Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
Multicoloured Swap Shop was a children's television programme that aired on Saturday mornings in the UK on BBC One. It ran from 1976 until 1982 and was thought by many to be a response to the growing success of ATV's Tiswas - although the latter had not yet aired outside the Midlands. Swap Shop was hugely popular with its target audience and used innovative ideas such as the phone-in to engage the audience.
The main presenters were Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin, John Craven and Maggie Philbin.
The content of the programme included music, competitions, interviews, children's news and issues. The cornerstone however was the 'Swaporama' element where an outside-broadcast unit would travel to different locations throughout the country where children could swap their belongings with others. This proved to be one of the most popular aspects of the show, often achieving gatherings of more than two thousand children.
In many ways, nothing like Swap Shop had been seen prior in children's television and it was followed by many programmes in the same format, such as Going Live!.
The programme ran for 146 episodes.
Since closing, Swap Shop has inspired such web sites as eswapit.com and freecycle.org, who have now taken the original concept and introduced the idea to a new generation.