Art Attack
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Art Attack | |
|---|---|
 Art Attack logo |
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| Genre | Art, Children's |
| Running time | 20 mins |
| Creator(s) | Neil Buchanan Tim Edmunds |
| Executive producer(s) | The Media Merchants |
| Starring | Neil Buchanan |
| Opening theme | Mr Miller & Mr Porter |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Original channel | ITV1 |
| Original run | 1989–Present |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Art Attack is a British children's television series about art. It is one of ITV's longest running children's programmes, running since 1989, and has been presented throughout by Neil Buchanan. The show was originally fifteen minutes' long but this was extended to twenty minutes from series 11. It involves Buchanan producing three or four works of art, taking the viewer through its production step by step.
He often introduces a particular segment by showing the finished piece, then the litany "Come have a look at this!!". When a piece involves painting or gluing or anything else that requires time to dry or set, he puts the piece — with a few slops of paint or such over it — to one side and says, "and then you'll have something that looks like this". His works are designed so children can follow his technique and make their own copy of his piece, and they are generally pictures with some quirk added to them, e.g. 'Lolly Lettering' (a type of calligraphy using lolly sticks) and using cardboard squares as paint palette knives to create a painting of a ship. In several episodes he makes something that included lots of torn-up newspaper and papier-mâché (using a solution of PVA glue and water), like the 'Dinosaur Banks'.
Once he has finished explaining his work, he says the famous "Try it yourself" line to the viewers.
One of Art Attack's most famous inclusions is the Big Art Attacks. These are pieces of art done by Buchanan on a huge scale, often on a playing field, tarmac ground and similar. One of his most well-known is a 'picture' of Queen Elizabeth II made up of £250,000 worth of £10 banknotes. In a holiday special episode of Art Attack, Buchanan arranged for a big art attack on the skyline of Manhattan, having specific apartments turn their lights on and off to pixilate a Christmas scene. Also memorable is 'The Head', an animated stone bust who laughs and recaps the steps needed to produce the last art piece made. In series one, The Head was played by Steve Sweeney, in series 2, Andrew O'connor and from series 3, it was voiced and operated by Francis Wright. It did not appear in series 13 and from series 17 to date.
The programme was originally a TVS production, devised by two TVS employees, Neil Buchanan and Tim Edmunds. Buchanan and Edmunds met each other at Southern Television in 1978, and worked together on No.73 and Do It. The Art Attack pilot was shot on location at a disused swimming pool in Gillingham in 1988, and the series began the following year. When TVS lost its franchise, Edmunds and Buchanan produced the programme through their company, "The Media Merchants". The Media Merchants produced the show for SMG Productions. At this time (1992) another ex-TVS employee, Peter Urie set up a production management company, Television Support Services. Television Support Services managed all of the Media Merchants' productions.
Art Attack has been recorded at Studio 2, Maidstone for its entire run, apart from series 3 (1992) when it was recorded at Studio 1, Southampton.
The Media Merchants and Television Support Services merged prior to a takeover by Britt Allcroft's Gullane Entertainment which was, in turn taken over by HIT.
The Media Merchants is now a HIT Entertainment company. The production team is as follows:
- Producers: Helen Dawson/ Evans (TVS/ MM), Nic Ayling (TVS/ MM), Louise Lamb (MM)
- Executive Producers: Neil Buchanan (TVS/ MM), Tim Edmunds (TVS/ MM), J. Nigel Pickard (TVS).
- Production Management: John Jones (TVS), Peter Urie (MM), Matt Porter (MM)
- For HIT Entertainment: Kate Fawkes, Peter Orton
- For SMG: Sandy Ross (SMG), Elizabeth Partyka (SMG), Adrian Edwards (SMG).
- Associate Producers: Driana Jones (TVS/ MM), Pete Smith (TVS/ MM), Nicqui Farrington (MM), Juliette Pye (MM).
- Directors: Nick Bigsby (TVS), Richard Bradley (MM), Jeremy Cross (TVS), Tim Edmunds (TVS/ MM), Peter Eyre (MM), Claire Michel (MM), Jeremy Swan (MM)
The show is especially popular among children in Canada, where it was shown on Family Channel.
Art Attack is still on TV in Canada, on TVO. It also runs on DisneyLatino in Spanish hosted by Rui Torres and on Super RTL in German hosted by Beni Weber.
It also aired in Australia from the mid to late 1990s on the ABC, and aired in Singapore on Disney Channel.
In India Disney Channel started airing it in 2006.
The show was also aired in Greece from 1991 to 1997 in ET1.
