We’re rewinding the clock to March 2020, when everyone found themselves in an unusual situation, where we huddled over laptop screens and moved along to Joe Wicks’s workouts. Well, some of us did, but those who loved a bit of Saturday morning anarchy had the option to watch classic Tiswas clips and live interviews with those who had been on the show back in the day!
We invited comedy performer and broadcaster John Dredge on our first show to be an interviewer, getting to grill one of the Tiswas presenters who fronted the bizarre final series.
With Chris Tarrant, Lenny Henry, Bob Carolgees and John Gorman off to work on O.T.T., ATV signed up new presenters to sit with Sally from late 1981, with a view to retaining the legendary anarchic jaw-dropping humour. This wasn’t a smooth ride, as an edict came down from management that the series would be squarely targeted at its intended child audience and avoiding the eyebrow-raising antics that attracted teens and adults to the Saturday morning cult.
Gordon Astley was one of the three new main presenters at the helm of the final series. He gives some very entertaining answers on how to follow what had gone before, what went on at the Custard Pie Song recording, how the huge foam gun came to be and how his radio background was an influence on his presenting style.
