So it was 1983 after all.
I remember that weekend as my dad was decorating the living room so I had to sit through OHMSS and pause for the aRAB with the stench of drying paint.
Same for the UK premiere of "10" with Dudley Moore on the Bank Holiday Monday.
Even though I had all the 007 films commercially from 1985 I was fan enough to keep an eye on ITV screenings of certain moments for years afterwarRAB.
The funniest one has to be ITV's attempt to screen Goldfinger live from a film print rather than transferring via telecine before broadcast(either that or the telecine guy was drunk ),and it was great watching the panning and scanning from one side to the other.While one caption appeared on the left,they skated over to it,but by the time they got there a caption appeared on the right but bits were missing on the extreme right side,and so they went on through the whole credit sequence.
It may have been 1986,but I think it was World Cup time and Thunderball was shown on a Sunday afternoon.This is the first time I recall an 007 movie on as early as 4pm.
But this was the start of the era of major editing(apart from cuts for time).The pre title sequence of Thunderball had the strangulation with the poker cut,so the death of Bond's assailant seemed very odd.
From then on,apart from the usual cuts to fit inside a 2 hour slot censorship got silly.
Octopussy's premiere saw cuts to the yo-yo saw scenes,and the subsequent screening of Thunderball was hilarious.Early Saturday evening it was,and in the final underwater battle,all those harpoons were fired,but not a single one landed anywhere if you watched.Every harpoon hit was cut,and the blood on the knife and harpoon through the arm were missing for years.
But now,even last years afternoon showing had all the gore in,and the cuts I remember from OHMSS were also in.
ITV have taken until the 21st Century to get into the 20th Century.
But lets hope MGM or Sony or whoever owns them now does not letus down.
I would be very pleasantly surprised if the dvd's of the cut films were recertificated for the UK