| Noel's House Party | |
|---|---|
 Original logo (1991–1996) |
|
| Format | Live entertainment |
| Starring | Noel Edmonds |
| Country of origin | England |
| No. of series | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 169 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC1 |
| Picture format | 4:3 (1991-1998) 16:9 (1998-1999) |
| Original run | 23 November 1991 – 20 March 1999 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Noel's Saturday Roadshow |
Noel's House Party was a BBC television light entertainment show hosted by Noel Edmonds that was broadcast live on Saturday evenings throughout the 1990s. It was set in a large house in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom, leading to much innuendo. The show was broadcast during the autumn-spring season (October/November - March). It was the successor show to Noel's Saturday Roadshow, and carried over some of its regular features such as the Gunge Tank, the Gotcha Oscar and Wait 'Till I Get You Home.
The show had many regular guests posing as fictional villagers, including Frank Thornton and Vicki Michelle. The show gave birth to Mr. Blobby in the Gotcha segment. The character became well known, ruining the premise of the segment, but Blobby still made appearances. There was also a contrived rivalry between Noel and Tony Blackburn. In addition, many episodes featured one-off guest stars, including Michael Crawford as Frank Spencer, who came in to find the whole audience dressed as Frank, and Ken Dodd in a highwayman's outfit - 'Going cheap at the Maxwell sale' - as Noel's long lost 'twin', Berasent
It won a Bronze Rose of Montreux in 1994.
It was revealed in January 2009 that Noel Edmonds had been approached regarding a one-off special with a view to a further series[1]. A follow up report by another journalist claims that a friend of Edmonds ruled out these possibilities, though neither report has been officially confirmed.
Contents |
Regular features
Gotcha
Originally called the "Gotcha Oscars" until the threat of legal action from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which also prompted a redesign of the award)[citation needed], hidden camera practical jokes were played on celebrities. Notable victims were Barbara Windsor, Carol Vorderman, Jill Dando, Dave Lee Travis, Richard Whiteley, Eddie Large and the Queens Park Rangers football club, although in the final series Dale Winton turned the tables on Edmonds with a surprise challenge which ended with a gunging. Another notable victim was Annabel Giles as she was the 1st victim who managed to spot the hidden camera whilst sat in the back of a car and therefore the prank backfired. But Noel had the last laugh as in revenge, he had her gunged.
Wait 'til I Get You Home
Parents watch pre-recorded footage of their children being interviewed by Noel, where they try to guess the answers they gave. A similar slot, The Secret World of the Teenager, replaced Wait 'til I Get You Home in later series.
Grab a Grand
A phone-in competition where a viewer would choose from three currencies (aiming to select the one of greatest value), and a celebrity (usually a sports star) would collect as many notes as possible from a clear booth pumped with air. Changed in later series to 'Grab A Grand' whereby a celebrity would collect as many notes as possible from senior citizens suspended from above by bungee cords.
Cash for Questions
Similar to Grab a Grand, a celebrity goes into the pitch black 'basement', and the winning caller would direct the celebrity to the bags of money with help of an infrared camera. Named after a political scandal.
NTV
A camera would be hidden in the home of a member of the public, so that they would be on-air at the specified moment.
Sofa Soccer
A similar idea to Bernie the Bolt in The Golden Shot, a viewer from home would attempt to score goals by manoeuvring the machine firing the huge football ("left", "right", "shoot"). The jingle music to this game was based on Crazy Horses by The Osmonds.
The Big Pork Pie
A member of the studio audience has their embarrassing secrets revealed. Seated in a large prop pork pie, the victim would be connected to a lie detector machine (although in reality, this too was a prop). The victim had been set up by their friends or family who had provided the secrets.
The Gunge Tank
Carried over from Noel's Saturday Roadshow, this was put to various uses, usually gunging celebrities or unpopular members of the public after a phone vote which was carried out during the duration of the show - the gunging usually being the final item before the closing credits. Celebrities include Anthea turner, Jenny Hull, Carol Vorderman, Edwina Currie, Gloria Hunniford, Samantha Janus, Anneka Rice,Annabell Giles and Ulrika Jonnson.
