Keith Chegwin was just 19 at the time when he won the Swap Shop gig. He won the role after sending a begging letter to the 大象传媒.
Producer Rosemary Gill hit upon the idea of the Swaperama after she realised that three hours of Noel Edmonds might get a bit too claustrophobic. To save money the OB units already in place to shoot football matches were used - genius.
At the time the private lives of television presenters were strictly off limits and so the blossoming relationship between Keith and Maggie was only hinted at, never mentioned. The pair married in 1982, but are now divorced.
Maggie Philbin was hired after it was realised the show was lacking any women. She won the role after answering an advert in The Stage.
Posh Paws was named after a competition was launched to find the stuffed dinosaur a name. Posh Paws spells Swap Shop backwards, well sort of.
For the final series Scots rocker, B.A. Robertson composed a new theme tune. He also composed I Just Wanna Be a Winner, which served as the entertainment at that year's Swap Shop Star Awards. Sung by Maggie, Keith and Noel as Brown Sauce it went to number eleven in the charts.
The idea of John Craven's sidekick, the lamb, was an accident. A link went wrong so John, being the consummate professional, picked up the stuffed toy and began to animate it to fill in the time. Well, it made Noel laugh.
Prompted by letters that said that John Craven looked like Mr Spock, the crew produced Swap Trek, a supposedly comic sketch featuring Noel as Captain Lurk, John as Mister Speck, Keith as Spotty and Maggie as Uhura. The plot, for what it's worth, featured the crew spinning out of control on route to Ericus X. To escape Speck's prophecy that "destruction is inevitable" Lurk beams himself to where no spaceman has gone before… the Swap Shop studio. Apparently, Noel kept getting the giggles during filming because he couldn't pronounce the name Uhura.
