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 |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Cynthia Felgate |
| Producer(s) | Michael Cole |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Original run | 1981-05-21 – 1981-08-13 |
- This article is about a children's television programme. "Chock-a-block" is also an English phrase meaning "packed" or "crowded".
Chock-A-Block was a BBC children's television programme, 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 supposedly 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, they would drive around the studio towards the machine in a small yellow electric car (with 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 supposedly 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.
[edit] Episodes
| # | Title | Presenter | Airdate | Catalogue#[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "UNKNOWN" | Fred Harris | May 21, 1981 | LCHS566P |
| Featured the song "The Clock That Lost Its Tock". | ||||
| 2 | "Crow" | Carol Leader. | May 28, 1981 | LCHS573Y |
| Featured the song "Ballad of Jo Crow". | ||||
| 3 | "The Sheep" | Fred Harris | June 4, 1981 | LCHS567J |
| 4 | "The Train" | Carol Leader | June 11, 1981 | LCHS574S |
| 5 | "The Sun and The Moon" | Fred Harris | June 18, 1981 | LCHS568D |
| Featured the song "Out Shone a ray". | ||||
| 6 | "Magpie" | Carol Leader | June 25, 1981 | LCHS575L |
| 7 | "UNKNOWN" | Fred Harris | July 2, 1981 | LCHS569X |
| Featured the song "King Cole's Mole" | ||||
| 8 | "UNKNOWN" | Carol Leader | July 9, 1981 | LCHS576F |
| 9 | "UNKNOWN" | Fred Harris | July 16, 1981 | LCHS570R |
| Featured the song "The Dancing Pig" | ||||
| 10 | "Shoes" | Carol Leader | July 23, 1981 | LCHS577A |
| 11 | "Words with "ake"?" | Fred Harris | July 30, 1981 | LCHS571K |
| Featured the song "Drake on the Lake" | ||||
| 12 | "Bee At The Sea" | Carol Leader | August 6, 1981 | LCHS578T |
| Featured the poem "If All The Seas Were One Sea". | ||||
| 13 | "UNKNOWN" | Fred Harris | August 13, 1981 | 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.
[edit] References
- ^ "BBC Catalogue: Chock-a-block". BBC. http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/series/CHOCK-A-BLOCK. Retrieved 2007-05-06.
