Look and Read: LRTV
LRTV is a unit of the BBC schools TV series Look and Read from the 1990s, covering Language for primary school pupils.
This page about the Look and Read story LRTV is not yet finished.
But you can still read my old web pages about the story at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine on this link:
Look and Read.myby.co.uk - LRTV
A Look and Read Special to supplement the regular drama stories, this eschews grammatical and language-level work in favour of teaching more general writing and communication skills, and is also meant to support the Media Education scheme.
LRTV is a television station staffed entirely by children (which surely wouldn't be legal), though apparently the characters they're playing are meant to be adults. The sparse content, magazine style, and ridiculously oversized, opaque on-screen logo seem to suggest that the 'station' is more of a limited-time franchise like GMTV. Anyway the station is run by former window cleaner Crystal Clear, who seems to know what she wants but isn't very good at getting it done (the executive producer, then). The sofa-bound anchors are called Frank and Daisy and there's a regular language-skills quiz called Wordpower hosted by Lloyd B. Stickler; everything is written by Emily Penn with new recruit Joe Nas, and designed by 'Mona' Lisa; and the producer, Harmony, basically does everybody's work and makes sure everything gets done. Criminal psychopath Lester Binliner keeps trying to get himself on telly by disguising himself as various LRTV personalities after having kidnapped them or pushed them into the canal. The non-speaking Punk T. Waite is the company's general assistant, providing inadequate door security, pouring jelly over the losers on Wordpower and hosting a segment called Spelling Spot. The technician and editor, Alf A. Bett, spends his time trying to get rid of two bugs called Vin and Vern that are corrupting LRTV's computer system and providing most of the actual language-related content, stealing all the quotation marks or putting in too many exclamation points.
Note that this is the first time Look and Read had ever been broadcast in the Summer term, and the first season of the programme to have less than ten episodes. It's also the first Look and Read unit not to be made in-house by some department of the BBC, it's an independent production by Double Exposure for BBC Education.
Episodes
Quick episode list
| # | Title | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Welcome to LRTV | 24 Apr 1995 |
| 2. | LRTV Gets Moving | 1 May 1995 |
| 3. | Kitchen Capers | 12 May 1995 |
| 4. | A Soap Square Sizzler | 15 May 1995 |
| 5. | …and Action! | 22 May 1995 |
| 6. | Follow That Frog | 5 Jun 1995 |
| 7. | LRTV Gets It Together | 12 Jun 1995 |
| 8. | Happy Birthday LRTV! | 19 Jun 1995 |
Episode listings from the old BBC Online Schedules.
| Num | Title | Broadcast | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Welcome to LRTV | 24 Apr 1995 | |
| A budding writer arrives for a job at a TV station, where boss Crystal Clear puts him to work on the weather report. Among the regulars, presenters Frank and Daisy get the show off to a sentence-perfect start, Lloyd Stickler hosts the gameshow 'Wordpower', and Punk T Waite introduces spellings with a difference. | |||
| 2. | LRTV Gets Moving | 1 May 1995 | |
| An early morning verb workout. | |||
| 3. | Kitchen Capers | 12 May 1995 | |
| Punk collects nouns for the gameshow 'Wordpower' but finds himself in trouble with PC Parrot. And there's a surprise in store when the mysterious Desmond Cheesegrater stands in for the regular LRTV chef. | |||
| 4. | A Soap Square Sizzler | 15 May 1995 | |
| Frank and Daisy describe their experiences on the island of Costa Lot, but seem to have differing opinions on the same holiday. Meanwhile, contestants play the opposites game on 'Wordpower', and CC sets the writing unit the task of creating a soap opera. | |||
| 5. | …and Action! | 22 May 1995 | |
| Frank tries his hand at sports presenting, but needs help with his adverbs. Lester steps in as storyteller Uncle Rory on 'Children's Story' and becomes tongue-tied when Vin and Virn mix up his speech marks. | |||
| 6. | Follow That Frog | 5 Jun 1995 | |
| It is the station's 20th birthday and Mona is working on the invitations. | |||
| 7. | LRTV Gets It Together | 12 Jun 1995 | |
| Preparations are under way for LRTV's 20th birthday celebrations. | |||
| 8. | Happy Birthday LRTV! | 19 Jun 1995 | |
| The deadline draws near for LRTV's 20th birthday celebrations. | |||
Credits
| Starring | Preeya Kalidas as 'CC' Crystal Clear Sophie Ward as Harmony |
| With | Matthew Bethell as Prisoner 1 Michael Wearne as Prisoner 2 |
| Created by | Andrew Bethell |
| Written by | Colin Izod David Stafford Chris Cole Lionel Robinson |
| Music by | Harold Burgon Colin Izod |
| Executive producers | Frank Flynn Andrew Bethell |
| Producer & directed by | Colin Izod |
| Production manager | Joe Pellisier |
| Assistant producer | Frances Hodge |
| Script editor | Annika Bluhm |
| 1st assistant director | Will Dutton |
| 2nd assistant director | Jo Harris |
| Script supervisor | Matilda Griffin |
| Casting | Val Farron |
| Camera assistant | Richard Hill |
| Grip | Tex Childs |
| Gaffer | Tim O'Connell |
| Sound | Rupert Ivey |
| Sound assistants | John Chandler Sarah O'Toole |
| Production designer | Fran Cooper |
| Art director | John Henson |
| Props master | Richard Tharp |
| Standby props | Mark Digby |
| Graphics assistant | Christina Casali |
| Make-up/hair artist | Stephanie O'Rourke |
| Make-up assistant | Sheila Flynn |
| Costume designer | Jane Ripley |
| Assistant costume | Barbara O'Callaghan |
| Graphics | Damian Weir |
| Online editors | Simon Coldrick Mark Manning |
| Director of photography | Luke Cardiff |
| Editor | David Gasson |
| Education consultants | Peter Sanders Sue Widgery |
| BBC education officer | Chris Hughes |
Broadcasts
Here is a list of all of the broadcasts of this story on the BBC. Unless your teachers managed to get the video recorder to work, this is when you would have seen it in school. See the Schedules section for precise dates and times.
Links
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