It's A Knockout? Giant Penguins, Soggy Costumes and the Fil Rouge

Now, on several occasions in this podcast we have drawn a parallel between how we in 1970s Britain lived in pretty ordinary circumstances by comparing what we saw on the television of how life was lived in America.

Our schedules were full of glamorous US TV shows with beautiful people living in beautiful places and doing all kinds of interesting things like driving around in huge fancy cars, flexing their muscles on beautiful beaches in the sun or eating their breakfast in diners, whatever they were.

Compared to a wet weekend in Warrington, where I was brought up, it was unbelievably exciting and looked like something absolutely fantastic.

And the same was true in a different way for Europe.

Everything looked far more colourful, glamorous and exciting in countries like France and Italy than it did in the UK.

Let's think back to the 1970s, when foreign travel was a bit of a rarity and most UK families still spent their holidays in this country.

Increasing numbers of people were taking advantage of new package holidays and flying off to the costas in Spain, but Europe was still very much an unknown quantity for many of us, even after we joined the Common Market, as it was then known, in 1973.

I personally didn't leave this country until 1980, when I went on a school trip to Belgium, of all places, And I wasn't alone having to spend each summer in what could either be lovely British sunshine or equally days of dreary rain.

For me as a child, though, there was one programme which had British and European variants, in which Europe did appear so much grander than the UK in almost every respect.

And it's one which most of you will remember, I suspect.

It was a programme in which contestants attempted to negotiate slippery ramps, giant inflatable obstacles, pools of water and enormous moving objects, all while wearing costumes that made it virtually impossible to see where they were going, and a programme in which the most important piece of sporting equipment wasn't a football, a cricket bat or a tennis racket.

It was a large quantity of soap, water and occasionally something that looked a bit like washing up liquid, and lots of very large rubber bands.

Oh, and don't forget giant penguin costumes.

MUSIC ¶¶ Yes, today we are revisiting It's a Knockout, the programme in which ordinary people represented their towns whilst wearing silly costumes.

There were slippery ramps, enormous props and pools of water.

The challenge wasn't simply to win, sometimes it was just to remain upright long enough to discover where the finish line was.

It was a show where it always seemed like there wasn't quite enough budget.

We saw grand physical battles played out between town representatives against the backdrop of the finest of British leisure centres, parks and slightly rundown seaside resorts.

Until that was, we went into the European competitions.

So there was also Jeux Sans Frontières, literally translated as Games Without Frontiers, the international competition where British teams faced off against their European neighbours, a contest that combined national pride with the practical difficulties of moving around inside a giant foam animal.

I wonder if it inspired Peter Gabriel's song with the same name.

Hmm, highly unlikely, but you never know, we'd better ask Peter.

And it always seemed that European shows looked, well, more smart and expensive.

So instead of coming from East Grinsedd Leisure Centre, we had competitions held in the grounds of 17th century French Chateau or in no Italian ski resorts looking like they come out of a James Bond film, all of which looked absolutely amazing to us sat at home in the UK.

Now, on several occasions in this podcast we have drawn a parallel between how we in 1970s Britain lived in pretty ordinary circumstances by comparing what we saw on the television of how life was lived in America.

Our schedules were full of glamorous US TV shows with beautiful people living in beautiful places and doing all kinds of interesting things like driving around in huge fancy cars, flexing their muscles on beautiful beaches in the sun or eating their breakfast in diners, whatever they were.

Compared to a wet weekend in Warrington, where I was brought up, it was unbelievably exciting and looked like something absolutely fantastic.

And the same was true in a different way for Europe.

Everything looked far more colourful, glamorous and exciting in countries like France and Italy than it did in the UK.

Let's think back to the 1970s, when foreign travel was a bit of a rarity and most UK families still spent their holidays in this country.

Increasing numbers of people were taking advantage of new package holidays and flying off to the costas in Spain, but Europe was still very much an unknown quantity for many of us, even after we joined the Common Market, as it was then known, in 1973.

I personally didn't leave this country until 1980, when I went on a school trip to Belgium, of all places, And I wasn't alone having to spend each summer in what could either be lovely British sunshine or equally days of dreary rain.

For me as a child, though, there was one programme which had British and European variants, in which Europe did appear so much grander than the UK in almost every respect.

And it's one which most of you will remember, I suspect.

It was a programme in which contestants attempted to negotiate slippery ramps, giant inflatable obstacles, pools of water and enormous moving objects, all while wearing costumes that made it virtually impossible to see where they were going, and a programme in which the most important piece of sporting equipment wasn't a football, a cricket bat or a tennis racket.

It was a large quantity of soap, water and occasionally something that looked a bit like washing up liquid, and lots of very large rubber bands.

Oh, and don't forget giant penguin costumes.

MUSIC ¶¶ Yes, today we are revisiting It's a Knockout, the programme in which ordinary people represented their towns whilst wearing silly costumes.

There were slippery ramps, enormous props and pools of water.

The challenge wasn't simply to win, sometimes it was just to remain upright long enough to discover where the finish line was.

It was a show where it always seemed like there wasn't quite enough budget.

We saw grand physical battles played out between town representatives against the backdrop of the finest of British leisure centres, parks and slightly rundown seaside resorts.

Until that was, we went into the European competitions.

So there was also Jeux Sans Frontières, literally translated as Games Without Frontiers, the international competition where British teams faced off against their European neighbours, a contest that combined national pride with the practical difficulties of moving around inside a giant foam animal.

I wonder if it inspired Peter Gabriel's song with the same name.

Hmm, highly unlikely, but you never know, we'd better ask Peter.

And it always seemed that European shows looked, well, more smart and expensive.

So instead of coming from East Grinsedd Leisure Centre, we had competitions held in the grounds of 17th century French Chateau or in no Italian ski resorts looking like they come out of a James Bond film, all of which looked absolutely amazing to us sat at home in the UK.