TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

"The following programme contains...naughty bits..."

Thames Television had decided to retire the failing talent show Opportunity Knocks amid persistent rumours of vote rigging and to avoid any further potential scandal involving its host Hughie Green. The drama parlour game Whodunnit filled the gap until a new replacement could be found. Luckily for Thames they wouldn’t have to go far to find it.

Everett hadn't been seen on television in some time. His voice-over job on weekly game show Celebrity Squares in the mid-seventies was the only show to give him any kind of regular credit. His Nice Time, Kenny Everett Explosion, Ev and Top Of The Pops appearances were well behind him and his radio career in the seventies had veered franticly from the national BBC channels, to BBC local radio, to national radio again, and then to one of the new commercial radio stations, Capital. Luck was on Thames’ side for once as Capital was located near Thames's studios in Euston Road.

Famous for his imaginative use of audio gimmickry he would be well suited to the visual side of pop as new camera and computer trickery was just being introduced by companies like Quantel and Reilly which would allow images to re-size, spin, flip and do anything the producers desired.

For the debut show TV Times gave Kenny a two-page cartoon strip to help promote what they predicted would be "The prog that would eventually replace television", but despite the hype it never got the coveted front cover.

The show would be directed by ex-Shindig director David Mallet and together the team used cameras, props and sets in a way the audience hadn't really seen before, while gags were provided by Ray Cameron (McIntyre), Barry Cryer, Dick Vosburgh (for the first series) and Everett himself. Whether it was a gesture of faith or mere convenience but Thames had given Everett Hughie Green's former dressing room and office.

Everett was probably the first VJ (he had been doing this in the days of his London Weekend shows), but he wouldn't just be there in front of the cameras to link pop videos and special guests, he would create characters and perform to a small audience of cameramen, floor managers and make up girls. For the first series we met Sid Snot, the baby in the pram, Spod, 'Mary Whitehouse', Wonder Tart, Angry of Mayfair, the Pathe Newsreel cockerel and Dick Thrust. Animation studio Cosgrave-Hall Productions would supply a weekly three minute cartoon version of his Capital Radio space hero Captain Kremmen of the Star Corps.

Director Mallet told the Daily Mirror at the time of the show's launch "For the last four months the whole of Thames Television has been contributing ideas. Even cameramen come onto the floor with a joke and that doesn't happen often. It is all written as we go. We don't have an audience. The laughter you hear is all the other people working on the show." No-one was used to seeing the host make mistakes, take after take after take, all of which would be kept in the show for the public's amusement. Everett himself complained to Music Week "TV is sane and predicable at the moment, and we want a show that is ad-libbed, full of mistakes even."

Many of the acts recorded two songs each for the show, with the songs split between editions.

Film archivist Philip Jenkinson who had previously found weird and comic film clips for The Kenny Everett Explosion was given the same job this time around, finding wacky adverts and short cartoons, while archive pop clips were shown in the Rock Of Ages spot, albeit with a picture frame around them.

Thames' head of light entertainment Philip Jones claimed to the Birmingham Evening Mail in August 1978 "Kenny has done a great job, we will be bringing him back in the winter."

Everett’s use of tame smut would be enhanced by sexy dance troupe Arlene Phillips' Hot Gossip, whose weekly "naughty bit" guaranteed the show an audience of young boys and their dads who still yearned for Pan's People on Top Of The Pops. Hot Gossip were not new to TV however, having appeared on BBC1’s David Essex show a year before. As a result of the success of the show Everett became hot property and would crop up in several editions of Bruce Forsyth's Big Night Out for London Weekend later in the year. More success came the following year when the show won Best Light Entertainment Programme at the BAFTAs, while the 1979 New Year special The Didn’t Quite Make It In Time For Christmas Show became ITV’s entry for the Montreux Television Festival.

Aware of his past indiscretions and the possibility, let's face it, probability for controversy he allowed himself to acknowledge a higher authority in the show, in this case "Lord Thames", to whom he made a few token gestures of obedience. Everett also played a spaced-out hippie character who claimed to be Lord Thames' son.

