''Wide Awake Club'' (often abbreviated to ''WAC'') was a

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television show, television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during ...

broadcast in the United Kingdom on the breakfast television channel

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...

between 1984 and 1989.

History

''Wide Awake Club'' started on Saturday 13 October 1984, broadcasting for an hour each Saturday morning at 8.30 am as TVAM Flagship kids series. The series was devised by producer Nick Wilson, replacing '' Data Run'' and SPLAT which were created by Ragdoll's Anne Wood then as Head of Children's Programmes. The change to Wide awake club was part of the cost cutting by management. WAC was presented by Arabella Warner, James Baker,

Timmy Mallett Timothy Luke Mallett (born 18 October 1955) is an English TV presenter, broadcaster, and artist. He is known for his striking visual style, colourful glasses, loud shirts, and giant pink foam mallet, known as "Mallett's Mallet", as well as hi ...

Tommy Boyd Timothy Leslie Boyd (born 14 December 1952), better known as Tommy Boyd, is a British radio presenter. Television From 1977 to 1980, Boyd was co-presenter of the ITV children's magazine programme ''Magpie'' replacing Douglas Rae. In 1981, ...

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 ...

– all newcomers to television, except Boyd who had previously presented '' Magpie'' and Mallett who had presented the ''

Oxford Road Show ''Oxford Road Show'' is a music show that aired on BBC2 from 16 January 1981 to 29 March 1985. It was broadcast from the BBC's New Broadcasting House in Oxford Road, Manchester. The show featured live music, pop music news and competitions an ...

''. The live programme combined comedy, games, celebrity guests, competitions and viewer interaction. There were also more educational features, including visiting experts such as

Carol Vorderman Carol Jean Vorderman, HonFIET (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh media personality, best known for appearing on the game show ''Countdown'' for 26 years from 1982 until 2008, as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet ...

for the science slot, as well as attempts to explain historical and contemporary events like the Cold War. A spelling contest, 'Bonk’n’Boob' was praised by teachers for encouraging children to learn to spell properly. The show also launched the career of

Mike Myers Michael John Myers OC (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. His accolades include seven MTV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywoo ...

, later a major Hollywood star, who made guest appearances with

Neil Mullarkey Neil Mullarkey is an English actor, writer and comedian. Early life and education From 1972—1979, Mullarkey was educated at Kingston Grammar School, an independent school for boys (now coeducational), in Kingston upon Thames, followed by Rob ...

on the show for a brief time, parodying the show's title in his segment "Sound Asleep Club", in which he sported

pyjamas Pajamas ( US) or pyjamas (Commonwealth) (), sometimes colloquially shortened to PJs, jammies, jam-jams, or in South Asia night suits, are several related types of clothing worn as nightwear or while lounging or performing remote work from hom ...

and a "bed-head" hairstyle. His roles included making earrings out of spoons, tape and string, as well as making a glass of water in a cookery section. When ''Wide Awake Club'' returned after its summer break on Saturday, 14 September 1985, the series was extended to broadcast for almost two hours from 7.30 am until 9.25 am. The programme was so successful that it launched two spin-offs: ''

Wacaday ''Wacaday'' is a children's television series in the United Kingdom that ran in TV-am's school-holidays slot from October 1985 until 1992, in an 8:50-9:25 a.m. slot, and was hosted by Timmy Mallett. History ''Wacaday'' was introduced w ...

'', a programme for holiday mornings presented solely by Timmy Mallett (joined by Terry a puppet during its first series and Michaela Strachan for later editions) that became even more successful than its parent, and ''WAC Extra'', a Sunday morning version of the show. Both ''Wide Awake Club'' and ''Wacaday'' introduced the ''Wacawave'', done by making a 'w', by putting one's thumbs together, and waving. Meanwhile, ''Wide Awake Club'' continued for many years with only minor changes to the format. However, in April 1989 it was relaunched as ''WAC '90'', a longer programme broadcast from Granada's studios 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 ...

(as opposed to TV-am's in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

). The programme ran until June 1990. However, that was not the end of the ''Wide Awake Club'' franchise as ''Wacaday'' continued until TV-am lost its franchise in 1992.

Programming

*'' Jem'' (1987–late 80's) * ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

'' - during school holidays, 10 minutes shown each day and continued in the next edition of Wacaday

References

External links

Page at Timmy Mallett's website
{{UK Breakfast TV 1980s British children's television series 1984 British television series debuts 1989 British television series endings Breakfast television in the United Kingdom British children's television series TV-am original programming English-language television shows

History

Programming

See also

References

External links