Noel's House Party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Noel's House Party | |
|---|---|
 First logo |
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| Format | Light entertainment |
| Run time | 50mins |
| Starring | Noel Edmonds |
| Channel | BBC One |
| Production company | Unique |
| Related shows | The Late, Late Breakfast Show Noel's Saturday Roadshow |
| Air dates | 23 November 1991 – 20 March 1999 |
| No. of episodes | 169 |
| IMDb profile | |
Noel's House Party was a BBC television light entertainment show broadcast live on Saturday evenings throughout the 1990s hosted by Noel Edmonds. It was set in a large house in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom, leading to many homophonic jokes. The show was usually broadcast during the autumn-spring season (October-March).
The show had many regular guests posing as fictional villagers, including Frank Thornton and Vicki Michelle. The show gave birth to Mr. Blobby in the Gotcha segment. The character became well known, ruining the premise of the segment, but Blobby still made appearances. There was also a contrived rivalry between Noel and Tony Blackburn.
It won a Bronze Rose of Montreux in 1994.
Contents |
[edit] Regular features
[edit] Gotcha
Originally called the "Gotcha Oscars" until the threat of legal action from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hidden camera practical jokes were played on celebrities. Notable victims were Dave Lee Travis, Richard Whiteley and Eddie Large.
[edit] Wait 'til I Get You Home
Parents watch pre-recorded footage of their children being interviewed by Noel, where they try to guess the answers they gave.
[edit] Grab a Grand
A phone-in competition where a viewer would choose from three currencies (aiming to select the highest), and a celebrity (usually a sportsperson) would collect as many notes as possible from a clear booth pumped with air
[edit] Cash for Questions
Similar to Grab a Grand, a celebrity goes into the pitch black 'basement', and the winning caller would direct the celebrity to the bags of money with help of an infrared camera.
[edit] NTV
A camera would be hidden near an unsuspecting member of the public's TV, so that they would be on-air at the specified moment.
[edit] Sofa Soccer
A similar idea to Bernie the Bolt in The Golden Shot, a viewer from home would attempt to score goals by manoeuvring the machine firing the huge football ("left", "right", "shoot"). The jingle music to this game was based on Crazy Horses by The Osmonds.
[edit] The Big Pork Pie
A member of the studio audience has their embarrassing secrets revealed.
[edit] The Gunge Tank
This was put to various uses, usually gunging celebrities. Noel was himself usually gunged once a season.
[edit] Number Cruncher
A modified phonebox (with gungetank and LCD screen) was placed somewhere in Britain. The number to get into the box was given, and the first person to get into the box got to play the game. Once in, they had 45 seconds to rearrange the code given on the LCD screen to get out. Towards the end people kept on pressing '9' to try and earn a lot of money, and people had to bring a stupid object.
[edit] Beat Your Neighbour
Neighbours would choose what prizes they wanted from each other's house, for every question answered, they were put on a tray. Then each family were asked questions alternately, if the question was right the belongings were pushed to their side. Controversial because of the two-second delay in the video link.
[edit] Practical jokes
A regular feature at the end of seasons was that a practical joke would be played on Noel (although exactly how contrived these were is unknown). One of the most notable was based on a recurring sketch where he would attempt to sing, only to be interrupted by the doorbell. During a final show, a caption appeared informing the audience that the doorbell "isn't going to ring." He was then 'forced' to sing "You Don't Give Me Flowers" in its entirety.
[edit] Mr. Blobby
Mr. Blobby started as a tool for Noel Edmonds to play Gotcha practical jokes on celebrities, but soon became popular and made appearance in many shows.
[edit] Decline
After several changes, the show's initially huge popularity declined. The theme tune changed in 1996, and set redesigns followed. Noel pulled the show in 1998 after apparent disagreements with the BBC producers and claiming it wasn't good enough. He returned for one final series.
| Its an overworked expression when people say its the end of an era but for BBC Television, the Entertainment Department, for me and possibly you, it really is the end of an era. After 169 [shows]...goodbye. |
[edit] Trivia
- On 6 March 1993, the studio was evacuated shortly before transmission due to an IRA bomb threat. Edmonds appeared in the Children's BBC 'broom cupboard' studio to explain why there would be no episode that night, and introduced the replacement of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
- Writers included Andy Parsons, Henry Naylor and Richard Lewis.
- The show had a couple of spin-off books, one of which was Noel giving tips on how to host a house party.
- In 1995 the character 'Chalkie Edmonds' (Noel's devious Nephew) was introduced to the show. The part was played by young actor John 'Chalkie' Adams who was previously a resident performer on the 'Barrymore Show' for LWT.
