Early Tiswas opening titles (1975)

From the earliest surviving recording of Tiswas (30/08/75), this is how a typical show would start. The first presenter you see is guest host Richard Barnes. Regular presenters John Asher and Peter Tomlinson launch the show. Chris Tarrant was away on holiday. At this point in time, the show only went out in the midlands. It was ATV only, but that would change later on...

[@Nuttybott]

This is the TISWAS I remember...from the days when it was a Midlands-only programme produced by ATV. My family emigrated to Australia in 1976, so I missed the later, nationally-networked version of the show (the one with Sally James, etc.). To me, TISWAS is all about John Asher and "Atomic Butterfly" (the original and the best TISWAS theme...I don't care what anyone says!).

[@paullancaster7066]

Agreed! It got more ' commercial ' when it went National, the localised ones were chaotic. I loved it when the pulled the kids up from under the desks by their ears! Imagine that happening today! 🤣

[@Candolad]

Absolutely. As soon as it was networked nationally it went downhill. Sally James was brought in from the far inferior London version of TISWAS called "Our Show". You escaped the UK in time, but probably missed the wonderful summer weather of 1976.

[@InternationalNobody]

It's a kids' show and he's wearing a "Campaign fo real ale" T Shirt! Fantastic!

[@keithstuartgoldstraw9682]

this is and always will be the best opening titles of tiswas.....ever! 30th august 1975 i remember it well! John Asher & Peter Tomlinson are legends, where are they now??? also Richard Barnes as well, he was well up for the splashingly great fun! i laughed with glee!

[@mariegriffiths]

Anarchic take this off the air at once Tiswas Peter Tomlinson High Sheriff of the West Midlands Sally James sells School Uniforms. Chris Tarrant OBE Lenny Henry OBE John Gorman Artistic Director for the Theatre on the Steps in Bridgnorth Respectable Swap Shop and Going Live Keith Chegwin nude game show and death through Alcholism Mike Read not seen on TV after racist Calyspo song Noel Edmunds killed a contestant in a dangerous stunt

[@arthurallbutt4269]

Hi there ! My grandpa is Peter Tomlinson, it makes me so proud to see him on here and to see people speaking of him. In 2007 he became high sheriff of the West Midlands until 2008. He was married to my lovely step granny Alison of whom we unfortunately lost to cancer In 2020. As of now he is 80yrs old and presenting on a jazz radio called serenade radio. Any questions feel free to ask !

[@maxtundra]

So great! I adore the other Tiswas theme and didn't even know about this early version.

[@keithstuartgoldstraw3356]

this theme tune is awesome, it is a theme that needs more respect.

[@DomFalance]

Nice to see them reusing the opening from The Golden Shot.

[@yvade]

First time I've seen that since it was last aired! Thanks for putting it on.

[@spokest]

This was the best. Brummie owned and made. I was quite annoyed when it went national and we had to share it with everyone else.

[@Candolad]

Not 'arf !

[@AndrewHalliwell]

Talk about selfish? Condemning the rest of us to nothing but Swap Shop! You're a bit of a git, aren't you?

[@longbendy81]

I remember my nan saying I ahould watch Saturday Swapshop (which started I think about 18 months after Tiswas) I remember the newsreader going through on a rope doing the Tarzan yodel before every episode of Tarzan. Before it was Terry Thomas fishing, or Ulf Goran play guitar, ot Trueman and Arlott on Cricket or something (banana splits, arabian nights) Bring it back - it was ACE

[@paullancaster4654]

