Something Else

1 9 7 8 – 1 9 8 2 (UK)
34 x 45 minute episodes

This experimental and wide-ranging BBC2 magazine/discussion show for the under-20s laid the foundations for later youth programming.

The show was made by young people for young people – as later parodied in The Young Ones as Nozin’ Around – with only technical help and advice from the professionals.

The 13 youngsters who devised and presented the original pilot show – which saw The Clash give a rare television interview – were chosen from more than 2,000 teenagers who filled in a questionnaire sent out by the BBC’s Community Programme Unit.

Subsequent shows were broadcast from a different location around the UK each time (initially monthly, later weekly) and covered issues of interest and relevance to its audience – anything from single parenthood, Rastafarianism and glue-sniffing to alcoholism, Borstal, video games, police harrassment and arranged marriages.

The musical input came from The Specials, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Undertones, The Skids, The Revillos, Secret Affair, Stiff Little Fingers, The Cure, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Damned, Fun Boy Three, Depeche Mode and others, with usually a couple of acts featuring in every show.

One programme in October 1981 was made by Paul Weller from The Jam and some friends – Steve Carver, Anne Clark and Robin Richards. The Jam returned to their roots at the Sheerwater Youth Club in Woking, where they first started making music and were joined by Dolly Mixture and The Questions.

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