Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, more commonly known simply as Swap Shop, is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1976 to 27 March 1982. The show was presented by Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin, John Craven and, from 1978, Maggie Philbin. It was groundbreaking in many ways: by broadcasting live on Saturday mornings, being three hours in length, and using the a direct telephone number extensively for the first time on TV.
The concept of the show revolved around children being able to call the telephone number and "swap" any item of theirs with something owned by another viewer of the show, anything from toys to full collections of memorabilia. Additionally, outside broadcasts fronted by Chegwin called "the Swaporama" allowed children to attend events to physically swap their items in-person. The show also featured celebrity interviews, music performances and competitions. Craven contributed news updates similar in vain to his programme Newsround. Edmonds, Chegwin and Philbin briefly formed a pop group called Brown Sauce in December 1981 and released a single called "I Wanna be a Winner". The song peaked at number 15 in the UK Singles Chart and stayed in the Top 40 for a total of nine weeks.
The show rivalled the growing success of rival broadcaster ITV's Tiswas, though the latter was initially only broadcast in the ATV region in the Midlands and, at the time of Swap Shop's inception, had yet to be taken up by other ITV franchises around the country. It set a trend for future children's programmes broadcast in an identical timeslot on the BBC, including Saturday Superstore, Going Live!, Live and Kicking, Dick & Dom in da Bungalow and Saturday Mash-Up!. Due to its live and spontaneous nature, Swap Shop was rarely recorded and many episodes are missing from the BBC archive.
The programme was revived in 2008 on CBBC as Basil's Swap Shop, presented by Basil Brush and Barney Harwood.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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