| Welcome to ITV's Tiswas Reunited site. We'll keep you updated with all the goings on in the revival of the best Saturday morning TV show. |
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[Display oldest blog entries first?] Mon 11 Jun 2007 (21:45) -mrbunny12 Fri 8 Jun 2007 (13:00) 8 MORE SLEEPS!!!!!!!!!!! The last 6 weeks have been absolute torture! Oh...my...god.... -hells
Wed 6 Jun 2007 (21:40) Hi Guys, I think you mean June "Not" July......... I have 14 episodes from my betamax tape friend from the early days When i find a machine to play them on i'l let you know whats on them Cheers Jerry in Lincoln -mrbunny12
Wed 6 Jun 2007 (21:27) Tiswas Reunited hits the ITV1 airwaves at 9:15pm on Saturday 16th June 2007, for 90 minutes. Of course, the DVD is out later, which is even longer. Hopefully this will introduce people under the age of 30 to the joys of Tiswas. Tell your friends and family to be watching this, this is what they want! -Peter Thomas
Wed 30 May 2007 (12:54) After a completely uneventful journey, we arrived at Covent Garden Travelodge at precisely 3.00pm – check-in time. A quick shower & a short tube journey later, we rolled up at the Mulberry Bush at about 4:40pm – later than I’d intended but thankfully still in time for a pint (and a half) before the big event. I recognised a few faces in the pub, notably the rabbit I’d met earlier and his friend who reminded me of a blue rabbit I’d also seen somewhere before. I had arranged to meet Natalie and her friend Celeste in the pub. It had been my intention to leave my daughter Annie with Celeste but Nat & Celeste got lost en route, what with them both being locals and all, so, being the responsible parent that I am, I abandoned my 14 year old daughter with the slightly odd bunch of complete strangers that we’d met 20 minutes previously. Upon arrival at the studios we were signed in and ushered into a lift, along corridors, past pictures of famous faces and equally famous names on dressing room doors to a door imaginatively labelled ‘Tiswas clean up area’. The ‘Tiswas clean up area’ was in fact a large communal dressing room. Once inside, we all sat and eyed each other suspiciously, the slightly nervous silence being broken only by the occasional cry of ‘How much longer are they going to keep us in here?’ and ‘Where are the bleedin’ sandwiches?’ During our 2-hour wait in the clean up area, various faces dropped by to see us. Lenny Henry popped in to wish us well (nothing further was now needed to make my day complete), Frank Carson came in a couple of times, what a genuinely nice bloke he is, and, to top it all, we were treated to a visit from Freddie Floppy-hair, self proclaimed friend and dinner companion to Frank Carson and Chris Tarrant. Freddie Floppy-hair had apparently been invited by Frank Carson to go in the cage (can’t think why Frank thought this would be a suitable fate for such an important person) but Freddie was eventually taken away by the runner and told that, for some reason or other, he was unable to go in the cage. We never saw him again – perhaps he heard Toby’s parting comment, I forget what it was Toby said…… Eventually we were led crocodile style to the studio. On the way we passed yet another rabbit type person sitting quietly in a dark corner – more about him later. Upon arrival in the studio I was advised that my ‘Bullseye’ t-shirt was inappropriate and was told to turn it inside out (cue stripping off in the wings shielded from the audience only by a burly stage hand). I was a bit miffed about the t-shirt – Rick Parfitt had stopped me in the corridor not 2 hours earlier to tell me how much he liked it. The show itself is actually a bit of a blur – I’d left my specs at the hotel and I had shaving foam in my eyes – I’ve been left with a series of images in sort of flashback formation. My most vivid recollections are these: - Waving at the blur that I think was my daughter After it was all over Nat and I joined Celeste and Annie back at the pub for a well earned bevy. I clearly remember that lovely warm feeling you get when you’ve been freezing cold and soaking wet but now have clean dry socks on – you know exactly what I mean. My daughter has collated all her keepsakes from the day – train tickets, Tiswas ticket, bright yellow plastic raincoat, polystyrene balls (where are these still coming from?) and various other bits and bobs. She intends to make a scrap book commemorating the day. Consequently, if in 25 years time anyone’s putting together a show about the Tiswas Reunited show, and they want memories from probably the youngest person there that day, they’ll know exactly where to come! -jj555 Thu 24 May 2007 (08:47) Tiswas Reunited's programme editor Tony Nicholson has been working on the DVD version of the show. He's been looking at our forum and noted that loads of us Tiswas fans want to know what's going on the DVD, which is out in mid-June. First of all, it is definitely going to be an extended version compared to the final transmitted show. There's going to be nearly 20 minutes of extra material. One of the extras is a short programme called How Tis Came To Was - a 15 minute mini-documentary featuring crew members (Peter Harris and Bob Cousins) as well as presenters from the early days (John Asher, Peter Tomlinson, Trevor East and Jim Davidson). This will be all previously unseen material, with rare archive clips that aren't part of the main show. The DVD is being produced by Granada Ventures, and is available for pre-order from amazon.com, play.com, hmv.co.uk and many other online vendors. -Peter Thomas
