Zig Zag: The Olympics

📺BBC Schools TV

companyBBC

started14th May 1984

ended15th Jun 1992

last rpt17th Jun 1992

9 school years

episodes5

duration20 mins

subject 🏫Miscellany

age rangeAge 7-9

languageenIn English

Zig Zag

Previous unit: SpaceNext unit: The Arabs

The Olympics is a unit of the BBC Schools TV series Zig Zag from the 1980s & 1990s, covering various topics for primary school pupils.

A unit of programmes inspired by the Olympic Games, and shown every four years to tie-in with the actual games. Regular presenter Sheelagh Gilbey is joined, for this unit only, by Wayne Laryea.

For the original screening in 1984 anticipating the Los Angeles Olympics, the unit began with a repeat of a 1980 Merry-Go-Round documentary about Ceremonies. Subsequent programmes find the presenters encountering the ghost of Pausanias to explain the ancient games, investigations of how human and animal bodies adapt for sport and exercise, and a preview of the Olympic games across various sports with heptathlete Judy Livermore.

The unit was repeated for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, without the older Ceremonies episode and listed to include a new programme previewing the 1988 games, though I think this was essentially a repeat of the 1984 Games programme.

The unit emerged for one final broadcast in anticipation of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, this time with an entirely new programme previewing the 1992 games presented by athletes Tessa Sanderson and Tanni Grey.

Episode List

#	Title	Broadcast
-	rpt Ceremonies	#1984-05-09-00-00-009 May 1984
1.	The Ancient Olympics	#1984-05-14-00-00-0014 May 1984
2.	Human Bodies	#1984-05-21-00-00-0021 May 1984
3.	Animal Olympics	#1984-06-04-00-00-004 Jun 1984
4.	The 1984 Olympics	#1984-06-11-00-00-0011 Jun 1984
5.	The 1992 Olympics	#1992-06-15-00-00-0015 Jun 1992

Broadcasts

Year	Term	Mon	Wed	Channel
1983-84	Summer 1984	Monday, 11:00am	Wednesday, 2:40pm	BBC2
1987-88	Summer 1988	Monday, 11:00am	Wednesday, 1:38pm	BBC2
1991-92	Summer 1992	Monday, 11:00am	Wednesday, 1:40pm	BBC2

Credits

Presenter	Sheelagh Gilbey & Wayne Laryea (1984) Tessa Sanderson & Tanni Grey (1992)
With	Geoff Capes Mike Findlay Judy Livermore
Illustrator	Ken Gay
Producer	Chris Ellis (1984) David Meldrum (1992)
Series Producer	Tom Stanier

Resources

There were teacher's notes available.

Related programmes

Zig Zag: Topical ProgrammesZig Zag also gave a preview of the Commonwealth Games in a 1986 Topical Programme.

Zig Zag (1983-2000)

Series Overview • Units • Episode List

Ancient Greece (1996) • The Anglo-Saxons (1992) • The Arabs (1984) • Art (1997) • Canada (1987) • Cathedrals (1989) • The Channel Tunnel (1987) • Computers (1983) • Danger Detectors (1996) • The Eskimos (1985) • Food and Farming (1995) • France (2000) • Gardens and Growth (1985) • Geography UK (1995) • Getting About (1988) • The Greeks (1986) • Hungry Times (1983) • Invaders (1997) • Kenya (1994-96) • Let's Face It (1990) • Making It Work (1997) • Mapmakers! (1993) • Mordicus (1986) • The Normans (1983) • The Odyssey (1990) • The Olympics (1984-92) • Over to You (1985-89) • Roman Britain (1993) • Rush, The Fallow Deer (1987) • The Saga of Gunnar Goldhair (1987) • Snapshots: Children in the Second World War (2000) • Space (1984-88) • Spaceship Earth (1986) • Tales from Europe (1992) • Tales from Europe (2000) • Technology (1991) • Topical Programmes (1985-89) • Trees (1993) • Trees and Man (1991) • Tudor Life (1998) • The Vikings (1987) • Village, Town, City (1997) • A Walk Through Time (1999) • Water (1990) • Water, Air, Land (1998) • Weather (1999) • Where You Live, Where I Live (1994) • Wildlife Safari (1989-91) • Winter Festival (1986) • World of Work (1989) • You and the Media (1986)

See also: Zig Zag Shorts • Landmarks • Primary Geography • Primary History

Topics

School topics covered in this programme. Click to find other programmes covering the same topics, but bear in mind topics are a new addition to the site in 2023 and not many are set up yet.

Keyword tags

Some features of this programme. Click to find other programmes with the same features, but bear in mind tags are also a new addition to the site in 2023 and not many are set up yet.

Documentary

Presenter

Presenter on location

Presenter talks to fictional characters

Olympic Games

Athletics

Field sports

Replaced and remade episodes

Extra episodes added later

More

Do you know more about this programme?

Do you know anything that I have missed? Do you have pictures, sounds or videos that fill in gaps? Please get in touch by email!

Want more on this programme?

This site attempts to cover thousands of programmes and it will take ages to update them all. If you would like to see this one updated soon please click on the star to 'vote' for it and I will do my best to prioritise it!

Voting is currently (2026) broken. I'm not sure why. I'll fix it if I can! You can still see a list of all the votes so far.