Galaxy (British TV channel)

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Galaxy (Australian television) or Galaxy Television (Nigeria).

Galaxy
Ownership
OwnerBritish Satellite Broadcasting
Sister channelsThe Movie Channel
The Sports Channel
The Power Station
Now
The Computer Channel
History
Launched26 March 1990; 34 years ago (26 March 1990)
Closed2 December 1990; 33 years ago (2 December 1990)
Replaced bySky One

Galaxy was a short-lived British satellite television channel, owned and operated by British Satellite Broadcasting.

The station, focused on general entertainment and children's programming, was one of the five BSB channels, based at the network's headquarters at Marco Polo House in Battersea.

Galaxy broadcast a mix of original programming, American imports and archive repeats from the BBC library. Its most infamous production was

Heil Honey I'm Home, a sitcom about Adolf Hitler
, which aired only its pilot episode.

History

Original programmes

Some of the programmes made for Galaxy included:

Jupiter Moon

Main article: Jupiter Moon

Jupiter Moon was Galaxy's sci-fi soap opera, shown three times a week (on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 6.30pm), with an omnibus at weekends.

Sci Fi Channel. The cast included Richard Derrington, Anna Chancellor, Alison Dowling, Lucy Benjamin, Fay Masterson, Richard Lintern and Jason Durr.[2]
The entire series has been released on Region 1 DVD.

Up Yer News

This was Galaxy's topical satire show, which aired a 15-minute episode each weeknight. It featured

Rob Newman, Steve Punt, Hugh Dennis, Henry Normal, Fred Harris, Jo Brand, Mark Heap, and Alistair McGowan.[1][3][4][5]

The Happening

A weekly 90-minute music and comedy show presented by Jools Holland.[1][3]

31 West

Galaxy's showbiz magazine show broadcast each weeknight, 6.00–6.30pm, presented by Simon Potter, Debbie Flint and Shyama Perera and soap expert Chris Stacey. The show got its name from the placing of BSB's Marcopolo Satellite at 31 degrees west.[1]

The Last Laugh

Stand-up comedy show. Comedians featured included Ben Elton, Nick Revell, Jack Dee, Kevin Day, Simon Fanshawe, Punt and Dennis, Norman Lovett, Mark Steel and Mark Thomas.[1][3][4][5]

Corrigan & Womack

This was a comedy series, starring Bernadine Corrigan and Steve Womack, where they would perform comedy sketches. This show was carried over to Sky One following Galaxy's closure.

Doctor Who weekend

Galaxy broadcast early episodes of Doctor Who every week, and on the weekend of Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 September, the channel presented a complete weekend.
Saturday 22 September: 9.15am An Unearthly Child, 11.15am The Daleks (episodes 1–3), 12.35pm Doctor Who's Who's Who, 1.40pm The Daleks (episodes 4–7), 3.30pm The Edge of Destruction, 4.30pm The Yeti Rarities (The Abominable Snowmen episode 2 and The Web of Fear episode 1), 6.00pm The Space Museum, 8.00 The Keys of Marinus, 11.00pm The Aztecs, 1.00am Dr. Who and the Daleks (film).
Sunday 23 September: 9.15am

Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (film), 11.30pm The Yeti Rarities (The Abominable Snowmen episode 2 and The Web of Fear episode 1), 12.30am The Edge of Destruction.[1]

Between the stories, there were also many editions of BSB's own programme, 31 Who, presented by Debbie Flint, Shyama Perera and John Nathan-Turner,[1] and featuring interviews with Sylvester McCoy, Carole Ann Ford, Elisabeth Sladen, Peter Purves, Wendy Padbury, Terrance Dicks, Bob Baker & Dave Martin, Nicholas Courtney, William Russell, Jon Pertwee, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling and many more. [6]

BBC programmes

The archive BBC programmes on Galaxy were:[1]

American imports

The American programmes on Galaxy were:[1]

Galaxy Club

The station also broadcast children's programmes under the 'Galaxy Club' strand, which featured original programming, mixed with imported cartoons and series.

The Galaxy logo, along with all the BSB logos, has been critically acclaimed. On the

Lambie-Nairn designed identities which told stories.[7] And of the Galaxy logo in particular: The ident had a lovely warmth to it, with animated swirls of colours and stars. [8]

Galaxy archives

Apart from Jupiter Moon and many of Galaxy's imported programming, the vast majority of the original programming made for broadcast by Galaxy, such as Up Yer News and The Happening, is now missing. Most was made by various independent production companies, including Noel Gay Television, with both the broadcaster and production company deleting their master copies – each thinking the other will have kept theirs.[3][9]

Closure

Following the merger of BSB and Sky, the decision was taken to hand over Galaxy's transponder to Sky One, who took only a few programmes from Galaxy and incorporated them into its channels line up. Galaxy closed down for the last time at 1.00am on 2 December 1990, ending with a clean playout of the main ident, which quickly zoomed out of vision before fading to the station's test card.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "BSB TV Month (BSB's listings magazine)". Redwood Publishing. 1990. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  2. ^ "IMDB cast list". IMDb.
  3. ^ a b c d "Recovering The Lost BSB Archives". Wiped News. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015.
  4. ^ a b "The Last Laugh with Ben Elton at IMDb". IMDb.
  5. ^ a b "Lovett Goes To Town". British Comedy Guide.
  6. ^ "Gallifrey Base".
  7. ^ "BSB at TV Ark".
  8. ^ "Galaxy at TV Ark".
  9. ^ "lostshows.com".

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Galaxy_(British_TV_channel)&oldid=1189964788"