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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. . |
Pied Pipers Just a few tests here at the moment, based on our episode guide database... No biographies or pics here yet. John Gorman Former GPO engineer John Gorman may well have his Tiswas career eclipsed by something he did years before he succumbed to chucking buckets of water on a Saturday morning. Hailing from Merseyside, John formed a comedy/music act called Scaffold, with poet Roger McGough, and a chap called Mike McGear (his real name being Mike McCartney, as he was the sibling of a certain Beatle, and had decided upon replacing his surname to avoid being compared with his famous brother). Scaffold's biggest hits were 'Thank You Very Much' (synonymous with a Cadburys Roses advertising campaign in the 1980s) and number one hit 'Lily The Pink'. Elton John and Jimi Hendrix were, unbelievably, session musicians on some studio recordings, although it has to be said that they had yet to reach their fame at the time! The group had a kind of mutation in the early 1970s, when they teamed up with people like Neil Innes and Andy Roberts, and became The Grimms. John Gorman's debut appearance on Tiswas begin in early 1978, in the middle of the fourth series. He did not immediately appear the following week, as it was decided not to have him as a regular, but he did return for two more shows that series. When the fifth series began in September 1978, John was still not on screen, but made his return in November, and continued to appear on every show that year, aside from the last one. By this time, he was established as a regular. John's role contrasted with the sometimes straightforward duties of Chris and Sally. For a start, he was a comic performer, and not a presenter as such, usually remaining in character. As a result of this, John was rarely announced by his actual name, and viewers had to suspend disbelief as he would usually be introduced as any one of his many personas - Smello, a foul-smelling tramp-like character, PC Plod, a dim-witted policeman, The Masked Poet, a militant believer in the power of rhyme, Albert Grumble, the short-tempered studio cleaner who would remind us all of his war credentials as he fumed over mopping up the latest piles of gunge and goo. There were more, we're sure, but those were the most prolific. John did take his performances seriously - as Smello, he had a genuinely disgusting odour contained within his jacket, as reported by TiswasOnline's Andrew Wooding, who was present in the audience during one show. Dedicated to Tiswas itself, John wrote the first ever Tiswas annual, and helped form the Four Bucketeers - Chris, Sally, Bob and himself, which spawned from a musical item - The Bucket Of Water Song - that was a particular favourite on the show. John had his friend Neil Innes help out as producer on the Four Bucketeers' album. John Gorman was good friends with Chris on Tiswas, and departed from the series at the same time Chris did. The reason for his was that he was to join him to work on Chris Tarrant's experimental idea 'O.T.T.' - an adult-orientated Tiswas that was to launch on late nights in 1982. In the meantime, Tiswas would soldier on for another series, but without the services of Chris, Lenny, Bob or John, remaining with just Sally James and a new band of recruits. However, despite his absence from the screen, a few editions did have John credited as a contributor. Joining in again with merchandise, John and Chris collaborated on 'Beyond The Pail' - a book produced as a tie-in product for 'O.T.T', which involved a fair amount of wacky photographs, including one of John's bare behind. In the wake of Tiswas, other ITV regions had been impressed with its revolution of pie-and-gunge fuelled anarchy, which boosted other children's shows across the network, something very worthy considering the BBC had an ingrained trust with the nation, thanks to their established shows like Blue Peter, Animal Magic, etc. Although Central's idea of a Tiswas replacement - 'The Saturday Show' - never even tried to equal its predecessor in the slapstick stakes, the value of gunge had never been higher in kids' TV, and was soon adopted as common currency. Newcastle-based ITV franchise Tyne Tees, whose management vetoed Tiswas from their region at its peak, had come up with 'How Dare You!', a weekday gameshow presented by John Gorman, with former Tiswas semi-regular Clive Webb, and a female presenter who would be changed every series (Floella Benjamin was the first, others such as Cheryl Baker and Carrie Gray would take over). The idea behind How Dare You was simple - it was like a school sports day, but with gunge. A lot of gunge. Mess would be the mandatory punishment for any child deemed to have performed badly in a game. John and Clive would regularly stop games of football in order to pour buckets of slop down children's shorts for such fictional reasons as "having a silly name". We're not sure if such a concept could be realised today. Although the children suffered a fair bit in the slime stakes, they did get something of a highlight in one round, where they got to throw gunge-soaked mop-heads at their teachers. With cabaret backgrounds, both John and Clive couldn't resist comic interludes. John reprised the Albert Grumble character now and again, although by the time viewer interest began to dwindle, it was decided to ditch the game show element entirely, making the final series a rather quick run of comedy sketches. John kept his relationship with Tyne Tees rather fruitful in the 1980s. They were a broadcaster with a reputation for expertise in pop music, having formed the relatively long-running children's pop show 'Razzmatazz' in the late 1970s, breaking new acts like Madonna and Frankie Goes To Hollywood for 'The Tube' on Channel Four, and gaining the ITV network contract for a prime-time pop music show - 'The Roxy' - that would be the channel's long-awaited answer to the Beeb's 'Top Of The Pops'. It was Razzmatazz that would be John and Clive's new outlet for gunge-based forfeit fun. The show had gone from its "Blue Peter with bands" ethic, over to an edgier and more hip show, probably induced by the nearby production of The Tube. In the late 80s, in between the music, John would host a particularly cruel game element, where two kids were up against each other, answering a series of posers, most of them trick questions. The losing child would be escorted to a chair, and have a giant dustbin of gunge tilted over them. Another fairly cutting edge children's show at the time was 'Get Fresh!' - itself one of the many Saturday morning ITV shows that came after Tiswas. Get Fresh was unique in that it came live from different parts of the UK each week, the production being handled by one of the medium or small ITV regional companies. During a visit to the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, the Tyne Tees production team decided to reprise the idea of a gungey game event, spread throughout the show. As always, John Gorman and Clive Webb decided to administer this, veterans as they were. History does not record what producer Janet Street-Porter thought of this. John's TV appearances since then have been, well, sporadic. He guested on Chris Tarrant's 'This Is Your Life' in the early 1990s. It was reported a few years later that he settled on a farm in France. He obviously returned to these shores, as in the early noughties, he made the national press when he announced, in his capacity of a theatre director, that he was to produce a musical based on Manchester United Football Club. This was particularly notable, as John is a hardcore Liverpool FC supporter. There are 302 editions of Tiswas in total. John Gorman's first edition was 4/2/1978 (Series 4) John Gorman appeared in 80 editions of Tiswas. Series 1 Chris Tarrant The main man, the most familiar face with the series - host and producer for the majority of Tiswas editions. Jim Davidson Stand-up comedian of the old school variety, appearing sporadically, and claims to be the first ever Phantom Flan Flinger. |
  
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