A "Look-in" to the Eighties: 1981

1981: Quite a busy year in both politics and entertainment as the "Gang of Four" (David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rogers) split from the Labour Party and form the Social Democratic Party. Later in the year the SDP forms an alliance with the Liberal Party. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is turned into a TV programme and Chariots Of Fire appears in the cinema. 

Bucks Fizz win the Eurovision with their skirt ripping performance of Making Your Mind Up, Peter Sutcliffe (The "Yorkshire Ripper) is finally caught and put on trial, Riots take place in Toxteth, Moss Side and Brixton (the latter twice) got caught up in the last one as lived in the area at the time. HMS Ark Royal is launched.

The top three selling singles were Betty Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes, Tainted Love from Soft Cell and In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins. Amongst the albums selling that year were Super Trouper by Abba, Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants and Dare by the Human league.

The cover story led to a large feature on the main super-hero TV and film stars. Linda Carter's Wonder Woman and Adam West as Batman were widely loved and watched TV shows whilst Christopher Reeve certainly brought Superman to life on the big screen. I quite enjoyed The Hulk's TV show it was nothing like the comic but Spider-Man was not for me.

Amongst the features was The Beatles Story in the form of a black & white strip and Wurzel Gummidge continued his adventures along with other TV related items such as Clapperboard a programme I did watch when I got the opportunity. 

One of the comic strips featured in this issue of Look-in was Chips about a couple of motorbike cops in the USA.which actually began in 1979 and ran until 1983 and had 139 episodes. I wasn't watching much TV at the time but do remember seeing a couple of these. It was certainly popular.

However one programme I tried not to miss was the albeit quite corny Buck Rogers in the 25th Century starring Gil Gerad as the lead charter and everyone's secret crush Erin Gray as Colonel Wilma Deering. Because this had a younger audience there was also a fun little robot "Twiki" who made a noise we all imitated but I've no idea how to write down (comments welcome!).

This was still the era of Disco so here's the show's futuristic take....

One of the surprising strips in this issue was based on the band Madness who were always great fun to both listen to and have playing at a party!

Here's their song Embarrassment which reached No 4 in the UK Top 40. Take it away boys!!

And then there were the comics:

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Back tomorrow with A "Look-in" to 1982. Join me for more nostalgia!