CiTV Presentation

The European Art Attacks simply reshot the pieces with Neil's face in shot with a local personality. The top-down shot was just footage from the UK version. Neil Buchannan was credited as "Grand Artist" or something.

Yeah Disney has been making their own editions of Art Attack for foreign countries for ages. The studio scenes were still filmed at Maidstone but using a much smaller version of the set. As seen in this clip from about 1 minute in




The foreign presenter would just narrate over pre-recorded footage of someone else hands (maybe Neil's) making the Art Attack. The big Art Attack's were just re-used ones from old UK series. For the new Disney series they use newly filmed ones with some guy called "Alex the Big Artist.

But in the UK, The Disney Channel just used to re-run the original CITV version until the mid 00's. Art Attack was so popular for Disney I guess that's why they decided to buy the rights fully and make their own when the UK version finished and the Maidstone Studios no longer had the set. I think the current Disney version is filmed in Buenos Aires but don't quote me on that!

All a bit confusing yes...personally I will always think that Neil Buchanan was Art Attack. The new Disney version is just a poor imitation.

As for the TVS editions (Series 1-4) I think they are safe. As The Media Merchants had to re-buy the rights them to continue making them from Series 5 onwards. Series 3-4 were definitely being aired on TDC as late as 2001 if I recall rightly and as we all know, a series 3 edition was aired on CITV in 2013.

TVS Catchphrase was on Challenge[TV] until 2001/2/3; which was the point the rights package they had from the point Flextech took over The Family Channel expired.

Im not sure where we keep going over the same ground with Art Attract, Neil bough the series out right from TVS. Disney obtained control after there bought him out or Hit who may have bought Media The Media Merchants out.

Big question has always been why didn't Flextech ask for the TVS Gameshows programmes to be included in the other half of the buyout.

But only after TVS lost its franchise. Prior to that it was a TVS production, Buchanan bought the rights to it afterwards. If TVS had won its franchise it's plausible that Art Attack may have stayed at TVS, and not been dragged off to an indie.

That's a given.

What episodes of Art Attack did TCC show? Fairly certain that they showed the TVS ones as the channel finished in 1998, so it had to of been early ones, but I'm not sure.

Apparently:


Reliability unknown, but better than nothing.

The strange thing about TCC is when they closed down for the final time, they just ran the usual "see you tomorrow" film. Was anyone working there still bothered about the channel by then?



Not forgetting that the TCC website stayed up for years after the channel closed down!

That because that feed also went out to Non UK cable channel, which did continue to broadcast the channel.

Wiki says Cable & Wireless replaced TCC UK with the Nordic feed (itself ran until 2000) as the UK channel was closed abruptly with no warning.

TCC showed actually quite a lot of CITV and CBBC shows, a quick glance at the Wikipedia page for it and you can see stuff like Danger Mouse, Button Moon, Byker Grove, but again, it isn't very reliable, as Ripley And Scuff is on there- that didn't even start when TCC was still airing!