The 'gunge' was in fact a food thickening agent called Natrasol, coloured with various food dyes.[2] The gunge tank got progressively more sophisticated in subsequent seasons - the Season 1 version of the gunge tank was effectively the same as in Saturday Roadshow. However for Season 2, the tank also pumped foam from underneath the chair before the gunge was released. For Season 3, the chair holding the victim was on a conveyor device which would take the victim through revolving car wash brushes before the actual gunging. In Seasons 4 & 5, it was developed into the "Trip Around The Great House", where the victim would be placed on a miniature railway that journeyed through the studio set, finishing up in the Giant Fireplace where the gunge would finally be released.
For the final seasons, a selected member of the audience would be gunged by a tank lowered from the studio rafters or a retracting chair which would lower into the undercroft of the studio, gunge the victim and then elevate back up into the audience position. Edmonds was himself usually gunged once a series - usually in the final episode of the season.
Number Cruncher
A modified phonebox (with gungetank and LCD screen) was placed somewhere in Britain. The number to get into the box was given, and the first person to get into the box got to play the game. Once in, they had 45 seconds to rearrange the code given on the LCD screen to get out. Towards the end people kept on pressing '9' to try and earn a lot of money, and people had to bring a stupid object.
Beat Your Neighbour
Neighbours would choose what prizes they wanted from each other's house, for every question answered, they were put on a tray. Then each family were asked questions alternately, if the question was right the belongings were pushed to their side. Controversial because of the two-second delay in the video link.
My Little Friend
Children from the public of Primary school age were led into a room with hidden cameras and two puppets set up to initially appear dormant in the room, one voiced by Edmonds. The puppets would 'awaken' and hold improvised conversations with the children.
Practical jokes
The first series finale saw the programme running order changed to one which was entirely different from that in Edmonds' script - orchestrated by Dave Lee Travis (who was the most famous 'Gotcha' victim of this series), causing him to repeatedly introduce the wrong items. A Gunge Tank phone-in between Edmonds and Travis resulted in Noel being gunged at the closing credits.
One of the most notable was based on a recurring sketch where Noel would attempt to sing, only to be interrupted by the doorbell. During the second series, a caption appeared informing the audience that the doorbell "isn't going to ring." He was then 'forced' to sing "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" in its entirety.
Mr Blobby
Mr Blobby started as a tool for Noel Edmonds to play Gotcha practical jokes on celebrities, but soon became popular and made appearances in many shows. His popularity soon resulted in him having his own TV show.
Demise
After several changes, the show's initially huge popularity declined. The theme tune changed in 1996, and set redesigns followed. Noel pulled the show in 1998 after apparent disagreements with the BBC producers and claiming it wasn't good enough. He returned for one final series.
| “ | It's an overworked expression when people say it's the end of an era but for BBC Television, the Entertainment Department, for me and possibly you, it really is the end of an era. I hope your memory will be very kind to us. After 169 [shows]...goodbye. | ” |
- Noel Edmonds' final words on the last ever House Party (1999) before he got foamed from a fire extinguisher by Freddie Starr.
Transmissions
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 November, 1991 | 28 March, 1992 | 18 |
| 2 | 24 October, 1992 | 13 March, 1993 | 21 |
| 3 | 23 October, 1993 | 26 March, 1994 | 22 |
| 4 | 22 October, 1994 | 25 March, 1995 | 20 |
| 5 | 21 October, 1995 | 30 March, 1996 | 21 |
| 6 | 19 October, 1996 | 29 March, 1997 | 22 |
| 7 | 18 October, 1997 | 21 March, 1998 | 21 |
| 8 | 17 October, 1998 | 20 March, 1999 | 18 |
References
- ^ Blobby Back?
- ^ Judy Rumbold, "Crinkly twinkly cuddly nutcase", The Guardian, 21 December 1992.
External links
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