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For reasons which will become apparent later in the year, I’m currently buried in research on Three of a Kind. It’s a show which I entirely dismissed a few years back on the strength – or otherwise – of its first episode, but now feel a certain amount of affection for. In fact, rarely has a comedy won me over so much from such a bad first impression.¹

Fittingly, there were three series of Three of a Kind; the first started transmission in July 1981, the second in November 1982, and the third in September 1983. Also made as part of that final series was a Bank Holiday Special, which aired before the rest of the series, on the 2nd May 1983. It’s the usual mix of stuff that works and stuff which really doesn’t, with the highlight being a eight-minute “Cabaret” sequence near the end.

I’m particularly fond of Gladys Nightly, which is essentially Lenny Henry doing a proper drag act, and features a bonus cameo from Peter Brewis:

That split screen shot near the end of that sequence with the two Lennys is worth any amount of teletext graphics thrown at the screen.

It was a version of this Bank Holiday Special which won the team an award. The Daily Telegraph, on the 14th May 1983, “British TV Coup at Montreux”:

“British television took three out of five major awards at the Golden Rose of Montreux TV Festival yesterday repeating the 1980 coup.²

The Silver Rose, the second-highest award, went to the BBC for its quickfire Monday night comedy, “Three of a Kind,” which was widely appreciated by the 400 international delegates for its pace, inventiveness and zest of the three young performers.

The programme also won the Montreux Press prize, the first BBC entry to do so since 1967.”

For the record, the programme which won the Golden Rose that year was an Italian variety show, Al Paradise. I presume there’s an Italian version of me writing all about that show somewhere online.

Why am I telling you all this? Because of an interesting note at the top of the paperwork for the Three of a Kind Bank Holiday Special, as transmitted by the BBC in May 1983:

N.B. THIS P AS C APPLIES TO THE BANK HOLIDAY SPECIAL TRANSMITTED ON BBC 1, NOT THE SPECIAL WHICH WON THE SILVER ROSE OF MONTREUX (WHICH WAS A SHORTENED VERSION OF THE TRANSMITTED PROGRAMME).

So the immediate question is: was this shortened version ever transmitted by the BBC?

*   *   *

Short version: yes. But you have to do a bit of figuring out in order to get there. In fact, the shortened Silver Rose version of the episode was shown on BBC1 on the 28th October 1983 at 8:30pm, three weeks after Series 3 had finished its run.

A quick look at the paperwork of that broadcast confirms it:

N.B. This P as C applies to the special which won the Silver Rose of Montreux 1983, NOT the May Bank Holiday programme (which was a longer version of the above.)

And yet, when you search Genome for this broadcast, it’s nowhere to be seen. Instead, between 7:05pm – 9pm on BBC1, it’s supposed to be Match of the Day:

Match of the Day Live
Fri 28th Oct 1983, 19:05 on BBC One London
Introduced by Jimmy Hill
Watford v West Ham United
The first of five Canon league matches to be shown live on BBCtv on Friday nights this season, provides an intriguing clash of styles. Watford’s exciting, direct football made them runners-up to Liverpool on their arrival in the First Division last season, while West Ham’s cultured play has now given them their finest start in the championship.

What’s going on?

The Guardian sheds some light. The day before the match was due to air, it published a story titled “BBC pull out and confusion follows”:

“The BBC’s cancellation of live coverage of tomorrow night’s Canon League game between Watford and West Ham has thrown the contract between television and the Football League into confusion. It also means that, with the continuing industrial trouble at ITV, there will be no football on television this weekend.”

So why did the BBC pull out?

“The industrial action by BBC technicians, who are protesting about the corporation’s plans to revise payments they receive when they are away from base, led the BBC to pull the plug on what was to be their first live game. Watford have already decided to put the kick-off back to their normal night time of 7.45 rather than the 7.15 stipulated by television.”

Why did I ever think this story would end with anything other than a strike?

So instead of the match, the BBC showed Carry on Girls at 7:05pm, and then the Montreux edit of Three of a Kind at 8:30pm. Well, let’s be more exact: the BBC showed Three of a Kind at 20:33:18. The original version of the episode was 34’52” in duration; the Montreux edit was only 26’09”. Therefore the Montreux edition of Three of a Kind was perfect to show as a standby programme, so they could run a film and still manage to get to the Nine O’Clock News on time.

All of which has essentially gone undocumented before now, with the details of the shortened Montreux edition going unlisted everywhere I can think of. A combination of it being missing from the DVD releases, and it being invisible in the Radio Times or Genome due to being a last-minute standby³, means that the Montreux edition is hardly mentioned today. Which is a bit of a shame, if only because of its historical context.

After all, it’s a fascinating decision to leave out Roz talking about her travels in Europe, for a show aimed at a European audience.

With thanks to Tanya Jones and Milly Storrington.

1. I blame Gagfax, but that’s a whole other article. ↩

2. Yes, I think there’s a missing comma in this sentence too, but that’s how it was printed. ↩

3. It did make it into some contemporary newspaper TV listings. ↩

4. Called “Triffid” in the Bank Holiday version. ↩

5. Called “Late Weather Forecast” in the Bank Holiday version. ↩

6. Although the “60 Years of Children’s Programmes” caption from this sketch was stuck onto the front of Scumton instead. ↩

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