Never made

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YSTV has a long history of making plans for programmes and them getting quite far down the line towards actual transmission...but never quite getting there. Or in many cases being suggested (perhaps on the YSTV Messageboard) and that being it. Here are some examples.

1989 - Adverse Publicity A creative moment from Benet Allen and John Cornley, that survived thanks to a BBC floppy disc.

1997 - Joker in the Pack II

  • A sequel to, funnily enough, Joker In The Pack. Filming was never completed on this drama piece due to technical issues amongst other things but a trailer was shown during Election 97. However, photos taken during production of the trailer remained on the noticeboard in YSTV's foyer for a decade afterwards!

1999 - Who wants to be a millionaireUnverified or incomplete information

  • A high ham, high tension, game show blatantly stolen from ITV. Chris Ward was a bit of a millionaire buff, and planned to make such a programme. Around 30s of (fake) footage was filmed in the studio, a contestant musing over an answer, which was used in the What's new in 1999 promo.

2002 - 15 Minutes

  • A sitcom, the first episode of which was full scripted by James Whalley and was available to download from the YSTV website in the autumn of 2002. Getting it filmed was discussed at the production meetings of the period but never really got off the ground, largely due to the huge techie bias in the station's membership at the time.

2002 - I'm A Pedestrian, Get Me Out Of Here

  • An idea suggested by Michael Prior-Jones where a student would be stranded at Clifton Moor and have to make their way back to the university without any maps or transport, and be filmed. Title of course a rip-off of ITV's recently launched celebrity reality series...

2002/3 - Y Fronts

2003 - The Union

  • A rip-off of The Office proposed enthusiastically as a station meeting by some random students who apparently had a full script in place. The programme was going to transfer the concept of The Office completely to a students' union and basically re-write entire episodes of the BBC show to be set around YUSU. After this initial burst of activity the instigators vanished and nothing was heard of the project again. The concept made a second appearance in 2013, with the successful launch of Union.

2004 - Survival

  • Planned as "Banzai meets Distraction", whatever that would result in. Basically involved students aiming to get the five things they all required: food, drink, clubbing, sleep and sex (the last one would have been interesting). An idea by Pete Nichols.

2004 - Specs Appeal

  • After listening to Radio 1's now axed overnight mainstream show James Thorniley came up with an "off the wall type book review", whatever that means. Planned to debut around the same time as Survival, so doomed from the start.

2003/4 - URY Joint Broadcast

  • In a period with rather good relations with URY it was suggested a number of times that YSTV simulcast a show. First it was mooted that the breakfast show might be shown daily with webcam output, but the necessary technical setup and automation put everyone off. Then a daily live show from Vanbrugh Bar was going to be simulcast in Freshers' Week, but due to problems with the 2.4Ghz system this never happened. Finally there was half an idea to broadcast the last shows of James Wickham or James Gallagher, but in the end of term way of things these never materialised. From October 2004 web streaming would mean we wouldn't be able to broadcast URY's music in any case.

2004 - YSTV Challenge

  • A rip-off of University Challenge, this time going inter-college. The final was going to be an OB from Goodricke Dining Hall, apparently, with James Gallagher suggested as a Paxman-esque host. Suggested by James Thorniley.

2004 - Pimp My Bicycle

  • Doesn't take a genius to work out where this came from. Yet another James Thorniley idea that never came to fruition.

2004 - Questions

  • Based upon Channel 4's long-running series of promotions where their stars are all asked the same question, which they answer to camera (although the question is never stated). Filmed at Freshers' Fair in front of the Games Disaster red set board painted with the YSTV logo for Elections 2003, a number of first years were asked various questions. Sadly the footage was never edited up, partly because a lack of interesting answers and partly because of a lack of time in that term. The C4 promotions however are still running!

2005 - NetHead

2005 - FasterMinds

2006 - Campus

  • Kev Larkin's ambitious Heslington-based version of Dallas. Scrapped due to lack of acting talent but a script was apparently written.

2006 - The East Wing

And finally, one that stalled at YSTV but was made - eventually!

2006 - Kev Loves That Stuff

  • Based upon that catchphrase of the same name from 2005-6 (no-one knows who started it). Basically a big long list of stuff that Kev Larkin loves, with talking heads to support it. Although the project stalled during Kev's time as a member, editing for this was completed outside of YSTV some years later by Sarah Selby. The long-awaited premiere was held in York on 25th May 2013, over seven years after most of the original footage was filmed! It was attended by thirteen YSTV alumni from around the period that Kev was a member of YSTV, and followed by an updated countdown of the things that Kev loves in 2013.


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Series • Events Coverage • One-offs