User:DarthJoeyJoJo/Under the Moon

History
The show came about as an attempt to improve their current late night phone in show, "Night Talk" presented by Gary Imlach. Rumours had been heard at Channel 4 that a similar show was to be part of the line up on a new rival network, Channel 5 which was scheduled for launch in March 1997. Stuart Cosgrove, commissioner editor for Channel 4 approached Danny Kelly, an editor for music and sports magazines with little television experience. His ideas were to create a kind of 'pub atmosphere' and to have plenty of guests including footballers and other sports personalities as well as top comedians. After a pilot shown just before Christmas 1996, the show was aired on 12th February 1997 to coincide with England's World Cup qualifyer with Italy. Along side Kelly was comedian Tim Clark whilst Tom Binns presented occasional slot within the show, usually for advertising. The set matched the shows sporting theme with the guests chair resembling a baseball mitt and a boxing glove. The show had a rather shambolic quality to it. For the first outside broadcast, an interview had been arranged with Father Rosso, parish preist of St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church in Islington but a problem with the sound meant the father could not hear the hosts. The stage crew were described as having a relaxed attitude to filming, usually ordering pizza to be delivered to the set. The guests and event the hosts would also be drinking during the show. If the people on screen had a few to drink, the viewers calling in to the show were almost always drunk. The show had achieved it's pub atmosphere but probally not the one Danny Kelly or the producers had hoped for.
 * It replaced a previous phone-in show called "night talk" presented by Gary Imlach. Commissioner editor for C4, Stuart Cosgrove approached Kelly for ideas to improve "night talk". With a bigger budget, Under... was pitched with more guests, a comedy spot, and to have phone-in calls like what they do in t'pub.
 * Show was pitched because Channel 4 had heard Channel 5 (launched March 1997) were lauching a similar format
 * even the furniture was sports related. the hosts sat in chairs shaped like a boxing glove and a baseball mitt
 * programme was transmitted weekly except during the 98 World cup when it was on 3 nights a week
 * First show coincided with England's World Cup qualifier against Italy at Wembley - England lost. That night had an outside broadcast with Father Rosso, parish priest of St Peter's Italian Catholic Church in Islington. It was a typical disaster with the priest not answer any questions claiming he couldn't hear.
 * Guests and hosts would be regularly drink on set
 * Show axed when Kelly didn't renew his contract
 * Past guest apparently protested the cancellation including Ruel Fox, Kevin Gallacher, Lennox Lewis and Colin Hendry

Kelly

 * former editor of the music mags 'NME' & 'Q' as well as former mag 'Total Sport'
 * Worked with Danny Baker on TalkRadio
 * Previous TV experience presenting "the greatest" aimed at finding the greatest sports man. winner was Daley Thompson - the shows creative consultant

Clark

 * no TV experience at that time. wouldn't rehearse and had trouble reading the autocue
 * only appeared in 10 episodes

Binns

 * originally had short segments in the show
 * promoted to co-host with departure of Clark
 * payed £20,000 to Robbie Fowler in libel damages
 * then made a homosexual remark about Michael Owen which got him fired

Rogers

 * arrived just before the World Cup
 * worked in production but had no presenting experience

Footballers
Other sports stars
 * Sol Campbell, Neil Ruddock, Ossie Ardiles, Kasey Keller
 * Phil Tufnell, Gee Armitage

Non-sports stars

 * Jordan, Alistair McGowan, Alan McInally, Half-man Half-Biscuit, Passo & Co. (performing their capoeira or Brazilian fighting dance act), Vladimir McTavish , Bob Doolally, Jason Bradbury

Always had a football guest on. Only premier league club to refuse was Arsenal. When Nigel Winterburn finally appeared he said Ian Wright refused to let anyone on because of the poor quality of the show.

Incidents

 * Ruddock was telling me how he was best friends with Alan Shearer because they were at Southampton together as kids. In the way that men sometimes do, I said, "Argh, you're not that big with Shearer." The next thing, he's ringing Alan Shearer, he gets through, shouts, "Shearer. You're f***ing useless." And hands the phone to me.'
 * David Vine storms out of studio
 * Following the death of Princess Diana some remarks were made about the football being cancelled. This resulted in a flood of hate mail. Kelly laid low for a while moving to Belfast for a while
 * 'In one case, a guy came on and said, "Oh, you're a bit fat for television aren't you?" I walked up to the camera and live on air, I said, "Why don't you leave me alone, you f***er?" Some weeks later someone else did it and I just sat there and said, "Right, you know where we are, we're in Horseferry Road in Victoria. We finish at three o'clock. At four o'clock, after I've had a chance to have a drink, let's do it." I actually went outside at four and waited but no one came. Still, I think the on-air challenge to step outside may well have been a televisual first.'

Memorable Moments

 * Sports Masseur of the Year - each week Binns would be given a rub down usually by a beautiful female masseuse. Final week they called in great hairbair of a bloke who gave Binns a brutal massage.
 * Ostrich racing -'What makes me laugh about the way we covered sports like ostrich racing is that the producers took it so seriously. It was so testosterone-fuelled. They couldn't see any difference between ferret racing and F1 and stripped all jokes out accordingly.'
 * Cheerleaders - 'We had cheerleaders in every week - such as from the London Monarchs - and we ran a competition to design outfits. The sole purpose of this was so I could say, as I leant on a sewing machine, "Send us your designs for the cheerleaders and I'll knock them up."'
 * Bowling With Uncle Billy and Auntie Peggy - 'This is my real uncle and auntie and we filmed it in a leisure centre in Sunderland. Peggy was a champion bowler and she demonstrated the moves every week while Billy talked us through what she was doing.'
 * King's Cross Steeler - 'We did a film about the world's first gay rugby team and followed their progress for a long time because they had never won a match. Then, joyously, their captain called in one night to tell us of their first success.'