Live into 85

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Live into 85
GenreNew Year's television special
Presented byTom O'Connor
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
Production
Production companyBBC Scotland
Original release
NetworkBBC1
Release31 December 1984 (1984-12-31)

Live into 85 is a New Year's Eve television special that was broadcast by BBC1 on 31 December 1984. Broadcast from the Gleneagles Hotel near Auchterarder, Scotland and presented by Tom O'Connor, the special was themed around Scotland's Hogmanay festivities. A retool of the BBC's then-traditional New Year's specials from Scotland, its producers aimed for the 1985 special to be more contemporary and have a broader appeal to English viewers after years of increasingly downmarket and perfunctory shows. Live into 85 would feature performances by pop band Modern Romance and singer Maggie Moone, along with appearances by other Scottish performers and guests. Facing a number of production setbacks, Live into 85 was poorly received by viewers and critics in England and Scotland alike. The poor reception to Live into 85 prompted the BBC to end its networked Hogmanay specials after 32 consecutive years in favour of different formats, and relegate its Hogmanay-centric coverage to an opt-out on BBC1 Scotland.

Background[edit]

In 1953, after having used varying outside broadcasts to mark the new year,[1] BBC TV began to network Hogmanay-themed variety specials from BBC Scotland—such as The White Heather Club—as part of its New Year's Eve programming, which usually featured a mix of music, comedy, Highland dance, and poetry performances. They most often featured talent such as Jimmy Logan, Kenneth McKellar, Andy Stewart (who later defected to a competing special produced for ITV), and Moira Anderson, while the City of Glasgow Police choir and pipe bands also made regular appearances.[2] The specials were often criticized for their stereotypical kitsch and tartanry,[1] with the press also questioning whether specials based distinctly on Scottish traditions were relevant to audiences outside of the country.[2]

By the 1980s, the BBC's Hogmanay specials had become perfunctory, coming from increasingly dilapidated studios and venues with rowdy audiences, and with lineups consisting of "slurry-voiced and red-nosed late-middle-aged performers", and old-fashioned comedians whose material relied on regional humour and in-group/out-group jokes about the other Home Nations.[3]

Production[edit]

The special was broadcast from the Gleneagles Hotel.

The decision to retool the Hogmanay special for 1985 came from a younger team of producers at BBC Scotland, who desired to produce a special that would be more contemporary, and more inclusive of English viewers. The producers were also motivated by "Make it Live in 1985", a campaign announced by the English Tourism Board to promote live entertainment. The producers scouted the Gleneagles Hotel as a venue, finding it to have suitable accommodations for an outside broadcast.[3]

Light entertainment personality Tom O'Connor was brought on as presenter, along with English band Bucks Fizz and the Birmingham-based singer Maggie Moone (of Name That Tune fame) as performers. A dwindling budget meant that the remaining performers and guests were drawn from Scottish talent, including Moira Anderson, Chic Murray, Buff Hardie and Stephen Robertson, John Grieve, Bill Torrance, the Pipes and Drums of British Caledonian Airways, the Jim Johnstone Scottish Country Dance Band, and the Tom McShane Dancers. Murray was in poor health at the time and would die a month later, while Bucks Fizz dropped out after a tour bus crash on 11 December, and were replaced on short notice by Modern Romance.[3]

O'Connor visited Gleneagles Hotel the day before the broadcast to recce the scene; disgusted by the lack of standby recordings, he badgered the producer until he agreed to film one of the bands and some other segments. The day of broadcast, temperatures were no higher than 4 °C (39 °F), conditions were hazardous, and several acts were late arriving. Over the course of the broadcast, it became apparent that the producers had failed to secure the venue for exclusive use, resulting in an audience with rowdy hotel guests who were often seen staggering into shots, distracting the cameramen, and caught on microphones; a drunk audience member attempted to peer up Maggie Moone's skirt while she was performing,[3] and another groped her.[4]

