Noel's House Party

[www.doyouremember.co.uk]

Following the tragic end of The Late Late Breakfast Show, Noel Edmonds reappeared on the British TV screen with Noel's House Party. The show was good ol' family entertainment with a mix of jokes, gunge, Mr Blobby and hidden camera stunts such as The Gotchas and the brilliant NTV.The show had a series of guest appearances every week from minor celebrities with some really awful jokes and sketches but Noel's House Party was probably the last of the great saturday evening family entertainment shows.

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[sf1378]

Re: Noel's House Party

Loved this show. When it went off air whilst Noel had his huff over pay with the BBC and then came back the 'new' format was what ruined it, they'd replaced the theme tune, there was too much Mr Blobby and it just seemed a bit too much and tired. I reckon, if they brought it back with Noel with the old theme tune it would become a ratings smash again as we need Saturday evening telly like that again, less Come Dancing On Ice X Factor tripe on both channels 1 and 3. I reckon if someone like Paddy MacGuiness fronted either The Price Is Right for ITV or The Generation Game on the beeb at 6.15pm and then turn over to Noels House Party at 7.40 or 8pm you'd have a winning evenings family viewing again and less rubbish....I do like Take Me Out, its funny, reminds me of an inverted Blind Date and MacGuiness really makes the show.

One thing though, after the tragic accident on Late, Late Breakfast Noel came back, after time away with Noel's Saturday Roadshow which was also live with the theme being 'each week we're at a different location' which was actually the same studio but dressed up like a fair of some sort, one week I remember it was a sci fi convention and I distinctly saw BBC props from the old Dr Who series, one being a shiny black and silver 'Renegade Dalek' Leader from Remembrance of the Daleks' in the background. Then after that format ended he came up with House Party.

[Richard1978]

Re: Noel's House Party

I really liked NHP for the first few years. Dave Lee Travis being gocha-ed was one of the best moments.

After 1996 I stopped watching it as much as it got a bit samish & some of the new features brought in didn't work as well, though The Big Pork Pie was one that was fairly funny.

[sf1378]

Re: Noel's House Party

I liked it when they'd have a small child in a classroom and there would be a teddy bear on a chair or a cake or something else in the room with the child and Noel would be in another room with a monitor and do a squeaky voice and ask things from the kid, who'd believe the cake or toy was 'alive' - it was all very innocent and funny at the same time. I remember one time a child gave the cake a hug and another gave a kiss to the teddy. When the adult would return into the room the child wouldn't say anything or say 'the cake talked to me!'

[George 1978]

Re: Noel's House Party

I suppose that it was a bit like a 1990s BBC family version of Tiswas on Saturday evenings - Noel Edmonds could get a bit annoying as the BBC seemed to have made him into the Jeremy Beadle of BBC 1 as a result of the series. To be honest, considering the Lush incident on the Late, Late Breakfast Show, I am slightly surprised that Edmonds graduated to do the Saturday Roadshow and of course his House Party as well. At least Beadle didn't target celebrities. I could imagine Chris Tarrant presenting it for example. There are only so many jokes that one can make about "Crinkley Bottom" at the end of the day.

It made me think whether Edmonds ever got sued because of the programme - what with the gunge tank, and NTV and all that. In fact, 25 years on, I am still intrigued as to how NTV worked, and the fact that the "victims" (if that is the correct word to use) were coincidently watching BBC 1 at the time, and none of them were watching Blind Date or whatever ITV was showing at that moment.

Wait Till I Get Your You Home feels like "Mr and Mrs" but with a parent and child perspective, and I am surprised that schools allowed Edmonds to interview their children for Saturday night TV, particularly in hindsight with all the controversy which has happened and came to light in recent years. Also, the "member of the public" thing, being selected from the audience does make me feel a bit uneasy, and borderlines into Reality TV territory.

The Gotcha Oscars (the latter word removed due to copyright issues from Hollywood) was basically Beadle's About with celebrities - the Mr Blobby factor proves that something that can be too successful in order for something to work - perhaps it was a good think that Blobby became too well-known, or perhaps not? I can see that a lot of old episodes are online. DLT rivalry seemed to date from the 1970s when he replaced Edmonds at breakfast on Radio 1.

Dennis Taylor's Gotcha where he appeared with "occasional Give us a Clue guest" Eve Ferret as "Mrs Green" (she doesn't get mentioned in the programme, but she does get mentioned in the credits at the end) as a housewife who "had not got dressed yet" made me think whether it was appropriate to be seen before the watershed. Made impact to a 13 year old like myself at the time. Need I say anything about "regular Give us a Clue participant" Lionel Blair's "Don't Dress for Dinner" Gotcha, and if looks could kill at the time... Remember this was around the same time as the "Lionel Blair Cut" Harp larger advert on the other side.

And the Grab a Grand where a sportsman of the Duncan Goodhew / Kriss Akabusi ilk went into a Perspex phone box-sized transparent booth, and tried to catch as many pound notes / pre-Euro currency or Crinkley Bottom Groats as possible blowing about before weighing the total on scales, in response to viewers getting a question right about something that had happened in the week. And then the National Lottery began...

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway tried to be Noel's House Party but couldn't quite make it. Yes, it did make me cringe at the time.

[Richard1978]

Re: Noel's House Party

I really liked this for the first few years, but it got a bit boring by the mid 1990s because too many of the features had become predicable.

The Big Pork Pie was a good feature introduced later on, where guests tried to cover up a misdeed they had once done by telling fibs.

[80sChav]

Re: Noel's House Party

I really liked this for the first few years, but it got a bit boring by the mid 1990s because too many of the features had become predicable.

The Big Pork Pie was a good feature introduced later on, where guests tried to cover up a misdeed they had once done by telling fibs.

I guess yeah it did get like that Richard tyeah- though the "Cotchas" was good or was that Crinkley Bottom!?

Either way this is when Saturday Night Telly was cult and worth watching - tonite is one of my (if not my TV's) only excursion into being switched on on a Saturday , unless for the Football Results at Teatime and occasionaly MOTD and when they did the Lower Leauges - it otherwise never gets switched on a Saturday and in-frequently Sunday Night too

80sChav