First viewed : Autumn 1990
I knew this one was coming up soon. Charlie Parsons was able to move on from the farrago of Club X to a relatively disciplined, studio-based magazine show that came to epitomise the Youth TV genre. I had completely forgotten that it started out in the same Friday evening slot as The Tube with an early morning repeat but after a few months it became established in its Friday night back from the pub slot.
The original presenters were young Mancunian loudmouth ( but very competent ) Terry Christian and posh model Amanda de Cadenet soon joined by Londoner Mark Lamarr and the ghastly Katie Puckrick whose Valley Girl persona drove me up the wall. Once secure in its late night slot, the show became notorious for its "anything goes" policy including the infamous "The Hopefuls" slot where audience members did repellent stunts for a few moments of TV fame, accurately predicting the whole reality TV genre. There were always musical guests playing live , generating a fair few "incidents" themselves.
Among many memorable moments I'd pick :
- De Cadenet's appalling younger brother "Bruiser", an Eton pupil doing a guest presenter slot. When Christian asked him what his school motto was, guest Paul Heaton interjected, "class hate".
- Coronation St's Nigel Pivaro launching into a ( possibly alcohol-assisted ) rant about unemployment, oblivious to Christian's "you haven't seen the show before have you " expression
- In a similar vein , athelete Roger Black's discomfort at sitting on the sofa while a man put a condom up one nostril and pulled it out of the other, responding with an embarrassed "This is quality television !"
- John Lydon being a complete arsehole, prompting Christian's acidic " You can't have your punk heroes turn into pantomime dames can you ?"
- L7's Donna Spars treating the front row to a close up view of her genitalia
- Trainwreck alcoholic actress Lynne Perrie's beyond-embarrassing version of I Will Survive
- Christian inviting boxer Chris Ewbanks's hecklers to move a little closer
- Oliver Reed's sober contempt at being secretly filmed mooching about his dressing room
By it's very nature, you can't have youth TV programmes hanging around too long so five years for The Word was a pretty good innings.
I've always found Christian to be fairly enjoyable - putting aside our shared football allegiance - as he knows how to get a rise out of anybody. His problem is often not knowing when to stop, as shown by his recent Question Time antics.
ReplyDeleteStill, from here is where I fear a lot my issues with 1990s British pop culture were born.