Fax

The BBC's decision in 1984 to replace Sixty Minutes with the Six O'Clock News meant that a gap now existed between the end of children's programmes at 5:35 and the start of the news at 6pm. The vacant slot was initially filled with repeats of The Good Life, a popular decision with the viewers but one which clearly would only have a limited shelf-life – after all, with only 30 episodes of the sitcom ever made, the re-runs would have to be limited to six weeks. By early 1985, a solution came in the form of the popular Angela Rippon quiz show Masterteam, screened three times a week, and the considerably less popular magazine show Fax, shown on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fax was hosted by Billy Butler (a popular Liverpudlian local radio DJ who had previously fronted the Saturday morning show "Mersey Pirate") and ex-Goodie Bill Oddie. The team was completed with the addition of Breakfast Time presenter Debbie Rix. The show's premise was that viewers would send in "Notes And Queries"-type questions which would be answered by the team, in fact it could almost be described as a close cousin of Southern's "How?", but targeted at older children and adults. Fax was, however, distinctly unmemorable apart from the moment when John Noakes announced the recent death of his beloved dog Shep on the show and broke down in tears on national TV, an event which made the papers. Fax lasted until 1988, when Michael Grade moved the daily Neighbours repeat from the morning to the early evening in response to reports that children were skipping school in order to watch the popular soap opera.