Unfortunately for Ivan, he's picked a bad week to lay his carpet, as July 29th is the television event of the year: the Royal Wedding twixt Charles and Di. Undaunted, Ivan looks through the souvenir editions to pick out the hidden gems of early '80s television.

First, a few notes about broadcast media in 1981, for those who are too young to remember:
There are only three TV channels in the country (no digital, no satellite), and one of those is heavily fragmented such that no two transmitters are broadcasting the same programming.
There are only four national radio stations, all run by the BBC. The BBC only operate three VHF (now better known as FM) frequencies, with Radios 1 and 2 presenting a split schedule over 88-91.
Teletext is in its infancy. The BBC offers "sub-titles" on a very small handful of programmes. All TV broadcasting is in mono.
The only station (TV or radio) to broadcast 24-hours-a-day is Radio 2. BBC 1 and 2 are still switching off during parts of the daytime schedule.

In order to make a better comparison with his Digi-Box Ration Book, Ivan has highlighed his particularly choicy morsels in blue. So here we go:

As far as programme quality is concerned, there's two programmes there (La Cabina and The Black Stuff) which get me very excited indeed. Even Road Runner is more than worthy of its place here. Only Chock-a-Block is really solely driven from a  purely nostalgic yearning. And there's plenty of other stuff I've picked out that would be worthy of a ration-book placing. 

I'd estimate that about 7pts would be generated from the programmes I'd be watching, which is pretty much the average for today's telly. Good going for a three channel network with an import-dominated prime-time. There were no glitzy game shows to speak of that week. It was mainly soaps, sit-coms, films and US cop-shows. 

Radio 2 here is the old-people's station we recall from our youth... all Sing Something Simple and The Organist Entertains (and my personal favourite: You and the Night and the Music). But I've fallen in love with the concept of Truckers' Hour: a sort of less cultured Late Junction. 

As for the other two channels, they have changed only subtly. Radio 3 is now a little hipper, and the listings are more readable. Radio 4 now has more comedy, and Broadcasting House is built over the Morning Service of old (a most welcome alteration). 

Startlingly cosy was the presence of The News Quiz there at 12:27 on Saturday, just before Any Questions. And with Simon Hoggart hosting, too.

It has to be said that, with less comedy on 4, and with no BBC7, the choice of radio programming was significantly smaller than it is now. But I've managed to find three shows of interest (more really), which can be tricky even nowadays. 

I'd be lucky to get 3pts from the radio, but that's the same today.

But I'm straying off topic. The point is that even today it's usually a struggle to get two films. And so it was back then. Well there's about 4 or 5pts to be had out of this lot (only 1 or 2 if you're not in the reach of Anglia). Again, this is pretty average even for today.

Not that I mind having so much to choose from. It's not much harder now than it was then with its two badly formatted, broadcaster-specific listings magazines. But evidently, the amount of, from my perspective, "decent quality" or "good" programming remains much the same. It doesn't really teach us a lot, but it's an interesting bit of trivia at least.