Tiswas

Tiswas (reputedly standing for one of 'This Is Saturday, Wear A Smile', 'Today Is Saturday, Watch And Smile' or 'Today Is Saturday, What A Shambles') was an anarchic Saturday morning children's British TV show of the late 1970s and early 1980s which also had a fanatical following among students and the children's parents. Originally produced as a Midlands region programme by ATV, within a couple of years it had been taken up by most of the ITV network. Hosted by Chris Tarrant and Sally James, it also featured a young Lenny Henry together with Bob Carolgees and his puppet, Spit, the Dog.

A feature of the show was the cage wherein initially the child audience, and later their fathers, were confined and periodically doused in water (one spin-off of the show was the hit Bucket of Water Song), while the show was also frequently visited by the Phantom Flan Flinger who would throw the eponymous flans around the studio at all and sundry.

In the 1980s Tarrant and Henry later hosted a late-night show called O.T.T. (standing for "Over the Top") which was effectively an "adult" version of Tiswas - in other words, it attempted to be just as anarchic but with swearing and occasional topless women - but it was not such a success.