Mariella Frostrup The TV That Made Me

TV - the magic box of delights.

As kids it showed us a million different worlds,

all from our living room.

This takes me right back.

That's so embarrassing!

I am genuinely shocked.

Each day I'm going to journey through the wonderful world

of telly with one of our favourite celebrities...

It's just so silly.

Ah! I love it! Is it Mr Benn?

-SHE SINGS

-Shut it!

..as they select the iconic TV moments...

-Oh, hello.

-HE LAUGHS

..that tell us the stories of their lives.

-SHE GASPS

-Oh, my gosh.

Cheers.

Some will make you laugh...

Oh, no!

..some will surprise...

SHE SCREAMS

..many will inspire...

Look at this. Why wouldn't you want to watch this?

..and others will move us.

Seeing that there made a huge impact on me.

Got a handkerchief?

So come watch with us as we rewind

to the classic telly that shaped

those wide-eyed youngsters into the much-loved stars they are today.

Welcome to The TV That Made Me.

My guest today is not only a good booking, she likes a good book.

So please welcome the lovely Mariella Frostrup.

APPLAUSE

Come and sit down.

-Welcome.

-Thank you.

A journalist and presenter, whose husky tones were once

voted some of the sexiest on TV.

Mariella has fronted programmes like The Culture Show,

as well as becoming a leading book and film critic.

Among the TV that made her, an Irish institution...

The fastest reel in the west, Ciaran MacMathuna just said.

..a music show featuring Mariella herself...

..described them as the Talking Heads for the 1990s.

..and a satirical puppet show where no-one in the public eye was safe.

What am I going to do?

Well, today is a celebration of the TV that made you.

TV highlights that you have chosen.

Stuff that you've probably never seen for many years.

But first we're going to rewind the clock now

and have a look at a very young Mariella.

-SHE GASPS

-Oh, no.

Mariella was born in Norway in 1962.

At the age of six she moved to Ireland with her family,

growing up in County Wicklow with her siblings.

Her Norwegian father was a journalist for the Irish Times...

..and her Scottish-born mother was an artist.

So why did your parents move to Ireland?

Well, they met...

My mother is Scottish and my father was Norwegian.

And they met in Edinburgh,

because a lot of Norwegians go to university in Edinburgh.

My mum was at art college, and they met there,

and then she followed him back to Norway.

Well, they got married and then she went back to Norway with him.

But neither of them were very happy there,

and they quite liked the sort of Celtic thing,

and so we went on a holiday to Kerry

and they fell in love with Ireland

and my dad got offered a job as the foreign editor of the Irish Times.

Oh, really?

And so because of the job,

and because they'd fallen in love with the place, we moved there.

Did you watch much TV as a child?

In Ireland they had two channels,

and that was pretty much what we had to watch.

So, no, television wasn't a huge feature of my childhood,

but there are within that, kind of, golden moments.

Because I suppose... Because we didn't watch very much,

I remember everything we did watch.

So, what... Where was the telly situated?

-Oh, I lived in 11 homes over ten years.

-Oh, right.

So there was no sort of, like, concrete mainstay base where you...?

There was one house...

The living room was just along from my bedroom.

And that was where the TV was,

in case you're wondering where I'm going with this.

But it's also where I managed to watch,

without my parents knowing,

a whole season of Hitchcock films...

-Ah!

-..through the crack in the living room door.

And I used to have to walk about a mile and a half

to get the bus to school,

down this country lane

that was just full of crows.

-Ooh, The Birds!

-And, of course,

I couldn't admit that I'd watched the film

through the crack in the door,

and, for about six months, I don't think I've ever felt fear like it.

We're going to bring you back to

your earliest TV memory now, Mariella.

This is John Kenneally, ladies and gentlemen, from... Where are you from, John?

The Late, Late Show.

Still running, after 54 years, on a Friday night,

The Late Late Show continues to be

Ireland's most popular television chat show.

-It was such an institution, this programme.

-Mmm.

It really was, you know,

national viewing on a scale that you just don't get any more.

