Michaela, fav moments?
spar...@btinternet.com
Michaela Strachan
I believe she has already been on Night Fever on C5, did she sing
HAPPY Radio or Take Good Care of my Heart, did she dance on the
tables?
I have been told that during one Hitman & Her programme, she had
trouble with a zipper and a nipple poked out? Has anyone seen it & any
scans available?
I have been thinking about some of my favourite moments of Michaela
on TV, here goes.
1. Hitman and Her wearing yellow minidress, she turns and wiggles her
bum at the camera.
2. WAC 90 crawling under table & showing off her boobs.
3. Hitman and Her, beach party wearing green swimsuit, plenty of
movement!
4. First appearance on WAC 10th Nov 1984 dancing wearing a leotard.
5. Whale On, being whipped by a porn star!!
6. Hitman & Her in Brighton, black off shoulder minidress, great
dancing, definitely no bra.
7. Paul McKenna Show spoof exercise video wearing very tight blue
leotard and b/w shorts.
8. Woken up by Keith Chegwin on The Big Breakfast, she couldn't deny
that she had lied before when she said she always wore pyjama's, she
had to admit she was naked under the sheets.
9. WAC picture of Michaela in a yellow bikini.
10. Brief clip on KYTV of Michaela dressed as a traffic warden!!
Has anybody else got any favourite moments??
All the best
Nick Austin
++ Michaela Strachan
++
++ I believe she has already been on Night Fever on C5, did she sing
++ HAPPY Radio or Take Good Care of my Heart, did she dance on the
++ tables?
Yup, she's been on Night Fever [1] at least once. Possibly
twice but unfortunately I missed a few of the early shows in
the last series. She sang the shoop-shoop song (as a duet)
and there was a bit of dancing, though not enough if you ask
me.
++ I have been told that during one Hitman & Her programme, she had
++ trouble with a zipper and a nipple poked out? Has anyone seen it
++ & any scans available?
I don't remember any zipper, but I do remember when she was
wearing a leopard-skin dress underneath a jacket [2]. Only
the dress wasn't fastened properly and she had to fasten her
jacket closed in a bit of a hurry. Someone else posted a
composite of scans that included that scene.
++ I have been thinking about some of my favourite moments of
++ Michaela on TV, here goes.
++
++ 1. Hitman and Her wearing yellow minidress, she turns and wiggles
++ her bum at the camera.
++
++ 2. WAC 90 crawling under table & showing off her boobs.
++
++ 3. Hitman and Her, beach party wearing green swimsuit, plenty of
++ movement!
++
++ 4. First appearance on WAC 10th Nov 1984 dancing wearing a leotard.
++
++ 5. Whale On, being whipped by a porn star!!
++
++ 6. Hitman & Her in Brighton, black off shoulder minidress, great
++ dancing, definitely no bra.
++
++ 7. Paul McKenna Show spoof exercise video wearing very tight blue
++ leotard and b/w shorts.
++
++ 8. Woken up by Keith Chegwin on The Big Breakfast, she couldn't
++ deny that she had lied before when she said she always wore
++ pyjama's, she had to admit she was naked under the sheets.
++
++ 9. WAC picture of Michaela in a yellow bikini.
++
++ 10. Brief clip on KYTV of Michaela dressed as a traffic warden!!
++
++ Has anybody else got any favourite moments??
++
++ All the best
Before I start waffling (Oops, probably too late), perhaps I
can comment of a few of these events:
1. I Don't remember it, but surely she's a bit of a flirt
anyway (even if she does deny it) so most shows ended up
a bit like this.
2. Oh yes [3]. A bit of a classic in the "I didn't mean to
do that" sort of reaction, though as far as I could tell
nothing actually got revealed.
This reminds me... Others claim she may have once done a
somersault wearing a ra-ra skirt and ended up revealing
her knickers. This has always been the "I heard from a
friend" type thing and as far as I know this never actually
happened. However, since you probably were a regular WAC
viewer do you remember this incident?
3. That would be the "beachwear special edition" [4]. But I
reckon it's beaten into second place by the swimsuit worn
when she co-presented FreeTime.
4. Gosh, you have a good memory. This was well before she
became a regular presenter [5]. Wasn't she with a dance
troop at that age? I forget the name of that group though...
5. Never saw this but I've heard about it from others since
apparently she made some rather strange comments about
herself. I don't suppose you or anyone else either
(a) knows the date this was shown or
(b) has a tape of it.
It must have been around the time she was promoting Happy
Radio (September 1989) as she did loads of rather silly
personal appearances around that time.
6. I don't have any specific memories of this particular
programme [6]. But I seem to remember that is was
actually rather uncommon for her to wear a bra, not that
I've been keeping notes, or anything...
7. I know she did a more recent Paul McKenna where she was
pretending to visit a fairground, but I missed any earlier
Paul McKenna shows she might have done. That would either
be because Radio Times gave it a "so-and-so and other
celebrities" type description and never mentioned her or
maybe I was on holiday at the time.