Tiswas appeared in the Midlands in about 1974 on ATV with John Asher and Chris Tarrant. (UPDATE.... I have researched and discovered that I am wrong, by the looks of it.... Barnes and Asher and others who got the ball rolling...was Tarrant in from the start? ) Asher stayed a couple of years before it went national. He recorded a version of Let's Twist Again which made the Top Twenty before jetting of to the USA to find his fortune... Sally James used to host a LWT Saturday morning kids show which generally read out requests and showed cartoons. I believe she replaced Asher and then The Phantom arrived along with 'Spit the Dog' , Leggy Henry and other silly ( but funny ) characters. In the early days there were lots of sub 'spots' on the show such as Tiswas Tarrant Time, Tiswas was Terry Time, Tiswas Tomlinson Time. The Tea, Toast and Tray of Treaties Times would be just prior to the 'feature film' of the day- probably a Tarzan or Lone Ranger... which was boring by comparison with the start of the prog. And of course ( this woudn't happen today ) when Asher and Tarrant sat at their paper-covered, disorganised desk, they would introduce guest-kids onto the show by lifting them up BY THEIR EARS from between the two presenters... what fun ! :-) Brill Times !

[@mariegriffiths]

Wasnt there Telecine Time too?

[@paullancaster7066]

​@@mariegriffithsYup! I'd forgotten that one!! TellyCine Time! Tight Lines with fisherman, Terry Thomas, too. ' angonasec' section too in later years. All fabulous stuff!😁

[@FizzzieCat]

I actually prefer this theme tune, this is how I remember the show.

[@Jesusfirst-u3d]

I was 7 tiswas is were I ever first saw a clip of Bruce lee

[@ATVmidlands5581]

just great thanks. facinating to see the early stuff again. cheers

[@derekthesec]

Loved Tiswas before I have started secondary school

[@sunshinemags]

Saturday mornings were great back then.

[@therookpiece]

I really dig his CAMRA shirt!

[@WizardMagicSpell]

This was the original and best theme.

[@mrcrazyjonpresents4312]

Love the T Shirt saying CAMRA Even then there was a Campaign for Real Ale

[@paullancaster7066]

John Asher opens one of the very early Tiswas's. Mr Asher went off to America I believe and others, Inc Sally James who came up from LTV I think. The early episodes were chaotic when scripts got soaked and lots of ad-libbing ensued. Great Telly! 👍

[@arizonabay1970]

young enough to not remember this sequence

[@antster1983]

dacrlit SSVC are the Services Sound & Vision Corporation, they are a charity who run the BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) who provide radio & television services for the British Armed Forces stationed around the world.

[@ManicMalcolm]

We dont just throw this show together The show for Kids who thought swaop shop was oh so stuk up

[@anthonyperkins7556]

Started off in the ATV region originally but gradually other ITV regions starting ditching their Saturday morning programmines and hooking up for Tiswas from ATV Birmingham.

[@arthurvasey]

ATV, LWT and Southern made four different programmes that were offered to the network - ATV offered Tiswas, Southern offered Saturday Banana, presented by Bill Oddie and LWT offered two programmes, one of which would replace the other, Saturday Scene, which Sally James hosted, before she moved to Birmingham to present Tiswas, and Our Show, presented by kids - think of that It’ll Be Alright On The Night clip with that girl who read Grand Prix as Grand Pricks - “It’s got Grand Pricks written down here!” - whichever one you got varied - depending on where you lived, you got Tiswas, Saturday Scene/Our Show, Saturday Banana, a similar regional programme for kids often hosted by someone off the local commercial radio station, though lacking the anarchy of any of the others or they would just stick the duty announcer in front of the camera and have them read out birthday greetings and playing stuff like cartoons, Gerry Anderson’s various Supermarionation series, stuff like Tarzan and old films and I remember seeing a cartoon about the Osmonds!

[@bingbong7316]

​@@arthurvasey imagine having a shouting match across the street "Tiswas!" "Our Show!!" you could see it ending badly.

[@billywhizz1656]

Saturday only morning i be out of bed and down stairs by 7

[@xenbear]

youre wrong Chris Tarrant WASN'T the first present John Asher was......

[@GravityBoy72]

I remember when it started (the original Birmingham only series), the first few weeks were boring and John Asher was rubbish, then one morning John Asher was reading something or other and a boxing glove on a stick appeared from off camera and punched him in the head. THEN it was a different program (because Chris Tarrant started his take over). It was great (until Tarzan).

[@doubledeckers]

Kids weren't patronised in those days. Wheras now we have a juvenile adult population.