-Everyone in the country who had a television.

-Yeah.

If you didn't, you'd go to someone else's house to watch it.

Everyone used to watch it.

From its debut in 1962, it was fronted by presenter Gay Byrne

almost continuously for the next 37 years.

The fastest reel in the West...

-LAUGHTER

-The fastest reel in the West, I see.

Oh, he's going to do a bit of dancing.

He's going to be doing a bit of dancing.

ACCORDION PLAYS Here he... Ooh!

CHEERING SHE LAUGHS

THEY LAUGH

Simon Cowell will be after him.

ACCORDION PLAYS

You see, that's why...

When you're brought up in Ireland, you're not really impressed by fame

or any of those things, cos we had men like this.

-Yes.

-Who could do things like that.

Here he goes.

Yes!

APPLAUSE

Have you noticed he's not even broken into a bead of sweat?

So, The Late Late Show.

Was this something that the whole family would gather around to watch?

Well, it was on quite late - that's why it's called The Late Late Show.

I was allowed to watch it.

I'm not sure if my brother and sister were. Probably not.

So what else would you watch together?

Not much else. We weren't allowed to watch television during the week.

-We were only allowed to watch it at weekends. I'm not sure there was much on during the week.

-Really?

-What was that thing called...?

-Was it rationed out, was it?

My parents were very...

you know, against newfangled things,

-like television.

-SHE LAUGHS

But they sort of felt we should, you know...

-That too much television would pollute you.

-Mmm.

And distract you from more important, you know, erudite things.

And they were very encouraging with reading.

-Things, to be honest, that I'm quite grateful for.

-Mm-hmm.

So was your dad a comedy buff?

-My dad was an extremely morose Scandinavian.

-Oh, really?

He was all angst and intellectual pursuits.

My mum was much more into,

-you know, funny stuff.

-Really?

And The Goons

were definitely a feature

in our house. We just loved

all of those characters.

Shall we have a little look at Peter Sellers?

-Oh, I love Peter Sellers!

-Yeah?

Here we go. Let's have a look.

-It wasn't so much The Goons, it was Clouseau that we loved.

-Ah, yes.

-COD FRENCH ACCENT: When he is Inspector Clouseau.

-The Pink Panther.

COD FRENCH ACCENT: Here it is. The beumb.

My name is Professor Guy Gabroir,

medieval castle authority from Marseille.

Tell me...

do you have a reum?

-Very deadpan, though.

-Yeah.

HE MIMICS PETER SELLERS

SHE MIMICS PETER SELLERS

As one of The Goons, Peter Sellers had already demonstrated

his brilliance with creating characters and voices.

But, for many, it's as Inspector Clouseau,

starting in 1963,

that he will, perhaps, be best remembered.

Argh!

THEY LAUGH

PLODDING MUSIC

I think the music's funny as well. Just the way it sort of...

-And they're brilliantly directed.

-..slowly plods. Yeah.

And the timing. I mean, his comic timing.

LAUGHTER

Argh! Argh!

Have you noticed how you know...?

THEY LAUGH You just knew that was coming!

You know just before it happens

-exactly what's going to happen.

-Yeah.

That's one of the funniest things about it.

THEY LAUGH That bloomin' car's gone out again.

SHE LAUGHS

If he just stood there, he would've got...

LAUGHTER

Oh, we love Peter Sellers.

I love Peter Sellers.

But... But he's just hilarious.

-I mean, he brought light into our lives.

-Yeah.

There was also something kind of surreally humorous about it,

-at the time.

-Yeah.

-It was completely different.

And there's just not so many funny people.

Now, we've got a lot of people that say funny things,

but I just don't think there's as many funny people,

sort of just funny bones. Naturally funny.

I don't know. I think it's also to do with the fact

that they're not given the same amount of room to develop, in a way.

-You know, he was given an awful lot of artistic licence.

-Yeah.

And I think it's got more to do with the constant churning out,

and everything has to be successful immediately.

