Jon Savage remembers Fun Factory

Jon Savage, the music writer and broadcaster, worked as a researcher on Granada TV's Saturday morning children's show Fun Factory, a 1980 summer replacement for Tiswas. In an interview recorded for the Granadaland.org website in 2016, and set to footage from the show here, Savage tells the bizarre story of his experiences on a show he describes as "fundamentally misconceived".

[@surfer7t3]

Thanks so much for posting this. I was only 6 in 1980 but have really vivid memories of this. I remember the Krypton Factor scene shown at the end of your video. I also remember a chimney demolition clip shown weekly. Many thanks for posting

[@heroicnonsense]

We only got the BBC and Sky back in the 80s, and didn't have access to ITV or C4 (I grew up in the Netherlands). So when you say "Fun Factory", I think of a completely different Saturday morning children's show!
Since Sky's Fun Factory was few years after this one, it's rather odd that Sky got away with reusing the name. You'd think Granada would mind!

[@perspexorange]

Many thanks for this. I had never seen that infamous Joy Division intro before (although I remember reading about it years ago). Great to see this (although, admittedly, Teret being in the clip is problematic). Would be interested to know/see whether he said anything about the band/video after the clip was shown.

[@AntisocialMediaMike]

Blimey, I have very clear memories of Fun Factory filling in (1980 or 81) when Tiswas was on its annual hiatus.
It wasn't anywhere near as good on the whole, but did have some decent live music iirc.

[@ChannelNilNil]

Yeah, that's a fair summary - only Granada in the early 80s could have made a kids show that veered from Freddie Starr to Joy Division in the space of two weeks.
Fun Factory was very patchy - you could put together a 20-minute highlights edit and make it look either really good, or the worst show ever produced. Interesting that the TV Cream website, supposedly expert on all this stuff, has very shaky memories of the programme - its write-up clearly confuses Gary Crowley with Martyn Day: www.tvcream.co.uk/telly/tv-a-z/a-m/f-is-for/fun-factory/
Anyway, Fun Factory didn't come back for summer 1981 - the ITV regions just showed films, Mork and Mindy, Clapperboard and various kids' filler programmes while waiting for Tiswas to come back minus Tarrant.

[@AntisocialMediaMike]

@@ChannelNilNil ah Tiswas minus Tarrant. Dark days to be fair.
What I DID love about Fun Factory was the use of Root Beer Rag as the main theme!:)

[@AntisocialMediaMike]

Another clear memory is a character called Mr Nasty. Here he is in action.
th-cam.com/video/XeLSD0xY_HY/w-d-xo.html

[@mikeauld7971]

@@ChannelNilNilGary Crowley definitely *was* on the show, as a token London voice. He was pretty much deferential to Billy Butler on the show. Remember Billy eager to prove his pop music credentials over Gary’s in a staged way (correcting his pronunciation of a band name in a cringey moment I recall). I expect Gary doesn’t put it on his CV. In fact you can see him a few times in this video (including the controversial sweary moment and sacking)!

[@spankysmp]

Remember watching it at the time but I didn't realise it was such a car crash. To me, it was just filler between Tiswas series.

[@kgarrett1404]

Have you been in therapy since Jon?