No. 73
No 73, later retitled 7T3, is a British 1980s children's TV show produced by TVS for the ITV network. It was broadcast live on Saturday mornings and ran from 2 January 1982 to 27 March 1988. The show had an ensemble cast including Sandi Toksvig, Neil Buchanan, Patrick Doyle, Andrea Arnold, Kim Goody and Kate Copstick.
When TVS won the contract to provide ITV coverage for the South of England in 1980, the first thing they set up was a children's department. A team put together with a background in theatre and drama, soon decided to produce a Saturday morning show that differed from the usual Tiswas and Saturday Superstore formula: This show would feature actors in character as hosts, performing their own comedic storyline around the usual guests, music videos, competitions and cartoons. Much of the show was improvised and a whole week of rehearsals plus an extensive dress rehearsal on Friday preceded each live broadcast on Saturday morning.
Timeline
The first two series were broadcast from Southampton to the TVS region only. From Series 3, production moved to TVS's studios in Maidstone and the show was broadcast nationwide.Series 1
Ethel Davis, an eccentric old lady who progressively got younger as the show went on, owned the house.Harry Stern was introduced as her bumbling nephew who aspired for international stardom. He ran a market stall with his dim-witted friend Trevor.
Dawn Lodge, the roller-boot-wearing female lodger, worked at the local veterinary surgery - the local vet being internationally renowned zoo vet David Taylor, who would bring various animals to the house throughout the show's run for the requisite animal spot, which would mainly be presented with Dawn.
Most eccentric of all, Patrick Doyle appeared as Percy Simmonds, inventor and love interest to Ethel. Percy invented the 2-in-1 Coffee Percolator and Film Projector from which the cartoons such as Disney, Looney Tunes or Roger Ramjet, or pre-filmed inserts would be shown, and the Two-Way Video Microwave Oven which would show video inserts or live linkups.
The house would also be visited each week by local children. In the first two series these would be children from local primary or secondary schools, but would later be limited to students from drama classes at local secondary schools. The children stopped appearing on a regular basis after Series 4.
Throughout the first half of the series, Ethel and Dawn would have caricatures sent to the from a "secret admirer". This admirer was revealed in Episode 4 to be Neil Buchanan, an artist who posted himself to the house through Red Star Parcels and would appear intermittently for the first couple of series to present art-based items.
Musical artists would appear as having slept in the lounge which they would use as a rehearsal space. Later in the episode, and during the closing credits, they would perform live. The first band to appear was The Q-Tips performing "S.Y.S.L.J.F.M. "
Each episode ended with Ethel hosting the "daring, dazzling, death-defyingly dull, devastatingly dangerous, delectable, delicatessible, divinely decadent" Sandwich Quiz, a madcap-general knowledge game pitting two of that week's guests against each other, the winner of which would receive the Golden Loaf Trophy.
Series 2
This series introduced Kim Goody to the show as a performer at the TVS Television Theatre in Gillingham, where Percy held a job as handyman. Ethel could link up to Gillingham from the house in Southampton via the Two-Way Video Microwave Oven.Neighbours Martin and Hazel Edwards from No.75 also started to figure into the storyline, usually with Martin being at odds with Ethel, and Hazel being more sympathetic towards the neighbours. The pair would increasingly participate in items during the show and occasionally host the phone-in.
Local spiv Tony Deal also made his first appearances in this series.
Series 3
This series was the first to come from the Maidstone studios, requiring a change in the address and telephone numbers for viewers to interact with the show.Percy Simmonds was replaced by a Scotsman called Alec Simmonds, also played by Patrick Doyle, allowing him to speak with his own accent. Viewers who wrote in noticing the resemblance between the two were told that Alec was Percy's Scottish cousin. There was another new semi-regular character called Fred the Postman who embarked on an on-off relationship with Ethel throughout the next couple of series.
Neil also became a semi-regular in this series, regularly making the trip down from Liverpool before eventually moving into a caravan down the road from the house.
In this series, Ethel and the resident inventor, Tony English, created the Hover Cupboard and later tested it out at sea travelling from Southampton to Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
The series ended with Ethel going on holiday to France with Alec and Fred the Postman, while Harry and Kim went off on a tandem, and Martin and Hazel agreeing to look after the house while everyone was away. Alec would not return for the following series.
