1980: The beginning of a new decade as the first ever "Indie Record" Chart is published and Maggie Thatcher begins her assault on the unions by halving benefits to strikers.
Yes Minister begins on the BBC, Radio Caroline finally stops transmitting and the infamous siege of the Iranian Embassy takes place. James Callaghan is replaced by Michael Foot as leader of the Labour Party as unemployment hits the 2 million mark.
Meanwhile the world of music is shaken by the murder of John Lennon in New York. Paul McCartney is arrested and deported from Japan for possession of cannabis and Led Zeppelin disbands after the death of drummer John Bonham. The Christmas number one is There's No One Quite Like Granma by St Winifred's School Choir.
Children continued to be entertained on ITV and still had their "Junior TV Times", Look-in to help them with news about programmes, pop stars and more plus comic strips including Benny Hill, The Smurfs, Mork & Mindy, Charlie's Angels, Worzel Gummidge and Battlestar Galactica. There was also Oliver bloody Twist. Why adults thought we liked this is beyond me. I hated it but then I'm not a fan of Dickens.
Mork & Mindy spun out of Happy Days to provide a very entertaining programme and one of my favourites from the era. This issue had pin-ups of Mork played by the late Robin Williams and Mindy played by the gorgeous Pam Dawber.
Nanu Nanu....
One of the major children's TV programmes of the year was Worzel Gummidge with the main character played by Jon Pertwee and had two season (2 &3) plus a Christmas Special from this clip comes from. Of course old Worzel had his own strip in Look-in which lasted for quite some time.
Last but far from least was the science fiction epic Battlestar Galactica which despite it's obvious shortcomings was great fun and very much of it's time. Look-in had the strip in full colour. I was actually collecting America versions of the series at the time and hadn't seen these before. They are worth collecting but the comics licence is currently held by the US company Dynamite who on occasion still publish "classic" stories.
The comic strip was behind the TV series which by this time had become Galactica 1980. Not as fondly remembered as the original but here's a clip anyway.
Then of course were the comics:
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Please come back tomorrow for a 1980 Extra!
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