This “youth magazine show” from BBC2 – the last stand of ‘youth’ tv – had Janet Street-Porter as Executive Producer and was aimed at the 16-25-year-old market, emulating Channel 4’s Network 7 (also once in the care of Street-Porter).
Among the programmes spawled over Monday and Wednesday evenings under the DEF II umbrella were the Rough Guides series with Magenta De Vine and Sankha Guha, Rapido with Antoine de Caunes (an English language version of a French music show), the US comedies Wayne’s World and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Dance Energy (later D Energy) with Normski, Job Bank (career profiles), Liquid Television (animations), the football magazine Standing Room Only, Cyberzone (a virtual-reality game show), Behind The Beat (a black music show), Reportage (news, current affairs and views from around the world) and Open To Question, in which youngsters interviewed celebrities.
One of the first DEF II music shows was strangely called FSd (1988) and came from BBC Scotland. It aimed to showcase the indie music world through performances and insights behind the scenes.
Another early offering was That Was Then, This Is Now (1988-89), a series of films looking back at the careers of various musical artists, discovering through interviews and performance footage how fame had arrived and what they were up to now.
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