Arguably the most popular
feature, and one that run throughout nearly the entire run of Wacaday,
was Timmy's game Mallett's Mallet. Two contestants would sit
opposite each other on those pink and yellow stools linking each word
they said to the last one, however these "rallies", started by Timmy,
would often begin with some very unusual words to make the competition
more interesting. If a contestant failed to link their next word to the
last one then they would get hit on the head with Timmy's trademark -
the huge pink and yellow foam mallet. The person with the most
"bruises" lost - receiving a Wacky Plaster which was stuck on
to any part of their face for them wave at the viewers at home, while
the winner won something that ranged over the years from a Wham! LP
to a Super Nintendo!
So…where did the Mallet come from?
It was invented in the summer of 1986 during a lunchtime
meeting about the show…
"let's have a game"
"what about a word association game? You know Orange - banana - fruit -
er"
"yeah, we bonk them on the head when they go wrong."
"What about using a mallet?"
"Mallett's Mallet!"
And the props department at TVam were asked to make one. It
weighed a ton!
"Can we have it a lot lighter please?"
And the wardrobe department made a special black TOP
SECRET bag to carry it in. It still travels in this bag today.
Everyone wanted to be bashed on the head "I want to know what
it feels like!" Timmy has no idea of the exact number of heads but it's
around a million. And that's nearly a SQUILLION!
Have you been Malletted? What did it feel like? Tell us more
at wacachat.
How many Mallets have there been?
Not many! They have to be refurbished after a while. It's a
bit like servicing your mallet after so many thousand heads. New
covers, new linings and new insides. It's a very specialised thing
making a mallet.
It has to have the cover taken off for washing and checked regularly.
Who made the Mallet?
The very first one was made by TVam props department, but as
it was too heavy to use on air it was replaced by a much lighter and
more user friendly mallet. Tony Stringfellow in the West
Midlands is a specialist props make and he services and repairs
Mallett's Mallet for Timmy. In essence it's the same Mallet that
appeared on Wacaday.
Who chose the Mallet's colours?
Mallett's Mallet has a yellow stem and top bit with a
pink head. The colours are Wacaday's colours.
What were the rules?
Each day's round of Mallett's Mallet was started by Timmy
reciting a long list of the rules very quickly! But what exactly were
his words? We asked him to reveal all...
Pay attention and listen closely!
Mallett's Mallet is a word association game, where you musn't
pause, hesitate, repeat a word, or say a word I don't like... otherwise
you get a bash on the head like this...or like this...the one with the
most bruises loses.... look at each other and go Bleugh! Look at
everyone at home and go Bleugh! Everyone at home look at them and go
Bleugh!
Where did "Look at each other and go Bleugh!" come from?
It started on the first show by mistake. Timmy introduced the
contestants to each other and instead of "look at each other and say
hello!"
He said Bleugh!
It's pronounced BLAIR.
Or BLARE
And sometimes spelled
BLAAAAH
But Timmy usually spells it BLEUGH! And as it's his word that's the way to spell it.
What does Bleugh! mean?
We have no idea. But it sounds good doesn't it?!
And who can forget that sound effect when the mallet hit the
contestant's heads? Eek Eek Bonk, Ding!!!
Download the Mallett's Mallet "Eek Eek Bonk, Ding!"
sound effect here!
Top
Wacaday ran during each school holiday - Summer, Easter,
Christmas and Half-Term weeks. 65 programme were made each year shown
over 13 weeks. From 1987 each series of Wacaday became themed as
reports were shown each day of Timmy visiting a particular country. The
first trip was Mallett in Majorca while later locations included Egypt
- who remembers WAC like an Egyptian?, France, Asia
(Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia - under the title WAC
Asia), Jordan, Germany (or Blermany as Timmy called
it!) and Gibralta. Towards the end of Wacaday's run the set
would also become themed to the country.
One of the best bits of Timmy's Travels were all the
wonderful stories Timmy told.
They are all true stories Wideawakers.
How do we know?
We made them up ourselves!
Summer 1987: Mallett in Majorca
This was Timmy's first Wacaday excursion abroad and featured
in an issue of Look in!
Favourite bits in this series were Timmy pouring a bucket of
ice into the sea to cool it down!, bargaining UP the price in the
market and paying with a big bag of Spanish Potatas! (pesetas!!)
Timmy's first on screen painting was done on this
trip. The picture of a beautiful Majorcan valley was given as a present
to the producer's 9 year old boy Robin.
