Series - What's Your Story?

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Language:	English
Publisher:	BBC Television -- United Kingdom
Categories:	Complexity Level : Basic (No Game System) Genre : Adventure Genre : Contemporary Fiction Genre : Science Fiction Target Age Group : Older Children Target Age Group : Teenagers

Broadcast on BBC1 in the UK, these two childrens' TV series were an experiment in live televised interactive fiction. The premise was that Episode 1 of each story was pre-written, the remaining episodes being assembled based on elements of suggestions made by viewers who phoned in their ideas. Series 1 (10 episodes) was shown over two weeks (Monday-Friday) from 31st October 1988 to 11th November 1988. The phone in feature of the show was highly successful with 500,000 calls in the first week. The volume of calls was so great that, at one point, BT couldn't cope and the line collapsed. The second week of the first series changed the format slightly, in that four ideas were chosen from the viewers and then these were voted on by the public. The second series (of only 5 episodes) ran over one week from 19th March 1990 to 23rd March 1990. Whilst the series got decent viewing figures, the practicalities of shooting to a very tight schedule made for a hectic atmosphere in the studio with scripts having to be written over night, lines learnt, sets built, and the next episode filmed, all in time for 4pm broadcasting on the following day. Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor Who) presented the show on each day's live broadcast whilst a bank of telephonists sat taking calls from viewers giving their suggestions for the next episode. Peter Corey would then assemble the ideas and write the next instalment that night. Very little footage has subsequently surfaced from the two series since their original transmissions, with only one full episode from Series 1 plus a few very brief teasers and a clip from a BBC documentary about 1980s childrens' television being available on YouTube.

TV Shows

1. What's Your Story? Series 1
2. What's Your Story? Series 2

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