1 9 8 2 – 1 9 8 3 (UK)
12 x 30 minute episodes
Dear Heart was basically a parody of a teenage girls’ magazines, with alternately drippy, unlikely and just plain weird fictitious teenage hang-ups addressed by the all-knowing Super Advice Person.
Super Advice Person was played by post-punk popster Toyah Willcox, then in the middle of a run of massive chart hits. Also involved were BA Robertson, Trevor Laird, Colin Jeavons, Nicky Croydon and Bob Goody.
Punctuating all this were sketches and performances by real-life pop acts in photo-story backdrops.
The BBC2 show was an attempt to give youngsters their own legitimate equivalent to The Young Ones, Not The Nine O’Clock News, and all those other late-night BBC2 comedy shows they weren’t supposed to be watching.
Dear Heart wasn’t the only series at the time to adopt this format. Channel 4’s S.W.A.L.K. starred Prunella Scales as the advice-doling Aunt Patty.
Toyah Willcox
B A Robertson
Billy Hartman
Nicky Croydon
Colin Jeavons
Mandy More
Trevor Laird
Bob Goody