Tiswas (; an acronym of "Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile") is a British children's television series that originally aired on Saturday mornings from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982 and was produced for the ITV network by ATV.
It was created by ATV continuity announcer Peter Tomlinson (later to become a regular presenter on the show) following a test period in 1973 when he tried out a few competitions and "daft stuff" between the programmes.
Overview
Tiswas began life as a 'links' strand between many 'filler' programmes, such as cartoons and old films. The popularity of the presenters' links soon eclipsed the staple diet of filler.
The correct meaning of the Tiswas initials – Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile – was confirmed by host Chris Tarrant on the Tiswas Reunited special of 2007, although Today Is Saturday: Wear A Smile had also been often cited, albeit incorrectly. "Tiswas", as a word meaning "A state of nervous agitation or confusion ... physical disorder or chaos", is attested from 1960 by the Oxford English Dictionary.
It was originally produced as a Midlands regional programme by ATV, and was first broadcast live on 5 January 1974. The then federal structure of ITV, with its independent regional companies, meant that not all of these stations broadcast the show when it became available for networked transmission. Over time most ITV regions chose to broadcast it, with Granada Television and Southern Television being among the last to pick up the show, in 1979, the year of the ITV technicians’ strike. Tyne Tees and Ulster eventually decided to take Tiswas for its final series in 1981.
The show was hosted by Chris Tarrant between 1974 and 1981, with Sally James joining as co-host in 1977. Following Tarrant's departure, James became the show's main host. Regular performers included Lenny Henry, John Gorman (former member of 1960s cult band The Scaffold) and Bob Carolgees, the latter with his puppet, Spit the Dog. Jim Davidson also made occasional appearances. On the programme, Birmingham folk-singer and comedian Jasper Carrott was to introduce the nation to the "Dying Fly Dance". Like its cleaner BBC counterpart, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, it had a running order but no script (with the exception of some specific sketches). The programme was broadcast from Studio 3 at ATV Centre in Birmingham; this was the weekday home for the company's regional news magazine, ATV Today.
The show was a stitch-together of competitions, film clips and pop promos, just about held together by sketches and links from the cast. The show also regularly featured spoofs of BBC children's programming.
A feature of Tiswas was "The Cage" wherein initially the child audience, later their parents and, finally, members of the public were confined and periodically doused in water (one spin-off of the series was the hit "The Bucket of Water Song", performed by the Four Bucketeers). This became so popular that the 100th show (broadcast from the Hednesford Hills Raceway) featured several hundred fans lining the racetrack whilst a fire-engine of the local brigade drove around the track and hosed them down with water.
Another feature of Tiswas was its spoof gardening segment Compost Corner, which Chris Tarrant later revealed was a ruse to get an audience callback in the style of Crackerjack. This feature regularly featured Lenny Henry – complete with khaki shorts; Hawaiian shirt; and ginger fake beard – performing an impersonation of David Bellamy, with gardening-based puns and jokes.
Lenny Henry also performed a regular slot of Newsflashes as Trevor McDoughnut – an impersonation of ITN newsreader Trevor McDonald – in which he performed news-based puns and jokes, punctuated by buckets of water being thrown at him. Henry also regularly performed an impersonation of Tommy Cooper, in which he either told a joke (which often ended with the Phantom Flan Flinger – standing behind Henry – slapping two flans into either side of Henry's head); or performed a spoof magic trick.
From the fourth series onwards, the series was frequently visited by the Phantom Flan Flinger, who would throw custard pies ("flans"), buckets of water, gunge, sprayers, etc. around the studio at all and sundry. Both Tarrant and the Flan Flinger would take great delight in trying to 'flan' cameramen who would go to great lengths to avoid being hit.
The logo The original logo featured the word "TISWAS" in chunky letters. A later version of this logo featured a circle going round the edge with "Today Is Saturday Watch And Smile" embossed upon it. The classic "zig-zag" logo designed by Stuart Kettle appeared in 1977 – this initially featured a mechanical bird flying above it, but later, Chris Wroe (who drew all of the classic caricatures of the Tiswas team) replaced this with a drawing of the Phantom Flan Flinger.
Timeline Series 1 (1974) The first series was intended to be eleven episodes, purely acting as links between the usual staple fillers of old films and cartoons that ATV would transmit on Saturday mornings. Presented by Chris Tarrant and John Asher from merely a desk in a continuity studio, the pair had to rely on ad-libs and jokes sent in by viewers. Within a few weeks, the show was moved to studio 3 at ATV Centre (a studio usually reserved for amongst other programmes, the news magazine programme, ATV Today) from which Tiswas was produced for the majority of its run.
Owing to an industrial dispute by technicians at ATV, this initial run was only nine programmes in length, but was so well-received that a second series was commissioned.
Billed in TV Times as "Today Is Saturday or the Tis-was Show", the title sequence features both "Today Is Saturday" and the original "Tiswas" chunky letters logo, shown over a background very similar to that of The Golden Shot. The sequence featured clips from various films and Disney cartoons, backed by a funky jazz number known as "Atomic Butterfly" (which also seems to have been used for Sports Arena, an HTV Wales sports programme in the early 1970s).
