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It is a Monday morning in around 1984-1985; I am off school in bed, (presumably unwell and not as a school refuser which I would become a few years later), watching the black and white portable in the bedroom. TV-am has just finished; the Central start-up commences and by 9.30 am they join the network for schools programmes. Ironically, many of these educational shows I only saw when I was off school and very occasionally when I was there. The "art gallery" picture on a black background gives way to the sixty second countdown with a circle of tiny white segments disappearing on a dark blue background with "Independent Television for Schools and Colleges" inside the circle and "Picture Box" written in white letters at the bottom. After all the segments are gone, we go to a "Granada Colour Production" ident and then onto some very eerie opening titles of what looked like a salmon-pink cushion inside a transparent jewellery box moving clockwise on an invisible turntable, and the tune of Manège by Jacques Lasry-Bachet can be heard as its theme tune (despite many people online saying that the opening titles were scary back then, I have to say that it didn't have the effect on me!) We then meet its presenter, sat in a chair as if he was about to present Granada's other show, What the Papers Say, greets us with an almost sinister: "hello", and with a short minute-long introduction, he links into some educational animation, usually from North America or Eastern Europe for around ten minutes before reverting back to the presenter with a conclusion before ending the programme at around a quarter to ten, unless one was watching the Wednesday morning repeat. Checking transmission dates for old programmes some 20 years ago, I was quite surprised that Granada mentioned that it began as early as 1966!
Even now I have always associated Picture Box with its long-standing presenter, Alan Rothwell, who has died aged 89. It was often a truism that Rothwell was the first person to be seen on an ITV Network programme on a Monday morning during the school term weeks. Granada Television in the 1970s and 1980s had its own brand of TV presenters an actors, and Rothwell was one fine example of this; he was one of the original cast members of Coronation Street when the series began in December 1960, playing the David Barlow, the brother of the ever-present Kenneth (as he was credited up until 1972) played by William Roache. The irony was that David himself was killed off back in 1970 and his screen brother famously lived on for over half a century. In addition to Roache, there seems to be just three original cast members who are still alive. The Street wasn't his first ongoing drama as he was heard as Jimmy Grange in The Archers just before ti started. By the 1980s, Rothwell also had a stint in Channel Four and Mersey Television's Brookside in the 1980s as well; playing Nicholas Black and staying within both the North West and soap opera territory as he did twenty years before. He was primarily known as an actor, and since the 1990s he has played parts such as Anthony Rafferty who was a very bitter man in an episode of Casualty and returning as two other characters. His near namesake coroner Alan Massey in the documentary-drama Shipman in 2002 which was all about the killer General Practitioner and his mostly patients as victims. Ironically for someone who had appeared in Coronation Street, his final credited appearance was in a drama for Sky, called Rovers.
Rothwell also presented TV programmes as himself such as the aforementioned Picture Box, and also for Granada, Hickory House between 1973 and 1978, alongside co-presenters such as Louise Hall-Taylor and Amanda Barrie (who played a love interest for his screen brother on Coronation Street nearly two decades later). Remember Humphrey Cushion and Dusty Mop? (and no, I am not confusing the name with Dusty Bin). Hickory House was Granada's answer to the long-standing Rainbow, and although it didn't run as long as the Thames TV classic, or was well-remembered, it had spawned off a series Daisy, Daisy in around 1978, although I have to say that it was before my time as I mostly remember Granada making series in that slot such as Our Backyard (and I also assume that it was before Laura Burston was born as well!) His experience presenting Picture Box was a natural progression to a programme for the under-fives (or under fifty-fives as average age of the Hickory House audience would be these days).
His acting career was well-varied; he worked with Sid James in Citizen James; he guested in Z-Cars; he was typecast slightly as a vicar in episodes of Watching and Heartbeat, and also hopped across the Pennines to Emmerdale. He appeared in All Creatures Great and Small; Medics; the children's TV series Wilmot; and even Queer as Folk. I suppose that Rothwell was one of the reasons why I didn't want to school on Monday mornings and wanted to see him on the TV instead. He was a bit like a friendly uncle with one or two surprises as a presenter, and as a matter of fact, when I had a website writing about old TV programmes and presenters back in the early 2000s, I mentioned Rothwell during one of the articles that I was writing about; one of either his sons or nephews came across it on a Google search, and they had emailed me to say they they were delighted that I had remembered their father or uncle after so many years!
Was there ever such a nicer person to greet us on our TV screens, first thing on a Monday morning such as the late, great, Alan Rothwell?
Even now I have always associated Picture Box with its long-standing presenter, Alan Rothwell, who has died aged 89. It was often a truism that Rothwell was the first person to be seen on an ITV Network programme on a Monday morning during the school term weeks. Granada Television in the 1970s and 1980s had its own brand of TV presenters an actors, and Rothwell was one fine example of this; he was one of the original cast members of Coronation Street when the series began in December 1960, playing the David Barlow, the brother of the ever-present Kenneth (as he was credited up until 1972) played by William Roache. The irony was that David himself was killed off back in 1970 and his screen brother famously lived on for over half a century. In addition to Roache, there seems to be just three original cast members who are still alive. The Street wasn't his first ongoing drama as he was heard as Jimmy Grange in The Archers just before ti started. By the 1980s, Rothwell also had a stint in Channel Four and Mersey Television's Brookside in the 1980s as well; playing Nicholas Black and staying within both the North West and soap opera territory as he did twenty years before. He was primarily known as an actor, and since the 1990s he has played parts such as Anthony Rafferty who was a very bitter man in an episode of Casualty and returning as two other characters. His near namesake coroner Alan Massey in the documentary-drama Shipman in 2002 which was all about the killer General Practitioner and his mostly patients as victims. Ironically for someone who had appeared in Coronation Street, his final credited appearance was in a drama for Sky, called Rovers.
Rothwell also presented TV programmes as himself such as the aforementioned Picture Box, and also for Granada, Hickory House between 1973 and 1978, alongside co-presenters such as Louise Hall-Taylor and Amanda Barrie (who played a love interest for his screen brother on Coronation Street nearly two decades later). Remember Humphrey Cushion and Dusty Mop? (and no, I am not confusing the name with Dusty Bin). Hickory House was Granada's answer to the long-standing Rainbow, and although it didn't run as long as the Thames TV classic, or was well-remembered, it had spawned off a series Daisy, Daisy in around 1978, although I have to say that it was before my time as I mostly remember Granada making series in that slot such as Our Backyard (and I also assume that it was before Laura Burston was born as well!) His experience presenting Picture Box was a natural progression to a programme for the under-fives (or under fifty-fives as average age of the Hickory House audience would be these days).
His acting career was well-varied; he worked with Sid James in Citizen James; he guested in Z-Cars; he was typecast slightly as a vicar in episodes of Watching and Heartbeat, and also hopped across the Pennines to Emmerdale. He appeared in All Creatures Great and Small; Medics; the children's TV series Wilmot; and even Queer as Folk. I suppose that Rothwell was one of the reasons why I didn't want to school on Monday mornings and wanted to see him on the TV instead. He was a bit like a friendly uncle with one or two surprises as a presenter, and as a matter of fact, when I had a website writing about old TV programmes and presenters back in the early 2000s, I mentioned Rothwell during one of the articles that I was writing about; one of either his sons or nephews came across it on a Google search, and they had emailed me to say they they were delighted that I had remembered their father or uncle after so many years!
Was there ever such a nicer person to greet us on our TV screens, first thing on a Monday morning such as the late, great, Alan Rothwell?