Wide Awake Club

History

Wide Awake Club first aired on Saturday, 13 October 1984, as TV-am's main children's show, broadcasting live for an hour each Saturday morning at 8.30 am. It took the place of two earlier programmes, Data Run and SPLAT, which had been developed by Anne Wood of Ragdoll when she was Head of Children's Programmes. The shift to Wide Awake Club came as a cost-saving measure by management, with producer Nick Wilson coming up with the idea. The presenters were Timmy Mallett, Arabella Warner, and James Baker; Tommy Boyd joined in February 1985, and Michaela Strachan arrived in August 1986. Most of them were new to television, though Boyd had previously hosted Magpie and Mallett had worked on the Oxford Road Show. The live format mixed comedy, games, celebrity guests, competitions, and viewer participation, alongside educational segments. These included visits from experts like Carol Vorderman for science, and attempts to explain topics such as the Cold War. A spelling contest called 'Bonk’n’Boob' won praise from teachers for helping children improve their spelling. The show also gave an early break to Mike Myers, who later became a major Hollywood star; he appeared with Neil Mullarkey in a parody segment titled "Sound Asleep Club", where he wore pyjamas and a messy "bed-head" hairstyle. His bits included making earrings from spoons, tape, and string, and preparing a glass of water in a cookery slot. After its summer break, the programme returned on Saturday, 14 September 1985, with an extended runtime of nearly two hours, from 7.30 am to 9.25 am. Its popularity led to two spin-offs: Wacaday, a holiday-morning show hosted solely by Timmy Mallett (joined by a puppet named Terry in its first series and later by Michaela Strachan), which proved even more successful than the original, and WAC Extra, a Sunday morning version. Both Wide Awake Club and Wacaday featured the Wacawave, a gesture made by putting thumbs together to form a 'w' and waving. The original show continued with only small format tweaks until 9 September 1989, when it was relaunched as WAC '90, moving from TV-am's London studios to Granada's in Manchester. The Wide Awake Club brand lived on through Wacaday until TV-am lost its broadcasting franchise in 1992.