TV Series

Series Name:	Tiswas
Format:	TV Series
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Years:	1974 - 1982
Country:	UK
Language:	English
Genre:	Children & Family, Comedy
Rating:	7.3 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	22 Have Seen
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Selected Cast	Chris Tarrant as Presenter
	Sally James as Presenter
	Lenny Henry as Presenter
	Bob Carolgees as Presenter
	Ian "Sludge" Lees as Presenter

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Number: 745971

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Uploaded By: shnozzle
Description: tiswas

Comments and Reviews


TheJudge 25th Jun 2015		The first series (possibly the first two?) were shown in the English Midlands only (it was made by ATV, the local ITV franchise holder). Tarrant was there from the beginning, but his main co-presenter was John Asher. They were joined by three other ATV 'personalities': Peter Tomlinson (who was a senior announcer), Terry Thomas (who presented the station's angling programme) and Trevor East, who was Head of Sports programming). East was constantly mocked for his support of Derby County FC (odd, because at that time, 'The Rams' were one of England's top clubs). There's debate about exactly what 'TISWAS' stood for (apart from 'absolutely anything', of course!). The usual formulation at the time was 'Today Is Saturday - Watch And Smile'.



Deltics 25th Jun 2015		An immortal piece of television history...



Monolith 26th May 2015		Did I hear Debbie Harry's name mentioned? :rolleyes:



henry29 26th May 2015		Ok. I've read through nobody has said It so Here Goes. H. Tiswas. (Today Is Saturday Wakeup and Smile).



vollmann1969 14th May 2015		Much as I am an admirer of public service broadcasting and the landmark programmes the BBC have produced over the years, when it came to Saturday mornings, Auntie Beeb was beaten hands down by this bunch of new wave ne’er do wells. These boys from Birmingham were anarchic, spontaneous, not to mention hilariously funny. (And Sally James was hotter than a Digbeth Vindaloo) As far as I was concerned, Tiswas was punk rock. It encapsulated the times, the culture, the riots, and the mindless directionless energy then prevalent in a ten year old me. Swap Shop and Noel Edmonds never stood a chance.



BiggieTembo 14th May 2015		Zab, you're a gentleman! Sally was No.1 - until I discovered...Debbie Harry :-s



zabadak 14th May 2015		Well, you might've had a fight on your hands back in the day but now... go for it! :laugh:



BiggieTembo 14th May 2015		Fine with me zab - Sally's mine anyway



zabadak 14th May 2015		OK, YooChoob is blocked at work so I won't be able to watch them till I get back. I won't be watching the Sally James one, uh-uh, no way... :cool:



biffbampow 14th May 2015		@BiggieTembo You're also absolutely right about Trev and Simon. Saturday Superstore was again, a bit too clinical thanks to the BBC - hell, they had Margaret Thatcher on it for goodness sake (which sent me off doing "something less boring instead"!) - despite it's odd moments like the phone calls to Five Star and Matt Bianco. Going Live seemed set to be more of the same until Trev and Simon did their turns and suddenly there was a sense of free form anarchy that the BBC had been lacking and I can imagine they had a few dressing downs from BBC bigwigs for some of the stuff they unleashed! By that time I should had grown out of watching such shows, but they appealed to and amused me greatly!



BiggieTembo 14th May 2015		Perhaps this is the reason why I had a crush on Sally James (note Den Heggarty from Darts doing the buckets)



BiggieTembo 14th May 2015		For biffbangpow - the great Frank Carson clip:



BiggieTembo 14th May 2015		The great Compost Corner ("Compost Corner!") and see who's standing in the back - Collins and Rutherford from Genesis - wearing Peter Gabriel-like flower-headgear, no less! And check out the Thatcher joke at the end - great satirical way to let the kids know what the next 30+ years would be like, aye



BiggieTembo 14th May 2015		Review Heh heh great comments guys ;-) Sorry to hear you missed out on it, biffbangpow :( Apologies also for you being a Swap Shop fan TopP. It must have been hell being beaten up every day at school! So you didn't have a crush on Edmonds then? Well there was always Maggie Philbin... Seriously though, these two shows (yes I did flip the channel to Swap Shop occasionally - know your enemy and all that) left indelible pieces of information ingrained in my memory. I can even remember their postal addresses: Tiswas was Birmingham B1 2JP. When someone uploads an entry to Swap Shop, the world will once again get to know their telephone number. Topic for a Forum discussion maybe - Tiswas vs. Swap Shop? Could even follow with World Of Sport vs. Grandstand too ;-) What gave Tiswas the edge over Swap Shop for me was the fact that there were top comedy entertainers as guests (as mentioned by biffbangpow) plus the fact that the show was loosely structured - giving them the chance to improvise and really show their talents. Russ Abbott, for example, used to do a turn as Cooperman - a cross between Tommy Cooper and Superman. He was much funnier and looser than his dedicated TV series on the BBC. John Gorman of Scaffold fame did turns as Smellows, the smelly gardener and The Masked Poet, an intense dressed-in-black guy going around reciting dire verse. The Frank Carson appearances were of course (like everything he ever did) stomach-achingly funny. And the late David Rappaport of Time Bandits fame, taking the mick out of the BBC's Blue Peter with his whistle-themed Green Nigel... The band Darts were regulars too, especially vocalist Den Heggarty, who once showed the nation his amazingly long-eyebrow hair. Ginger-afro'ed brummie comedian Ian "Sludge" Lees also got a bucket of water on many occasions. He used to have a pink suit with a Bassett's licorice allsorts pattern on it (he still does). Lenny Henry also did turns as the aforementioned Trevor McDonut, the very positive rasta Algernon with his condensed milk sandwiches and his catchphrase ("OoooooKaaaayyyy!") and David Bellamy impersonation, usually with his false beard peeling off and him and Chris Tarrant cracking up. As a kid, for me all this was total anarchy and freedom - the diametrical opposite of Swap Shop with its constrained, controlled, BBC-discipline. It wasn't until Trev and Simon did their hilarious turns on BBC1's Going Live! in the 90s, that the BBC's saturday-morning TV record was redeemed, ironically with a touch of Tiswas-like looseness. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?



biffbampow 13th May 2015		Unfortunately I saw very little of this show since my Mum took exception to it, so it was banned in our house, so ended up having to suffer tidybeard Edmonds and bloody Keith Chegwin on the other side. By the time Mum got a Saturday job, Tiswas was in it's final months. I've enjoyed the various bits and pieces I've seen of it. The moment where Frank Carson challenges them to try and not to laugh at him laughing is just one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Frank Carson's laugh alone is enough to set me off but seeing Chris Tarrant blubbering with laughter and on the floor as Carson indeed succeeds in cracking everyone up is a great moment.



TopPopper 13th May 2015		Well I was, and remain, a Swap Shop man, so I'll see you outside the school gates. For the record, I never had a crush on Noel Edmonds.



BiggieTembo 13th May 2015		Amazing. Shown on Saturday mornings in the UK, on ATV. So many memorable scenes, including Robert Plant and the Pretenders as guests, and Trevor McDonald sneaking up on Lenny Henry doing his Trevor McDonut pastiche of the newsreader. Totally taken by surprise, but not wanting to break character, Henry exclaimed "Daddy!" and threw his arms around McDonald. I remember there being a rivalry between this show and the lame BBC Saturday morning clash-show, Swap Shop. Anyone who watched Swap Shop at my school got a thick ear because Tiswas was by far the coolest, if somewhat more ramshackle show... And I, as a 7 year old, had a huge crush on Sally James



shnozzle 13th May 2015

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