TIMELINE
TERM 1 (Sept - Dec 1979)
Week 0 (Aug 25 - Sep 2, 1979)
Week 1 (Sep 3 - Sep 9, 1979)
Week 2 (Sep 10 - Sep 16, 1979)
Week 3 (Sep 17 - Sep 23, 1979)
Week 4 (Sep 24 - Sep 30, 1979)
Week 5 (Oct 1 - Oct 7, 1979)
Week 6 (Oct 8 - Oct 14, 1979)
Week 7 (Oct 15 - Oct 21, 1979)
Half Term (Oct 22 - Oct 28, 1979)
Week 8 (Oct 29 - Nov 4, 1979)
Week 9 (Nov 5 - Nov 11, 1979)
Week 10 (Nov 12 - Nov 18, 1979)
Week 11 (Nov 19 - Nov 25, 1979)
Week 12 (Nov 26 - Dec 2, 1979)
Week 13 (Dec 3 - Dec 9, 1979)
Week 14 (Dec 10 - Dec 16, 1979)
Week 15 (Dec 17 - Dec 23, 1979)
Christmas (Dec 24 - Dec 30, 1979)
New Year’s Eve (Dec 31, 1979)
What this is and why
A few years ago, while I was exploring the books I wrote in Fairburn, I started
to create a timeline, partly to jog my memory of contemporary events but
also to work out what order everything came in. Now that I’ve started to post
the books online, it seems like a good idea to share the timeline, so anyone
who reads them might be able to place themselves in the same context.
Hopefully this will serve as a handy resource for anyone who wants to
explore the time period, wallow in nostalgia or just marvel at how I could
possibly find the time to do all this.
Basically I started with Wikipedia, cross-referencing events where I could.
Then I added my own work to the timeline, adding the English work first,
which usually included dates. Then I filled in other info which might have
been relevant to me, such as which Doctor Who episode was on that week
and what was at No 1 in the UK pop charts, plus any other info I came across
about TV show debuts and which comics I might have bought that week
(some of which I still have).
I’ve usually left out things which weren’t relevant to me at the time. So if
you’re looking for a description of what was on Polish television on August
31, 1980, you won’t find it. Well, OK, you might. But the essential idea is to
recreate the life of a little boy growing up in 1980s Yorkshire. I may have
included a few news stories (and albums, and film releases) which didn’t
enter my childish consciousness back then, but they would have been there
for me if I’d been listening and/or allowed to engage with them.
Naturally, I don’t control the internet. So any and/or all of the pages I link to
from the timeline might suddenly disappear without warning. Especially on
sites like YouTube, where copyright strikes delete accounts on a regular
basis. I’m trying to keep on top of all that, but it’s not always immediately
possible.
It’s also worth saying that I haven’t finished it yet. Uploading this all to the
web, complete with pictures and fancy layout (which now has to be two
completely different fancy layouts because it has to look totally different to
work on both a desktop PC and a smartphone), is going to take time. But I’m
determined to do it, so please bear with me while I try.
Fact Checking & Comic Dating
Since I started working out this timeline over a decade ago and was only
doing it for my own benefit, I didn’t always save hyperlinks to some of the
websites I used for research. Some of the sites I did save links for may have
disappeared in that time. Some of the info in the timeline also came from
contemporary comics or magazines which don’t exist on the internet. What
I’m saying is, some of the evidence for my timeline claims could be missing.
But I’m working on it, and have included links to the source material
wherever possible.
A note about comic dating: the common practice was always to place next
week’s date on the front of the magazine. I never understood why as a child,
but they did. So if a comic is dated 09 Jun 1980, it was probably in the shops
on June 2nd. 2000 AD, however, is a special case. I remember buying it every
Saturday when I went to visit my Gran, and my memory tells me that it really
was published and in the shops on Saturday. The cover however clearly
states it was “In orbit every Monday”. Still, my memory tells me I queried this
at the time - “Why does it say it’s out every Monday when it’s actually out on
Saturday?” I thought, and then forgot about it and just read the damn thing
instead. To further complicate matters, the dates on the covers are actually
Saturdays - so I assume the comic did come out every Saturday and the date
on the cover is, as with the Marvel comics I bought, next week’s date.
If you know some of the information in this timeline to be absolutely false,
please don’t hesitate to tell me and, if you’re right, I’ll sort it out.
Advanced Stuff About Comic Dating (feel free to skip this if you don’t care
about comic dating)
It’s actually harder than you think trying to work out when the Marvel
weeklies came out. At first it seemed pretty straightforward - Doctor Who
Weekly says every Thursday, so the cover date must be next Thursday’s date.
