Friday 8 July 2016

Star Wars on TV: how Britain's TV Times celebrated its arrival on the small screen





A chance to win Empire Strikes Back toys in
TV Times as Star Wars came to television


When Star Wars reached British television in 1982, the listings magazine TV Times gave it an unprecedented amount of space. It even commissioned short comic strip telling us something of how the Rebel Alliance stole the plans to the Death Star – and almost certainly contradicting the forthcoming film Rogue One. Episode Nothing takes a trip back to October 24 1982.



The TV Times Star Wars cover


The TV Times Star Wars cover


The imminent arrival of a fourth British TV channel only just sneaked onto the cover of the October 23-29 1982 edition of TV Times, along with the chance to win one of five Ford Sierras. The big TV event of that week – and perhaps the entire year – was the arrival of Star Wars to ITV.

TV Times was, in those days, a listings magazine which could only list the schedules for one channel – ITV. Nonetheless, it was unheard of for it to devote a full five pages to one film as it did with Star Wars, along with a lengthy billing for the film on the day of transmission. The articles feature among ads for video recorders (retailing at around £400), Teletext TVs and Atari video game consoles.

The cover that week heralded “STAR WARS Sunday”, as though the film’s broadcast put the date on a par with Easter Day or Christmas Day. The dramatic cover, with Darth Vader holding two lightsabers which met above the TV Times masthead, showed the cast in their costumes from The Empire Strikes Back. That’s because, as fan Declan McCafferty pointed out in a comment last week, the cover was an Empire Strikes Back poster with the sequel-exclusive elements taken out.

The poster that formed the basis for
the TV Times Star Wars cover





The TV Times Star Wars comic strip by Martin Asbury




The Rebels steal the Death Star plans in
Martin Asbury's TV Times Star Wars strip


For the transmission of Star Wars, TV Times commissioned a double-page comic strip from Martin Asbury. His art was familiar from the action comic strip Garth in the Daily Mirror and from the previously mentioned Look-In magazine in the 1970s. This time, he only had a few frames in which to depict the Rebels’ acquisition of the Death Star plans – but what he produced is a memorable piece of Star Wars art.




The “famous faceless men” of Star Wars, plus Carrie Fisher as Woody Allen


TV Times was much more personality-driven than its BBC equivalent, Radio Times, and so it devoted several pages to profiles of performers in Star Wars. There were the “most famous faceless men of films” – i.e. Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Dave Prowse – and Carrie Fisher, who said of her looks that she had the appeal of a “female Woody Allen”. 

Here are those articles, along with the TV Times film critic David Quinlan’s concise review of Star Wars and the listings for the great day itself – Star Wars Sunday.







TV Times' exhaustive coverage of Star Wars


What are your memories of Star Wars on TV, either in the UK or US? I'd love to hear about them. Do leave a comment below.




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9 comments:

  1. Sean18 July 2016 at 15:33

    I remember when they first showed Star Wars here in Arizona at least it was a big deal. Going into the commercial break that had short clips of celebrities talking about Star Wars. I even remember one of them being a cartoon of Fred Flinstone talking about Star Wars.

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  2. Darren Slade19 July 2016 at 15:51

    Hi Sean. Thanks for commenting. That's amazing. I wonder whether anyone has those clips on tape and will ever share them on YouTube.

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  3. Leonie Daecher29 July 2016 at 01:40

    Star Wars is really cult saga! For me all events related to this film is a history, I love read and watch different stories about these space adventures. I am a fan of Star Wars as well as you :)

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  4. Darren Slade2 August 2016 at 15:11

    Thanks very much for visiting and commenting!

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  5. Anonymous3 August 2018 at 07:26

    Thanks for sharing this amazing Star Wars info!

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  6. AG15 November 2018 at 04:15

    Still have my copy of that TV Times somewhere. And I well remember watching the movie on TV for the second time, after seeing it at the cinema.
    Such a shame the mag didn't get Martin Asbury to do a series of strips. Copyright?

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  7. Darren Slade22 November 2018 at 14:59

    Thanks AG. Yes, it would have been great to have more strips in that style.

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  8. Lee1 April 2022 at 07:26

    I remember back in the day my local cinema just small, arriving on the bus there would be a queue right up the street, 6 visits to see Star Wars, you could not get in, same with Grease,that was a big movie, i was 9 at the time, Jaws i think now how did i get in to see that i was 6.

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  9. Steve in Savoy12 June 2024 at 11:04

    Wow, Anthony Daniels (C3PO) looks an awful lot like Dudley Moore. I had though that's who that was in the picture until I read the captions. Dudley Moore is another one who was briefly famous during this time period for quite a different genre of adult screwball comedy movies.

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