Tiswas (‘Today Is Saturday Watch And Smile’) is a Saturday morning children’s British television series which ran from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982 and was produced for the ITV network by ATV Network Limited. It was created by ATV continuity announcer Peter Tomlinson (later to become a regular presenter on the show) following a test period in 1973 when he tried out a few competitions and daft stuff between programmes. The show was a stitch-together of competitions, film clips and pop promos, just about held together by sketches and links from the cast. The show also regularly featured spoofs of BBC children’s programming.
Most famously hosted by Chris Tarrant between 1974 and 1981, and later Sally James, it also featured the young Lenny Henry and occasionally Jim Davidson together with Bob Carolgees and his puppet, Spit the Dog. Like its cleaner BBC counterpart, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, it had a running order but no script (with the exception of some specific sketches). The programme was broadcast from Studio 3 at ATV Centre in Birmingham; this was the weekday home for the company’s regional news magazine, ATV Today.
Kate Bush was interviewed in Tiswas on 14 April 1979 by Sally James.
References
- Tiswas. Wikipedia, retrieved 17 October 2017.
- Kate Bush Tiswas. YouTube, retrieved 17 October 2017.
