porridge, One Foot In The Grave, Fawlty Towers). Finally, at the conclusion, there was a promo for Larry Sanders on UK Play, complete with voiceover by some bloke who was in Blackadder II and Medics.

WhoGold will return on Saturday 1st January - until then, Merry Christmas!

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