Cheggers Plays Pop
| Cheggers Plays Pop | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's |
| Presented by | Keith Chegwin |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 9 |
| No. of episodes | 77 (inc. 4 xmas specials) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company(s) | BBC Manchester |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC1 |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original run | 10 April 1978 – 7 November 1986 |
Cheggers Plays Pop was a British children's game show broadcast on BBC1 from 10 April 1978 to 7 November 1986 hosted by Keith Chegwin, who is commonly known to the British public as "Cheggers". The show's format consisted of a series of physical and mental challenges undertaken by two teams of children representing their respective schools, together with studio performances by contemporary pop music acts.
There were two teams. The Red team leader was Gordon Astley and the yellow team leader Suzi Quatro.
Games involving balls and inflatables were played by the teams and a pop quiz too. Each episode also had a current chart single being performed in it
The beginning game was always quite eyecatching. For a while the first game was called Space Invaders. At the end of the show, Cheggers would always blow his whistle and jump onto the inflatable that the final game had been played on; he led the children who all jumped on it in mayhem style to end the show.
Team leader Gordon Astley, a one-time Beacon Radio breakfast show presenter, later went on to co-host the final series of Tiswas alongside Sally James as part of a second wave whose job was to replace Chris Tarrant, Lenny Henry, Bob Carolgees and others who had gone to the late night show OTT, billed as an adult version of the Saturday morning kids show.
Transmissions
Original series
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 April 1978 | 19 June 1978 | 9 |
| 2 | 2 April 1979 | 11 June 1979 | 11 |
| 3 | 31 March 1980 | 9 June 1980 | 8 |
| 4 | 6 April 1981 | 15 June 1981 | 8 |
| 5 | 5 April 1982 | 14 June 1982 | 8 |
| 6 | 20 April 1983 | 8 June 1983 | 8 |
| 7 | 17 April 1984 | 5 June 1984 | 8 |
| 8 | 12 September 1985 | 31 October 1985 | 8 |
| 9 | 12 September 1986 | 7 November 1986 | 9 |
Christmas Specials
| Date |
|---|
| 22 December 1980 |
| 30 December 1981 |
| 26 December 1982 |
| 30 December 1983 |
Nearly every single episode exists in the BBC archives with 74 out of 81 episodes surviving from the archives, which includes all 9 episodes of Series 1 & 9, all 11 episodes of Series 2, all 8 episodes of Series 3-5 & 8, Episodes 1, 3-4 & 7-8 of Series 6, Episodes 1, 4 & 7-8 of Series 7 and all 4 Xmas Specials.[1]
References
External links
- Cheggers Plays Pop at the Internet Movie Database
- Cheggers Plays Pop at the British Film Institute
- Cheggers Plays Pop at UKGameshows.com