331 Tiswas

First  viewed  :  January  1978

This  Saturday  morning  kids  TV  show  had  been  running  in  some  ITV  regions,   including  its  creator,  ATV,  since  1974  but  Granada  and  others  were  a  bit  sniffy  about  it   and  didn't  buy  in  until  the  fourth  series.

The  regular  presenters  for  this  were  blonde   London  disc  jockey  Chris  Tarrant  who'd  been  with  the  show  from  the  start  and  acquired  more  clout  with  each  year  it  ran  and  actress  Sally  James  who'd  presented  another   Saturday  morning  show  in  the  London  area. Tiswas   ( Today  Is  Saturday,  Watch  And  Smile )  presented  a  direct  challenge  to  Multi-Coloured  Swap  Shop  on  the  other  channel , occupying  more  or  less  the  time  slot  and  presenting  a  more  anarchic , less  patrician   view  of  what  children  wanted  to  watch  with  all  the  flan-flinging  and  slapstick.  For  the  older  boys  it  had  another  extra  ingredient; instead  of  the  fairly  sexless  Maggie  Philbin  you  had  Sally  in  a  variety  of  low-cut  tops  designed  to  give  you  a  better  view  of  her  impressive  cleavage.

You  could  make  a  rough  swots  and  scruffs  distinction  between  the  kids  who  liked  Swap  Shop  and  those  who  favoured  Tiswas . Though  I  would  soon  eschew  staying  in  on  Saturday  mornings , I  leaned  towards  the  latter  because  it  had  a  higher  pop  content.  The  regular  dousings  and  peltings  of   both  presenters  and  guests  I  could  take  or  leave  ; it  got  a  bit  tiresome  after  a  while.

Other  presenters  such  as  Lenny  Henry, John  Gorman  and  Bob  Carolgees  joined  the  team  but  these  all  joined  Tarrant  in  quitting  the  team  to  do  adult  version  O.T.T.   in  1981  leaving  Sally  to  soldier  on   with  a   distinctly  Second  Division  team  of  Midlands  DJ  Gordon  Astley  who  I  can't  even  picture , former  Darts  loon  Den  Hegarty  and  impressionist  Fogwell  Flax. Tiswas  always  had  its  foes  among  the  suits  and  a  combination  of  Sally  throwing  in  the  towel  and  slipping  ratings  brought  the  show  to  an  end  in  1982.

There  was  a  Tiswas  Reunited   show  in  2007  but  no  serious  attempt  to  revive  it. The  show  was  Sally  James's  last  as  a  presenter. She  was  a  reliable  guest  on  things  like  Blankety  Blank    Punchlines  and   Countdown  until  the  early  eighties  when  she  dropped  off  screen  to  concentrate  on  her  business  selling  school  uniforms. She's  had  a  stint  on  BBC  local  radio  and  since  the  turn  of  the  millennium  has  been  a  regular  talking  head  on  nostalgia  shows.