Series 2 (1974–1976) The presenting team was doubled, and these were usually culled from ATV's presentation department. Chris Tarrant and John Asher retained their roles as the main presenters, although John would leave during this series. From the ranks at ATV, other regular presenters were established, notably sports reporter Trevor East (later director of sport at Setanta Sports) and announcer Peter Tomlinson (later to become managing director of Saga Radio West Midlands and High Sheriff of the West Midlands).
Producer Peter Harris left the show in the summer, to help produce fellow cult TV success The Muppet Show at ATV's London-orientated operation in Elstree.
Series 3 (1976–1977) Chris Tarrant, Peter Tomlinson and Trevor East were the main presenters. Almost all these shows were produced by Sid Kilbey. The 2 April 1977 show was a landmark edition, as part of the programme was broadcast outside the Midlands for the first time, on HTV Cymru Wales and HTV West, filling up their 'round-the-regions' compilation of Saturday morning programmes called Ten on Saturday.
Series 4 (1977–1978) This series marked an end to the provincial micro-budget shows of the previous series, as the initial edition of this series brought significant changes. Sally James was drafted in as the series' first regular female presenter. She had been the presenter of a regional Saturday morning show in London called Saturday Scene, produced by LWT. Comedian Jim Davidson was intended to be a regular presenter but left after only a few editions, although he would return for cameo appearances. Peter Tomlinson was axed as a regular, which came as a surprise to him.
Chris Tarrant was retained as the anchor presenter, and behind the scenes was annoyed with the changes, particularly the inclusion of a woman as presenter. However, he later retracted this view, having witnessed the progress Tiswas had made with James's contribution.
One significant change almost never happened. ATV management were displeased with the visual slapstick element – the hurling of custard pies and water. They believed this was setting a bad example to the young viewers. Newly drafted producer/director Glyn Edwards managed to retain this vital, messy element by drawing on his experience as a Punch & Judy puppeteer to create a 'villain' character called "The Phantom Flan Flinger", who would be the black-clad masked nemesis of the presenting team, and the main instigator of pie-throwing chaos. The "phantom" was later revealed to be Ben Mills, a taxi driver from Cheswick Green near Solihull.
John Gorman made his debut in this series, but with just four appearances, it would not be until series 5 that he became a regular visitor to the Tiswas studios. Likewise, child performer Paul Hardin made sporadic appearances.
The programme expanded its footprint further outside its home region. As well as appearing in part on HTV, Anglia, Border, Granada and Scottish Television began to screen Tiswas in its entirety. Anglia dropped the series a number of times to pick up other regions' Saturday morning programmes throughout Tiswass history.
Series 5 (1978–1979) John Gorman became a regular performer from November onwards. Scottish and Granada dropped the series in 1978 in favour of showing other programmes but began carrying the series again in 1979. HTV continued to opt in and out of the programme during Ten on Saturday.
Bob Carolgees made his debut in early 1979, having been told to go on the programme by Irish comic Frank Carson. Carolgees appeared again two weeks later, and Chris was so pleased with his contribution that he decided to make a regular fixture out of Bob.
Lenny Henry made sporadic appearances throughout this series, but was not established as a regular. Child performer Paul Hardin increased his visits to the studios, and could well be considered as a series 5 team member, likewise Sylveste McCoy (who added an "r" to his first name later in his career) who performed surreal comic interludes.
Series 6 (1979–1980) Many ITV regions took the programme for the first time, establishing the show strongly in the nation's consciousness.
With an almost national audience, the show became inclusive of its increased viewership by making a bigger role out of specially invited viewer performances. Many of these were children who sang songs or performed dance routines. Chris Tarrant, now producer as well as presenter, found most of these contributions to be of little value, until he came across a unique act by a five-year-old boy, Matthew Butler. Encouraged by his Tiswas-obsessed mother, Butler auditioned for the series wearing a rabbit costume and sang the song "Bright Eyes" made famous by the animated film Watership Down, although his own singing ability was rather poor. Tarrant found this so amusing that he arranged for him to appear on the following Tiswas, as well as many subsequent editions.
Also appearing a number of times in this series was Norman Collier, the Yorkshire comedian best known for his broken microphone routine and chicken impressions.
Another by-product of Tiswass increased audience was the boost to merchandise sales: an annual book was established, and there was a tour of universities (recognising their adult and teenaged audience) by the Tiswas team, under the name of the Four Bucketeers, which tied in with their spin-off album on CBS Records. This was all born out of one feature of the sixth series – "The Bucket of Water Song", which was such a hit with the viewers that it evolved from an intended one-off to an almost regular part of Tiswas.
Tiswas had been off air owing to the massive strike by ITV technicians, which lasted 11 weeks from August to October 1979.
Series 7 (1980–1981)