This was the last show of Tiswas and Den Hegarty had been to America to Tippi Hedren’s ranch to play with the lions and tigers. As you see in the video, Den had a hard time and got knocked about a bit and the Tiswas Producers Dave McKellar and Glyn Edwards decided that the Phanton Flan Flinger and his wife Flanderella and the son would wreak revenge on the Hedren Family. This was the last ever Tiswas show . Margaret Farwell was Flanderella on this show as the usual Flanderella was unavailable. It was fantastic being there. Steve Davis had been custard-pied, Chas and Dave played a medley of songs.
I got involved with Tiswas supplying Ollie Spencer with a multicoloured reversible tailcoat for his role as the Official Soaksman. This was the start of a 4 year involvement with the programme mainly supplying costumes and Wizard Merlyn Costume Hire did get a credit on the closing titles. I ended up suggesting a number of ideas and skits that ended up at around 40 minutes of airtime.
John Fleming, a researcher on the programme, moved on to work on Game for a Laugh and phoned me one day asking if I could suggest any ideas. I supplied him with 6 ideas, two of which were used on the programme, Rocket Reg was one and the All New One Man Battersea Funfair was another with Rusty Lee.
We eventually gave up the Costume Hire and started Merlyn Entertainments supplying background artistes for both ITV, BBC and Independent Production Companies.
I did at one stage ask Glynn and Dave about getting in front of the camera, they then told me it takes years to get in front of the camera, actors and the like tread the boards and do Summer seasons for years. I made some enquiries and 6 weeks later I was doing my one and only Summer season at Seawick Holiday Lido in Clacton-on-Sea where I wrote Lollipops and Dragons
Tiswas celebrated Mothers Day by altering the show’s credits to the mom’s name of the contributors, in our case “Special Animal Costumes by The Wizard Merlyn” became “Special Animal Costumes by The Wizard Merlyn’s Mom”
Steve Davis appeared on Tiswas and was heavily custard-pied.