Chock-A-Block

Chock-A-Block
Genre Children's
Created by Michael Cole
Presented by Carol Leader
Fred Harris
Theme music composer Peter Gosling
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13
Production
Executive producer(s) Cynthia Felgate
Producer(s) Michael Cole
Release
Original network BBC One
Original release 1981-05-21 – 1981-08-13

Chock-A-Block was a BBC children's television programme, created by Michael Cole. It was first shown in 1981 and repeated through to 1989 and shown as part of the children's programme cycle See-Saw (the "new" name for the cycle originally known as Watch with Mother). "Chock-A-Block" was an extremely large yellow computer, modelled to resemble a mainframe of the time; it filled the entire studio and provided the entire backdrop for the show. The presenter of the show played the part of a technician maintaining the computer. There were two presenters, Fred Harris ("Chock-A-Bloke") and Carol Leader ("Chock-A-Girl"), but only one appeared in each episode. At the start of the show, the presenter would drive around the studio towards the machine in a small yellow electric car, before saying the catchphrase "Chock-A-Bloke (or Girl), checking in!").

The presenter would then use the machine to find out about a particular topic. The name "chock-a-block" was derived from the machine's ability to read data from "blocks" - which were just that, physical blocks painted different colours. A typical show would include dialogue from the presenter, a brief clip played on Chock-a-block's video screen, and the presenter recording a song on Chock-a-block's audio recorder (which resembled the reel-to-reel tape drives used on actual mainframes, but with a design below to cause the reels to resemble the eyes of a smiling face).

According to the Kaleidoscope 'Lost Shows' database, eight out of thirteen episodes are no longer in the BBC archives.

Episodes

# Title Presenter Airdate Catalogue#[1]
1"Clock"Fred Harris21 May 1981 (1981-05-21)LCHS566P
Featured the song "The Clock That Lost Its Tock".
2"Crow"Carol Leader.28 May 1981 (1981-05-28)LCHS573Y
Featured the song "Ballad of Joe Crow".
3"The Sheep"Fred Harris4 June 1981 (1981-06-04)LCHS567J
4"The Train"Carol Leader11 June 1981 (1981-06-11)LCHS574S
5"The Sun and The Moon"Fred Harris18 June 1981 (1981-06-18)LCHS568D
Featured the song "Out Shone a Ray".
6"Magpie"Carol Leader25 June 1981 (1981-06-25)LCHS575L
7"UNKNOWN"Fred Harris2 July 1981 (1981-07-02)LCHS569X
Featured the song "King Cole's Mole"
8"Cat"Carol Leader9 July 1981 (1981-07-09)LCHS576F
9"Pig"Fred Harris16 July 1981 (1981-07-16)LCHS570R
Featured the song "The Dancing Pig"
10"Shoe"Carol Leader23 July 1981 (1981-07-23)LCHS577A
11"Snake"Fred Harris30 July 1981 (1981-07-30)LCHS571K
Featured the song "Drake on the Lake"
12"Bee At The Sea"Carol Leader6 August 1981 (1981-08-06)LCHS578T
Featured the poem "If All the Seas Were One Sea".
13"UNKNOWN"Fred Harris13 August 1981 (1981-08-13)LCHS572E
Featured the poem "Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?"

The presenter Fred Harris went on to present the serious computing programme Micro Live and to become a personality strongly associated with computers in the public eye.

References

  1. "BBC Catalogue: Chock-a-block". BBC. Retrieved 6 May 2007.
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