Wizadora

[bbrooks]

Who remember's Wizadora? actually I'll rephrase that, Who fancied Wizadora? I did.
"Wizadora, We adore her, doing thi........" okay it's probably best if I stop there. ;D

I'm pretty sure that I saw every episode of this, never missed it and I knew the Theme Tune off by heart. I still do.

It was another one of them shows that appealed to all age-groups like Zzzap!, one that can still raise a chuckle. Sometimes the humour could be quite Adult, particularly with the character of Hangle (who was voiced by Francis Wright, who was also "The Head" in Art Attack).

I use to keep on laughing after the end credits rolled, everytime I saw Wizadora's real name, Wendy van der Plank. LOL
In all fairness though she gave a wonderful peformance as did every other cast member who ever appeared on the show.

I remember seeing the "100 greatest kids TV shows" on Channel 4, a while back and it was sad how shows like Wizadora, Mike and Angelo and Zzzap! didn't make it.
Art Attack, Finders Keepers and Woof didn't either, these shows are so fondly remembered but at the same time there so very underrated.

Opening Titles.


Here's a fansite I recently created for Wizadora, complete with a Forum. Remember to sign the Guestbook.
wizadoraskitchen.webs.com/

[Jack94]

There's few fans of Wizadora (In the sense we just like the TV show)

I'm not as mad on the show as I once was but I do have quite a few of the VHS releases and I upload episodes from time to time.

I didn't like the first series very much, with all the stupid catchphrases like "botheration" and "wizadorable".

In a book released last year called 'Legends of kids tv' there's a section with Wizadora mark II, Lizzie Mcphee talking about her time on the show and how she got the job and everything.

[bbrooks]

Yes, I read about that somewhere, I'm thinking of buying that book, Is it good? How many pages does the Wizadora section take up?

[Jack94]

It is a absaloutley fantastic book and the author of the book, is a friend of mine on Facebook and Twitter.

The Wizadora section takes up 3 pages IIRC, but it's all told by Lizzie Mcphee, not Wendy Van Der Plank, but still very interesting, infact Lizzie's work before Wizadora had nothing to do with kids tv, infact she did a lot of adult themed theatre productions.

There's also interviews with other 90's kids TV stars such as Pat sharp, Dave Benson Phillips, Richard Vobes, Simon Buckley and other stars from 50's,60's,70's and the 80's. A fantastic book which I recommend!

[bbrooks]

That settles it. I'm going to buy it. ;D

[robert]

I wonder if the book is available in libraries?

Well back in the day i was a big Wizadora fan and watched it religiously. I can still remember watching the very first episode in 1993, were i was staying over at my grandparents, (something which i didn't do very often), then woke up myself the next day in the living room, pulled up a wooden chair to the tv put it on and there she was! It was the original 12:10pm slot if i recall.

[Jack94]

The book can only be bought online, but it's pretty cheap

I have the first ever episode, will have to upload it but I didn't know it was on in the early afternoon, thought it was always during CITV.

[bbrooks]

This looks promising.
carolynecullum.com/

For those of you who don't know, Carolyne Cullum co-created the show with Don Arioli, she presumably still owns the rights to it too by the looks of it.
If this is a brand new series then that's great, I wonder if they will get Wendy van der Plank back. She would probably be considered as being too old now to play her and would probably end up doing a cameo.

[bbrooks]

Sept 19, 2010 16:11:27 GMT 1 Jack94 said:

I have the first ever episode, will have to upload it but I didn't know it was on in the early afternoon, thought it was always during CITV.

After some googling, I can confirm that robert's information is true Wizadora Series 1 was shown at that time.

It was part of GMHTV's, The Ten Past Twelve Club, I've always thought that the first series was aimed more at the pre-school audience.
Inbetween Series 1 and 2 the producer's must have decided to make it appeal to a more wider audience. Which (I think) is the reason why it looked different when it returned a year later.
Gone were the over the top colours and catchphrases and the show became better as a result.