Going Live (TV Series 1987 - 1993)



 

Plot

Going Live! was a Saturday morning magazine show, broadcast on BBC1 between 1987 and 1993. It was presented by Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene.

 

Other presenters included Trevor and Simon, Peter Simon, Emma Forbes, and puppet Gordon the Gopher.

The show was broadcast during the autumn to spring seasons, with other shows such as the 8:15 from Manchester and Parallel 9 taking over during the summer months. It was preceded by Saturday Superstore, and succeeded by Live & Kicking.

 

In 1988, when the second series started, Greene was hurt in a helicopter crash with her then boyfriend (now husband), Mike Smith. Guest presenters stood in for her including T'Pau's Carol Decker. Similarly, in 1992-93 during the final series, Schofield was starring in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and was unable to present the show. A third presenter took his place. Originally, Neighbours actor Kristian Schmid took the role but soon left after problems with his work permit. Various other celebrities to stand in included Shane Richie and Robbie Williams during his Take That days.



Show Segments

 

Double Dare: Double Dare was presented by Peter Simon, and it was best known for Simon to fall, during the final round, into the Gunge. It was replaced in later series of Going Live!, first by Clockwise, presented by Darren Day, and then by Run the Risk, which was again presented by Simon, along with Shane Richie. The latter of these shows continued onto Live & Kicking.



Growing Pains: Phillip Hodson provided 'agony uncle' advice to young callers on diverse and often difficult topics in Growing Pains. The topics ranged from love troubles and general teenage angst, to more severe topics such as child abuse and AIDS, which were uncharacteristically deep issues for a Saturday morning youth programme.



 

Live LineIn this segment, the show's producers would arrange for popular musical groups and performers to pay surprise visits to their fans. Usually this involved handsome male pop singers talking to teenage girls.

The Press Conference: The big set-piece interview at the end of each programme, featuring questions from both the studio audience and from phone callers. These were often with politicians, high-ranking executives in the BBC, or people who had made a notable achievement (e.g. sports people who had success at the Olympics).

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The Video Vote: This was a phone-in section where the viewing public were encouraged to cast their opinions on the popular music videos of the time, which were then shown according to popularity.

Trevor and Simon: These two anchormen (who were essentially clowns) provided light-hearted humour and character comedy. Popular characters played by the duo included:

 

'The Sister Brothers', a pair of rogue traders;
folk duo 'The Singing Corner';
DJ Mick McMac and rave-goer Moon Monkey;
'Blimey, that's good!', a parody of television shopping channels;
The Bottomless Bin;
The Witch Finders, who appeared every Halloween to enlist members of the studio audience to hunt 'witches' and other evil-doers. This normally ended up with them poking Phillip with sticks.
They were replaced in series five by Nick Ball and James Hickish, but returned for the last series.a