Summer 1988: The Grand Tour
In the 18th century young men made grand tours of Europe to
finish their education and see the sights. Timmy decided to do exactly
the same - but different! In the summer of 1988 Timmy started out in
Inverness, talking to Wackety Yaks, looking for and finding the
Wacness Monster; and dancing very complicated
Highland (fishing) reels!
Then he went to Holland and had some wacky Dutch
clogs made, found the smallest house in Amsterdam; and put his
finger in the dyke which of course saved Holland from flooding.
In Blermany Timmy met Mad King Ludwig at the
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle and knocked some sense into him with the
Mallet!
In Switzerland Timmy wanted to make a Magic Cuckoo clock
and find out what happened to all the holes in the Swiss cheese.
And in Italy he did one of his daftest stunts. He
dived into the Grand Canal in Venice!!!!!
Who was Spaghetti Malletti?
One of Timmy's favourite tricks was to meet his cousins in
whatever country he happened to be in. Spaghetti Malletti like
all Timmy's cousins looked exactly the same as Timmy and he taught
Timmy how to make the leaning tower of PIZZA.
After eating the pizza, Timmy famously climbed the leaning
Tower of Pisa and unfortunately knocked it down while trying to
straighten it with the Mallet! It remained closed for many many years.
Wasn't Timmy a Roman Soldier once?
Oh yes! When in Rome do as the Romans do.
Like - Have a guided tour by a Roman Soldier who looks like Timmy!
Everyone knows that all roads lead to Rome and it's good luck to chuck
rice for some reason.
Hence we had Timmy in a centurion's uniform trying to find a Roman road
he could cross and then when he did, he ran around the Coliseum
chucking rice and shouting Latin phrases like Amo Amas Amat,
Waca this and Waca that!
It made sense at the time….
Who was Wacadile Timmy?
He was Crocodile Dundee's wacky mate who famously coined the
phrase
"Call that a Mallet? That's not a mallet
THIS is a Mallet!"
Timmy made several Wacaday trips to Australia. Once he was
found at Bondi beach surfing on an ironing board! The board had been
borrowed from the hotel and there was a bit of explaining to be done
because it came back utterly wrecked!
Summer 1989: Wac Asia…and the Ninger Whinger?
One of Timmy's favourite summer tours was in 1989 when he
filmed the tour of WacAsia: Cancer to Capricorn. Taking in
countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia.
It was in Hong Kong that Timmy met a fearsome foe
(who looked very much like Timmy) called the Ninger Whinger. He
spent a lot of time Ninging and Whinging. We don't really know why but
it looked dead funny!
In Thailand, Timmy upset the Royal Family by wearing
shorts and huge numbers of ties around his neck! Timmy suddenly became
the King of Siam (Yes I am, Yes I am) Etcetera, Etcetera. Watch
Yul Brynor in the King and I and you'll know what he was on about.
Our favourite Timmy adventure in Malaysia involved Mr
T making a cuppa in a tea plantation; and on another occasion
finding Michael Jackson in a rubber plantation!
Tell us about Timmy and Bubbles the chimp…
Bubbles the chimp was Michael Jackson's best friend
and he lived next door to Timmy's brother in law, Steve, in California.
(that's Bubbles not Jacko). So we had a great Wacaday adventure
teaching Bubbles to wacawave!
Afterwards we met some of the stars of Indiana Jones - the
spiders and snakes in the Temple of Doom. Bob the trainer of Bubbles
bred weird beasties for the movie industry. Unfortunately it's not easy
to get the autograph of a tarantula!
Did Timmy ever go into Space?
Of course! But there wasn't much atmosphere!!! When Wacaday
went to Disneyworld Florida, there was a great story at Cape
Canaveral where we saw the Space Shuttle, Skylab and the Apollo Lunar
landing module. Timmy tried to moonwalk! Incidentally, one of Timmy's
greatest moments was shaking the hand of Commander David Scott the last
of only 12 men to walk on the Moon.
Is it true Timmy fought a Zulu army in South Africa?
Yes, it was at the battle of Rorke's Drift near Isandlwana
where in 1879 the British Army won 11 Victoria crosses in a single day.
