CiTV Presentation

Now you mention it yes, both Danielle and Stephen appeared in Sooty Heights and yes, Danielle was a host of the second series of Mad for it along with Mike McClean and Nigel Mitchell who then went on to host Fun House rip off Twister' which was aired on CITV for a few weeks in 2001.

Those titles definitely happened. I remember once the "Scratchy" logo had been revealed. Reg would spray paint "& co" alongside it.

The only thing I remember about It's Not Fair was the assault course at the end which was a bit like Fun House but on a much smaller scale. There seemed to be a point where lots of kids gameshows were trying to mimic the success of Fun House and Get Your Own Back. Crazy Cottage and Wake Up In The Wildroom were examples of this.

Oh and talking of 'Run the Risk'. Peter Simon used to host a live stage version at Butlins in Skegness in the early 00's. I went to watch it on two occasions. He'd still do the falling over and getting covered in gunge at every possible opportunity!

Even earlier than that, I saw him doing it there in 1996 and 1997!

This has literally only just been uploaded to YouTube! This clip shows the paint titles were used in the 3rd series too.

And now it's Get Your Own Back doing something similar.

And vaguely getting back on topic apart from Fort Boyard when was the last time CITV had anything which their viewers could appear on. That kind of show seems to have largely disappeared, though not hugely surprising considering the studio costs they'd incur.

That's all quite interesting. I do think losing Zoe Ball was one of The Big Breakfast's biggest mistakes - taking over from Gaby she never really got much credit but she became much more than Gaby ever was during her short stint, anchoring much more of the show herself. It was just a shame really they couldn't get her a new co-host in to start with her when Gaby left (though from discussion in the the dedicated thread I do think they tried to replace Mark Little).


Anyway back to CITV and it does sound like Saturday mornings is one area where the regional structure really wasn't an advantage with a bit of sabotage at work.

I'm sure those titles were used on the second series too- they certainly wouldn't have used the Series 1 titles anyway as they had the big haired Scratchy on them. And I have no memory of Gail Porter being a co-presenter at all! I know she was on the show due to her representing it on the ITV50 edition of MoM, but until I saw this I'd actually presumed she was a presenter on the Massive segment, not in the studio with Mark Speight. I remember her doing Fully Booked though!

And a pre-fame Billie Piper in there too- but not her first TV appearance as she was appearing in one of the Channel 4 Schools countdowns at the time! Wonder if she'd have imagined she'd have a number one single within a year of this being made! Though she was probably being groomed by record companies even at this point!

Looks like it's bits from 2 different episodes as well- the switch being the abrupt cut part way through the Animaniacs titles. Certainly the Slappy & Skippy cartoon there is from a different episode (and season!) of Animaniacs to the two shorts shown in the rundown at the start. Unless they were in the habit of mixing segments from different episodes!

Ive always wonder where CITV broadcast the rest of Animaniacs, I know there complete the run, but no idea where. I was always a L&K person by then and Scratchy & co which I do see every so often was meh.

Without meaning to sound too grim, I remember finding some CITV continuity on tape a few years back from extremely soon after the 9/11 attacks - probably a day or so later. There's obviously no references to world events but it's an extremely subdued atmosphere in the studio as they introduce the programmes. The tapes are back in my old house in London though (I'm in Australia now).

I remember seeing Mark Speight in full Scratchy & Co costume in Battersea Park, must have been in about 1997, energetically signing autographs for a horde of kids that had spotted him. Being about eight at the time I genuinely wanted to join them but was too shy. Really sad how things ended for him.

I have vague memories of Animaniacs being aired before Crazy Cottage on Thursdays around 1997/8. Animaniacs was definitely aired on weekdays as a standalone show through the 90's as various bits of continuity online show anyway.

I met Mark Speight in 2005 at Butlins and had a photo with him. I was in my teens when the news broke of his death and although I never actually knew him. It was incredibly sad to lose someone that was a big part of your childhood. He was an incredibly talented guy. Even now it's hard to comprehend how something like that happens to a kids TV presenter of all people! What's nice is every April 8th a lot of ex-CBBC and CITV personalities tweet their memories of him.

I know CITV went to ITV2 on the day of 9/11. But I'm 60% sure it did switch back to ITV1 towards the end of CITV. I'm sure I remember seeing Art Attack that day. We only had terrestrial TV at that time as we'd just moved house and literally had just a small TV and an indoor aireal so couldn't watch ITV 2. I could be horribly wrong, I was only a child and my memory could be playing tricks on me.

I used to like Mark Speight a lot as a kid, but I can't pretend I didn't feel badly let down when I heard about his drug exploits. I admit I can't watch stuff like Scratchy & Co now without wondering if he was coked off his face when he was making them.

This isn't the place to talk about such topics but I highly doubtful he would have been dealing with that stuff while at work. ( remember blue peter) He would have been matched off the building and the police called.

His personnel life was his choice, and I don't believe for one second it caused fiction with his working life, mind you the there are a lot of people like him right now.

Edit: because it made no sense.

The schedule was cleared on ITV1 that afternoon (ITV made the decision to scrap the afternoon's programming at about 2:15pm) and I believe the coverage ran until at least 6pm. CITV was aired on ITV2 at that point but with regards to Art Attack, the 2001 series (series 14) didn't start until November 2001. So Wikipedia says, but there may have been a repeat.