-A genuine funny man. I mean... You know?

-Yeah.

And I've always... Anything that makes me laugh.

I'm... I think it's so important to laugh.

And we get rare enough occasions in life.

You know, you have to kind of really...

nurture that.

So we've established that you moved to Ireland from Norway.

And then what happened after that?

-Then we moved around Ireland incessantly.

-Yeah.

And then...

And then my father died when I was 15

and I sort of decided at that point

that I'd had enough of adults,

and that I was adult enough to shape my own destiny,

so I decided to move out of Ireland.

Yeah, I wanted to go to London.

My dad had been offered a job at the Sunday Times

when I was younger.

And he didn't take it in the end.

He was an alcoholic.

And he just couldn't rise to the challenge of anything

that took him out of the...

sort of day-to-day...

the cycle of his life.

And, I think, the pub.

And so he didn't take that chance.

And I think, because of that, in a way,

it just stayed in my head as a...kind of dream.

I felt like it was time for me to, kind of, grab opportunities in life.

You must have had a great time in those early days.

-Well, the first few years were quite difficult.

-Mmm.

You know, I didn't have any money.

You'd take any job you could get.

I worked in a pub, I worked as a waitress on the King's Road,

which was very exciting then,

cos it was sort of during the punk heyday.

And all of those... The Sex Pistols,

and Bob Geldof had moved over from Dublin,

you know, and The Boomtown Rats.

And all of them, the King's Road on a Saturday afternoon

was just some of the craziest sights you've ever seen.

And, for a young girl, just come over on the boat,

it was just like the world had started all over again.

This was a completely different universe, you know?

It's time to move on to the category of show

that's like a nice bowl of tomato soup

with bread and butter.

Here it is. Your comfort TV.

# Saturday, Saturday... #

Tiswas.

Oh! Saturday mornings!

With a hangover.

The ultimate in anarchic kids' TV shows,

Tiswas livened up our Saturday mornings for eight years,

beginning in 1974.

Hosted by Chris Tarrant, amongst others,

its improvised feel was partly down to a lack of script or autocue.

I watched it religiously.

-Chris Tarrant, Lenny Henry...

-Yeah.

It was the sort of programme

-that there really isn't now on a Saturday morning.

-I know, I know.

Which was... It was perfect for children and adults.

I loved it. I just loved the...

-The anarchy of it, you know?

-Yeah, it was completely anarchic.

-Yeah.

And I quite liked that. And the thought that television...

Remember, this is someone who has been brought up on a diet

-of The Late Late Show.

-Mm-hmm.

To suddenly see adults behaving like that...

A suicidal Japanese fighter pilot crashed his plane...

Pardon?

SHE LAUGHS

SHE LAUGHS

-The audience...

-I know.

You've got it lucky! Look at them all locked in the cage.

Well...

good morning, Daddy.

I don't know if it's just naivete on my part,

but it really...

I always felt that it looked like it was totally live.

-Like these things did happen as total surprises.

-Oh, it was.

Yeah, I think, without a doubt.

But, you know, yes, it was for the kids,

but I think the parents watched it...

..more than they did.

I was 17

when I would have been watching it, without children.

Reports are coming in that Mr Albert Shortfuse,

who is known as the human cannonball,

was still stuck in the barrel of a cannon...

And there hasn't really been anything like it since.

The doctor has tied a rope around his ankles

and says he is certain that the man will pull through.

-Tiswas was an absolute institution.

-Mmm.

And...particularly in my late teens.

You know, when you would, obviously,

have gone out on a Friday night and wake up

-slightly incapacitated on a Saturday morning.

-This was hango TV for you.

Totally, totally hangover television.

I'd lie there, like this, thinking,

"I'll never do that again. I'll never do that again.

"But I'm not moving till Sunday."

And then watch that.

So what did you do for a living?

I got a job at about 18...

Yeah, 18 or 19, at a record company, Phonogram,

working as an assistant in the PR department.

It was the '80s and record companies had so much money.

They were like banks. It was unbelievable.

