| Noel's House Party | |
|---|---|
Show title card (1991–96) |
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| Format | Live entertainment |
| Created by | BBC |
| Written by | Malcolm Williamson Noel Edmonds Charlie Adams Garry Chambers Richard Lewis Stuart Silver Louis Robinson |
| Directed by | Guy Freeman Duncan Cooper Michael Leggo Phil Chilvers |
| Presented by | Noel Edmonds |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 169 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Michael Leggo,Neil Buchanan |
| Producer(s) | Mike Brosnan Jonathan Beazley |
| Editor(s) | John Sillito |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Picture format | 4:3 (1991–8) 16:9 (1998–9) |
| Original run | 23 November 1991 – 20 March 1999 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Noel's Saturday Roadshow |
Noel's House Party was a BBC television light entertainment show hosted by Noel Edmonds that was broadcast live on Saturday evenings throughout the 1990s. It was set in a large house in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom, leading to much innuendo. The show was broadcast during the autumn-spring season (October/November - March). It was the successor show to Noel's Saturday Roadshow, and carried over some of its regular features such as the Gunge Tank, the Gotcha Oscar and Wait 'Till I Get You Home.
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. In addition, many episodes featured one-off guest stars, including Michael Crawford as Frank Spencer, who came in to find the whole audience dressed as Frank, and Ken Dodd in a highwayman's outfit - 'Going cheap at the Maxwell sale' - as Noel's long lost 'twin', Berasent.
It won a Bronze Rose of Montreux in 1994.
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Originally called the "Gotcha Oscars" until the threat of legal action from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which also prompted a redesign of the award), hidden camera practical jokes were played on celebrities. Notable victims were Barbara Windsor, Carol Vorderman, Jill Dando, Dave Lee Travis, Richard Whiteley, Eddie Large, Samantha Janus, Yvette Fielding, Status Quo, and the Queens Park Rangers football club, although in the final series Dale Winton turned the tables on Edmonds with a surprise challenge that ended with a gunging. Another notable victim was Annabel Giles, the first victim who managed to spot the hidden camera, which had been placed in the back of a car, which meant the prank backfired.
Parents watch pre-recorded footage of their children being interviewed by Noel, where they try to guess the answers they gave. A similar slot, The Secret World of the Teenager, replaced Wait 'til I Get You Home in later series.
In early series, celebrity duos competed against one another to complete songs after being given the first line.
A phone-in competition where a viewer would choose from three currencies (aiming to select the one of the greatest value of money), and a celebrity (usually a sports star) would collect as many notes as possible from a box that blew the money around. Noel asked the caller three questions based on the week's news and each correct answer gave the celebrity 20 seconds in the money box, up to a total of 60 seconds. The game was changed in later series and included variations such as "Grab A Granny", "Grab A Grand Piano", and "Grab A Grand National" with bouncing kings and queens with bungee cords, used in the 100th episode. The competition was replaced by Cash for Questions towards the end of the show's run.
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. Named after a political scandal.
A camera would be hidden in the home of a member of the public, so that they would be on-air at the specified moment, and Noel would talk to them.[1]
From the final season of the series 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.
A member of the studio audience has their embarrassing secrets revealed. Seated in a large prop pork pie, the victim would be connected to a lie detector machine (although in reality, this too was a prop). The victim had been set up by their friends or family who had provided the secrets.
Carried over from Noel's Saturday Roadshow, this was put to various uses, usually gunging celebrities or unpopular members of the public after a phone vote which was carried out during the duration of the show - the gunging usually being the final item before the closing credits. Celebrities include Anthea Turner, Jenny Hull, Carol Vorderman, Edwina Currie, Gloria Hunniford, Jeremy Clarkson, Samantha Janus, Anneka Rice (twice), Annabel Giles and Ulrika Jonsson.
The 'gunge' was in fact a food thickening agent called Natrasol, coloured with various food dyes.[2] The gunge tank got progressively more sophisticated in subsequent seasons - the Season 1 version of the gunge tank was effectively the same as in Saturday Roadshow. However for Season 2, the tank also pumped foam from underneath the chair before the gunge was released. For Season 3, the chair holding the victim was on a conveyor device which would take the victim through revolving car wash brushes before the actual gunging. In Seasons 4 & 5, it was developed into the "Trip Around The Great House", where the victim would be placed on a miniature railway that journeyed through the studio set, finishing up in the Giant Fireplace where the gunge would finally be released.
For the final seasons, a selected member of the audience would be gunged by a tank lowered from the studio rafters or a retracting chair which would lower into the undercroft of the studio, gunge the victim and then elevate back up into the audience position. Edmonds was himself usually gunged once a series - usually in the final episode of the season.
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. If a contestant won the game, they then had an opportunity to take the "gamble". By pulling the handle, they could either double their money, have random objects dropped on them, or receive "a surprise" which resulted in the player getting gunged. However, if they ran out of time, the player got gunged. People kept on pressing '9' to try and earn a lot of money, and people had to bring a stupid object.
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.
Primary-school-aged children were led into a room with hidden cameras and two puppets set up to initially appear dormant in the room, one voiced by Edmonds. The puppets would 'awaken' and hold improvised conversations with the children.
Members of the public and sports celebrities would compete against each other on exercise machines, which were hooked up to gunge tanks.
In 1992 during series 2 of NHP, Mr Blobby started as a tool for Noel Edmonds to play Gotcha practical jokes on celebrities, but soon became popular and made appearances in many shows. His popularity soon resulted in him having his own TV show.
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