"This Is What They Want!"

I managed to uncover a rather dusty DVD although it's just over a year since the series ended, the highlights of Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow with a superb commentary by the pair along with director Simon Hepworth and producer Steve Ryde.

This really shows how much everyone enjoyed doing the show but it also proves once again that they had the right people on board to make it as great as it was. Steve being involved in children's television for donkeys years since appearing as a teenager on "You're Mother Wouldn't Like It" and the spin off "Palace Hill". Not to mention his stint as the voiceover on CITV throughout the mid 90s and as the scarecrow on "Wizadora".
But it shows how lucky people in the Midlands were that Central Television had a workshop for up and coming performers and Shane Meadows found many of his acting talents through the same place despite the fuckers at Carlton taking over.

The music used throughout the programme was brilliant with catchy tunes as composed by Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra who have a wide selection to their bow. One of them being stolen by Chris Moyles; the legendary "Celebrity Two Word Tango" which is great fun to play as well!

However the funniest part on the DVD was a sketch where the duo were in a boxing ring and making rather suggestive moves accompanied by a hilarious commentary by Ian Kirkby; also of "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It" and who later went on to play the equally hilarious Geordie detective Harry Batt. I won't give too much away but the boys revealed that they shot the sketch in a real gym with real boxers pissed off that they were wasting their time.

But at least it shows they were understanding of the people they could upset despite pissing themselves at the same time. Something I doubt Tiswas could ever own up to and if anyone disagrees, you're more than welcome to do so.

I read in an interview with Dom that his education was horrible, was always in the bottom sets whilst Dick was bullied just as badly. They definitely got what they wanted quicker than they thought although if you look at them presenting on CBBC back in 1997, they are completely different. More avuncular than anarchic.

Da Bungalow was very succesfull with the move to BBC 1 gaining a greater following and putting the BBC back at the top of the Saturday morning wars. Sadly success went a bit far with the final series (mooted a year in advance by the way) adding celebrities to the mix which did not work.
Off The Telly sum it up well through their reviews from 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Thankfully the final show just had a normal 10 year old in place of the celebrity guest proving that the team did their best to please their fans.

However, there wasn't really any friendly rivalry between them and ITV who with the demise of SM:tv in 2003 launched Ministry Of Mayhem with ex CBBC presenters Michael Underwood and the gorge Holly Willoughby along with other stalwart Stephen Mulhern.
The titles and set with white pink and blue primary colours reminded me heavilly of Motormouth and that was no surprise as producers Ged Allen and Vanessa Hill were part of the production team along with BBC reject Chris Bellinger and even Trev Neal and Simon Hickson on writing duties.
But just because you've got people with years of experience and great shows of the past to their bow, doesn't always mean they've got fresh ideas. What was even more shocking was that none of them wanted their names displayed on screen at the end of the show!

The Ministry ended up being relaunched in July disposing of the phone girls who spoke in unison and gradually dropped all pretences of being set in a ministry.
Hadn't they learnt from Motormouth, Ghost Train, or Parallel 9?
With the exception of 73, not all Saturday Morning shows with a set up location worked.
Further changes came in December when Michael disapeared for no firm reason and the title being changed to just MOM.
This resulted in the show reaching its peak in 2005 with Holly and Stephen at the helm and new features such as the infamous "Ram Ray", "Name That Tone" with Mr Lee, and a high point being when they celebrated ITV's 50th anniversary by getting past presenters of their Saturday shows reunited such as Pat Sharp, Jenny Powell, Neil Buchanan and even Sally James.

Just an aside, I know why I was getting crushes on my support assistants!
Because they reminded me of those who presented on these programmes!
Dawn was very similar to Jenny Powell, and Carol had a hint of Sally James in her.
They both laughed at the comparisons and even claimed to hate them respectively for obvious reasons!

But anyway, there was a lot of petty rivalry that showed on screen between Da Bungalow and the Ministry. Especially when the final series of Da Bungalow previewed a game in which children would sneak large items into unexpecting shopper's trolleys and MOM nabbed it off them! It was still entertaining all the same mainly because it had "Oh Yeah" by Yello as the theme.
I can even remember when James Bourne's Busted offshoot "Son Of Dork" performed their single "Ticket Outta Loserville" prompting Stephen to ask the leader singer "are there any bungalows in Loserville?"

I turned out that MOM were the losers in the end. Despite a brilliant 100th show in December 2005, changes were a foot as cutbacks meant the show had to be slimmed down and this resulted in another relaunch in January 2006 with the title "Holly And Stephen's Saturday Showdown", despite being billed as MOM in the ITV offices!
And oh my, whose bright idea was it to set the show in Holly and Stephens "own house"?!

Features such as "Supermarket Sneak" and eventually "Ram Ray" were brought back but it did look like the show was giving up at times, regardless of Holly Willoughby being a great excuse to get up on a Saturday morning.
In June the show disapeared from ITV1 in favour of Anthony Worral Thompson, becoming exclusive to the CiTV channel until it's demise on the 1st of July that year.

I've still got the final moments on DVD and it's sad in a way because it broke a long heritage of great Saturday morning shows on the channel. They did their best to go out in style with buckets of gunge being thrown everywhere and "Summer of 69" playing in the background!

Holly mentioned on the Paul O'Grady Show earlier this year that she really missed doing the shows, especially when it was MOM. This is what happens when those with no taste in such programmes take overall control and Paul had something to say about that when guesting on Richard and Judy's final This Morning in July 2001, "what they know about entertainment they can write on an ant's bum"

That's the sort of attitude for a performer to have, one that doesn't care about the direction of their career, but is interested in their guests. Never take yourself too seriously.