''The Hitman and Her'' is a
British television dance music programme hosted by
Pete Waterman
Peter Alan Waterman, (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Water ...
and
Michaela Strachan
Michaela Evelyn Ann Strachan (born 7 April 1966) is an English television presenter and singer.
Early life
Born in Ewell, Surrey, Strachan grew up in Hinchley Wood and attended Chadsworth Stage School, then Claremont Fan Court School, both i ...
. The programme was produced for
Granada Television and ran from September 1988 until December 1992 on
ITV's
Night Network
''Night Network'', ''Night Time'' and ''Night Shift'' were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the co ...
.
The show toured various
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
s, broadcasting the music and dancing at the club. The programme was often recorded on a Saturday night, edited on-the-fly, and shown a few hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning. In this era many television channels stopped showing programs altogether in the early hours of the morning, ''The Hitman and Her'' was one of the first UK shows to broadcast regularly late at night.
Background
The programme presented a taste of late-night clubbing, with long segments showing crowds dancing to popular hits, occasional celebrity performances, and party games, with Waterman and Strachan acting as masters of ceremony. The programme was sponsored by Eric Baskind's Ultimate Response Group.
The show toured various
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
s. The first show came from Mr Smiths in
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
on 3 September 1988, and the final show aired on 5 December 1992 from The Discothèque Royale in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. The programme was often recorded on a Saturday night, edited on-the-fly, and shown a few hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning, the second half of the Saturday/Sunday version being repeated during the following night. The earlier shows were split into two halves: the first at 1am and the second at 4am, with the LWT's ''
Night Network
''Night Network'', ''Night Time'' and ''Night Shift'' were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the co ...
'' magazine show sandwiched in between. During 1988, ''The Hitman and Her'' was moved to 2am in some areas, while London still broadcast the show at 4am. ''The Hitman and Her'' remained at the 2am slot from April 1989 until its very last broadcast. A special edition of ''The Hitman and Her'' was broadcast as part of the
ITV Telethon in 1992.
Clubbers would arrive at the featured club hoping to appear on television. Often members of the crowd would be plucked out to participate in games such as "Pass The Mic!", "Showing Out", and "Clothes Swap". It was produced for
Granada Television at first by
Music Box Productions, then by Granada TV itself, and later by Clear Idea Productions through to the final edition.
In ''
I Love 1988
''I Love the '80s'' is a decade nostalgia television program and the first installment of the '' I Love the...'' series that was produced by VH1, based on the BBC series of the same name. The first episode, "I Love 1980", premiered on December ...
'', Pete Waterman said that the idea for ''The Hitman and Her'' came to him when he turned on the TV late one night and the only TV station still on-air was featuring guest
Elvis Costello talking about
Irish politics.
Music
The theme tune, "Cocoon", was performed by Timerider, a pseudonym of the German singer
Fancy
Fancy may refer to:
Places
* Fancy, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a settlement
* Fancy River, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Music Albums
* ''Fancy'' (Bobbie Gentry album), 1970
* ''Fancy'' (Idiot Flesh album), 1997
* ''Fancy'' (video ...
. The track also appeared in the film ''
The Fruit Machine'', and Waterman also used it as the signature tune for his Saturday morning
Radio City show. It is still today used as the theme tune for
Barnsley F.C. and is played as the team comes out onto the pitch at every home game. Latterly, the show's theme tune changed to "Rofo's theme" by Rofo.
The show acted as both an outlet to showcase artists from the
PWL stable – such as
Kylie Minogue,
2 Unlimited
2 Unlimited are a Belgian/Dutch dance music act, founded by Belgian producers/songwriters Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde in 1991 in Antwerp, Belgium. From 1991 to 1996, Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and Dutch vocalist Anita Doth fronted the ...
,
Anticapella, and
Opus III, as well as featuring the key club tunes from the day – largely as a result of
Waterman's interest in the fledgling
acid house scene. Speaking to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in November 2013, Waterman explained "I loved acid house and trance. I just absolutely adored it." One track the show championed in particular was "
Stakker Humanoid
"Stakker Humanoid" is an 1988 track by Humanoid released in 1988 on the London-based label Westside Records. It is described by ''The Guardian'' as "the first truly credible UK acid techno record to break into the mainstream."
History
The projec ...
" by
Brian Dougans
Brian Dougans (born 1968) is a British musician, and a member of the British electronic duo, the Future Sound of London (FSOL).
He is the more technical member of FSOL, doing most of the programming, circuit bending et cetera and creating elec ...
, which Waterman described as "a Hitman and Her tune".
In April 1992, ''The Hitman and Her'' hosted a special show at the rave night ''Energy'' from
The Eclipse,
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
. Strachan would memorably comment that "It's too hot ... they've all got eyes like saucers...".
Stage dancers
Clive Donaldson was the resident dancer.
Jason Orange
Jason Thomas Orange (born 10 July 1970) is an English former singer and dancer, known for being a member of Take That. He departed from the group in September 2014.
Early life
Jason Thomas Orange was born on 10 July 1970 in Manchester, Lancashi ...
was invited to join
Take That
Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow is the group's lead singer ...
after appearing as a regular dancer, and former dancers
Jimmy Constable
James Michael Constable (born 21 September 1971) is an English pop music, pop singer and dancer who was a member of the pop music, pop band 911 (English group), 911.
Early life
Constable was born in the Liverpool Maternity Hospital (now Liverpoo ...
and
Spike Dawbarn
Simon James "Spike" Dawbarn (born 5 August 1974) is an English singer and dancer. He is a member of the boy band 911 (English group), 911, who were originally active between 1995 and 2000 and had ten consecutive top 10 hits before splitting up i ...
would go on to be members of the boy band
911
911 or 9/11 may refer to:
Dates
* AD 911
* 911 BC
* September 11
** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001
** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende
* November 9
Numbers
* 91 ...
. Neil Rutherford (Damson) went onto further work on TV and stage.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hit Man And Her, The
Television series by ITV Studios
Dance television shows
1988 British television series debuts
1980s British music television series
1990s British music television series
1992 British television series endings
English-language television shows
Television shows produced by Granada Television