[Charnham]

ok so in the late 90s, on Hereward FM (& I assume the other stations in the group) there was X Files spoof called X Fools, I was wondering how did it come about, and just the general, who, what, when, why & wheres of it?

[adc82140]

2-Ten used to carry it as well. After the end of its run, the slot was filled by a "showbiz news" slot called "Billy Sparkle's Showbiz Circus" which I seem to remember was entertainment news read out in the style of William Hague. Bizarre.

[Ian Cleverly]

It was on most of the then GWR Group network. GWR Bristol used to play it at around 8.15am.

For some reason I can only remember the fact that the Assistant Director guy had an S&M fetish!

[Charnham]

lol yes been listening to some on YouTube, and was reminded about his cross dressing & S&M, whoever wrote it was a genius at finding ways of saying that stuff at 8:15am

[Sibeber]

Originally Posted by Charnham

lol yes been listening to some on YouTube, and was reminded about his cross dressing & S&M, whoever wrote it was a genius at finding ways of saying that stuff at 8:15am

X fools was sold to GWR by an Aussie company .I remember being at the sales pitch in a Swindon hotel conference room with all the other GWR PD's must be ten yars ago ..my how time fly's .

[Charnham]

so was it on Aussie radio then?

[Sibeber]

Originally Posted by Charnham

so was it on Aussie radio then?

If my memory serves me correct it was on Austereo stations across Australia .Though I wait to be corrected but yes I'm sure it was syndicated across Oz

[vinnielo]

It's distributed by MCM Entertainment in Melbourne.

[Charnham]

ok cleary I didnt know about it being produced in Australia.

[pgfmedia]

It was a poor excuse for breakfast show content. A fine example of GWR buying a naff product, yet not actually allowing presenters to write or produce their own sketches.

[Charnham]

Originally Posted by pgfmedia

It was a poor excuse for breakfast show content. A fine example of GWR buying a naff product, yet not actually allowing presenters to write or produce their own sketches.

im sure Heart dont let them have anything like X Fools now.

[comedycoma]

You're sure, but you're wrong.

Heart Breakfast gets a lot of sketches every day for the presenters to use; mostly based around pop culture references, not ongoing stories, but it's not just DJ banter.

[chrisy]

Originally Posted by comedycoma

You're sure, but you're wrong.

Heart Breakfast gets a lot of sketches every day for the presenters to use; mostly based around pop culture references, not ongoing stories, but it's not just DJ banter.

That's true, but none are as good as the X-Fools (and neither are they as dire as what followed X-Fools).

@Charnham

There was an X-Fools CD as well, you had to phone up to get it (if memory serves it was a tenner). I never got round to ordering it but the content has been put online since. There's quite a good website with a load of info and these and other episodes on it, although I haven't looked at it for a number of years so it may no longer exist...

edit it does no longer exist, archived version - at least, I think that's it, it doesn't appear to be archived properly

[JamSir]

From what I remember, X-Fools finished around the year 2000, by which time it was a good couple of years past its peak.

Billy Sparkles Showbiz Circus was on air around 2001-2 and was very much a Jon Culshaw production.

You always got the impression that Culshaw used poorer, recycled material for Billy Sparkles, while saving his best work for Radio 4's Dead Ringers.

[Charnham]

yes I saw the X Fools CD on my research around the web, dont recall "Billy Sparkles Showbiz Circus " however.

[longreach]

Originally Posted by pgfmedia

It was a poor excuse for breakfast show content. A fine example of GWR buying a naff product, yet not actually allowing presenters to write or produce their own sketches.

Wow big assumption about presenters at the small GWR stations being able to write and produce content like X-Fools. X-Fools was actually quite good. It was on the back of X-Files obviously and there were very few PD's in GWR that did not like it.

[JELLIES0]

Does anyone know the story of the old empty barn ?

[Sibeber]

Originally Posted by vinnielo

It's distributed by MCM Entertainment in Melbourne.

I stand corrected ...I knew it was an Aussie company as it was Aussies making the initial pitch to us .

[Spencer4H]

Originally Posted by Sibeber

I stand corrected ...I knew it was an Aussie company as it was Aussies making the initial pitch to us .

I'm pretty certain it was distributed and sold in the UK by Unique. I remember them trying to get us to take it at the station I worked for at the time. Perhaps they got the Australians in to pitch it at first.

We took Billy Sparkles for a short time, also via Unique. The demos sounded pretty good, but the actual product wasn't great, and we dropped it fairly quickly.