Star Wars says every Wednesday. All fine until I remember they all usually
came out on the same day. Oh and even when it says Every Thursday, the
date on the cover is a Wednesday. And it’s also a Wednesday when it says
Every Wednesday. So they’re all out on Wednesday then? No, because some
ad in Blah Blah No 243 says they’re always out on a Thursday. And then No
118 comes out and finally it says “Every Thursday” on the cover, but you look
at No 120 and it’s back to saying “Every Wednesday” - like one week it’s a
special edition, so they’ve got an enthusiastic new guy - or maybe even just
some kind of editor - to design the new-look cover and he notices the
mistake and changes the template. But the following week the grumpy old
lazy guy comes back and uses his old template. Except now it says “Every
Wednesday” but the actual date’s a Thursday! And none of them are the
actual date it came out anyway! At which point you start repeatedly banging
your head against the desk going “AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!”
until the blood is literally streaming down your stress-worn face.
That’s when you realise you’ve spent way more time thinking about it than
the people who made the comics ever did, and that you’ve just got to
basically make a decision and stick to it. So I’ve got all the Star Wars Weeklies
coming out on Thursdays, the same day as the Doctor Who Weeklies and all
the other Marvel comics (which to be honest I haven’t even bothered putting
in there yet, but you can probably understand why). I don’t want to hear
about it if you think I’m wrong.
Can’t wait to get started on the monthlies!
The Context
It’s 1979. Vietnam invades Cambodia. China invades Vietnam. The Shah is
deposed in Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini takes his place, sullying relations
with the US (led by President Jimmy Carter) and pushing oil prices to an all-
time high. The UK is in political tatters, with inflation at 17% and a series of
strikes leaving bins unemptied and bodies unburied. A vote of no confidence
in James Callaghan’s Labour Government forces a general election, in which
Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first female Prime Minister. Former
Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe is on trial for conspiracy to murder and the
Labour party descends into turmoil.
But I didn’t care about any of this. I was seven years old. All I cared about
was Doctor Who, Star Wars, Marvel Comics and the occasional pop song. I
knew who Maggie Thatcher was and what title she held, but I thought it was
spelt “priminister” and had no idea what one did. Mum had a part-time job
at a sweet factory (making me the envy of my peers) and Dad had just
landed an office job at Wheldale Colliery in Castleford. This new dual income
meant they could finally afford to buy their first home. They found that
home in Fairburn.
The cliche dictates that I should remind you we only had three TV channels
back in those days, but the truth is that when we moved to Fairburn, there
were only two, thanks to a technicians’ strike which kept ITV off the air for
three months. Grim days indeed. But in the last week of August 1979, I was
having a whale of a time on my annual summer holiday in Blackpool with my
Gran (we always went for the August bank holiday), playing Space Invaders,
drinking Coca Cola and pressuring her into buying me Star Wars figures.
September 1979 - February 1982
PERIOD DETAIL
ITV Returns
Oct 24,1979
Who Shot JR?
Mar 21, 1980
Birth of the SDP
Mar 26, 1981
Royal Wedding
Jul 29, 1981
TIMELINE
What this is and why
A few years ago, while I was exploring the
books I wrote in Fairburn, I started to
create a timeline, partly to jog my memory
of contemporary events but also to work
out what order everything came in. Now
that I’ve started to post the books online, it
seems like a good idea to share the
timeline, so anyone who reads them might
be able to place themselves in the same
context. Hopefully this will serve as a
handy resource for anyone who wants to
explore the time period, wallow in
nostalgia or just marvel at how I could
possibly find the time to do all this.
Basically I started with Wikipedia, cross-
referencing events where I could. Then I
added my own work to the timeline,
adding the English work first, which usually
included dates. Then I filled in other info
which might have been relevant to me,
such as which Doctor Who episode was on
that week and what was at No 1 in the UK
pop charts, plus any other info I came
across about TV show debuts and which
comics I might have bought that week
(many of which I still have).
September 1979 - February 1982
PERIOD DETAIL
ITV Returns
Oct 24,1979
But I didn’t care about any of this. I was
seven years old. All I cared about was
Doctor Who, Star Wars, Marvel Comics
and the occasional pop song. I knew who
Maggie Thatcher was and what title she
held, but I thought it was spelt
“priminister” and had no idea what one
did. Mum had a part-time job at a sweet
factory (making me the envy of my peers)
and Dad had just landed an office job at
Wheldale Colliery in Castleford. This new
dual income meant they could finally
afford to buy their first home. They found
that home in Fairburn.
The cliche dictates that I should remind
you we only had three TV channels back
in those days, but the truth is that when
we moved to Fairburn, there were only
two, thanks to a technicians’ strike which
kept ITV off the air for three months.