I was 19 years old and I was flying to America,

bringing journalists, who were the same age as me

to see bands who were the same age as me.

And we were all, you know, partying.

And, you know, it was an incredible thing to be able to do at that age.

-Yeah.

-I saw half the world as a result.

It was just really exciting and I was really, really lucky.

And I did that until my mid-20s.

You worked on Live Aid?

I worked on Live Aid.

Well, I worked with Bob Geldof, I worked on Band Aid.

I was there that morning, when they recorded that single.

-I remember when they recorded it.

-Which was incredibly exciting.

# Feed the world

# Let them know

# It's Christmas time... #

It felt like an incredible and important

-moment in, sort of, pop culture.

-Yeah.

# Feed the world. #

-And you were part of it.

-Yeah!

Now we move on to your TV hero, Mariella.

One of my all-time comedy gods,

it is the legend

that is the one and only...

-Tommy Cooper.

-Oh, Lordy.

APPLAUSE ON TV

Listen to that from the audience.

After his TV debut in 1947,

Tommy Cooper made us laugh for the next 36 years.

Oh, there's a pound note.

I thought it was a fiver...

His whole body language and everything.

He is brilliant, isn't he?

Just a funny man, like Peter Sellers.

Really funny, really gifted.

-And, again, sort of allowed enough rope to do his own thing.

-Yeah.

I want to make the white one,

so it will come to the top.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

His trademark fez dated back to wartime Cairo,

where, whilst performing for the troops,

he borrowed a passing waiter's hat.

After getting a huge laugh,

he kept it as part of his routine,

and the rest is history.

Look at that.

-MAN SHOUTS:

-Put it in the middle!

-HE WHISPERS:

-Shut up.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

In the middle? All right. How's that?

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

APPLAUSE

How's that?

-No expense spared on the set, as you can see.

-Yeah, yeah.

HE SIGHS HEAVILY

APPLAUSE

He just...

-You don't know if it's for real or not, do you?

-No.

But that was one of the things.

I think, in the same way as Clouseau,

he keeps you on the edge of your seat,

cos you're not quite sure where

-comedy and tragedy meet with him.

-Yeah.

And where disaster and success meet.

Do you think it stands the test of time?

Well...

-Yeah, just listen to the audience.

-I think yeah.

Yeah, without a doubt.

-I think great comedy does.

-Yeah.

-I think that's what great comedy is.

It's something... It's universal, you know?

And it translates for everybody.

So did you ever meet Tommy Cooper?

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. That's...

In a way, that's why I started watching him,

because I didn't know that much about him.

I met him when I was about 14 in Dublin,

and I had a Saturday job,

working in a restaurant called The Blackboard.

And he came in on a Saturday night with his wife,

and I was their waitress.

So I watched him more avidly after that.

This was your must-see TV.

BELL RINGS

Starting in the early '90s, Absolutely Fabulous poked fun

at the glamorous world of PR and fashion

for five hilarious series.

Jennifer Saunders just managed to encapsulate everything

that was tacky and hilarious about the 1980s.

And her bedroom and the futon

-and the...

-Mmm.

You know, the clothes and...

It was just genius.

Oh!

Inspired by a French and Saunders sketch

called Modern Mother and Daughter,

it starred Jennifer Saunders...

Patsy!

..alongside Joanna Lumley.

LAUGHTER

I just... I just nodded off.

I mean, she's such a wonderful actress,

that she doesn't mind looking like that.

They were... Well, she looks amazing.

-Look how beautiful she is.

-That's true.

-Even with all the black stuff on her face and her hair frizzed up.

-That's true.

I loved that show. It was so...

exciting to see a funny programme

-made up only of women.

-Mm-hmm.

Aside from anything else, because television,

up until that point, had been so male-dominated.

-Mm-hmm.

-Aside from things from America, like Mary Tyler Moore

and stuff like that,

and to see women behaving appallingly badly

and being hilariously funny in the process...

So were you a Patsy or an Eddy?

