grumpyf1

Let the Saturday morning good times roll! December 2016, and January of this year, were bleak times for those of a certain age, with the passing of TV, film and music stars that meant an awful lot to an awful lot of people. I’m hoping that 2017 isn’t about to follow a similar pattern. The brilliant musician Chris Rea had a near miss, collapsing on stage recently – fingers crossed for him that he’ll still be Driving Home For Christmas... or at least getting a lift. This was followed, all too quickly, by the news that TV presenter Keith Chegwin had died, at the age of 60. “Cheggers” was the ever-exuberant member of the line-up that presented Multi-Coloured Swap Shop on BBC1 on a Saturday morning. In the late 70s and early 80s, there wasn’t exactly an overload of TV for kids, so the arrival of the lengthy extravaganza of music, entertainment, interviews and fun was essential viewing for scruffy oiks like myself, even if it did mean having to get up and make sure I’d had breakfas...