2. Background 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. It was originally produced as a Midlands regional programme by ATV and was first broadcast live on 5 January 1974. The structure of ITV at the time, with its independent regional companies, meant that not all of these operations broadcast the show when it became available for networked transmission. Over a period of time, most ITV regions did, with Granada Television and Southern Television being the last in 1979. Tyne Tees finally decided to take Tiswas for its final series in 1981. The smallest broadcaster in the network, Channel Television, did not carry the programme. Most famously hosted by Chris Tarrant between 1974 and 1981, and later Sally James, it also featured the young Lenny Henry and occasionally Jim Davidson together with Bob Carolgees and his puppet, Spit the Dog. John Gorman, former member of 1960s cult band The Scaffold, was also in regular attendance. 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, and later their fathers, 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), whilst the series was also frequently visited by the Phantom Flan Flinger, who would throw flans around the studio at everyone. 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 last series of Tiswas, beginning in September 1981, and ending in April 1982, had its format tinkered with by ATV management. They believed that the adult audience should be avid viewers of Chris' 'late-night Tiswas', and that Tiswas itself should focus on its child audience. With this well-intended alteration, the original standard of Tiswas, with its adult undertones, deteriorated
3. Teenagers Tiswas made it seem as though teenagers were all very over the top, and their idea of entertainment was just to throw food and water at each other.
4. Clips from the show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOwokGfD4zQ
5. Other Versions In 1982 Tarrant, Carolgees, Gorman, Randolph Sutherland and Henry hosted a late-night show - with the up and coming comics Alexei Sayle and Helen Atkinson-Wood called O.T.T. (standing for "Over the Top") which was effectively an "adult" version of Tiswas - in other words, it attempted to be just as anarchic, but with swearing and occasional topless women. It was not such a success and is today chiefly remembered for the naked 'Balloon Dance' performed by The Greatest Show on Legs, including comedian Malcolm Hardee. The theme tune was recorded by Roy Wood and was released as a single. The show was a starting point for Saturday morning TV for teenagers, such as SMTV (ITV), and Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow (BBC).
6. Audience Figures Tiswas had an average viewing audience of around 4 million people, whilst its absolute peak was 4.7 million. It was generally the most viewed programme on TV for the 90 minutes it was on air.
