Sticky Moments with Julian Clary

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Sticky Moments with Julian Clary
Format	Comedy/Game show
Created by	Julian Clary and Paul Merton
Starring	Julian Clary Russell Churney Philip Herbert Barb Jungr Michael Parker
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	22
Production
Running time	35 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Original run	October 1989 – December 1990
External links
IMDb profile

Sticky Moments with Julian Clary was a British game show television series on Channel 4, hosted by comedian Julian Clary. Two series were made, the first in 1989 and the second in 1990.

1 Cast and crew
2 Premise
3 Russell Churney
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Cast and crew

The series was devised and written by Clary with fellow comedian and writer Paul Merton, and was produced by Clary's production company Wonderdog Productions (named after his beloved pet whippet, "Fanny the Wonderdog", who also regularly appeared on the show).^[1]

Julian was accompanied by two co-hosts: his "steadfastly heterosexual" pianist, Russell Churney, who provided musical accompaniment and a foil for Julian's teasing; and announcer/scorekeeper/assistant "Hugh Jelly" (played by actor Philip Herbert) – a large man with a booming voice, usually dressed almost as flamboyantly as Clary himself. Further musical accompaniment was provided by the duo Barb Jungr & Michael Parker, who assisted Clary when he performed a musical number at the end of each show.

[edit] Premise

Clary, in customary full make-up and dressed in a new outrageous outfit each week, would select contestants for the night's show from the audience members queuing outside. Once in the studio, contestants would be introduced by him and were then subjected to some light-hearted teasing based on their personal details.

The questions, answers, challenges and cheap prizes were deliberately off-centre, and rife with gay innuendo and double entendres, played for laughs rather than actual competition.^[2]

Contestants were eliminated round-by-round, based usually on the totals of Clary's mostly arbitrary point allocation. Losing players were given a plaster bust of Fanny the Wonderdog as a consolation prize.^[1], with the eventual lucky winner receiving a prize of barely more value (wine/champagne, flowers, plastic tiara, etc). At the end of each show, following a musical number by Clary and co, the winner was then seen stepping into a chauffeur-driven car, whilst the runner-up was left to go home in less glamorous circumstances (bicycle, wheelbarrow, etc).

The first series was a success and Channel 4 commissioned a second series that followed in late 1990. The second series was officially titled "Sticky Moments On Tour with Julian Clary", though the format was essentially identical to the first series with the addition of painted studio backdrops and props to humorously pretend the show was taking place in more exotic locations (France, Australia, Scotland, and an episode based at the less exotic Newport Pagnell).

Clary also performed a live version of Sticky Moments on his national stage tour in 1990, with contestants plucked from the audience.

[edit] Russell Churney

Clary's Sticky Moments pianist and long-time collaborator, Russell Churney, died in February 2007 of pancreatic cancer. He was 42 years old.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Farewell to Fanny, BBC News, 2 June 1999.
^ Whannel, Gary [1992]. "The price is right but the moments are sticky", in Dominic Strinati: Come on Down?: The Politics of Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain. London: Routledge, 194. ISBN 0415063264.