TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 -
Hosted by record producer Pete Waterman and ex-
Unfortunately the producers of the show caught the UK dance scene in a state of flux.
Traditional nightclubs where not where most people were going by the late 1980s.
Where they were going were warehouses and open fields, the only venues that could
take the huge number of followers of the new type of dance music that had been filtering
through the club scene since the early 80s. The "where are ya, where are ya" clubs
(not called 'discos' anymore) as favoured by the white sox wearing Shalamar fans
were now cemeteries by comparison. Chris Hill was out, Mike Pickering was in. No-
From TV Times 3rd September 1988 -
The nightclubs chosen were usually in the midlands and the north and several hours on a Saturday night would be recorded and be edited ready for broadcast at 2.00 am in some regions and 4.00 am in others, just about the time when things were just getting underway in warehouses and fields across England. The show tried to be "in with the kids" as it turned up at the Hacienda in Manchester in 1989, one of the few indoor venues that helped create the new mood. Waterman's instinct knew that this was how pop needed to change, but despite many Chicago/Detroit house anthems reaching the top of the UK chart he was still making white sox soul like Roadblock.
The Gulf War saw the show suspended in early 1991 as all-
In October 1990 one of the show's resident dancers Jason Orange would appear with his new singing group, Take That.
To be fair, if you were coming back from a club and didn't want to go to bed then The Hitman and Her was ideal viewing, but it probably showed you a better night than you just had.
If you'd like to enter 'showing out', send a message to Pete's latenight love-
THE HITMAN AND HER
Granada / Music Box
3rd September 1988 -