Wacaquestions

Timmy says:
“You’re right! We had a fabulous time at Llanfair PG – where the station name was longer than the platform – I fell off! Portmerion, Snowdon, Betwsycoed for a strange Welsh legend, I had to run around being King Edward and Owen Wacadower in Carnarvon Castle.

We visited the smallest house in Britain in Conway and I got really grubby being a train driver on the Festiniog Railway! Most of these adventures were in Welsh Wacaday week in October 1988. Well remembered John!"

Question courtesy of John Wilding, Hull.

Timmy says:
“Carrie, you’re talking about one of the highlights of our tour of Austria! Running over the mountains in my frilly spotty dress with glorious wig singing “The Hills are Alive with the sound of Muesli! The muesli we have eaten for a squillion years!" This was just the start of a fantastic tribute to our favourite movie.

There were more hits such as “I am 60 going on 70" and “Doh a deer – a female deer; “Ray a name I call myself!" “Me Me Me Me Me Me Me" etc!

We laughed and laughed the whole day we filmed this – I still burst out laughing when I recall it – an absolute gem of utter Wacaday Nonsense!"

Question courtesy of Carrie.

Timmy says:
“Dear Jim, Mike Myers appeared on the Wide Awake Club doing a sketch called the Sound Asleep Club with his mate Neil Mullarkey.

You can hear Neil’s recollection of the Sound Asleep Club at the Wacaday Reunion area of this site. There’s a picture of the two of them above in the 1987 Wacaday annual."

Question courtesy of Jim.

Timmy says:
“Dear James, What you remember is one of my favourite stories from Wacaday. It was ‘Timdiana Jones and the Fourth Wise Man!’

The story went like this – Timdiana Jones was on the last-but-one crusade in search of the little known but equally clever fourth wise man. He found a clue in the dead sea cheese roll and leaped aboard the fastest mode of transport in the desert – a horse.

He galloped off down the secret souk to the lost city of Petra (the rose red city half as old as time) and came out in front of the most gi-normous temple (just as in the movie).

At that point he faced his deadly rival from the Nasty party who he finally defeated with the mallet and discovered the fourth wise man (who looked remarkably like me) hiding in the temple.

Leaning forward he asked what was his gift to the baby Jesus after the gold, frankincense and bleugh????" It was a lollipop and a souvenir T shirt, and Timdiana bonked him on the head for being so daft.

Petra is in Jordan, a wonderful magical place and the temple is a real ancient temple squillions of years old that was only rediscovered in the last century. The temple is carved into the rockface, and various silly adventuruers have taken pot shots at it in the hope that there is buried treasure in the carvings.

On the day we filmed in December 1989 it was bitterly cold, and the horse was uncontrollable; at one stage it galloped off up a cliff face with me hanging on for dear life! Ludo Graham was the director and played Fritz Hamburger from the really Nasty party (incidently his secret weapon was a telescoping umbrella!)"

Question courtesy of James Gregory.

Timmy says:
“Dear Laura,
I’m so glad you like Itsy Bitsy. So do I. The studio we recorded in is called Skratch records in Chertsey, the home of Nigel Wright who’s a big pop producer and has had nearly as many number 1 hits as heads I’ve bashed!

We actually recorded the song during 1 day in May 1990. Because I’m not a trained singer(?!!) he got me to sing it bit by bit, and work on each bit as we go.

The best part was doing the Oh yeahs! Here’s the photo to prove it!"

Question courtesy of Laura.

Timmy says:
“Yes there was Stevie. A group called the Clan were featured when we filmed at Dundee!"

Question courtesy of Stevie Smith, Dundee.

Timmy says:
“Magic is a very special cockatiel, and much as I’d like to take credit for training him to fly to the top of the camera I can’t!

I think he just liked the red light and would sit up there with his grey tail hanging down. The cameramen were certainly a bit nervous and I’d see their heads poking round asking where’s he going to land next!!?

Sometimes, they’d try and wave him off and it always made us laugh. Here we are trying to do a show and Magic’s got his own ideas about where he wants to sit!"

Question courtesy of Neil.

Timmy says:
“Yes he was Toby! Jason came on and played Mallett’s Mallet with Timmy and the kids. But his highlight was meeting Magic the cockatiel!"

Question courtesy of Toby Anstis, Maidenhead.

Timmy says:
“Of course! Timmy Bond – the man with the golden Mallet! It was during the WacAsia tour when we were in Thailand that we visited the location for the Man with the Golden Gun.

The team set out on one of the long narrow boats to the bay of islands. We thought that one of these islands looked like an upside down jelly, so I dreamed up a baddie called jellyfinger. This lead to the classic Wacaday line “Come on out Jellyfinger! Me and the mallet have got you surrounded!" We had to show the hotel chef how to make jelly from a packet and stick it in the fridge!

It was funny filming the fight with the mallet and jellyfinger on the island – the jellies had been in a cool box and were melting into a mush! The crew adored chucking everything they could find at Timmy! Mike Myers liked the idea so much you might find elements of it in the Austin Powers series."

Timmy says:
“Well remembered Helen! The magic carpet came from morocco, and I used it to travel all around Marakesh – the square of death, the pink walled city, the Atlas Mountians etc. It’s a lovely carpet, and at one stage on our adventures it ran out of magic! Well you’ll be pleased to know, I still have it; and it still works!"

Question courtesy of Helen.

Timmy says:
“Dear Sarah, Wac to the USSR was the thing you are thinking of and it was the name of Magic’s cartoon when we were in Russia, russin’ around the Red Square (remember you couldn’t watch the show unless you had your red square sitting beside you on the sofa?) And the Gremlin in the Kremlin who beat the invading Tartars with Tartar control toothpaste?!"

Question courtesy of Sarah.

Magic looks after all the Wac-A-Mail that has been sent in over the years. Here’s just some of the best! Squillions of Wideawakers sent in their Wacsnaps to Wacaday…are any of them you?!