Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
Miss Jamaica World Tonoya Toyloy chats with J. Lester Spaulding (right) at the TVJ Programme Launch 'Distinctly Jamaican', held at Broadcast House, Lyndhurst Road, last Tuesday. Looking on is Adrian St. Louis.
IT WAS like walking through a small town in rural Jamaica except Lyndhurst Road is nowhere near the countryside.
TVJ launched its 2005 line of programmes on Tuesday, April 26 at its broadcasting house and the setting reflected the evening's theme, 'Distinctly Jamaican'. The rustic board house design at the entrance segued to a leaf-lined
walkway to represent Fern Gully. Through those turns, you ended up in a 'town square' complete with women selling fruits and men selling cane and jelly coconuts.
TAKE IT ALL IN
Guests were invited to take in all the goodies as well as manish water from the 'Cawna Stap' booth and liquor from 'Gary's Bar'. All the time, bandanna-clad servers presented you with ackee and saltfish with bammy, callaloo quiche, grater cake and pudding. RJR Group personnel took groups on tours of the studio, with guests seeing some of their favourite personalities live on set. All this and the real entertainment hadn't even come yet!
Upstairs the RJR lounge area, guests saw the new programmes unveiled. In an ingenious move, the present and new shows were introduced via a special Schools' Challenge Quiz episode. 'Di Boys' team comprising Simon Crosskill, Neville Bell and Anthony Miller took on 'Di Girls' with Carol Francis, Dorraine Samuels and Denise Hunt. The antics of both sides, especially the boys, were
hilarious and had guests falling out of their chairs.
NEW PROGRAMMES
The new programmes are varied. All Together Sing is a school choir competition; Makeover Magic will transform all ugly ducklings into swans and Rangle Lane is like Lime Tree Lane, just more downtown. Love Entertainment Report? Then you'll love ER 2 as well as various three-minute programmes dubbed Brawta. One of these programmes isLittle Vox Box, the Jamaican answer to Kids Say The Darndest Things.
Your Issues Live will take viewers into various communities to hear the people's concern. Also look out for a hilarious look at the legal system with TV Court. TVJ General Manager, Kay Osbourne, also announced a film and video contest for aspiring feature makers. So the nation's station waits to unleash its new shows, all distinctly Jamaican.
Among the guests were Miss Jamaica Universe Raquel Wright; Miss Festival Queen Dr. Marsha Barnett; reigning Miss Jamaica World Tonoya Toyloy; Digicel's Harry Smith, Patria-Kaye Aarons and Jeffery Wright; Zahra Orane and friend Tanya Reynolds; Dorothy LaCroix; Michael Sibbles; Gleaner Editor-in-Chief Garfield Grandison and Corporate Affairs Manager Karin Cooper; Red Stripe's Maxine Whittingham and Carlo Redwood; Tommy Cowan; Mark Kenny; Stefanie McIntyre and Kari Alana Morrison.
