Terry Christian on The Word's grimmest antics from Coronation Street cringe to intimate Santa stunt

The Word was iconic TV viewing for the pub generation of the nineties. Now, 30 years after the controversial show wrapped, The Mirror talks to host Terry Christian about the most grisly moments and what came next

Anarchic and raucous, capturing the irreverence of the nineties, The Word was essential post-pub viewing for a generation. With its controversial segments and out-of-control guests, it also turned its presenters into stars.

Wild antics included a man dressed as Santa being pulled across the studio by his testicles, Rod Hull and Emu attacking Snoop Dogg, and a security scare, after an anonymous tip-off claiming an angry drugged-up audience member was ready to shoot motormouth host Terry Christian.

Britain still had only four TV channels, the Internet was in its infancy, only the super-rich owned a mobile phone, and The Word was headline-grabbing, ratings-soaring escapism. It unashamedly stuck two-fingers up at the horrified establishment.

Fuelled by new music, jaw-dropping stories and crazy stunts, it changed the face of telly forever, paving the way for shows like TFI Friday and Big Brother - which look distinctly tame in comparison.

Thirty years on from the show’s last ever episode on March 24 1995, host Terry tells the Mirror: “Not a day goes by when somebody doesn’t come up to me to talk about The Word.

“Two blokes have come up to me already today to say how much they loved it. It was always planned that way, especially from my point of view. I was one of six kids so cultural things were important to me, music was a big thing.

“The Word was the sign that the weekend starts here, it gave you something that no-one else knows. Even though it was quite mainstream it was about tone and we wanted it to be quite rebellious, quite youthful. Not that glib middle-class student stuff.

“I always use that old joke, we grew up with the one thing money can’t buy - poverty. So I hated anything aspirational as a kid. I wanted to make a show that wasn’t aspirational. The aspiration was to live for the day, look forward to that day when you are grown up enough to go out and The Word would bring a night out into your living room. It wasn’t about trying to be cool.”

Born into a working-class Irish catholic family in Manchester, still fervently left wing, Terry says: “If I was Keir Starmer I would go and build a massive council estate right next to Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds and there would be nothing they could do about it.”

Intelligent and quick-witted, he won a grammar school place and was later kicked out of Thames Polytechnic for not turning up. Jobless and back in Manchester, he appeared on Devil’s Advocate, a World in Action show pitting unemployed kids against politicians to examine the reasons behind the raging inner city riots.

Snapped up by local BBC Radio afterwards, his broad Manc accent meant national fame eluded him - until the explosion of the Madchester scene with the Hacienda, New Order, The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays making the North ultra cool.

Rebellious Terry was perfect to host The Word. He wanted the then little known Caroline Aherne as a sidekick, but his bosses had other ideas. He recalls: “They thought ‘let’s find the poshest woman we can - Amanda de Cadenet.’ Her dad had won Le Mans and was from proper French aristocracy. They had a chateau in France and her mum was a real Sloane.

He recalls her being just 18 and them sending her to Pontins, Prestatyn. “She was going in and out of the chalets where people were naked, covered in shaving cream,” he says.

“In the afternoon when we were doing the rehearsal she said ‘where am I staying tonight?’ Well obviously it was a chalet - but not one in Verbier with three stories, staff and a view of the Alps! It was more like one that Charles Bronson was tumbling out of in the Great Escape. She was brilliant Amanda.”

One of The Word’s most memorable segments was ‘The Hopefuls’ where ordinary members of the public sought their 15 minutes of fame by performing the most vile tasks imaginable.

Stunts included drinking pints of sick, eating sandwiches filled with toe-nail clippings, or searching through piles of animal guts for a prize - were like a precursor to I’m a Celebrity’s bushtucker trials.

“It became a thing because the press hated us and that was the lowest common denominator,” says Terry. “I hated that strand. It was a gimmick and a contrivance.”

He joined The Word because he loved music, but became intrinsically linked with its crazy pranks. But The Word boasted seminal musical moments.

It saw Nirvana give their first ever TV performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Oasis got their first big telly break performing Supersonic and Rage Against the Machine gave an iconic rendition of Killing in the Name.

