Galaxy (British TV channel)

Galaxy was a British satellite television channel focusing on general entertainment and children's programmes, one of the five channels run by British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) and based at its Battersea Studios in the Marco Polo House Building. The channel broadcast a mix of home-grown programming, American imports and repeats from the BBC library. Galaxy's most infamous production was "Heil Honey I'm Home" a television series about Adolf Hitler. The show only saw one episode broadcast.

Galaxy
Ownership
OwnerBSB
Sister channelsThe Movie Channel
The Sports Channel
The Power Station
Now
The Computer Channel
History
Launched25 March 1990 (25 March 1990)
Closed2 December 1990 (2 December 1990)
Availability
at time of closure
Cable
Available on some services
Satellite
AnalogueMarcopolo 1, 11.86174

Original programmes

Some of the programmes made for Galaxy included:

Jupiter Moon
Main article: Jupiter Moon

Jupiter Moon was Galaxy's sci-fi soap opera, shown three times a week (on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 6.30pm), with an omnibus at weekends.[1] 150 episodes were made, but only the first 108 were broadcast by Galaxy before it closed, while the last 42 episodes would be broadcast six years later by Sci Fi Channel. The cast included Richard Derrington, Anna Chancellor, Alison Dowling, Lucy Benjamin, Fay Masterson, Richard Lintern and Jason Durr.[2] The entire series has been released on Region 1 DVD.

Up Yer News

This was Galaxy's comedy satire programme, broadcast in 15-minute episodes each weeknight. It featured Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Patrick Marber, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Front, Doon Mackichan, David Schneider, Jon Thomson, Al Murray, Julian Clary, Stephen Fry, David Baddiel, Rob Newman, Steve Punt, Hugh Dennis, Henry Normal, Fred Harris, Jo Brand, Mark Heap, and Alistair McGowan.[1][3][4][5]

The Happening

A weekly 90-minute music and comedy show presented by Jools Holland.[1][3]

31 West

Galaxy's magazine show broadcast Monday to Friday, 6.00–6.30pm, presented by Simon Potter, Debbie Flint and Shyama Perera and soap expert Chris Stacey. The show got its name from the placing of BSB's Marcopolo Satellite at 31 degrees west.[1]

The Last Laugh

Stand-up comedy show. Comedians featured included Ben Elton, Nick Revell, Jack Dee, Kevin Day, Simon Fanshawe, Punt and Dennis, Norman Lovett, Mark Steel and Mark Thomas.[1][3][4][5]

Corrigan & Womack

This was a comedy series, starring Bernadine Corrigan and Steve Womack, where they would perform comedy sketches. This show was carried over to Sky One after Galaxy's closure due to BSB merging with Sky.

Doctor Who weekend

Galaxy broadcast early episodes of Doctor Who every week, and on the weekend of Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 September the channel presented a complete Doctor Who Weekend.
Saturday 22 September: 9.15am An Unearthly Child, 11.15am The Daleks (episodes 1-3), 12.35pm Doctor Who's Who's Who, 1.40pm The Daleks (episodes 4-7), 3.30pm The Edge of Destruction, 4.30pm The Yeti Rarities (The Abominable Snowmen episode 2 and The Web of Fear episode 1), 6.00pm The Space Museum, 8.00 The Keys of Marinus, 11.00pm The Aztecs, 1.00am Dr. Who and the Daleks (film).
Sunday 23 September: 9.15am The War Games (episodes 1-5), 11.30am Whose Doctor Who, 12.45pm The War Games (episodes 6-10), 3.00pm The Dominators, 5.45pm The Mind Robber, 8.00pm The Three Doctors, 10.00pm Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (film), 11.30pm The Yeti Rarities (The Abominable Snowmen episode 2 and The Web of Fear episode 1), 12.30am The Edge of Destruction.[1]
Between the stories, there were also many editions of BSB's own programme, 31 Who, presented by Debbie Flint, Shyama Perera and John Nathan-Turner,[1] and featuring interviews with Sylvester McCoy, Carole Ann Ford, Elisabeth Sladen, Peter Purves, Wendy Padbury, Terrance Dicks, Bob Baker & Dave Martin, Nicholas Courtney, William Russell, Jon Pertwee, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling and many more. [6]

BBC programmes on Galaxy

The archive BBC programmes on Galaxy were:[1]

American imports on Galaxy

The American programmes on Galaxy were:[1]

Galaxy Club

The station also broadcast children's programmes under the strand 'Galaxy Club', which featured home-grown programming, mixed with imported cartoons and series. The block is well known to TV enthusiasts for inventing the interactive game show format seen in the programme The Satellite Game, which would later be used in programmes such as Knightmare.


The Galaxy logo, along with all the BSB logos, has been critically acclaimed. On the TV Ark website, an archive of British television presentation history, Hayden Walker writes: "There is no doubt the BSB identity was a serious coherent design. The project of work stretched back over a year and included product designers, model makers, composers and other specialists. The BSB identities emerged with startling clarity, with an upmarket pitch. Stylish and distinctive both on screen and in print, Lambie-Nairn designed identities which told stories." [7] And of the Galaxy logo in particular: "The ident had a lovely warmth to it, with animated swirls of colours and stars." [8]

Galaxy archives

Apart from Jupiter Moon and many of Galaxy's imported programming, the vast majority of the original programming made for broadcast by Galaxy, such as Up Yer News and The Happening, is now missing. Most was made by various independent production companies, and broadcaster and production company have both deleted their copies – each thinking the other will have kept theirs.[3][9]

Closure

Following the merger of BSB and Sky, the decision was taken to hand over Galaxy's transponder to Sky One, who took only a few programmes from Galaxy and incorporated them into its channels line up. Galaxy closed down for the last time at 1am on 2 December 1990, ending with the ident (with no announcers) quickly disappearing before the test card.

See also

References
  1. "BSB TV Month (BSB's listings magazine)". Redwood Publishing. 1990. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  2. "IMDB cast list".
  3. "Recovering The Lost BSB Archives".
  4. "The Last Laugh with Ben Elton at IMDb".
  5. "Lovett Goes To Town".
  6. "Gallifrey Base".
  7. "BSB at TV Ark".
  8. "Galaxy at TV Ark".
  9. "lostshows.com".
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