Overview

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 - although at the time the latter was only broadcast in the ATV region in the Midlands and had yet to be taken up by other ITV franchises around the country.