Chock-A-Block

Chock-a-block was a large brightly coloured (fake) computer (think the WhyTech without WhyBird if you weren't around in the 80s to watch this) operated by either Chock-A-Bloke, Fred Harris, or Chock-A-Girl, Carol Leader, who would take it in turns to ride up to Chock-A-Block on their electric Chock-A-Truck to present that day's show. The show itself revolved around the presenter slotting a block into Chock-A-Block's slot, whereupon Chock-A-Block would show the pictures and play the sounds stored on the block. The presenter would then record more appropriate sounds onto the block and/or try to figure out that weeks rhyming sound, before moving to the Rockablocks (a pair of square rollers, with two of the four sides blue to allow for blue screening in relevant images) which the presenter had to roll around to display pictures of things with matching sounds in their name (e.g. Pier and Beer, although I'm fairly sure they didn't include this example in the series). There was only ever one series of 13 episodes made and first shown in 1981, but they had a staggering 14 repeat runs between 1982 and 1989, ensuring a whole generation of 80s tots would see and half-remember this series. Sadly it's rumoured that the Beeb archivists junked this series in a mass wiping of childrens television programmes as recently as 1993! Thankfully some episodes have been found by individuals on their home recorded VHS tapes from the 80s, and have been uploaded on youtube.
 

Chock-A-Block – Transmission History

Original Run (13 Episodes) – All BBC 1 – Thursdays – Spring/Summer 1981
Music PETER GOSLING Graphic designer MINA MARTINEZ Designer MARY PENLEY-EDWARDS Director NICK WILSON Producer MICHAEL COLE Executive producer CYNTHIA FELGATE

1.01 – 1981/05/21 13:45 – Fred Harris – Clock - The first of seven programmes with Fred Harris 
Chock-a-Block has a stock of blocks chock-a-block with pictures for words that rhyme. The clock that lost its tock. [The episode title was not printed until the fourteenth and final repeat run in 1989]
 

1.02 – 1981/05/28 13:30 – Carol Leader - Crow - Chock-a-Block is chock-a-block with pictures to words that rhyme. See what words ring Chock-a-Block's rhyme chime today. The ballad of Jo the crow. Part
1: 

and Part 2: 

1.03 – 1981/06/04 13:30 – Fred Harris - Sheep - Chock-a-Block has a stock of blocks chock-a-block with pictures for words that rhyme. 
1.04 – 1981/06/11 13:30 – Carol Leader - Today it's the Chockagirl on the Chockatruck who puts a block into Chock-a-Block's blockslot and what follows is chock-a-block with rhyming words and pictures.
 

1.05 – 1981/06/18 13:30 – Fred Harris - Today it's the Chockabloke who puts the block into Chock-a-Block's s block slot and rocks the Rockablocks to find words that ring Chock-a-Block's rhyme chime. Out shone a ray. 
 

1.06 – 1981/06/25 13:30 – Carol Leader - Magpie - Chock-a-Block is chock-a-block with pictures to words that rhyme. See what words ring Chock-a-block's rhyme chime today,
1.07 – 1981/07/02 13:30 – Fred Harris - Today it's the Chockabloke who puts the block into Chock-a-Block's block slot and rocks the Rocka blocks to find words that ring Chock-a-Block's rhyme chime. King Cole's mole.
 

1.08 – 1981/07/09 13:30 – Carol Leader – Cat - Chock-a-Block is chock-a-block with pictures to words that rhyme. See what words ring Chock-a-Block's rhyme chime today. [The episode title was not printed until the fourteenth and final repeat run in 1989]

1.09 – 1981/07/16 13:30 – Fred Harris – Pig - Today it's the Chockabloke who puts the block into Chock-a-Block's block slot and rocks the Rockablocks to find words that ring Chock-a-Block's rhyme chime. The dancing pig. [The episode title was not printed until the fourteenth and final repeat run in 1989] 
 

OR

1.10 – 1981/07/23 13:30 – Carol Leader – Shoe - Chock-a-Block is chock-a-block with pictures to words that rhyme. See what words ring Chocka-Block's rhyme chime today. [Episode title first printed in the tenth repeat run in 1986 (assuming the episodes were shown in order)] 

 (the first and longer excerpt is from this episode and the other shorter excerpt, featuring Fred and words rhyming with bear, is probably episode 13)

1.11 – 1981/07/30 13:30 – Fred Harris – Snake - Today it's the Chockabloke who puts the block into Chockablock's block slot and rocks the Rockablocks to find words that ring Chockablock's rhyme chime. Drake on the lake. [Description not listed in any run until the fifth repeat run in early 1984 and episode title first printed in the tenth repeat run in 1986 (assuming each run was shown in the same order)]. 
 

 OR 
 

1.12 – 1981/08/06? 13:30? – Carol Leader - Chocka-Block is chock-a-block with pictures to words that rhyme. See what words ring Chock-a-Block's rhyme chime today. If all the seas were one sea. [No listings published this week due to a printing dispute, the episode description first appears for this episode on its second repeat on 24/06/1982.]
 

1.13 – 1981/08/13 13:30 – Fred Harris - Today it's the Chockabloke who puts the block into Chockablock's block slot and rocks the Rockablocks to find words that ring Chockablock's rhyme chime. Pussy cat, pussy cat.[Presenter wasn’t listed in any run until the Fourth Repeat Run in 1983, and the actual description not until the fifth repeat run in early 1984 (assuming each run was shown in the same order)]. 
 