-Oh, both. I mean, you can't have one without the other, can you?

-Yeah.

You know, that's what's so great about them.

They are just a brilliant double act.

And we'd never thought of women as a double act in that way.

-I was in Ab Fab!

-Was you?

Yeah, yeah. I did...

Oh, it was one of the best jobs ever!

I spent a week recording an episode.

That's how long they used to do, five days at Television Centre,

recording an episode.

And I was in a book club,

and Kristin Scott Thomas was in it as well.

And, obviously, Patsy and Edina.

And it was just so funny. I couldn't believe it.

I had to keep pinching myself that I was there,

in the midst of this programme that I'd watched so often.

-Yeah.

-And absolutely loved.

Are we going to talk

-about a book at all?

-EDDY HUFFS

-LAUGHTER

-We've only done ten minutes

on the mags, Mariella!

Some of us haven't got all afternoon.

Are you in a time warp?

Was you nervous about doing it?

No. No, I was excited. It was...

The thing was, cos I'm not an actress,

I didn't feel much pressure.

-I think Kristin Scott Thomas felt a lot more pressure than I did.

-Mmm.

I just sort of had to be me, and, you know,

that's not that much of a challenge.

Seeing as I am me.

You don't find it a bit of a stretch.

Did you read it?

LAUGHTER

Well, yeah, yeah.

But I skimmed - I'm a skimmer.

LAUGHTER

-But we had such a laugh.

-Mm.

We all used to hang out in Patsy's dressing room...

-Well, Joanna Lumley's dressing room.

-LAUGHTER

Which was all leopard...

-It was exactly like you'd expect it to be.

-Oh, really?

Leopard-print things and, you know,

Bolly in a bucket,

and it was just brilliant.

It just so didn't disappoint, in any shape or form.

-Yeah.

-But she is...

I think she's an absolute genius,

-Jennifer Saunders.

-Mmm.

Now we're bringing it back to your own television career.

-Oh, no, let's not.

-Yes!

It's going to be some hideous clip of me

from, you know, Big World Cafe,

which was my very first television job.

-We wouldn't do that to you.

-I was so petrified that I just...

-SHE WHISPERS:

-..spoke like this all the time,

cos I was just really scared.

This is your big break. SHE GASPS

Oh, my God, that's going to be so weird!

I've never watched myself.

Big World Cafe.

Oh, we were so proud of these opening titles.

-You were so proud of them?

-We thought they were amazing.

-Yeah.

Radical. They're not bad.

Big World Cafe showcased bands from around the globe,

and played for two series on Channel 4 in 1989.

My heart used to be beating so hard by now.

This next group from Boston have released two LPs already here,

which have topped the independent chart.

Oh, my God! That's so embarrassing!

I can't switch it off!

-Oh!

-SHE GROANS

Reviewers have described them as the Talking Heads...

I've still got that belt.

And here they are - Throwing Muses!

Why is it so embarrassing?

Well, I never, ever...

I sort of... I feel that watching yourself

is a bit like going to an office and working for the day,

and then watching it again.

Why would you? You know, I just don't get it.

And maybe I'd be a much better presenter

if I watched and learned from my mistakes.

So, do you remember when people started to pick up on your voice?

Yeah, you know, I don't think that people really said much

about my voice until I was in the public eye.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I don't know what that means.

My voice has always been the same, and, in fact,

my sister has a very similar voice.

And, in fact, a lot of Scandinavians

have quite, sort of, husky tones.

Well, there was one show that mimicked you.

-Oh, Spitting Image!

-Mmm!

I loved Spitting Image. That was a brilliant programme.

So, did you actually have a puppet?

Eventually.

-And that was probably the greatest honour of my career.

-Really?

Yeah, to have your own puppet on Spitting Image!

-Shall we take a look?

-Oh, I love to. I loved her.

What's going on? Where is Mariella? We're up to speed!

-Ooh! Something terrible's happened. She can't go on.

-Eh?

Spitting Image burst onto our TV screens in 1984.

-It's her voice.

