+- TV Live Forum (https://www.tvliveforum.com)
+-- Forum: TV Live Forum (https://www.tvliveforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Programmes (https://www.tvliveforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=15)
+--- Thread: 30th Anniversary of Noel's House Party (/showthread.php?tid=819)
30th Anniversary of Noel's House Party - Inspector Sands - 23-11-2021
30 years ago today was the first episode of Noels House Party. The History of the BBC website has this article about the show and an hour long compilation of highlights and behind the scenes footage, compiled by BBC South reporter Richard Latto
https://twitter.com/RichardLatto/status/1463048007901978624?t=FlxuDijZRGU7flo_zBPc8w&s=19
https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/november/noels-house-party/
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Robert Williams - 23-11-2021
There's a larger screen version of the programme available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0b5q245
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - tellyblues - 23-11-2021
A one-off special for the centenary would be nice.
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Inspector Sands - 23-11-2021
tellyblues post_id=54765 time= user_id=1333 Wrote:A one-off special for the centenary would be nice.By 2091 Mr Blobby will be just starting to degrade in landfill
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - BBCMeridian - 23-11-2021
tellyblues post_id=54765 time= user_id=1333 Wrote:A one-off special for the centenary would be nice.As much as you would like it, I don't think that's gonna happen as I don't think the programme would work in the 21st century and this millennium, that's why it was axed at the beginning of 1999.
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Keith - 23-11-2021
BBCMeridian post_id=54797 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:I think Ant & Dec might disagree with you a bit, as in many ways Saturday Night Takeaway is an evolution of House Party. I think it's fair to say there were various issues on screen and off screen, including Noel going on strike for a week which were a factor in it being axed.tellyblues post_id=54765 time= user_id=1333 Wrote:A one-off special for the centenary would be nice.As much as you would like it, I don't think that's gonna happen as I don't think the programme would work in the 21st century and this millennium, that's why it was axed at the beginning of 1999.
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - JLav25 - 23-11-2021
tellyblues post_id=54765 time= user_id=1333 Wrote:A one-off special for the centenary would be nice.
Not a bad idea, but I think it is very unlikely due to Noel now living in New Zealand, and a one off House Party hosted by someone else would probably be disastrous
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - JasonB - 23-11-2021
JLav25 post_id=54802 time= user_id=739 Wrote:tellyblues post_id=54765 time= user_id=1333 Wrote:A one-off special for the centenary would be nice.
Not a bad idea, but I think it is very unlikely due to Noel now living in New Zealand, and a one off House Party hosted by someone else would probably be disastrous
Stephen Mulhern's House Party
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Inspector Sands - 23-11-2021
BBCMeridian post_id=54797 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:As much as you would like it, I don't think that's gonna happen as I don't think the programme would work in the 21st century and this millennium, that's why it was axed at the beginning of 1999.It's not going to happen, but not because the programme wouldn't work these days... Ant and Dec have proved that a show like that absolutely still works
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - soupie - 23-11-2021
A truly innovative show which still probably hasn’t been given the credit it deserves. I’m not sure what year it started to go off the boil- probably around 1996ish? It certainly went out with a whimper, but all shows like that do eventually- Blind Date, X Factor etc. It’s only really Strictly which currently seems to defy the laws of gravity and is still riding phenomenally high after 17 years.
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - commseng - 23-11-2021
I can't believe that it's over 30 years since I was asked if I could spot where the cameras were in base. I could see myself on a monitor, but there was no obvious camera anywhere nearby.
Eventually by putting my hand near where I thought it could be I worked out it was hidden in a VHS tape, through the record tab hole.
That was the kit that was used for NTV. That's something that couldn't work today with the digital delays in the broadcast systems.
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Steve Williams - 23-11-2021
soupie post_id=54808 time= user_id=1542 Wrote:A truly innovative show which still probably hasn’t been given the credit it deserves. I’m not sure what year it started to go off the boil- probably around 1996ish? It certainly went out with a whimper, but all shows like that do eventually- Blind Date, X Factor etc. It’s only really Strictly which currently seems to defy the laws of gravity and is still riding phenomenally high after 17 years.
Noel always said it should have ended with the hundredth show in 1996, and I would probably agree with that, it had already started to go off the boil a bit. I have suggested in the past that it started to go a bit ropey when the pedantic "A BBC Production in association with Unique Television" credit appeared at the end, because as Will Wyatt suggests in his book, much like Chris Evans around the same time, Noel seemed to spend more time arguing about who owned what in the programme rather than what happened in it.
Certainly the first episode of the 1996/97 series was when I knew it was in terminal decline. I remember there was a sequence where Charlton Heston "phoned up" and got to plug his film, and that didn't seem right because until then celebs had appeared either to be in sketches as a character or to be sent up, rather than because they were famous or to promote anything. The same when they started getting bands on it, it never used to be that kind of show, and it made it look like everything else on TV.
As you suggest, shows like this do have a shelf life because they eat ideas at a tremendous rate. Saturday Night Takeaway manages it better because they only have eight shows a year, not 28.
commseng post_id=54809 time= user_id=1125 Wrote:I can't believe that it's over 30 years since I was asked if I could spot where the cameras were in base. I could see myself on a monitor, but there was no obvious camera anywhere nearby.
Eventually by putting my hand near where I thought it could be I worked out it was hidden in a VHS tape, through the record tab hole.
That was the kit that was used for NTV. That's something that couldn't work today with the digital delays in the broadcast systems.
They do something similar on Saturday Night Takeaway with Singalong Live, but as you say, at the start it was absolutely incredible, the bit where Noel clicks his fingers and you're on TV was such a brilliantly simple but hugely effective bit of telly. Of course in the early days such was the power of the concept that it didn't even matter if the punter immediately ran out of the room and didn't come back, as memorably happened on one early episode. Indeed it made it all the funnier, Noel continually crossing back to see if they'd come back ("NTV brings you... empty rooms!").
It started to pall a bit when they started adding all kinds of bells and whistles to it, and doing increasingly elaborate hits. The one where they surprised someone in the cinema was a great example, technically it was amazing but it took so long to set up that when finally did it, all we had was Noel saying "you're on NTV, bye!" and that was it. But you sort of have to keep adding stuff to give you things to promote and show off, regardless of whether it makes the feature itself worse.
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Brekkie - 23-11-2021
It's always easy to say in hindsight a show that went off the boil should have ended before it did - and vice versa easy to say a series (many of the classic sitcoms for example) who packed it in quite quickly that they should have done a couple of years more. For me I think the last great series was when they introduced the Tour around the Great House - that kind of just summed up how things had got bigger year in, year out. I think that remained for the following series which was still perfectly watchable, but certainly not as good - and then they truly began messing with things and it went downhill. Again though damned if you do, damned if you don't in that regards.
That said though as much as the show needed to end when it did, if not beforehand, for the next few years the BBC really did miss such a fixture in the Saturday night scheduled and even two decades on they may have Autumn sorted with Strictly but Q1 is still missing a reliable returnable format on the BBC.
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Brekkie - 24-11-2021
Is the compilation available to watch on the iPlayer via the TV or only via the website?
30th Anniversary of Noels House Party - Inspector Sands - 25-11-2021
There's a new blog about Noels House Party, launched to mark the anniversary which will review each series
https://nhp30.com/