The Hit Man and Her

The Hit Man and Her
Presented by	Pete Waterman Michaela Strachan
Opening theme	"Cocoon" by Timerider
Ending theme	Various tracks used
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
Production
Running time	120 minutes
Production company(s)	Granada Television
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	3 September 1988 (1988-09-03) – 5 December 1992 (1992-12-05)

The Hit Man and Her was a British television dance music show hosted by Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan. The programme was produced for Granada Television and ran from September 1988 until December 1992.

Background

The programme presented a taste of late-night clubbing, with long segments showing crowds dancing to popular hits, occasional celebrity performances, and party games – with Waterman and Strachan acting as masters of ceremony.

The show toured various nightclubs. The first show came from Mr Smiths in Warrington on 3 September 1988, and the final show aired on 5 December 1992 from The Discothèque Royale in Manchester. The programme was often recorded on a Saturday night, edited on-the-fly, and shown a few hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning, the second half of the Saturday/Sunday version being repeated during the following night. The earlier shows were split into two-halves: the first at 1am and the second at 4am, with the LWT's Night Network magazine show sandwiched in between. During 1988 The Hit Man and Her was moved to 2am in some areas, while London still broadcast the show at 4am. The Hitman and Her remained at the 2am slot from April 1989 until its very last broadcast. A special edition of The Hit Man and Her was broadcast as part of the ITV Telethon in 1992.

The programme was sponsored by Eric Baskind's Ultimate Response group between 1989 and 1991.

Clubbers would arrive at the featured club hoping to appear on television. Often members of the crowd would be plucked out to participate in games such as "Pass The Mic!", "Showing Out", and "Clothes Swap". It was produced for Granada Television at first by Music Box Productions, then by Granada TV itself, and later by Clear Idea Productions through to the final edition.

In I Love 1988, Pete Waterman said that the idea for The Hit Man and Her came to him when he turned on the TV late one night and the only TV station still on-air was featuring guest Elvis Costello talking about Irish politics.

Music

The theme tune, "Cocoon", was performed by Timerider. The track also appeared in the film The Fruit Machine, and Pete also used it as the signature tune for his Saturday morning Radio City show. It is still today used as the theme tune for Barnsley F.C. and is played as the team comes out onto the pitch at every home game.

Latterly, the show's theme tune changed to "Rofo's theme" by Rofo.

The show featured many artists from that era, particularly from the Stock Aitken Waterman stable, including Sonia and Sinitta. A CD was released in 2006 featuring a selection of tracks played on the show. Later editions of the show featured acts signed to Pete's international label PWL Continental for UK releases, such as 2 Unlimited and Cappella.

The show also featured key club tunes from the day - largely as a result of Pete Waterman's interest in the fledgling acid house scene. Speaking to The Guardian in November 2013, Waterman explained "I loved acid house and trance. I just absolutely adored it." One track the show championed in particular was Stakker Humanoid by Brian Dougans, which Waterman described as "a Hitman and Her tune".^[1]

Stage dancers

Jason Orange was a regular dancer on the show, and thus was invited to later join the boy band Take That. Another boy band, 911, included former "Hitman" dancers Jimmy Constable and Spike Dawbarn.

References

External links

• The Hit Man And Her at the Internet Movie Database
• Pete Waterman Ltd Q and A about Media (TV/Radio/Web)