BBC Telephone Trivia
Colin
days stuck in front of the TV watching Swap Shop as a kid.
So after seeing some Swap Shop memorabilia on the BBCi site it got me
wondering - does the BBC still rent that DDI number (it would now be 020
8811 8055) and does anyone still phone it up wanting to speak to Noel
Edmonds?
Colin
Simon Ough
news:c66g31$k12$1$830f...@news.demon.co.uk...
> Does the BBC still rent that DDI number (it would now be 020
> 8811 8055) and does anyone still phone it up wanting to speak to Noel
> Edmonds?
Why don't you dial it and see?
Simon
Mat Overton (The Maniac Pony)
> wondering - does the BBC still rent that DDI number (it would now be 020
> 8811 8055) and does anyone still phone it up wanting to speak to Noel
> Edmonds?
>
though when BT shouted at auntie for calling it oh-one-eight-one-eighty-one,
one-eightly-one-eightyone, coz we work on a 3-4-3 system unlike the French.
Khyle
> The most memorable telephone number in my head must be 01 811 8055
> from my days stuck in front of the TV watching Swap Shop as a kid.
Just randomly (...OT a bit I know...!), I seem to remember 0181 811 8181
from the Live and Kicking days (I even remember the jingle - and how it
changed when they added the 1 (from 081)).
...Hm. Don't remember Swap Shop - I'm probably not old enough ;-)
--
Khyle
http://www.khyle.org.uk/
Colin
"Simon Ough" <si...@NOSPAMsimax.ndo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:c66gg8$sb2$2...@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
'Cause I don't generally make 'nuisance phone calls, or want to harass an
overworked member of BBC staff......
But maybe after a few beers things could change ;)
Colin
Stuart
They used to use that number for virtually everything with a phone in. A
bit diffent from todays system of same price from wherever you call
phone numbers.
I wonder if the number is in this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3810590806&category=18833
Alan Teague
<mat.overton@LOVELYSPAMWONDERFULSPAMLOVELYSPAMWONDERFULSPAMLOVELYSPAMSPAM
SPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMlealholm.co.uk> wrote:
>>
> I'm too young for that. I'm of the 0(1)81 811 8181 generation.
I remember when it was 01 811 8181, before 0171 and 0181.
--
Alan
alan|at|teague|dot|plus|dot|com
Ivor Jones
"Alan Teague" <invalid...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns94D2D5898F7D5in...@212.159.13.2...
> "Mat Overton \(The Maniac Pony\)"
>
<mat.overton@LOVELYSPAMWONDERFULSPAMLOVELYSPAMWONDERFULSPAMLOVELYSPAMSPAM
> SPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMlealholm.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
> >>
> > I'm too young for that. I'm of the 0(1)81 811 8181 generation.
>
> I remember when it was 01 811 8181, before 0171 and 0181.
I remember when my number was "CREscent xxxx" before the all figure format
came in..!
Ivor
Simon Ough
> 'Cause I don't generally make 'nuisance phone calls, or want to harass an
> overworked member of BBC staff......
>
> But maybe after a few beers things could change ;)
I was pulling your leg ;)
I remember Noel and his dodgy jumpers! :) What fun!
Simon
Stephen Neal
> Colin wrote:
>> The most memorable telephone number in my head must be 01 811 8055
>> from my days stuck in front of the TV watching Swap Shop as a kid.
>>
>> So after seeing some Swap Shop memorabilia on the BBCi site it got me
>> wondering - does the BBC still rent that DDI number (it would now be
>> 020 8811 8055) and does anyone still phone it up wanting to speak to
>> Noel Edmonds?
>
>
> They used to use that number for virtually everything with a phone
> in. A bit diffent from todays system of same price from wherever you
> call phone numbers.
Yep - and there was also 01 811 1066 ISTR (Was that used for Crimewatch
before they got an 0500 number?)
(And who can forget 01 - 992- 5522 - sung to a jingle at the end of the
Adult Literacy ads/PIFs in the late 70s? Probably everyone except me...)
Steve
Mark Carver
>
> Yep - and there was also 01 811 1066 ISTR (Was that used for
> Crimewatch before they got an 0500 number?)
>
> (And who can forget 01 - 992- 5522 - sung to a jingle at the end of
> the Adult Literacy ads/PIFs in the late 70s? Probably everyone except
> me...)
Must have been a London only thing, though I do remember LBC's
phone in number from the 70s 01-353 8111, and Capital's 01-388-1288
Phil
Stephen Neal <stephe...@nospam.please.as-directed.com> wrote:
> (And who can forget 01 - 992- 5522 - sung to a jingle at the end of the
> Adult Literacy ads/PIFs in the late 70s? Probably everyone except me...)
> Steve
Phil: Was that on one of the programmes with Brian Rix for Mencap?