To recreate the battle as if really happened Timmy had a Wacaday
flag, a mallet to bash his way out of the hospital (this was after
he used a real sledgehammer to make some holes in the wall because the
custodian on the day said he could!) Single handedly he faced a mighty
regiment of Zulu warriors from the resort we stayed at. At the crucial
moment Timmy and the Zulus started going Bleugh at each other
and we all lived happily ever after!
What was WAC like an Egyptian?
A top dance from 1991. This was the summer of the WacAfrica
tour in Egypt, Kenya and South Africa. At the
pyramids Timmy was seen admiring the Sphinx (with a face and glasses
rather like Timmy!) and bashing a camel to make it gallop round the
pyramids at Gisa. There was a royal ruler called Queen Hatchet soup who
boiled hatchets into soup, and of course the boy King Toot and come in.
Having Waced like an Egyptian all the way down the Nile, the
team went to Kenya.
Kenya believe it? Of course we can!
Here our little hero went on the trail of Rory the Lion.
He was a permanent fixture in the studio was Rory.
What happened to the water in the plug hole on the Equator?
One of the strangest natural effects in the world only
happens on the Equator and Timmy has had so many people come up and
tell him how this was one of their favourite episodes.
Walk ten paces south of the equator and the water goes down
the plughole anti clockwise; ten paces north and the water goes down
clockwise. On the actual equator itself it goes straight down. So Timmy
proved it for the cameras. He was absolutely gob smacked to see it
happen. And even more so when it was proved that vines curl in the same
manner either side of the Earth's central line.
Is there really a line dividing the Indian and Atlantic
Oceans?
When the Wacaday team went to the Cape of Good Hope
in South Africa, Timmy wanted to show where the two oceans meet.
"We'll put a line in later" said the director.
"No need" said Timmy; and he was right because right across the sea as
far as the eye could see was a real live line showing where the warm
waters of the Indian Ocean meet the cold grey waters of the South
Atlantic Ocean.
One of Nature's great mysteries revealed on Wacaday!
What's the coldest place Timmy's been to?
That'll be the North Cape of Norway, where you are
nearer to Canada over the North Pole than you are to London. It was mid
summer 1990 and Timmy was in the Land of the Midnight Sun. At
one o'clock in the morning (strangely Norway has daylight saving!)
Timmy stood on top of a 300-metre cliff looking out across the sea
towards the Arctic in full sunlight!
The oddest sensation was that although the sun never set,
there was a definite difference in the warm light of evening and an
hour or so later the cold light of a dawn that never was. "Ooh er
missus, weird or what?!" Listen to Timmy's podcast on this adventure!
And the weirdest place?
Dead easy - the Dead Sea! Yikes it's odd. Timmy in
his stripey fluorescent trunks paddled out to the water's edge and
found himself floating like a cork in this slimy, thick, heavy, water.
It's not a nice sensation at all; and the joke is that you can't sink;
no matter how hard you try and bob down you can't; so Timmy lay back
and read his comic.
What Bible stories did Timmy do?
In Jordan, Wacaday was able to tell the story of Moses
parting the red sea (since when did Moses have big colourful specs?)
and leading his people to the land of milk and honey (cos there wasn't
any ice cream and jelly).
One of our favourite Wacaday stories was the Nativity.
They came to Bethlehem on a donkey. Joseph leading Mary (played by
Lynda Mallett who had on a pair of reeboks poking out from under her
jalaba!)….but there was no room at the Inn (shown by the director's
hand waving them away towards the stable). In the stable the little
baby Jesus was born and Pinky Punky sang Away in a Manger to
him. It was very moving.
Wasn't there a story about the fourth wise man?
Petra, the Rose Red City (half as old as time) was
used as a location in another great Tim-diana jones adventure: Timdiana
Jones and the fourth wise man.
One day Timdiana Jones bit a piece out his dead sea (bread) roll and in
it was a map leading thataway…..
Leaping on a handy horse he raced down to Petra and met Fritz Hamburger
of the Nasty party who was being nasty to the fourth wise man. A quick
Malletting and some Timmy type nonsense later the fourth wise man was
safe.
"And tell me what was your gift for the baby Jesus?"
"I brought him this - a T shirt and a lollipop!"
Weren't the French peasants revolting?
Absolutely. Timmy led the French revolution against
the baddies. The peasants (also called the San Cullotes meaning - no
trousers) had no food, no freedom, nobility, and no trousers! So Timmy
ran around Versailles shouting for his trousers while Marie
Antoinette (who looked remarkably like Timmy) went around offering
out cakes to all the peasants who were visiting!