Meanwhile, a drunk John Grieve forgot his lines and stumbled into laughter when attempting to recite a poem, the kilted Pipes and Drums of British Caledonian Airways refused to return to the venue's freezing car park after their performance, and Chic Murray (who was meant to be the traditional first-foot) was so flustered by the continuing presence of the Pipes and Drums that he became too bewildered to perform, and spent his segment berating the floor manager.[3] One account indicated that the broadcast was taken off the air 40 minutes earlier than scheduled outside of Scotland, with the last images shown being Modern Romance's performance of "Best Years of Our Lives", and O'Connor informing viewers that they "[wouldn't] believe what I've just seen at the bar".[3]

Reception and aftermath[edit]

Live into 85 was poorly-received by critics in both Scotland and England, and many viewers complained about the programme's poor quality.[5] Writing for the British Comedy Guide, comedy historian Graham McCann observed that "the Scottish newspapers appeared to be inaugurating a period of national mourning";[3] Norman Harper of The Press and Journal described the special as "an hour of televised tripe", writing that "you could hear the toes curling; you could feel the heat of embarrassment as the whole show whirled gaily down the plughole. Putting it out on the national network compounded the felony. The whole of Britain was watching us make fools of ourselves."[3] Dennis Hackett of The Times described the special as "a shambles in content and production", though felt that ITV's offering (The Hogmanay Show,[6] a po-faced special similar to those aired in previous years, featuring Andy Stewart and other Scottish acts)[3] wasn't much better.[6]

Retrospective reviews were not much better; Scott Murray of The Guardian wrote in December 2008 that the special was a "spectacular car-crash" and singled out Grieve's attempted contribution as "bloody awful doggerel",[7] while the Daily Record described it in December 2012 as "one of Scotland's most embarrassing telly gaffs".[8] Andrew Roberts of The Independent wrote in December 2014 that O'Connor "merited a special television award for maintaining his sang-froid".[9]

McCann remarked that Live into 85 was "so stupendously awful that it killed that deeply dubious broadcasting tradition [of Hogmanay] stone dead", having led the BBC—as well as ITV—to phase out their broadcasts of Hogmanay-themed specials.[3] The following year, the BBC repeatedly reassured viewers that that year's offering would be free from bagpipes, accordions, and kilts; 1985's show began with Terry Wogan walking on stage with his flies down.[7] No official end-of-year show was mounted for some years; 1987 featured a special New Year's episode of the BBC's soap EastEnders,[3] while Clive James filled in seven years between 1988–89 and 1994–95 with sardonic year-in-review specials,[10] and Angus Deayton took over thereafter with a similar format.[11]

Hogmanay would not be featured in a BBC New Year's special broadcast outside of Scotland again until 1998–99, when BBC One aired New Year Live—an equally-shambolic adaptation of BBC Scotland's Hogmanay Live format presented by Carol Smillie and Fred MacAulay.[12] Marking the occasion, a Mark Lamarr documentary on Live into 85 would air on BBC Two as part of its New Year's Eve lineup.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Ring in the New". BBC. 31 December 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Hogmanay Hell: The BBC's New Year Live 98 - Comedy Chronicles". British Comedy Guide. 31 December 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k McCann, Graham (30 December 2021). "Gang Aft Agley: The Day TV Broke Hogmanay - Comedy Chronicles". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  4. ^ Smith, Aidan (24 September 2019). "Jackie Bird won't be on TV, so cancel Hogmanay". The Scotsman. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  5. ^ Corporation, British Broadcasting (1985). BBC Annual Report and Handbook 1986: Incorporating the Annual Report and Accounts 1984-85. B.B.C. ISBN 978-0-563-20448-0.
  6. ^ a b The Times , 1985, UK, English. 21 May 1985. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  7. ^ a b Murray, Scott (24 December 2008). "Joy of Six: Memorable Christmas and New Year TV events". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  8. ^ "Square eyes Live into 85; Each week we look back at our favourite TV shows. From soaps, dramas and reality telly to quiz, cop and kids' shows, some have become our friends. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  9. ^ "New Year's Eve television: Should old debacles be forgot..." The Independent. 28 December 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  10. ^ Cream, T. V. (27 November 2019). "Clive James, on television – TV Cream". Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  11. ^ a b "Five… Four… Three… Two… One! : Off The Telly". 21 July 2021. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  12. ^ McCann, Graham (31 December 2023). "Hogmanay Hell: The BBC's New Year Live 98 - Comedy Chronicles". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
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