-Oh, you don't mean...?

-Yes! It's completely cleared up!

-Oh!

The series ran for 12 years,

and at its peak was watched by 15 million people.

I used to be the sexiest voice on TV, you know.

-I'll call a doctor.

-SHE GARGLES

Ooh!

Every time she appeared, I just used to think,

"Life doesn't get better than this." It's so funny and weird,

and what a huge sort of compliment, in a way.

But I loved that programme.

Well, that must have been a proud moment for you.

But what other stand-out proud moments have you...

Spring to mind from your illustrious career?

And don't say none.

-QUIETLY:

-None. Erm...

No, the only other one that I can think of, really,

was when I was away for a weekend with my best friend.

And I got a call,

on a very early generation mobile phone,

to ask me if I would be a judge of the Booker Prize.

-Wow.

-And that was really important to me,

because, I suppose,

my dad had died when I was young, you know, at 15,

and I slightly idolised him for a long time,

-because of the fact that he died, I guess.

-Mm-hmm.

You know, which is what you tend to do, as a kid.

And he'd been incredibly bookish, and, you know,

he thought that literature was everything,

and that you could almost live an entire life just by reading books.

And I knew...

I didn't think he'd have had much truck with television

or anything like that.

He just would have thought it was all a bit silly and superficial.

-But I knew that he would have been proud of that.

-Mmm.

And so it really meant a lot.

-You're not going to get emotional on me?

-I always get emotional.

I always get emotional when I talk about him. It's terrible.

-Well, you lost him at a young age, so...

-Yeah.

..it's bound to be tough.

I think, yeah, exactly. That's what happens.

If you lose a parent young,

they become the, kind of, one on the pedestal.

I think it's very difficult for the other parent,

cos they are always the, sort of, baddie,

who's still around and trying to parent you.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I did... I grew out of it.

I'm surprised I went a bit teary there,

cos I used to not be able

-to talk about him at all...

-Oh, really?

..without crying, and so I slightly gave up talking about him,

and then I realised about 15 years ago,

that I didn't wake up every day missing him.

-And it felt like I'd moved on a bit, and I could talk about him.

-Yeah.

-But now I've just gone weepy again.

-Ah!

Mariella, what TV are you watching at the moment?

Well, I watch things with the kids.

They make me watch I'm A Celebrity... and Strictly and...

And I watch...

I quite like you know, all those wildlife...

I love David Attenborough,

and I love all those programmes about the ocean and the desert.

And I love the news.

I'm a kind of news addict,

but I think that's a product of being a child

of the, sort of, Cold War era, in a way, because you used to want to...

-You'd wake up in the morning and you wanted to know...

-You're still here.

..that there hadn't been Armageddon overnight.

And I'm sure that's deeply buried in my psyche,

you know, just that reassurance.

The radio wakes me in the morning, and I have to hear the news

and hear the headlines before I even think of getting out of bed.

So, have you enjoyed it?

Oh, I loved it.

-Yeah.

-Well, I'm pleased you enjoyed it.

Well, I've enjoyed it, because I never, never

need to watch Big World Cafe again.

LAUGHTER

Seen that, done that, been there.

Oh, look, we give our guests the opportunity now

to play us out with a theme tune.

You don't have to do it.

Thank God for that, cos I'm really not musical.

But we'd like you to pick a theme tune

that we can play out.

Well, one of the other shows that I used to watch a lot as a kid,

and we really used to love, and my kids now love the movies of,

-is Mission: Impossible.

-Oh!

-That's it!

-And it just had THE most recognisable theme tune.

You've picked the best one.

You know, if I was sitting there,

-that would be my choice.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-You're absolutely gorgeous.

-Oh!

-It's been a pleasure meeting you.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank you, Mariella.

-It's been a pleasure.

-My thanks to Mariella.

APPLAUSE And my thanks to you

for watching The TV That Made Me.

We will see you next time. Bye-bye!

Thank you.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE INTRO PLAYS

Oh, that was so much fun.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE THEME PLAYS