“The only band we missed out on were The Cranberries, which I was furious about,” says Terry.

“Some weeks we had four bands on. We always had one black band, one pop band and one Indie type band. We reflected the vibe, being all embracing and multicultural. Muslim and black kids still liked music and rave culture. The idea of having a black band on every week was mine because I grew up on a street where you were either of Irish descent or Jamaican. I used to joke that we liked reggae but we had Catholic guilt.”

Terry, now 64, travelled the globe interviewing A-listers including Alexander O’Neal, Eddie Murphy, Whitney Houston, Patrick Swayze and James Brown.

And he says he could have started the Me Too movement “accidentally,” after interviewing a famous actress. “She was telling me a story about being sexually assaulted when she went for an audition and the producer turned up in just a bathrobe.

“My producer was in my ear saying ‘Terry, Terry move on. It is Friday night, it is supposed to be fun’. It was clearly Harvey Weinstein. I could’ve started the Me Too movement accidentally.”

Often catapulted onto the front pages, Terry recalls: “I got told off the week of the Windsor Castle fire. At the start of the show I said: ‘I’ve got a great show for you tonight. It is hotter than Windsor Castle.’ We had to be quite edgy and we paid the price for it in a way.”

And being a national anti-hero could be tough. “It changes who you are on a molecular level. It made me drink more,” he says.”I didn’t drink shorts, only pints, and I used to smoke dope. Those were my vices.”

But he is proud of his time on the show and of its formidable reputation, saying it spoke for a generation. “I’m proud of getting those bands in, giving that generation a vibe, something that they cared about,” he says. “It meant a lot to people, but I knew it would.

The Word’s wildest moments

• ‘Poison’ Ivy Tilsley, aka Lynne Perrie, was sacked from Coronation Street in 1994 after plastic surgery which fans said left her unrecognisable and looking like a ‘fish face’. So, she went on The Word and performed her own well-refreshed rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’. The public the performance 62 on Channel 4's list of 100 Greatest TV Moments from Hell.
• Hellraiser Oliver Reed was secretly filmed apparently drunk in his dressing room and struggling to get dressed. The actor then slurred his way through Wild Thing with Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. But Terry says Reed was acting, adding: “He wasn’t drunk, he knew exactly that he was stitched up.”
• Presenter Mark Lamar famously derailed rapper Shabba Ranks’ career when he asked for his view on the anti-gay lyrics of a song by fellow Jamaican musician Buju Banton. Shabba held a copy of a Bible which he carried with him and stated that the "word of God" advocated the "crucifixion of homosexuals". Lamarr retorted: "That's absolute crap and you know it." Ranks was promptly dropped from a Bobby Brown concert and faced altercations with his record label.

The Word’s Presenters - Where are they now?

Amanda de Cadenet - married and divorced Duran Duran bassist John Taylor. Worked on The Big Breakfast, then moved to LA and into photography. Now hosts a podcast “The Conversation”.

Mark Lamarr also joined the Big Breakfast, followed by Shooting Stars, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and various radio shows. Then produced compilation albums for various record labels and is believed to write under a pen name.

Dani Behr also joined The Big Breakfast as well as Hotel Babylon and Ice Warriors. She moved to LA - presenting and taking minor acting roles. Now married with two children and believed to be an estate agent.

Katie Puckrik went from roving reporter on The Word to presenting Channel 4’s Glastonbury coverage before moving to the BBC, presenting various radio shows.

Jasmine Dotiwala co-hosted The Word for a year before her meteoric rise to head of MTV Base. She went on to work for Channel 4 and the BBC. Joining Netflix in 2020, she was made an OBE this year for services to broadcasting, music, equality and inclusion.

Alan Connor became a journalist for the BBC as well as a scriptwriter, author and crossword compiler.

Huffty was the Geordie skinhead famed for awkward interviews and shouting ‘lesbian power’. She is now a co-ordinator at community project West End Women and Girls’ centre in Newcastle.

* To celebrate The Word's 30th anniversary, Terry Christian is doing a series of live gigs, 28th March Mockingbird Cinema Birmingham, 19th April Morecambe Wintergardens Theatre, 25th May – Leek Foxlowe Arts Centre, Saturday 14th June Hull Social