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Jigsaw

TOP DRAWER CLIVE DOIG-ery combining crossword-style quizzing with patented VISION ON pissing about. Helmed by (initially mute) ADRIAN HEDLEY, JANET ELLIS and floating polystyrene jigsaw piece Jig, with assistance later from ‘O-Men’ SYLVESTER “STRAIGHT BLOWING” McCOY and DAVID RAPPAPORT, both of whom could be summoned by saying six “double-oh” words in a row. To complete the cross-pollination, VISION ON’s DAVID “PROF” CLEVELAND turned up as detective Cid Sleuth. Six-letter mystery word was revealed, one letter at a time, by means of comedy/musical sketches – once for fun, second time (without the solution revealed) for prizes. Another one of those scrawled-in-the-memory-of-millions efforts, not least thanks to Hedley’s bleached white mask malingerer Noseybonk, be-sandled Scottish giant Biggum and Ptery the pterydactyl (pipes courtesy of JOHN “K9” LEESON).

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. gman

    April 17, 2010 at 10:30 pm

    Didn’t mad inventor Wilf Lunn appear every other week as well?

  2. Lee James Turnock

    May 1, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    Charlie Brooker is talking out of his arse about Noseybonk being scary, I always wanted to go for a walk around town with the mad bastard, laughing as he pissed off and freaked out passers by. What I wanted to do with Janet Ellis, on the other hand, is best kept to myself.

  3. THX Kling Klang

    October 16, 2011 at 10:51 pm

    There was a hedgehog “puppet” thing as well, introduced by a weird sketch out in the countryside when a crazed motorist ran a cyclist into the hedgerow. “You road hog!” shouted the cyclist, “You hedge hog!” shouted back the motorist (Adrian?), whereupon the cyclist turned into said creature.

    Anyway, the music used to introduce it was great, probably created by the Radiophonic Workshop, but even when it was accompanying the testcard/pages from Ceefax I was compelled to listen to it all the way through. No idea what it was called, though. I mean, the Cid Sleuth music was good, but this…

  4. Richard16378

    October 17, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    I’ve got the feeling that the theme was a Denton-Cook one, as Clive Doig seemed to use them a lot in the 1980’s, & the boingy-ness quota is up to their standards.

  5. MartS

    October 20, 2011 at 8:12 am

    If you go over to TV Ark, they have uploaded the end credits to Jigsaw, and indeed the theme-tunesmith for this show was indeed Richard Denton

  6. THX Kling Klang

    October 23, 2011 at 9:45 pm

    Thanks for that, it does seem likely that they were responsible for the hedgehog theme, although I doubt I’ll ever find out what it was really called, or even hear it again.

    Mind you, if the theme tune to Screen Test can be released as a single in the past ten years, you never know.

  7. Richard16378

    June 15, 2016 at 1:50 pm

    Does anyone remember the name of the “official” who used to turn up in the middle of sketches if things went out of hand like Monty Python’s Colonel?

  8. THX 1139

    June 16, 2019 at 5:30 pm

    Fascinating to read about Adrian Hedley’s inspiration for Noseybonk in the TV Years Kids’ TV issue, and how it was based in a very sad childhood. Made me glad to say I liked Noseybonk and never found him scary. Never found clowns scary, either. Noseybonk’s path to rehabilitation starts here!

  9. Droogie

    November 23, 2020 at 1:36 am

    I remember seeing Adrian Hedley post-Jigsaw appearing on an 80’s Channel 4 alternative comedy show called Book ‘Em & Risk It . The show had no studio budget so was “hilariously“ performed in the Channel 4 foyer to a bemused audience. Adrian did a mime based about a nervous guy going into a sex shop and taking a blow-up doll home. It felt so wrong .

    • Tom Ronson

      March 30, 2022 at 1:20 am

      Book ‘Em an’ Risk It sounds fantastic. Only one episode, strangely enough… or maybe not. Oddly enough, the legend ‘Buckim + Riskit’ is engraved in the run-out groove of this wonderful sweary swear-a-thon which was an underground hit in the clubs circa 1984…
      https://www.discogs.com/release/1475930-Up-Yaws-Dedicated-To-_-_-_-_-_-Fucking-Cunt-Awkward-Bastard
      Rumoured at various stages to have been the work of The Oblivion Boys, Captain Sensible, Brian Conley, stray members of The Comic Strip team and even a Tubeway Army side project! We shall probably never know the full story…

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