This unpredictable youth-oriented late-night chat show from Britain’s Channel 4 aired between April and November 1983. The programme blended arts, music, and an unconventional interview format aimed at 16–34-year-olds.
Main presenter Steve Taylor hosted the series alongside a different guest co-presenter each week, including Paul Morley, Muriel Gray, Ian Hislop and Diana Dors.
The series is widely remembered for a notoriously uncomfortable, chaotic interview featuring Tom Waits. During the segment, a mumbling and defensive Waits completely ran rings around host Steve Taylor.
When a young Ian Hislop (Private Eye supremo) chimed in to tell Waits he should promote his album more volubly, a confrontational exchange erupted.
Recorded in front of a lively (and often unruly) audience at the Albany Empire theatre in Deptford, South London, the show was largely panned by critics at the time – derided as a “low-rent post-punk Parkinson” and “complete and utter twaddle” – and Channel 4 cancelled the show in November 1983.
The series is widely remembered for a notoriously uncomfortable, chaotic interview featuring Tom Waits. During the segment, a mumbling and defensive Waits completely ran rings around host Steve Taylor.