Grim days indeed. But in the last week of
August 1979, I was having a whale of a
time on my annual summer holiday in
Blackpool with my Gran (we always went
for the August bank holiday), playing
Space Invaders, drinking Coca Cola and
pressuring her into buying me Star Wars
figures.
The Context
It’s 1979. Vietnam invades Cambodia. China invades Vietnam.
The Shah is deposed in Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini takes his
place, sullying relations with the US (led by President Jimmy
Carter) and pushing oil prices to an all-time high. The UK is in
political tatters, with inflation at 17% and a series of strikes
leaving bins unemptied and bodies unburied. A vote of no
confidence in James Callaghan’s Labour Government forces a
general election, in which Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s
first female Prime Minister. Former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe
is on trial for conspiracy to murder and the Labour party
descends into turmoil.
If you know some of the information in this timeline to be
absolutely false, please don’t hesitate to tell me and, if you’re
right, I’ll sort it out.
A note about comic dating: the common
practice was always to place next week’s
date on the front of the magazine. I never
understood why as a child, but they did. So
if a comic is dated 09 Jun 1980, it was
probably in the shops on June 2nd. 2000
AD, however, is a special case. I remember
buying it every Saturday when I went to
visit my Gran, and my memory tells me
that it really was published and in the
shops on Saturday. The cover however
clearly states it was “In orbit every
Monday”. Still, my memory tells me I
queried this at the time - “Why does it say
it’s out every Monday when it’s actually out
on Saturday?” I thought, and then forgot
about it and just read the damn thing
instead. To further complicate matters, the
dates on the covers are actually Saturdays
- so I assume the comic did come out every
Saturday and the date on the cover is, as
with the Marvel comics I bought, next
week’s date.
Fact Checking & Comic Dating
Since I started working out this timeline over a decade ago and
was only doing it for my own benefit, I didn’t always save
hyperlinks to some of the websites I used for research. Some of
the sites I did save links for may have disappeared in that time.
Some of the info in the timeline also came from contemporary
comics or magazines which don’t exist on the internet. What I’m
saying is, some of the evidence for my timeline claims could be
missing. But I’m working on it, and have included links to the
source material wherever possible.
Naturally, I don’t control the internet. So
any and/or all of the pages I link to from
the timeline might suddenly disappear
without warning. Especially on sites like
YouTube, where copyright strikes delete
accounts on a regular basis. I’m trying to
keep on top of all that, but it’s not always
immediately possible.
It’s also worth saying that I haven’t finished
it yet. Uploading this all to the web,
complete with pictures and fancy layout
(which now has to be two completely
different fancy layouts because it has to
look totally different to work on both a
desktop and a smartphone), is going to
take time. But I’m determined to do it, so
please bear with me while I try.
I’ve usually left out things which weren’t relevant to me at the time.
So if you’re looking for a description of what was on Polish
television on August 31, 1980, you won’t find it. Well, OK, you
might. But the essential idea is to recreate the life of a little boy
growing up in 1980s Yorkshire. I may have included a few news
stories (and albums, and film releases) which didn’t enter my
childish consciousness back then, but they would have been there
for me if I’d been listening and/or allowed to engage with them.
Advanced Stuff About Comic Dating (feel free to skip this if you
don’t care about comic dating)
It’s actually harder than you think trying to work out when the
Marvel weeklies came out. At first it seemed pretty
straightforward - Doctor Who Weekly says every Thursday, so the
cover date must be next Thursday’s date. Star Wars says every
Wednesday. All fine until I remember they all usually came out on
the same day. Oh and even when it says Every Thursday, the date
on the cover is a Wednesday. And it’s also a Wednesday when it
says Every Wednesday. So they’re all out on Wednesday then? No,
because some ad in Blah Blah No 243 says they’re always out on a
Thursday. And then No 118 comes out and finally it says “Every
Thursday” on the cover, but you look at No 120 and it’s back to
saying “Every Wednesday” - like one week it’s a special edition, so
they’ve got an enthusiastic new guy - or maybe even just some
kind of editor - to design the new-look cover and he notices the
mistake and changes the template. But the following week the
grumpy old lazy guy comes back and uses his old template.
Except now it says “Every Wednesday” but the actual date’s a
Thursday! And none of them are the actual date it came out
anyway! At which point you start repeatedly banging your head
against the desk going “AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!”
until the blood is literally streaming down your stress-worn face.
That’s when you realise you’ve spent way more time thinking
about it than the people who made the comics ever did, and that
you’ve just got to basically make a decision and stick to it. So I’ve
got all the Star Wars Weeklies coming out on Thursdays, the same
day as the Doctor Who Weeklies and all the other Marvel comics
(which to be honest I haven’t even bothered putting in there yet,
but you can probably understand why). I don’t want to hear about
it if you think I’m wrong.
Can’t wait to get started on the monthlies!