Series 4
Eazi Target – Ethel's friend from her days at the paper - became a semi-regular visitor to the house. Ethel ran in the local election to stand as an independent councillor, leading to Martin running against her, but both were beaten by Tony Deal. Former pentathlete Kathy Tayler also dropped by to present sports-related items.Ethel reveals that she, Harry, Neil, Dawn and Hazel have been renovating the cellar under the stairs for use by bands to rehearse, with the bands' performances now taking place there rather than in the lounge or the back yard. The first artist to appear in the cellar was Nik Kershaw performing his then current single "Dancing Girls".
Episode 7 saw Ethel absent for the first time, leaving Dawn, Neil, Hazel and Kim to hold the fort, but also drafting in David "Kid" Jensen to help around the house and Tony Deal to keep everyone in order and host the Sandwich Quiz. The second time Ethel was away this series saw Dawn host the Sandwich Quiz.
This series saw former policeman Colin Daly, complete with a Sherlock Holmes-style deerstalker hat and his bloodhound Tracker, hold the first of his Supersleuth competition over several episodes. Shaw Taylor also popped by to assist with the competition. The grand final was held in the lounge of No.73 during the final episode of Series 4 with the finalists answering questions delivered by Shaw about the happenings of that episode, with the 4 children who got the most correct answers in each age and gender categories winning the grand prize of a trip to New York.
Poet Roger McGough also made regular visits to compile the No.73 Novel Novel, a novella telling a story about Ethel. While Roger wrote the first and final chapters, he invited viewers throughout the series to write the following chapters which must contain exactly 73 words, with the best entry read out each week by Roger, one of the residents or one of the guests.
The series also saw the Matchbox competition to see who could fit the most individual items - except matches - into a matchbox. The winner somehow managed to fit 73 items into their matchbox and won 73 seconds to cram as many prizes from the kitchen as they could into a giant matchbox, including the Sandwich Quiz Golden Loaf trophy and the shirt Harry was wearing.
The series finale also saw Ethel at odds with her bank manager Frederick Crossfield, who sends bailiffs round to the house to repossess the furniture. The episode ended with Ethel, Harry, Dawn, Neil, Martin, Hazel and Fred barricading the front door.
Series 5
Ethel turned the house into a bed and breakfast, leading to comedic storylines while getting the house up to standard, such as installing a sink in every room - including the cellar, and Harry leading the fire drills leading to Fred the Postman having several accidents.Whenever Ethel was away in this and the following series, Neil would present the Sandwich Quiz, but renamed in honour of his Liverpudlian roots to The Chip Butty Quiz.
Colin Daly returned with the second Supersleuth competition, with the winners this time going to San Francisco. The final was held halfway through the series, with Daly appearing one more time towards the end of the series to show picture highlights of the trip. After this, Daly would move his Supersleuth competition over to Thames Television's magazine show Splash!
Meanwhile, Dawn had her roller boots spray painted by Paul King.
While Fred and Eazi left the series after failing to start a radio station in the backyard shed, Ethel fell in love with her most unlikely suitor yet, bank manager Frederick Crossfield. The courtship lasted two episodes, with the series finale leading up to the wedding and a cliffhanger. The finale had the most guests in any episode of the show - Five Star, Junior, King, Bucks Fizz, Jimmy Nail and Matthew Kelly, with The Redskins performing in the cellar.
Series 6
It turned out the wedding between Ethel and Frederick was cancelled by mutual agreement at the very last moment.There was no new Front Door Production in Series 6. Instead, Ethel put on a treasure hunt for Neil and Kim across three counties to win the box room key. Kim won, but ended up sharing the room with Dawn, while Neil bunked up with Harry. By the end of the series the two rivals had fallen in love. The series also saw Harry start a new job as a singing telegram, requiring him to wear all kinds of ridiculous outfits from gorilla suits to a Tarzan loincloth.
Tony Deal appeared for the final time in two memorable episodes, first on the run from the police, and then trying to lure the guest to No.75 with Martin Edwards. Papier-mâché headed performer Frank Sidebottom made his first appearance during this series; he would make several further appearances throughout the next couple of series. Another memorable episode saw Ethel, Harry, Kim, Hazel and Martin mount a truncated performance of The Pirates of Penzance throughout the house.
This series also saw the first outside broadcast episode coming from the Kent seaside town of Broadstairs. It was themed as a whodunnit guest starring Shaw Taylor in his Police 5 persona trying to catch a villain called The Jewelled Hand.