To be fair Guy Freeman was Production Manager or similar on Saturday Roadshow and the first few series of NHP so I don't think the blame can be pointed entirely at him, he certainly wasn't a new broom.
Certainly in that C5 interview, Noel identified the moment Freeman left (early in series 7, late 97) as when it all fell apart, I think Noel himself stepped in as Producer at one point.
Certainly in that C5 interview, Noel identified the moment Freeman left (early in series 7, late 97) as when it all fell apart, I think Noel himself stepped in as Producer at one point.
Yes, Freeman abruptly left in the middle of series 7, it was quite a big story at the time and got in all the papers as the first sign of the show starting to fall apart. John McHugh was drafted in as his replacement for the rest of the run.
I don't doubt Guy Freeman had experience of working on Noel's shows, but when he was producer it was rubbish. It seemed at the time to be a job swap between him and Jonathan Beazley, because Freeman had also produced Jim Davidson's first series of The Generation Game (which was awful) while Beazley produced House Party, and then they swapped over. Of course, those were the days when the BBC light entertainment department used to be run on military lines and people would work their way up, so you would always see the same names in the credits.
:-(
A former member
I was having a think and your right in some aspect that there trouble was there to be seen in Series 5. It when someone start mucking around with the formats ie Grab a grand, why was that changed? And wait till I got home was killed off.
From what I've seen over the years Noel isn't the sort of person that takes failure too well, after the disaster that was Sell Or Swap Live which Channel 4 haven't mentioned since in any form whatsoever he very quickly seemed to vanish from Twitter! Be interesting to see how his other new show for Channel 4 goes.
Although when you match a winning format up with Noel you get some excellent television but then it goes on too long and ends up ruining it a bit as with both House Party and Deal Or No Deal. They should have axed the normal Deal Or No Deal episodes years ago and just done several of the On Tour specials each year going forward in my opinion, it was a great experience visiting the 'Dream Factory' in Bristol though to see a couple of games being filmed!
I bet at some point they bring it back. Everything's very 'back to the future' at the moment. Imagine Noel Edmonds' eyes lighting up upon hearing the good news, only the learn it'll be on ITV...
I've been trying to find the interview but it was on one of them talking head story of Saturday Night shows and Ant & Dec said the BBC and ITV were both trying to sign them exclusively during the period they were presenting Friends Like These and SM:TV and they asked to host Noel's House Party and ITV offered it to them therefore they signed with them.
Yes, I remember that, it was a BBC Four documentary I think.
The one with the big forehead came across as a deeply unpleasant, money obsessed piece of work. He felt very proud of how, in his opinion, they'd screwed over the BBC into a deal that was bad value for money.
With impeccable timing BBC Archive tweeted this behind the scenes video from series 2 earlier. I think the only (official) footage I've ever seen from a behind-the-scenes angle, they were usually quite protective of the whole fictional country house set up. It's particularly interesting how they had to do a fake rehearsal to deter the guys from The Bill, I'd never thought before how complicated that could make things.
Any ideas as to what programme this was featured on? It predates Live and Kicking. I thought perhaps Take Two but the bleeped swearing at the end makes that unlikely.
With impeccable timing BBC Archive tweeted this behind the scenes video from series 2 earlier. I think the only (official) footage I've ever seen from a behind-the-scenes angle, they were usually quite protective of the whole fictional country house set up. It's particularly interesting how they had to do a fake rehearsal to deter the guys from The Bill, I'd never thought before how complicated that could make things.
Any ideas as to what programme this was featured on? It predates Live and Kicking. I thought perhaps Take Two but the bleeped swearing at the end makes that unlikely.
I think it may be Entertainment Express as Andi Peters was a reporter for the programme. I've seen a Dr Who item with him reporting it.
Last edited by benriggers on 5 March 2017 9:49pm - 2 times in total
With impeccable timing BBC Archive tweeted this behind the scenes video from series 2 earlier. I think the only (official) footage I've ever seen from a behind-the-scenes angle, they were usually quite protective of the whole fictional country house set up. It's particularly interesting how they had to do a fake rehearsal to deter the guys from The Bill, I'd never thought before how complicated that could make things.
Any ideas as to what programme this was featured on? It predates Live and Kicking. I thought perhaps Take Two but the bleeped swearing at the end makes that unlikely.
I think it may be Entertainment Express as Andi Peters was a reporter for the programme. I've seen a Dr Who item with him reporting it.