Wetlook World Forum

Bear in mind, as somebody who actually WATCHED the shows every week and recorded them on my old Philips VTR from 1977-1981, I can tell you that Tiswas has over the last 30 years grown to be an "urban legend" that was greatly exaggerated in people's minds.

What I mean by that is, most people under the age of 30 (i.e. people who were not even born when the show was on, and who never saw it when it aired) seem to believe in the urban legend that Tiswas was wall to wall wetlook and slapstick on every show.....and as somebody who used to tape the shows, I can tell you that this was far from being the case. Here are some real stats for you...

- the show had approx 250 shows from 1975 to 1981, but there are only about 40 of those 250 shows that had slapstick scenes...the majority of the shows had nothing wet or messy at all.

- the show started as a local ATV Birmingham show in 1975 and 1976, and there were no wet or messy scenes in those first 2 years. It was only when the show was aired Nationwide in the UK in 1977, that the slapstick started. I taped the shows from London via London Weekend Television (the defunct LWT channel).

- I spent months and months recording the shows every week from 1977 to 1979....and the shows were 3hrs long (opposite Noel Edmunds Swap Shop on the other channel), and in most weeks there was less than 5 minutes of slapstick in each 3hr show....so it was a bit like watching an American football match (3hrs long, and only 5 mins of action.....just kidding). Tiswas was NOT a slapstick show....it was mostly about musical acts, showing cartoons, and hours of inane chatter etc.

Myself and Roger Carpenter (of Aquantics Wam Productions) taped many of the shows, and captured most of the best moments....but as I said....those 250 x 3hr shows...only yielded about 1hr of classic wam scenes (out of 750 hrs of programming).

I know that the official TISWAS videos that were sold in the UK in the 1990's were very lacklustre, cos they excluded many of the best slapstick moments, but Roger and I had most of the best moments on our personal tapes anyways (e.g. Sheena Easton, Pan's People, Sally James etc). The few scenes that Roger and I did not have (e.g. the Nolans Sisters getting pied and slimed) have turned up on other collectors personal tapes and they were widely circulated on the TISWAS forum sites in the UK....

So...Tiswas is something of an urban legend....that has grown in the minds of the younger generation who never saw the show and  were not born when the show aired...cos the reality is that Tiswas only had about 1hr of great scenes....but Tiswas was not the ultimate source for wet and messy scenes on UK tv...cos they only had about 1hr of decent scenes from 750hrs of programming. A much greater source for wet and messy scenes was the "It's A Knockout" tv series in the 1960's and 70's, cos that was also a long 2-3hr show...and you got loads of wet and messy scenes in every show.

regards

Mark