Overview
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, more commonly known simply as Swap Shop, was a children's television programme that aired on Saturday mornings in the UK on BBC One. It ran from 1976 until 1982 and was thought by many to be a response to the growing success of ATV's Tiswas - although the latter had not yet aired outside the Midlands. Swap Shop was hugely popular with its target audience and used innovative ideas such as the phone-in to engage the audience.
The main presenters were Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin, John Craven and Maggie Philbin.
The content of the programme included music, competitions, interviews, children's news and issues. The cornerstone however was the "Swaporama" element where an outside-broadcast unit would travel to different locations throughout the country where children could swap their belongings with others. This proved to be one of the most popular aspects of the show, often achieving gatherings of more than 2,000 children.
In many ways, nothing like Swap Shop had been seen prior in children's television and the BBC continued to use the successful format in many programmes, such as Saturday Superstore and Going Live!.
The programme ran for 146 episodes.
Annuals
Swap Shop was so popular that during its run 4 annuals were published.
The publishing date for the books were as follows:
- Book 1 - November 1978
- Book 2 - September 1979
- Book 3 - September 1980
- Book 4 - November 1981
The annuals are full of quizes, funny stories, pop star pictures, knitting patterns plus features on the shows stars.
Each book has presenter photos in which the hosts are seen seperately as a comedy character, for example Book 4 features Noel Edmonds as schoolboy Harry Copter. The character of Harry Copter is referenced throughout the annual and was based on Noel's love of helicopters.