 (see note at the end of episode 10)

First Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Mondays – Autumn/Winter 1981
Weekly from 05/10/1981 to 28/12/1981, all at 13:45, except the final part on 28/12/1981 at 09:05 due to Grandstand being on in the afternoon for the Xmas holidays. Presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions seem to match up on those episodes where a description was actually printed on both runs (namely  1,2,8,9,10)

Second Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Thursdays – Spring/Summer 1982
Weekly from 08/04/1982 to 01/07/1982, with the first 7 (08/04-20/05) at 13:45, and the other 6 (27/05-01/07) at 13:30. Again presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions match up with what I already had listed from the original repeat runs.

Third Repeat Run (ALL?) – BBC1*(see text for one exception) – Autumn/Winter 1982
Weekly from 06/10/1982 to 29/12/1982, with the first episode, 06/10/1982, being on BBC2. All episodes were on at 13:45, except the last episode, on 29/12/1982, which was on at 12:45. Again presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions match up with what I already had listed previously.

Fourth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Mondays – Summer/Autumn 1983
Weekly from 04/07/1983 to 26/09/1983, at various times [1,2,4,6,8&10 at 13:30 : 3,5&7 at 13:25 : 9 at 09:00 : 11-13 at 13:45]. Again presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions match up with what I already had listed previously.

Fifth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Tuesdays – Winter/Spring 1984
Weekly from 03/01/1984 to 27/03/1984, all at 13:45, except episode 1, on 03/01/1984, which was on at 10:55. Again presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions match up with what I already had listed previously.

Sixth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Mondays – Summer/Autumn 1984
Weekly from 02/07/1984 to 24/09/1984, at various times [1,3&7 at 13:25 : 2,4,8&10 at 13:30 : 5,6&11-13 at 13:45 : 9 at 09:05]. Again presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions match up with what I already had listed previously.

Seventh Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Fridays – Winter/Spring 1985
Weekly from 04/01/1985 to 29/03/1985, all at 13:45, except episodes 1 and 8, 04/01/1985 and 22/02/1985, which were on at 13:50. Again presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions match up with what I already had listed previously.

Eighth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Thursdays – Summer/Autumn 1985
Weekly from 04/07/1985 to 26/09/1985, at various times [1,3,4,6,8,10&11 at 13:30 : 2,5,7&9 at 13:25 : 12&13 at 13:45]. Again presumably in order, as the various generic descriptions match up with what I already had listed previously.

Ninth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Tuesdays – Winter/Spring 1986
Weekly from 07/01/1986 to 01/04/1986, all at 13:45. This run appears, from Genome, to begin with Carol and alternate the opposite way from normal, with the second episode, a Fred Harris episode, appearing from the description to be either episode 1 or 3, and the fourth episode, also a Fred Harris episode, appearing from the description to be either 5,7,9,11 or 13. So my guess is that they may have started with episode 2 for some reason, and tacked on episode 1 at the end of the run, or else Radio Times may simply have been a week out during this run (and only listed descriptions for 1,2,4 and 6 of this run, in terms of this run’s broadcast order, anyway).

Tenth Repeat Run (ALL?) – BBC1* - Wednesdays – Summer/Autumn 1986
Weekly from 09/07/1986 to 08/10/1986, which strangely is 14 weeks, but the final two weeks are both presented by Fred Harris, so my guess is that the ‘14th’ episodes is in fact the first one shown again at the other end of the run. Interestingly the tenth and eleventh episode carried episode names for the first time, ‘Shoe’ and ‘Snake’ respectively. This run was shown at various times [1&2 at 13:20 : 3 at 14:00 : 4 at 12:40 : 5&7-‘14’ at 13:30 : 6 at 13:10], and the third episode, on 23/06/1986, was on BBC2, due to Royal Wedding coverage on BBC1.

Eleventh Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Wednesdays – Winter/Spring 1987
Weekly from 07/01/1987 to 01/04/1987, with the first four (07/01 to 28/01) at 13:45, and the rest (04/02 to 01/04) at 13:50, except the sixth one, on 11/02/1987, which was at 14:10. Bizarrely the second edition was credited in Radio Times to Carol Chell (of Play School and Playaway) rather than Carol Leader. Two of the episodes with printed descriptions (5 and 7) and the one printed episode title (11- Shoe) match what I had listed before, however the other printed description, for the last episode in the run, says it featured Carol Leader rather than Fred Harris, so it’s possible the order was, at least partly, changed for this run, or that Radio Times made a mistake in the last week.

Twelfth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC1 – Tuesdays – Autumn/Winter 1987
Weekly from 22/09/1987 to 15/12/1987, all at 13:20. The 2nd, 8th, 11th and 13th showings in the run had descriptions printed that match my list above, particularly the title Snake shown for number 11, suggesting this run was once again in order.

Thirteenth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC2 – Thursdays – Summer/Autumn 1988
Weekly from 02/07/1988 to 29/09/1988, all at 13:20, except 12 and 13, on 22/09 and 29/09/1988, which were at 13:25. The few descriptions printed (4, 7 and 9) suggest this run was in order.

Fourteenth Repeat Run (ALL?) – All BBC2 – Mondays – Summer/Autumn 1989
Weekly from 26/06/1989 to 18/09/1989, at 13:20, except 2, on 03/07/1989, which was at 12:40, and 10 (Shoe), on 28/08/1989, which was at 12:30.