I recall phoning up to the studio at the end of a recording (from VT in
the basement) to point out that in the demonstration they had given with
this especially made 'large tape measure', they had numbered the metric
and imperial units from opposite ends*, and so, when they flipped it over
to show that it could be used for measurement in the (new?) metric /old
imperial (can't remember where Maggie had let us get to in Metrication at
that time) .... the displayed 'conversion' of the waist line was incorrect
8-(
*as did many fabric tape measures of the time!
--
Phil Spiegelhalter: Ph...@fillin.co.uk
==== Technical Training for Broadcasters =====
*RE CUE Mobile DV Multi-Camera Production and Non-Linear Editing*
Peter Hayes
Martin Underwood
news:c67oth$90a74$1...@ID-75131.news.uni-berlin.de...
> I do remember LBC's phone in number from the 70s 01-353 8111
Gosh, that brings back memories: the late-night phone-ins (with "Jeremy
James Antony Gibson Beedlebum" and Tommy Boyd, I think); the version of the
LBC Fanfare played on a fairground organ [*] that preceeded the midnight
news; the over-the-top authoritarian station announcements "This is LBC -
where news comes *first*" and "News, on the hour, every hour - from LBC".
[*] I think I've still got a recording of that somewhere. I wonder where it
is.
Mark Carver
Put on that anorak, and click below:-
http://www.thisisilr.org.uk/
Martin Underwood
This is VERY worrying - that anorak fits much too well!
It's the Package 2 Jeff Wayne jingles that I remember. But they don't have
the fairground organ version. If I ever find my recording of it (it was a
great variant of the well-known version) I'll have to send it to the site.
Can I take my anorak off again now?
Mark Carver
> "Mark Carver" <markc...@onetel.net.uk> wrote in message
>> Put on that anorak, and click below:-
>> http://www.thisisilr.org.uk/
>
> This is VERY worrying - that anorak fits much too well!
>
> It's the Package 2 Jeff Wayne jingles that I remember. But they don't
> have the fairground organ version. If I ever find my recording of it
> (it was a great variant of the well-known version) I'll have to send
> it to the site.
My favourite cheesy jingle on that site (which I also remember hearing
off air) is from Radio Victory. (RIP)
"From the downs, to the sea, it's Radio Vic-tor-reeee"
> Can I take my anorak off again now?
Not until this thread drops off your newsserver.
Alan Teague
I remember when this was all fields.
Ian Jelf
<khyle@?.org.ukSPAM.invalid> writes
>...Hm. Don't remember Swap Shop - I'm probably not old enough ;-)
Ouch
!
Oh and 01-811 8055 had previously been used for "Z Shed". Anyone
remember *that*?!
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk
Ian Jelf
<markc...@onetel.net.uk> writes
>Must have been a London only thing, though I do remember LBC's
>phone in number from the 70s 01-353 8111, and Capital's 01-388-1288
Or "Teledata", who provided telephone responses for all sorts of
products, on 01-200 0200?
Or ATV's "Sunspots" with 0121-622 5252?
This is now getting silly. I must go and lie down......
A Lillywhite
ISTR there were about 20 lines all told and only the first 10 used to get
routed to the studio, the rest went to recorded messagemachines (Tandberg, I
think). The test DEL 'phone which was next to the bay was used as an
unnoficial private line by some of the more permanent members of staff at
the Grove. If it rang at all during the week it used to get answered as
"Lime Grove Baths" or similar.
Mind you, I am too young to remember any of this too....
Andy.
"Colin" <co...@NOSPAM.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:c66g31$k12$1$830f...@news.demon.co.uk...
LJ
>
> Gosh, that brings back memories: the late-night phone-ins (with
> "Jeremy James Antony Gibson Beedlebum" and Tommy Boyd, I think);
Indeed - I spent many hours "asleep" with an earpiece stuffed in my ear
listening to JJAGBB.
> the version of the LBC Fanfare played on a fairground organ [*] that
> preceeded the midnight news;
Is that the one at 2:19 into "1980s - Air Checks part 1"?
Laurence, bring back Bob and Douglas!
Paul Ratcliffe
wrote:
> Or "Teledata", who provided telephone responses for all sorts of
> products, on 01-200 0200?
Strewth. I thought I'd erased that one from the grey matter.
> Or ATV's "Sunspots" with 0121-622 5252?
021 then.
Alan Teague
> In article <Xns94D3A726EA05Cin...@212.159.13.2>,
> Don't you remember, "I remember when this was all eight field
> sequences"?
>
I don't remember that, but I do remember when "I remember when this was
all eight field sequences" was all fields.
Martin Underwood
news:bpkll1-...@invalid.com...
> Martin Underwood wrote:
> >
> > Gosh, that brings back memories: the late-night phone-ins (with
> > "Jeremy James Antony Gibson Beedlebum" and Tommy Boyd, I think);
>
> Indeed - I spent many hours "asleep" with an earpiece stuffed in my ear
> listening to JJAGBB.
Likewise! Hahaha.
Some of the people on the phone-ins were seriously weird. I remember one
elderly chap who went on about he thought of all women as being like pink
fluffy candy floss (or some such phrase).