[@harperandjohnson]

I see someone else picked up on the CAMRA T shirt ;-)

[@Dreamskater100]

Brilliant.

[@RocksterOO1]

Now we know who Richard Whiteley went to for style tips! It's kinda creepy how much he looks like a young Richard Whiteley.

[@StringedGuitar17]

0:02 _Now_ it's Saturday!

[@perpetuummsioworld3818]

Tiswas: Today.......... Is.............. Saturday!

[@simonhodgetts6530]

Interesting - I would have been 3 when this aired........got to be honest though, Chris, Sally (drool), Lenny, Frank, Bob and John G made this show.......right kids?

[@tonyworrall7379]

The programme was not popular with studio cleaners!Visited the show in its early days...mayhem!

[@trench124]

LOL ahhh yes would a presenter apear on a modern kids show wearing a CAMRA shirt?

[@alexoidztube]

A great programme though the graphics were tragic I'm going away Tp practice some magic!

[@antster1983]

@spookyphill Richard Barnes presented a short for BFBS on the eve of the first live micro relay from the UK to Germany of the ITN and BBC news programmes in December 1982. Someone has uploaded it to KZbin, but the person is adamant it's from 1983.

[@antster1983]

I've since been informed that Richard Barnes became Head of Presentation at BFBS. So it appears being willing to have buckets of water flung at you was a gateway to better things!

[@snr_gbe]

"rain" not "drain" bruh

[@borgduck]

Me & my girl we love each other.

[@nowtrytv]

Likewise -brill. Best happy energetic into music - at the time and not too bad now.

[@SeventiesMania]

Compost Corner - this is what they want!

[@antster1983]

*_COMPOST CORNER!_*

[@roymeboy0]

Was that John Asher doing the intro? he left the show and did a record ` lets twist again` it didn`t chart and i never heard of him after that .

[@YeOldeFootballChannel]

Wrong, it *did* chart at number 14! And it was the bit that made Chubby Checker chart 15 years later with his Twist.

[@dacrlit]

What does SSVC TV stand for please?

[@arrblue94]

xx

[@Markjuk]

The opening titles for the 1975 series look like recycled Golden Shot titles.

[@RQBtv2]

What is the song?

[@matelot95]

Atomic Butterfly

[@trap0001]

Tiswas was often full of adult inuendo that just over the kid's heads. Thats what made is so funny! This was removed from later 1980's shows as political correctness got a foothold and the program soon folded.

[@EclecticBadger]

Just what were they thinking allowing a presenter to wear a CAMRA (campaign for real ale) t-shirt on a kids show? Thank goodness for the later sensibilities of Chris Tarrant and Sally James :)

[@trevordance5181]

Eclectic Badger Why not a CAMRA tee-shirt? Get the kids educated in drinking proper, decent, flavoursome ales at an early age. Better that than Watneys Red Barrel, Whitbread Trophy, Worthington E, Double Diamond, and the other tasteless, naff, gassy, chemical, beers of that era.

[@sarahwestwood6665]

Matt Hancock's relation?

[@StringedGuitar17]

0:02 Today is not Saturday, that's tomorrow. So go to bed.

[@Dead-Ball-Situation]

Every time i watch these kind of clips from the 80s/70s it makes me hate the PC brigade even more.

[@toonalootown2331]

1:17 1:21 1:25 1:29

[@PhflyDan1]

@supergav67 HA!!! U KNOW THIS MATE!!!!

[@kalsolarUK]

who were those presenters?

[@Candolad]

Chris Asher, who you see introducing the show at the end of the clip, was one of the original presenters with Chris Tarrant who was on holiday at this time. Chris Asher only lasted a few months, which was a shame as I had a crush on him when I was a boy.

[@christopherpearson3266]

@@Candolad His name was John Asher not Chris Asher.

[@goodtimetone]

i never forgave kate bush for not showing up for an interveiw once... shows my age eh???

[@rajnirvan3336]

CAMRA member. Campaign For Real Ale