''The Roxy'' was a British

music television Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels' broadcasting on satellite, cable, or streaming platforms. Music televis ...

program broadcast on the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

network from June 1987 to April 1988 and was produced by

Tyne Tees Television ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV television franchisee for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from stu ...

in Newcastle, shortly after its more successful

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

music show, ''

The Tube The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

'', was decommissioned. The show was initially presented by

David Jensen David Allan Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 to 19 ...

and

Kevin Sharkey Kevin Sharkey (born 3 June 1961) is an Irish artist, political activist, and former television presenter and actor. He sought a nomination to run in the 2018 Irish presidential election, but withdrew his bid on 17 September 2018. Early life Sh ...

. The first edition was transmitted across the ITV network on 9 June 1987, introducing

Erasure Erasure may refer to: Arts and media * Erasure (duo), an English pop group * ''Erasure'' (album), 1995, by the British group Erasure * Erasure poetry, a form of found poetry created by erasing words from an existing text * ''Erasure'' (novel), ...

performing " Victim of Love". Subtitled as ''

The Network Chart Show ''The Commercial Radio Chart Show'' was a radio programme that was broadcast across commercial adult contemporary and contemporary hit radio stations across the United Kingdom, from 30 September 1984 to 30 December 2018. It had many different na ...

'', ''The Roxy'' was based on the weekly chart compiled for

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2 ...

which was broadcast on Sunday afternoons across ILR stations every Sunday afternoon from 5pm, in competition with BBC Radio 1's own chart show. In January 1988 the programme was retitled ''Roxy The Network Chart Show'' and was introduced alongside a new studio set, which included a large 20-foot multicoloured sign spelling ''ROXY'' (this fell over at the end of the final edition using a flashpot effect and slow motion video, followed by "

Leader of the Pack "Leader of the Pack" is a song written by George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich. It was a number one pop hit in 1964 for the American girl group the Shangri-Las. The single is one of the group's best known songs as well as ...

" by

The Shangri-Las The Shangri-Las were an American girl group of the 1960s, consisting of Mary Weiss, her sister Elizabeth "Betty" Weiss and twin sisters Marguerite "Marge" Ganser and Mary Ann Ganser. Between 1964 and 1966 several hit pop songs of theirs docu ...

playing). In addition to the revamp of the set,

was just a voiceover reading the charts each week but he returned to presenting duties for the final edition;

was the main presenter and was joined by Paul Nolan, and later

Pat Sharp Patrick Sharpin known professionally as Pat Sharp, is an English radio presenter, television presenter and DJ. He worked on the children's ITV programme '' Fun House'', was one of the Sky Channel's VJs and presented the Coca-Cola Eurochart T ...

, as co-host. The programme suffered from not having a fixed network timeslot and for a short time, an industrial dispute which affected live studio performances. After just ten months on air, ''The Roxy'' aired its final edition on Tuesday 5 April 1988. By this point, some regional stations aired the programme around midnight like Anglia, Grampian, STV, TVS, Thames and Yorkshire. The demise of ''The Roxy'' also signalled the end of major live music TV production at Tyne Tees, which asides ''The Tube'', had also spanned series such as '' Alright Now'', '' Razzmatazz'' and '' Check it Out''. The company also produced coverage of

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

's concerts at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

and the Milton Keynes Bowl and co-produced '' U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky''.

Opening theme

The programme had three different theme tunes during its run. The first, written and performed by Simon May, was used for the first 29 episodes; the second, performed by 4's Company, was only used for episode 30; and the third, called "Amnesia", written and performed by

Stock Aitken Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW and also known as the Hit Factory) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s throug ...

, was used for episodes 31 through 43.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roxy (TV series), The 1987 British television series debuts 1988 British television series endings 1980s British music television series British English-language television shows ITV (TV network) original programming Pop music television series Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Tyne Tees Television