Ten Sharp (ITV, 1991-1992)
Pat Sharp first became well-known when he joined BBC Radio 1 in the early-80s, and he also hosted a small number of editions of Top Of The Pops. He then went on to shows on various satellite channels including Sky Trax where he hosted endless hours of music videos, and he also interviewed a lot of the pop stars of the time, isn’t he lucky. He then hosted ITV’s music show The Roxy.
By the late-80s he had moved to Capital, where apparently he played all the hits, although how he’d ever fit every hit single there’s ever been into a three-hour show is unclear. He teamed up with his Capital colleague Mick Brown for a few singles for charity, and one of these managed to make the Top Ten. This meant that he was arguably more famous when he was on a London-only radio station then when he was a national one. And then he hosted the popular CITV show Fun House.
In the early-90s he hosted a couple of TV shows that I’m fairly sure were only shown in the LWT region. Ten Sharp (not to be confused with Ten Sharp, a Dutch group who had a Top Ten hit single in 1992) was a ten minute-long show on Saturday afternoons (in Nicam digital stereo) where he floated along in a spaceship thing in a computer-generated world called The Tunnel Of Ten and he would recommend to viewers ten things to do over the weekend. Full speed ahead!
This included things like films to go and see at the cinema, the latest hit singles to buy, events taking place around the region, and so on. This was all accompanied by some rather funky background music (I can’t remember if this was a hit single or made for the show though). There were also some great competitions with big prizes, don’t forget that details are on Oracle page 244.
But another reason that I remember Ten Sharp is because I’m fairly sure that a boy who was in my class at school appeared in a feature alongside a WCW wrestler (not to be confused with the WWF as it was still called at the time). How fabulous. There were also some amusing end credits, such as people being described as “Sharp Shooters” and “At The Sharp End”.
After Ten Sharp ended, Pat went on to host Sharp’s Funday (which I have already reviewed), shown on LWT on Sunday afternoons, and featuring old episodes of Batman and WCW, along with competitions. And then Pat hosted many other TV and radio shows, including CITV’s Saturday Morning funfest What’s Up Doc. And I did this piece with referencing his hairstyle once. Oh no!
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 