That special and the second series featured in its opening credit sequence the Maori chant used by Quantum Jump in their disco hit The Lone Ranger, while the show introduced new characters Marcel Wave, Quentin Pose, Brother Lee Love and Serge Suit, while Angry of Mayfair whose half businessman/half bra and panties costume led to a now legendary encounter with David Bowie. As a fan of the show Bowie would return with a specially made clip for Space Oddity '80. Brother Lee Love's comic over-sized polystyrene hands would be put to use again in the mid-eighties when Everett appeared at the Conservative party conference, an appearance he would regret, as most interviewers would rather ask him about that, than his own show. Even though the second series was increased to ten shows it was noticeable that the show was now cut down to a half-hour.

Just like the first series the TV Times gave him a two-page special for the opening edition, but this time it took the form of intergalactic postcards from Captain Kremmen.

Between the second and third series Everett would also become a regular guest on BBC1's Blankety Blank and Parkinson, keeping his options open should the Thames TV gig go south.

Everett wanted to call the 1979 New Years' Eve special "The Show That Saved You From Andy Stewart", but Lord Thames said "no". The Will Kenny Everett Make It To 1980 Show? would be followed by the third series in 1980, however, Thames producer Philip Jones told the Daily Mirror that the next series may be in a different format “we are planning to increase the comedy content and the show will probably go to a later time.” Everett gave up his Capital Radio show in order to concentrate on the upcoming series, but still continued to record episodes of Captain Kremmen for Mike Smith's breakfast show on the station. The third series saw Kremmen of the Star Corps and several of the characters return, but five of the original six dancers from Hot Gossip would be replaced. As Kenny said in the introduction to the first show "we've got rid of all the old lumpy bits, and put in fresh lumpy bits." The new characters included the Scotsman who appeared on the previous new year's eve show, Billy Banter (a Bernard Manning type comedian) and a computer sidekick, Tharg. The record industry gave up some of their best for the show, Elvis Costello, Pete Townshend, The Boomtown Rats, Cliff Richard, Gary Numan, The Pretenders and The Police among others.

Another New Year's Eve show in 1980 proceeded the new series and the promised changes were immediately evident, even down to the use of The Kenny Everett Video Cassette name after the ad break. Another major change was the departure of David Mallet, replaced by Royton Mayoh who had previously worked on Opportunity Knocks. For this series there would only be one guest music act per show, while Hot Gossip danced to their own recordings (they had a recording career of their own, as did Everett). A new quiz show Star Quiz was introduced and veered off into Tiswas territory by using a gunge tank (although something similar had been used in the first series in a swimming pool). Also the cartoon version of Captain Kremmen was ditched in favour of a live action version featuring Everett and actress Anna Dawson playing Carla. Dawson had to wear a special bust-enhancing costume for the role, and as she told the Daily Mirror "Kenny tried to break eggs on my bust - but they wouldn't crack." New characters like 'Prince Charles' and a policeman were introduced, but the changes wouldn't be enough to save the show as Thames had decided to schedule it in direct competition to Top of the Pops on a Thursday evening and subsequently it died a quiet death.

Despondent, Everett moved to the BBC where his Kenny Everett Television Show debuted at Christmas 1981.

Thames sold the show internationally, as the Thames name was well known due to The Benny Hill Show, and as of 2026 the edited versions were being shown by That's TV, a UK archive TV channel.

Also worthy of mention is the obvious influence that the show's look had on the

next wave of promo videos in the UK, with Queen and Bowie both owing a debt.

A four DVD set of (very) edited highlights was released by Network in 2018. But due to some artists like Kate Bush, Paul McCartney and Cliff Richard not allowing their clips to be included and, despite the brave efforts of fans trying to re-create the original shows, it's unlikely that the show will ever been seen complete again.

"Let's push the button marked idiot and let's see what comes out."

THE KENNY EVERETT VIDEO SHOW / CASSETTE

Thames
3rd July 1978 - 21st May 1981