Outrageous 90s show is back with a bang

TFI Friday

Nostalgia can do funny things to you – it can even convince you that it has been 20 years since then-Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Chris Evans launched TFI Friday, bringing Brit Pop, Freak or Unique and a general air of “Cool Britannia” to teatime on Channel 4.

Will Macdonald, who was a producer on the original series and one of the programme’s many running jokes, referred to usually as Wiiiiiillll (OK, maybe you had to be there), claims that this special TFI reunion owes its existence to a clerical error.

He says: “Someone at Channel 4 said: ‘Oh look, it’s 20 years since TFI started, we should do something.’ They asked Chris if he’d be interested and he said yes, so he called me up about it. I went ‘hang on a second’, did some maths and quickly realised it was actually 19 years.

“But by that point, everybody had gathered together such enthusiasm that we couldn’t stop. We’d gone too far to turn back. It was an unstoppable accidental train.

“In a way, though, it’s quite TFI to celebrate the 19th anniversary – an underrated milestone.”

Yes, one of the defining shows of the decade didn’t actually launch until 1996, but Macdonald doesn’t blame the powers-that-be for getting confused.

“Memory’s quite strange when it comes to TFI Friday”, he says.

“Right now, there are lots of people around the office watching old tapes and there’s a whole bunch of stuff I can’t recall at all. Apparently, I lay in a bath of hot water for an entire episode, but I have no recollection of it whatsoever.”

He adds: “We were in such a bubble. It all came thick and fast and was fuelled by alcohol, so there’s a startling amount I can’t remember. It’s a bit like childbirth: you look back and have fond memories, but conveniently forget the pain involved.”

Luckily, it seems the viewers haven’t forgotten the show, which brought us a mix of music and celebrity interviews from a bar at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.

Admittedly, they may not remember that TFI was the first show to give away £1million on air, beating Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? by nearly a year, but many other moments have gone down in 1990s lore, from Geri Halliwell arm-wrestling Kylie Minogue to Happy Mondays’ frontman Shaun Ryder swearing his way through a pre-watershed interview, despite Evans offering to hand over his own shoes if he could keep it clean.

So, what can we expect from this new one-off? Well, Evans (pictured above in his TFI Friday heyday) isn’t giving too much away, saying: “Lots of the old favourites will be back – Freak or Unique, It’s Your Letters and Show Us Your Face Then – plus lots of new stuff that we already don’t have time for. Tune in and find out.”