[2] It was created by ATV continuity announcer Peter Tomlinson (later to become a regular presenter on the show) following a test period in 1973 when he tried out a few competitions and "daft stuff" between the programmes.

host Chris Tarrant on the Tiswas Reunited special of 2007, although Today Is Saturday: Wear A Smile had also been often cited, albeit incorrectly.

"Tiswas", as a word meaning "A state of nervous agitation or confusion ... physical disorder or chaos", is attested from 1960 by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Most famously hosted by Chris Tarrant between 1974 and 1981, and later Sally James, it also featured Lenny Henry and occasionally Jim Davidson together with Bob Carolgees and his puppet, Spit the Dog.

This became so popular that the 100th show (broadcast from the Hednesford Hills Raceway) featured several hundred fans lining the racetrack whilst a fire-engine of the local brigade drove around the track and hosed them down with water.

Another feature of Tiswas was its spoof gardening segment Compost Corner, which Chris Tarrant later revealed was a ruse to get an audience callback in the style of Crackerjack.

The first series was intended to be eleven episodes, purely acting as links between the usual staple fillers of old films and cartoons that ATV would transmit on Saturday mornings.

Presented by Chris Tarrant and John Asher from merely a desk in a continuity studio, the pair had to rely on ad-libs and jokes sent in by viewers.

Newly drafted producer/director Glyn Edwards managed to retain this vital, messy element by drawing on his experience as a Punch & Judy puppeteer to create a 'villain' character called 'The Phantom Flan Flinger', who would be the black-clad masked nemesis of the presenting team, and the main instigator of pie-throwing chaos.

With an almost national audience, the show became inclusive of its increased viewership by making a bigger role out of specially invited viewer performances.

Encouraged by his Tiswas-obsessed mother, Butler auditioned for the series wearing a rabbit costume and sang the song "Bright Eyes" made famous by the animated film Watership Down, although his own singing ability was rather poor.

Also appearing a number of times in this series was Norman Collier, the Yorkshire comedian best known for his broken microphone routine and chicken impressions.

This was all born out of one feature of the sixth series - "The Bucket of Water Song", which was such a hit with the viewers that it evolved from an intended one-off to an almost regular part of Tiswas.

The most remembered theme tune was heard for the first time, and the studio set was based around ATV cartoonist Chris Wroe's caricatures of the presenting team.

The new presenting team consisted of Midlands DJ Gordon Astley, former Darts frontman Den Hegarty and comic impressionist Fogwell Flax.

Semi-regulars were dwarf actor David Rappaport who played characters such as 'Green Nigel' (in a pastiche of BBC programme Blue Peter) and the Fonz-like 'Shades', Emil Wolk and puppeteer Trevor James with a giant parrot, presumably to fill the void left by Bob Carolgees.

The decision by TVS, the new ITV station in the south and south-east of England, to drop the Central-produced half of the last series in favour of its own Saturday morning programme No.

During its ATV days the chairman of the station, Lew Grade, was said to have taken a personal dislike to the show but was persuaded to let it continue, even arguing in its defence to criticism from the IBA.

Accordingly, they suffered the same fate as a number of 1970s children's series, in that they were thought to have no further commercial use (the idea of home video entertainment was still in its infancy), and therefore many master tapes were wiped for re-use.

On 2 January 1982 Tarrant, Carolgees, Gorman, Randolph Sutherland and Henry launched a late-night show - with the up-and-coming comics Alexei Sayle and Helen Atkinson-Wood called O.T.T.

It was not such a success, running for just one series, and is today chiefly remembered for the naked 'Balloon Dance' performed by The Greatest Show on Legs, including comedian Malcolm Hardee.

The theme tune was recorded by Roy Wood and was released as a single Saturday Stayback was a short-lived (January–February 1983) late night comedy show based in a pub.

Chris Tarrant and Bob Carolgees were the only ex-Tiswas personnel regularly seen on screen, and John Gorman helped out on writing duty.

In December 2005, BBC Saturday morning show Dick and Dom in da Bungalow featured a thirty-year-old man singing "Bright Eyes" with his friends as part of a talent spot.

A new programme to celebrate 25 years since the final Tiswas show was broadcast by ITV1 on 16 June 2007, it started with the traditional ATV logo and jingle.

With a wealth of clips and reminiscences from the many stars who appeared on the series, the team will recreate the chaos and mayhem of those heady days of the show that broke the mould.

The producers of the programme looked for people who were involved in the original series, whether they were in the audience, appeared as a guest, won a competition ("pulled up by the ears") or in any other capacity.

The TiswasOnline[5] website helped with these searches (and numerous other aspects of the new programme), and people could submit their details directly to the production team and apply to be in the cage.

Original features like competition spots and pop interviews were also excluded, in favour of highlighting the show's legacy to comedy and visual slapstick.

This was targeted at the stand-up comedy VHS market at the time, and the inlay cover made great mention of comic legends' appearances, such as Spike Milligan, Michael Palin and Bernard Manning.