''Night Fever'' was a karaoke style show airing in the United Kingdom on Channel 5 from 5 April 1997 to 30 March 2002. It was hosted by

Suggs Graham McPherson (born 13 January 1961), known primarily by his stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor from Hastings, England. In a music career spanning 40 years, he came to prominence in the ...

and in the early series, he was helped by "The Big Guy in the Sky" – a disembodied voice giving the scores, and later by 'Wolfie' –

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

dressed as Mozart. Later series were co-hosted by

Will Mellor William Mellor (born 3 April 1976) is an English actor, singer and model. He is known for his roles as Jambo Bolton in ''Hollyoaks'', Gaz Wilkinson in '' Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps'', Warren Stamp in EastEnders, DC Spike Tanne ...

and

Sarah Cawood Sarah Louise Cawood (born 7 August 1972 in St Pancras, London) is an English broadcaster, best known for presenting the BBC Children's Saturday flagship morning show ''Live & Kicking''. Career Cawood grew up in the Cambridgeshire village of ...

replaced later by Kieron Elliott and

Danielle Nicholls Danielle Audrey Nicholls is an English television presenter, radio host, model and singer best known for her presenting of CITV from 1998 to 2001, and Night Fever on Channel 5. She hosts and games on a Twitch channel, BiigNoobs, with her younge ...

. The programme often had themed shows such as

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

. Also, Suggs was helped (or often hindered) by Pop Monkey (a man in a costume) who supposedly gave Suggs the choices of songs.

Format

Two panels of celebrities faced a boys against girls singing contest together with quiz questions and interaction from the audience. Team captains in the early series were

Craig Charles Craig Joseph Charles (born 11 July 1964) is an English actor, comedian, television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera ''Coronation ...

and

Philippa Forrester Philippa Clare Ryan Forrester (born September 1968) is a British television and radio presenter, producer and author. Throughout her career, Forrester has presented shows such as CBBC, ''Tomorrow's World'', Crufts, ''The Heaven and Earth Show'' ...

, who were working together on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's show, Robot Wars. Special guest stars made appearances as well – these included Gary Numan, Labi Siffre and Limahl from Kajagoogoo. The format was re-developed from the French show –

La Fureur ''La Fureur'' is a French music game show, first aired by France 2 on 31 December 1995. Created by French television personality Arthur, the show features two teams of celebrity contestants, segregated by gender, playing various music-related g ...

(The Fury) hosted and devised by Artur – by Richard Hearsey who produced the show for Channel 5. Dawn Airey had seen the French version of the show and both Richard Hearsey and Alan Boyd travelled to Marseilles to see a live version prior to re-developing the show for Channel 5.

Transmissions

References

External links

*
''Night Fever''
at BFI * {{DEFAULTSORT:Night Fever (Tv Series) 1997 British television series debuts 2002 British television series endings British panel games 1990s British game shows 2000s British game shows Channel 5 (British TV channel) original programming English-language television shows Television shows produced by Thames Television Television series by Fremantle (company) Television series by Reg Grundy Productions Television game shows with incorrect disambiguation