TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

A short lived Saturday morning kids show starring Junior Choice host Ed Stewart and his robot sidekick Zed. Producer/director Paul Ciani, later of Top Of The Pops, explained the show "This will be a comedy along the lines of Zokko with Ed Stewart and a robot called Zed. We will use live groups, such as Butterscotch or Christie, each week, playing two songs. This is a deliberate link-up with 'Junior Choice' and will be screened at Saturdays at 12.25 pm. The shows will be recorded in August and September for transmission from October, after his London Weekend series has finished." The opening credit sequence shows Stewart finishing his Junior Choice duties at Radio One and cycling to BBC's Television Centre across town.

Ed Stewart had recently finished his London Weekend series, Stewpot, also aimed at children and featuring pop acts.

Co-written by future West End reviewer Jack Tinker the show featured the human host trying to control the bad tempered Brummie robot, the voice of which was provided by Nigel Anthony.

Each twenty minute show would pack in quite a bit of content. There would be Zed's Electric Kinema which showed clips from The Wizard Of Oz and several Disney movies, Ed 'the eminent expert' who would try to get viewers to solve a mystery while a pop group would play up to three songs each week. White Plains, Hot Chocolate, Mud, Sounds Incorporated, Wishful Thinking, Vanity Fare, Gulliver's People, The Freshmen and Herman's Hermits all trekked along to Television Centre to perform. The Bonzo's Roger Spear's Giant Kinetic Wardrobe also joined for the final show.

The show probably helped Stewart get his gig on Crackerjack some time later.

Thankfully, three shows are known to exist.

EDANDZED!

BBC1

24th October 1970  - 19th December 1970