Crazy Cottage

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Vera the Cuckoo

Crazy Cottage was a children's game show created by Paul Zenon, broadcast on ITV from 1996 to 1999. It was first presented by Rick Adams, followed by Jez Edwards with a puppet cuckoo called Vera. The gimmick of the show was that most things had to be performed backwards.

The show started with the presenter saying "goodbye", then starting the games at Round 5. One of the rounds involved a series of actions that had to be performed in a certain order, so that when it was played back in reverse, it matched what they were asked to do. Another round was a kitchen set up on a slope, but appeared to the viewers as a normal room. Another game involved the contestants standing in a shower (which was a gunge tank) and answering questions. An incorrect answer would result in the contestant being gunged. At the end of the game the recording was played in reverse to give the appearance that the gunge was flying off the contestants.

At the end of the programme, the winning team (who had the fewest points) won a prize, such as a trip to Alton Towers. The losing team (with the most points) would win a backwards invention, for example, a black lightbulb.