Sun 20 May 2007 (23:30) Hi all. The last of my Cage memories. It’s been a few weeks now since the Reunited recording, so apologies if my memory differs from those of the others who have posted here or if I’m just plain wrong! But, hey, this is just how I choose to remember it. We were led from side stage to the Cage. The set was immediately impressive; very colourful and sporting both the bird and Flan Flinger logos. Class. We were extreme stage left with a good view of the audience and of the TISWAS desk. Though this was some way off, the Wellyphone was spotted immediately. This caused me to smile as we’d been discussing it in the pub earlier. Lighting and part of the set above us meant that we could not clearly see the screen, which was a let down and pretty frustrating during the recording when clips we were unfamiliar with were shown. Still, I thought, I’ll catch them on the TV. The Cage was larger than I expected and appeared to built over a large drip tray to catch all the water and the gunge; probably a London Studios health and safety requirement. The Cage was much more substantial than the one of old. For a start it did not wobble as we moved around and the door was bolted shut, so no swinging open thus negating the whole idea of not being able to get away from the buckets being hurled. An obvious flaw in the original. Above us was a large bath held by some strong tags to stop it dropping its contents on us too soon. As these were cut away a technician remarked how he was glad it would be us and not him. He had a knowing look about him. This boded very well; we were going to be a big part of the show with soakings a-plenty coming our way. We’d already had a glance at a script and we knew that one of the first things Chris would do was give us a bucketing. Excellent. I’d taken a position on the second row of the cage. Being 6’ 2” it would be unfair to mask anyone else. However, another co-Cagee remarked that I ran the risk of getting cracked on the head when bath above tipped over and the gunge was released. I laughed it off, but made a mental note to duck when it was released. If I was knocked out, then it would all be over too soon. Plus, the paper I’d signed earlier would no doubt exonerate ITV Productions 100 per cent. Ducking was a must. Then, to our right, it was Chris Tarrant, our first sighting of him. There he was, off-stage being zipped into a costume for the opening of the show. We all waved and he gave us the thumbs up. I thought Rach was going to hyperventilate, but by now my heart was pounding too. This was all going to start very soon. I remember what a thrill it was to hear the old ATV theme play and then the Status Quo version of the theme song played out. We all sang along. Chris came on, did his opening gag and then ran over to us. In quick succession he threw the contents of 2 (or was it 3?) buckets at us and jumped up to release the container above us. I ducked but still got the full force over me. Within seconds of the show opening I was soaked to the skin. We all were. CT had clearly not lost his touch over the past 26 years! The audience were cheering and applauding. Oh my God, this was all happening. We could hardly breathe for laughing. We looked at each other, all with the same thought: That was brilliant! The rest of my memories have already merged into one. Here is what I can clearly remember:
The final assault for the Bucket of Water Song was amazing. We had John, Bob and the Flan Flinger throwing bucket after bucket at us. Every time I went to breathe my mouth and nose filled up with water. Then, just as I felt I could take no more, the bath tub above us swung down and emptied its contents for the final time. I was too disorientated to duck, but I evaded getting brained by the thing. The relief at being able to breathe again was very welcome, but it did mean the show was over. The cast were taking their bows and Chris was telling the audience what a great time he’d had. Me too, I thought. As promised in our dressing room earlier, Lenny came over to have his picture taken with us. The others quickly followed him. We must get copies of these pictures, we all thought. So, how to spend our final moments in the Cage? Of course, stamp our feet to try and empty the now full again drip tray over the set! Huge fun until a stage hand ran over to tell us we were sinking into the platform below us and we’d better get out sharpish! So it was all over. We trotted out of the Cage (I was second last, the honour of being the last ever person out of the Cage on TISWAS falls to DP Gumby). We were handed dressing gowns and towels. Much needed. As we stood next to a table full of unused custard pies the temptation to use them was becoming too great. Sensing this, Frank ushered us away. Then, one last treat, a discarded script. I picked it up. I thought about keeping it all, but having formed such a bond with everyone else that would be wrong. I split it with whoever wanted some. As it is, I now have the bits from Compost Corner through to the Bucket of Water Song. A brilliant souvenir. After a quick pic in the dressing room, a shower and the travel expenses being handed over, it was goodbye to everyone and then to the pub for a drink before they shut. So what if we didn’t get fed, so what if we were left in the dressing room for hours on end before the show, so what if we didn’t get t-shirts and were kept out of the post-show party… We were all on TISWAS Reunited in the Cage. And it was amazing! -theboysmith
Thu 17 May 2007 (09:49) Also as I mentioned to pete in an email I have a friend who has several episodes of Tiswas on betamax, apparantly he has allot of early stuff. Im not sure when beta was introduced, BUT Im seeing him early next week..could be interesting...i'l keep ou and the guys posted...ff to finish my album now, last day of recording (inc a cover of the Swedish Eurovision entry) Cheers -mrbunny12
Mon 14 May 2007 (21:52) Still waiting to hear from Pete to make sure he got the dvd I sent him...And! We werent given the opportunity to grab decent seats. When we were showed in, we were quickly shown to seats near the back and ushered out pretty quickly afterwards...but it was still a good show. I am still waiting to hear from a friend of mine who has several episodes of T.i.s.w.a.s on betamax. Apparantly he has loads, i'l let you all know when I find out more -mrbunny12
Sun 13 May 2007 (12:43) -Peter Thomas |
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