> > the version of the LBC Fanfare played on a fairground organ [*] that
> > preceeded the midnight news;
>
> Is that the one at 2:19 into "1980s - Air Checks part 1"?
That's the one! Blimey, I've come over all nostaglic now!
Dave Plowman
Khyle <khyle@\REMOVEMY/khyle.org.ukSPAM> wrote:
> ...Hm. Don't remember Swap Shop - I'm probably not old enough ;-)
Oh dear. I can still well remember the pre-rig I did on Friday afternoon -
then operating the manual TBUs on the show. I wouldn't be surprised if I
could still do it all now from memory. If only I knew what I was doing
today. ;-)
After putting out the headsets for the phones in the studio, I'd check
them by simply having the system switched on and waiting - the lines would
soon be full with kids phoning up.
--
*Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them *
Dave Plowman dave....@argonet.co.uk London SW 12
RIP Acorn
Dave Liquorice
>> I wonder if the number is in this:
>> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3810590806
>
> Is isn't his to sell.
Hasn't stopped some one bidding and winning though... And with a ebay
ID of uax13 no doubt a serious telephoney nut.
--
Cheers new...@howhill.com
Dave. pam is missing e-mail
Dave Liquorice
>> ...Hm. Don't remember Swap Shop - I'm probably not old enough ;-)
>
> Oh dear. I can still well remember the pre-rig I did on Friday
> afternoon - then operating the manual TBUs on the show.
Lucky you, I would have been out getting wet on the OB... Indeed I
think it was one rather wet Swap Shop OB where I got very cross at the
BT block for giving me belts every time I tried to connect up the 4
wire and control lines, I mean those don't have volts on 'em do they
and it certainly wasn't ringing.
Then I remembered the DEL...
Mark Carver
> "LJ" <lj...@ljayNOSPAM.gro.ku> wrote in message
> news:bpkll1-...@invalid.com...
>> Martin Underwood wrote:
>>>
>>> Gosh, that brings back memories: the late-night phone-ins (with
>>> "Jeremy James Antony Gibson Beedlebum" and Tommy Boyd, I think);
>>
>> Indeed - I spent many hours "asleep" with an earpiece stuffed in my
>> ear listening to JJAGBB.
>
> Likewise! Hahaha.
So there were three of us then ?
Mark Carver
Funny that Birmingham based facilities company 021, didn't rename themselves
in April 1995 ?
Ivor Jones
Nor did the courier company by the same name..!
Ivor
Laurence Taylor
>
> In message <c67oth$90a74$1...@ID-75131.news.uni-berlin.de>, Mark Carver
> <markc...@onetel.net.uk> writes
> >Must have been a London only thing, though I do remember LBC's
> >phone in number from the 70s 01-353 8111, and Capital's 01-388-1288
>
> Or "Teledata", who provided telephone responses for all sorts of
> products, on 01-200 0200?
>
> Or ATV's "Sunspots" with 0121-622 5252?
Or some double glazing company on 01-961 2000?
Or BBC Radio London on 486 7744?
Or (wonder who'll get these) 648 3079 and 648 4512?
--
rgds
LAurence
..."Get a life, it's only a TV show!" - W. Shatner
Ian Jelf
<ab...@orac12.clara34.co56.uk78> writes
Ian Jelf
<markc...@onetel.net.uk> writes
And "021" Magazine carried on for a long time afterwards as well (and
may still be going, I'm not sure).
SpamTrapSeeSig
Liquorice <new...@howhill.com> writes
Horizontal hail in Lowestoft... or was that 'Saturday Superstore'? I
suppose it didn't matter much - either made the fingers numb.
Regards,
Simonm.
--
simonm|at|muircom|dot|demon|.|c|oh|dot|u|kay
SIMON MUIR, UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY, BRISTOL www.ukip.org
EUROPEANS AGAINST THE EU www.members.aol.com/eurofaq
GT250A'76 R80/RT'86 110CSW TD'88 www.kc3ltd.co.uk/profile/eurofollie/
Simon Lockhart
Colin <co...@NOSPAM.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>The most memorable telephone number in my head must be 01 811 8055 from my
>days stuck in front of the TV watching Swap Shop as a kid.
>
>So after seeing some Swap Shop memorabilia on the BBCi site it got me
>wondering - does the BBC still rent that DDI number (it would now be 020
>8811 8055) and does anyone still phone it up wanting to speak to Noel
>Edmonds?
I do remember wandering around the CCA in Television Centre one time, and
finding a frame with that number marked on it - so I guess it probably
does/did go through that area, at least fairly recently (i.e. in the last
2 - 3 years).
Simon
--
Simon Lockhart | Tel: +44 (0)1628 407720 (x(01)37720) | Si fractum
Technology Manager | Fax: +44 (0)1628 407701 (x(01)37701) | non sit, noli
BBC Internet Ops | Email: Simon.L...@bbc.co.uk | id reficere
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