Multi-Coloured Swap Shop: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, more commonly known simply as Swap Shop, was a UK children's television programme. It was broadcast on Saturday mornings on BBC1 for 146 episodes in six series between 1976 and 1982. It was ground-breaking in many ways: by being live, sometimes up to three hours in length, and using the phone-in format extensively for the first time on TV.

Its creation was thought by many to be the BBC's response to the growing success of ITV's Tiswas.

Series details

• Title: Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
• Format: Variety
• Language: English
• Genres: Children
• Premiere date: 1976-10-02
• Final broadcast date listed: 1982-03-27
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: BBC One
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 178 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 7898

Cast and credited roles

• Noel Edmonds — Presenter
• Keith Chegwin — Outside Broadcaster
• John Craven — Co-Presenter
• Maggie Philbin — Co-Presenter

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1976-10-02; final listed air date 1976-12-18; episode order: 12.
• Season 2: premiered 1977-10-08; final listed air date 1978-03-25; episode order: 25.
• Season 3: premiered 1978-09-30; final listed air date 1979-03-24; episode order: 26.
• Season 4: premiered 1979-09-29; final listed air date 1980-03-08; episode order: 24.
• Season 5: premiered 1980-09-27; final listed air date 1981-03-28; episode order: 27.
• Season 6: premiered 1981-10-03; final listed air date 1982-03-27; episode order: 25.

Source and licence

Adapted from Multi-Coloured Swap Shop on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.