Catacombs Reference Library
TV Times

• London listings
• Granada listings and press
• Listings

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TV Times was the TV guide for the UK ITV stations in the 1970s (at the time, the ITV stations protected their programme schedule with copyright, so TV Times had a monopoly). There was a different edition for each of the regional stations. Here we present listings from the London edition (plus some from Yorkshire and Tyne Tees). See also Granada TV Times and press and TV Times comment articles.

The show listings including detailed information, including writer, director and often a fairly full cast list. Episode synopses varied in quality, but many were quite good. There are exceptions:

• Some were over-concise (War Games was "Koenig tries to negotiate peace.", Bringers Of Wonder part 2 was "Helena stuns Commander Koenig with a laser gun...").
• Sometimes they are just misleading: "A man returns from the dead bringing to the castaways the promise of a new civilisation on an Earth-type planet" is Matter Of Life And Death.
• There are some odd mis-spellings ("Alfans hijacked by a robot!", "Dorzac", "George Bellac", "Moya", "Dr Helen Russell", "David Kane").
• Among the completely wrong information: Devil's Planet was written by Michael Winner (the Death Wish director?), Christopher Penfold wrote Immunity Syndrome, "Terence Seely" wrote Bringers Of Wonder part 2, Alex Scott appears as Aarchon in Collision Course and Eva Reuber-Staier is Jane in Voyager's Return (sunbathing in fast neutron rays?).
• Weirdest listing must go to the premiere of Year 2 (although this is not signalled in any way), The Metamorph: "Fasten your safety belts, put on the anti-gravity boots and take off to Moon Base Alpha. This morning, terror from a doomed planet, a planet of death."

Landau and Bain are often headlined above the episode title, and for a few listings, Tony Anholt's is bumped up above Bain and Schell, second only to Landau. The cute little illustrations of an astronaut, Kara and Koenig were also used in other editions of TV Times, and even appeared on a listing for Gerry Anderson's UFO. As the episodes are repeated, the synopses and credits are usually repeated, complete with mistakes.

Thanks to Ros Connors.

• Alpha Child "Mystery Man in the Moon" - 18 Oct 1975 (1036k)
• Part 1- 1975-1976 (653k)
• Part 2 - 1976 Year 1 and 2 (624k)
• Part 3 - 1976 Year 2 (3,587k)
• Part 4 - 1977 Year 1 repeats (280k)
• Part 5 - 1977 Year 1 repeats (311k)
• Part 6 - 1977 Year 2 (184k)
• Part 7 - 1978 Year 2 repeats (290k)
• Part 8 - 1978 Year 2 repeats (108k)
• Part 9 - 1982 Year 1 repeats (287k)
• Part 10 - 1982 Year 1 and 2 repeats (271k)
• Part 11 - 1983-5 Year 2 repeats (202k)
• Sunday Mirror clippings (1,547k): Jess Conrad (The Lambda Factor) with Catherine Schell (mid-1976), Hazel McBride (The Dorcons, 1977), and Tony "Anhott" (1979, and no, he didn't star in The Persauders- he was in The Protectors)
• Yorkshire (1980s Repeats)
• Tyne Tees (1980s Repeats)

Listings are in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.

See also Granada TV Times and press

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Space: 1999 copyright ITV