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 Tiswas © 1974 ATV Network Limited, © 2004 Granada Media . This is a non-profit site intended for education about the British televison series Tiswas. This site acknowledges all copyrights and presents material under the 'Fair Use' clause of international copyright law, for the purpose of review. . |
Mucking around The elements that make up the Tis-iverse would have to be custard pies, gunge and water. Not necessarly in that order either. Yes, Tiswas was highly famed for its messy staples. "That show with the custard pies" would be an expected description of the show from those bewildered at the goings on from B1 2JP. Other kids Saturday morning shows... hell, other kids shows have tried to live up to the messy legend of Tiswas, but never got close. Despite all this, Tiswas was never the first show to deal with flying flans and tanks of gunk, nor did it even start in Tiswas' infancy, back in early 1974. It certainly pioneered the usage of pies, gunge and water on TV - leaving its mark, quite literally, for generations to come. The very idea of being gunged has been used as a humiliating consequence on various variety and game shows, the custard pie-ings and water soakings also present in other areas too. The whole concept brought back slapstick comedy to the small screen, and has even spawned a sexual fetish on the internet. Now, surrender to the Phantom...  [In your face] In your face We begin with the most common of the slapstick elements, and probably the longest established. The custard pie. Let's be truthful about this, the pie-in-the-face gag has been going on for centuries now, having been most popular in music-hall comedy. The arrival of pies in Tiswas, in 1975, was nothing new to viewers, who had already seen full scale pie-fights in the likes of silent movies featuring Laurel and Hardy. Indeed, it wasn't even new to children's television, as Rediffusion's 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' had liberal pie-throwing antics among the audience of children about a decade earlier. Free of the flans Let's not take the assumption that Tiswas was always full of custard pies. A lot of TV clip shows paint a picture of a flan being flung every few seconds, and indeed, the commercial video releases of Tiswas clips stick to that kind of image. Those Tiswas fans with full recordings of shows will know it wasn't always a full-on pie-fight. Especially those who were around to see the first ever series... In 1974, when ATV decided to launch Tiswas as an 'umbrella' programme to 'contain' all the miscellanious adventure serials and cartoons it had been shoving out previously on Saturday mornings, you would not have recognised Tiswas compared to its later heyday. Broadcast at the time only in the midlands, the show was essentially continuity links in a tiny dark studio from John Asher. The odd joke here and there, but the slapstick was yet to come. Flan-kind evolves The second series of Tiswas began later on in 1974, and ran on into 1975, during which time John Asher had left the show, and Chris Tarrant was 'promoted' to lead presenter. The odd bucket of water or custard pie had been thrown now and again, but by late 1975, it had become a show staple. Thanks partially to the chaos of the pies, this second series of Tiswas had gradually morphed from a staid links programme into a chaotic spontaneous event, that lasted into 1976. At this point, however, there was no sign of the Phantom Flan Flinger - the most famous wielder of slapstick justice. The Phantom Menace "I'm not sure when the pies and water had started," said ATV producer Glyn Edwards in an interview with this site, "but I was told to stop it all and make the show presentable". Glyn had taken over various editions of the show by the mid 1970s. The management at ATV weren't happy with the mucky goings-on in Studio 3, but there was a subversive solution in the works, which would allow the flans to keep on flying. "I figured that channelling the custard pies and buckets of water through a mytserious 'villain' would allow me to apparently be cleaning the show up whilst creating a character aimed defeating this." The Phantom Flan Flinger was created. Now, given that Chris Tarrant is massive fan of contemporary comedy, including those godfathers of the genre - The Goons - it has been said that the Phantom owes its existance to 'Goon Show' writer/performer Spike Milligan's sketch - The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler (of Bexhill on Sea) - featuring a shady character who threw cold battered puddings at innocent people. However, this is not the case. Glyn created the character thanks to his background in working Punch And Judy shows. "I knew that kids liked a bit of anarchy and weren't all into the twee 'Blue Peter is the Gold Standard' philosophy of the BBC childrens' dept." commented Glyn. Spike Milligan would go on to re-invent the Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler into the Phantom Raspberry Blower - a terrific serial sketch for 'The Two Ronnies'. However, the Phantom Flan Flinger belonged to ATVland... The recipe The official recipe, using authentic ingredients and methods in making the Tiswas pies, has now been put together as a PDF file by Andy Walmsley. You can view/download the [Tiswas Pies PDF] here. Absolutely pain-staking researched, Andy used this for making the pies on 'Tiswas Reunited', having picked up tips from working with the Tiswas team. It doesn't get more meticulous than this! Aside from sorting out the pies and gunge for Tiswas Reunited, Andy also designed the set. Now, from an old Tiswas book, is this recipe...
Custard Pie Recipe
Ingredients Mixing bowl or large bowl/bucket (depending on the amount needed)
Spray shaving foam into mixing bowl remembering to keep enough spare for decoration.
Old t-shirts and such like to be worn during flan matches in case of stains. **Alternatively: Foam from local joke shop. Ah, Tiswas pies - so simple in their construction - mere shaving foam, food colouring and paper plates. However, the unwritten rule of the show was to always refer to the messy devices as 'custard pies'. Never shaving foam, always 'custard'! Pies in their eyes It was decided that only the presenters would be the targets for flanning, with children left alone. But at a meeting, producer Chris Tarrant and the production team decided to just flan the hell out of anyone. As Tiswas spread across the regions, it slowly became a Saturday morning mecca for pop stars, comedians and other famous guests. These people were not immune to flannings, in fact, it was like they came on the show specifically to be custard-pied! Lemmy from Motorhead: "We were having a game of musical pies. The pie stopped in my hand and I had to smash it in the face of Denise, Girlschool's drummer. The poor girl was cowering a bit, but it was like 'Sorry, I've got to let you have it, babe.' Everybody who went on got it, bad". There were so many famous flanned faces, far too many to mention in this little article, but we'll go with the complete plastering of Sheena Easton during a Phantom Flan Flinger Challenge, and Annie Lennox being pie-sandwiched in a comedy sketch as our favourites. Pie casualties It wasn't all fun and games when custard pies were involved. Jimmy Pursey of punk rock band 'Sham 69' had flung a pie so hard into Frank Carson's face, that he lost teeth. Presenter Peter Tomlinson went red in the face after a flanning: "I couldn't clean it off", said Peter in an audio interview to John Warburton. "The man had to come inject me with vast quantities of liquid in order for my face to subside".  Stuff about gunge, when i get round to it  And stuff about water, yet to be written |
  
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