TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

Originally intended as an ITV vehicle for Jonathan Ross it ended up as the ideal showcase for its creator, radio and TV presenter Chris Evans.

Its executive producer John "Have a great one" Revell told Music Week that the aim of the show was to recreate the vibe of Evans' Radio One weekday breakfast show. According to Evans the show title is actually Thank Fuck It’s Friday, while Channel Four preferred their own interpretation Thank Four It’s Friday, but as Evans himself pointed out "whenever have you heard anyone say Thank Four It's Friday?"

Originally broadcast live from 6.00 - 7.00 pm from the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London, although it would occasionally go on location, like Dublin and on one occasion the hosts' own home.

Bands played live downstairs with Revell insisting "The emphasis is that it is a music show. It was born out of a feeling that there was a demand for a good TV show with new bands. On one side of the spectrum you have The White Room and on the other is Top Of The Pops, and this will be somewhere in between." The first sketch of the debut show however saw Evans take a dig at Top Of The Pops, a show that was going through something a renaissance and would outlive TFI by a further six years. The Girlie Show and Noel's House Party would also come in for a kicking on the first edition.

While the bands were downstairs the celebrity interviews were conducted upstairs, where the audience were plied with bottles of beer, served by the show's own barman Andrew, and at the appropriate time would, like a football crowd, shout and cheer, behaving like a gang led by a lonely tycoon buying them as much beer as they want as long as they stay and keep him company. As Evans would point out it was the best bar in the world as it had no cash register.

Four-letter profanities from interview guests Shaun Ryder and Ewan McGregor prompted Channel 4 to threaten a twenty-second delay. Eventually, another compromise was suggested, recording the show an hour before transmission. This pre-recorded initiative was put into action with their Easter 1996 show and subsequently for the second half of the first run. On the 23rd February 1996 show when Ewan McGregor swore Evans let it be known that the producers had received a letter that week from the ITC regarding swearing on the show. The show was in serious need of someone to pull in the reins and control its host and the show. That was never going to happen.

Features and characters would be introduced throughout the series, only to be dropped later, like The Lord Of Love, played by actor Ronald Fraser, Fat Look-a-likes, Freak or Unique, Ugly Bloke (occasionally With A Talent), It's Your Letters, and the student-led question of the week. Ex-NME journalist and DJ Danny Baker, who had his own short-lived BBC1 series in the post Match Of The Day slot a few years before was brought in as a sketch writer, while Evans also brought across the production staff from his radio show including John Revell and Will MacDonald. The producers even persuaded Cher to make an appearance in the weekly recurring series of sketches At Home With Chris and Cher.

His public image, bravado, confrontational manner and even his ginger hair made him deeply unpopular with journalists who decided not to like him just as their predecessors would have done with Simon Dee in the late sixties.

The show's chosen opening theme was Ron Gainer's Man In A Suitcase from the mid-sixties TV series, while Ocean Colour Scene's The Riverboat Song would be used as the guests' intro music. TFI coincided with the Britpop explosion and practically all the relevant bands appeared live.

The show fit in perfectly with a slate of other shows designed to attract the new post-Madchester, alcopop populous, along with Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Men Behaving Badly, The Girlie Show and Fantasy Football League. But the despite the new target demographic the truth was TFI was itself nothing new. Channel 4's The Word helped define and capture that new audience several years before, also targeting the 18-30 club goers. The time slot didn't help Evans' show, it would have been better broadcast post 10.30 pm, seeing daylight through the window was just wrong.

As Britpop got over-familiar and watered down, so did the show. It was destined to fail, slowly. Instead of doing the decent thing and wind it up after two series (or years) it just went on, waiting for the broadcaster to pull the plug.

As soon as Channel 4 announced that the winter 2000 series would be the last Evans quit as presenter, allowing guest presenters including The Spice Girls and Elton John to host before selling his production company Ginger Television to Scottish TV.

A sort-of sequel OFI Sunday played on ITV in 2005, but was quickly axed, while a proper revival appeared on Channel 4 in 2015 which lasted one series. A radio version TFI Unplugged began on Virgin in spring 2026, with the show returning to Friday nights on Channel 4 a few week's later, albeit in a more budget-conscious version, including archive clips from the old series. This coincided with original complete editions uploaded to You Tube by the company that now owns them. The difference between the old show and the new wasn't just down to budget, it seems people just don't want to enjoy themselves anymore. Besides, the new audience probably didn't know who Chris Evans is, the original show was now thirty years ago.

As Shaun Ryder sang on Black Grape's appearance on the second show "I want yes men, yes men all around me." And there was the problem. If you buy the beer, everyone is your friend, but when the keg runs out, everyone goes home and they won't even thank you.

If you want to be on the show then write to I'm An Ugly Bloke With A Talent, Ginger Television, London W1P 8AE

TFI FRIDAY

C4 / Ginger Prods

9th February 1996 - 22nd December 2000