Take a look at some of the photos collected over the years
from the various filming trips. Click on each one to make the picture
bigger...
Wasn't Michaela sometimes
on Wacaday?
Yes - For a series in 1987 and in 1989, The Wide Awake Club's
Michaela Strachan joined Timmy as co-presenter on
Wacaday. She joined in the fun with Timmy helping on all the usual
features as well as doing film reviews, fashion slots etc. Later she
got her own show - called Michaela of course!
Each edition of Wacaday would always end with a phone in
game…But what were they?
In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the
ocean Bleugh!
A great quiz where we splatted your
teacher or best friend into the bowl of jelly.
Shark Infested Custard
Answer the question correctly and
make the 5 part mallet up. Then pull the lever and the mallet clonks
the lever which flicks the boot which kicks the ball which runs around
the rails and drops onto the seesaw and flips Michael Wacson into the
bowl of shark infested custard.
This prop is still in Timmy's collection.
Blackie the donkey (eeyore, eeyore ee always calls me
that!)
What colour would you like your
Blackie to be?!
This was a fun donkey racing game. Get the question right and your
Blackie would run forward another space towards the winning line!
Manic Minute
Just like hangman, but completely
different. Guess the popstar before the minute is up! There was also
the Movie Minute…you can probably guess what happened in that!
Wacsaw puzzle
Answer a question to get a piece of
puzzle and work who the pop star is!
Mallett's Malletine
Every question right moved the mallet
up another notch then you could let it go into the bowl of jelly and
splat!
It's a massive heavy prop and for many years was stored in Carol
Vorderman's shed!
Norway ski slope
A wonderful ski slope where your
little man climbed up the stairs with each right answer and finally
skied at top speed down the hill and into the bowl of shark infested
ice cream!
This lovely little prop has been a favourite sandpit toy for little
Billy Mallett!
How much does a Grecian Urn?
Build the pillars of the Greek
temple (one for every question correctly answered , then our little
Grecian Urn can fall off the top into the Greek Yoghurt!
The Horrible Haggis
A complicated lever controlled haggis in a kilt that ran across the top
of a Scottish castle and kicked the little man into porridge!
Does anyone remember when Kylie popped into the Wacaday studio
to be a guest? It was when she first came over to England in 1988...And
will Kylie ever appear with Timmy again on the telly? She should be
so lucky!
In 1990 a new character was introduced. This minature version
of Timmy's pink and yellow mallet that wore clothes, had a face and
talked, was originally un-named. Viewers were invited in to suggest
names and Pinky Punky was eventually chosen. We asked Timmy to
take up the story...
A little girl wrote in with suggestions from all her family.
I liked the name Pinky Punky so much I chose it. Unfortunately, we lost
her letter so I have no idea what her name was. Shame because I'd like
to thank her. It was half way through the summer of 1990 that he got
his famous catchphrase... Mr Mallett, Mr Mallett, can I go to the
toilet?.
Are you that girl? If so, GET IN TOUCH!!!
Replica Pinky Punky's were made for viewers to buy - and are
still available. See here for more information.
On the penultimate edition of Wacaday, ever, a contestant on Mallett's
Mallet brought Timmy a present - Hanky Panky - Pinky
Punky's sister which she had made herself! Timmy was so impressed that
he had Hanky Panky made into a toy and was available to buy. She most
recently appeared on on Timmy Towers - Timmy's CITV show. As with Pinky
Punky's constant want for the toilet, Hanky Panky always needs to
sneeze!
One of the most loved features of Wacaday that lasted the
whole history of the show was Magic. Magic was Timmy's pet
cocketial, and every series he would feature, but not just in the
background, actually taking part - sometimes even seen through the
technological wonders of the Magicam (a camera placed inside his cage)
and even in a specially drawn cartoon - for example WAC to the future
which was drawn for Christmas 1989.
I'm hungry! Send me something to eat - birdseed, your
brother, or one of these tasty cockatieeeeeeeeeee-mails!
Sadly, with the demise of TV-am in 1992 came the end of
Wacaday. Timmy is still very much in the business, though. He runs his
own production company Brilliant TV which makes his own show Timmy
Towers which was shown recently on CITV. Since Wacaday finished
Timmy has also presented many other programmes including Utterly
Brilliant, Questions, Way to Go and Around the
World in 80 Seconds.
Catherine loves her Pinky Punky...have you got yours yet?