I presume that this is where the picture of her wearing a
yellow banana came from that appears on David Grantham's
WWW page [7].
8. Oh Yes. [8] Another classic, though the bit later when she
played the animal guessing game just appeared to be a total
waste of air time.
9. Another oh yes. [9] Personally I reckon this picture was
'better'(whatever I mean by that) than the Stripagram
pictures though the JPG scans don't really do it justice.
10. AFAIK no-one has yet scanned these pictures. Actually
I'm surprised Michaela agrees to appear in shows like
this (also her appearance in Game On and the previously
mentioned James Whale show). Maybe this is just Michaela
"not taking herself too seriously".
Ah, the moment has come that can't be delayed any longer. My
personal favourites, and no laughing at the back please.
I've separated it into two lists of favourite shows and
favourite moments, in a not too-successful attempt to keep
the list fairly short.
Favourite shows:
Has to H and H really for being a consistently entertaining
show. Special memories that havn't already been mentioned
would include: When she accidentally read out the
correspondence address for WAC instead of H and H; Making
a bet with "1-million smarties" as the stake... And loosing!;
Demonstrating how to play the "Disco Limbo" game; Attempting
to ride a surf board;
If I had to pick one other great series (after all, she's
done quite a few) it would be Summer Crunch on the
Children's Channel. Although due an absence of mentions
in the Radio Times I missed the first couple of weeks. Then
failed dismally either to record or to keep tapes of many of
the remaining shows.
Favourite moments, in no particular order:
1. All time favourite is an entire episode of Michaela! (early
Sunday morning kids show) filmed on location in Jersey [15].
The weather was very sunny and she seemed to really enjoy
herself looking round places and talking to the children.
Unfortunately very similar shows such as Michaela's Map on
TCC failed to hit the mark.
2. Her audition piece for WAC, singing the chicken song [10].
3. FreeTime, presented by Andi Peters (before he joined the BBC)
and with a different guest co-presenter each week. [11] When
Michaela's was co-presenting she wore of the most revealing
swimsuit's I think I've ever seen.
4. Playing the part of Shirley Temple in "Heroes, Heroines,
Villains and Villainesses" on the Wide Awake Club.
5. The time on Club X (late night on Channel 4) [12] when Danny
Baker introduced her as "This is the woman I'd like to have
babies by". Well, it's honest if not just a little unrealistic
and it certainly made me laugh.
6. The 100th birthday party of H and H, wearing a gold-coloured
dress [13].
7. Michaela's interview for The Late Show on BBC2 when they did
a whole programme about Late Night Television [14].
8. Being a game-show 'hostess' for Narahudo as part of special
evening of Japanese programmes on Channel Four [16].
9. Children In Need. Dancing to Madonna record [17], though it
could have been much better than it was.
10. The time she took the place as the person on top of the
pyramid for a motorbike display team [18].
11. The special edition of "The Really Wild Show" about the
Dodo [19]. She had that "sparkle in her eye" throughout
this programme, probably because I later found out that
this was filmed when she first met Duncan (now her husband).
12. Playing "Thumberlina" at the Royal Variety Performance [20]
13. Presenting the "Wildscreen 96" awards ceremony [21]
14. The Really Wild Show, when she 'proposed' to James the Giraffe
15. Loads and loads of little incidents on the Wide Awake
Club: When a Meercat weed all over her; Singing songs
such as "John and Jenny", "I'm a pink toothbrush", "Two
Little Boys", "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "It's My Party";
Making pancakes with Rustie Lee; When she did a handstand
but forgot that she was wearing a microphone pack and it
fell off.
Phew, that's a bit of list and I probably forgot loads of stuff
so I'll shut up now.
Nick.
Footnotes: (date / description / original filename, if scanned)
[1] 19.04.97 Night Fever (mich1.jpg .. mich6.jpg)
[2] 25.03.90 H and H
(strm002g.jpg)
[3] 16.12.89 WAC, crawling under a table
[4] 17.06.90 Redruth in Cornwall (strm003g.jpg)
[5] 26.07.86 I believe, or maybe 20.07.86
[6] 20.05.90 and 27.05.90 "The Event" in Brighton
[7] http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/grantham/MS.HTM
[8] Celebrity Showcall (strm010g.jpg)
[9] ??.09.91 Yellow bikini (strm005g.jpg)
[10] 01.01.87 The chicken song/Audition
[11] 14.10.88 FreeTime with Andi Peters
[12] 30.08.89 Club X with Danny Baker
[13] 05.11.90 100th H and H show
[14] 15.11.90 The Late Show special with Paul Morley
[15] 21.07.91 Michaela! in Jersey
[16] 14.09.91 Narahudo - The World
[17] 22.11.91 Children in Need
[18] 25.10.92 Motorbike display team
[19] 29.01.93 The Really Wild Show "Dodo" special
[20] 21.11.93 Royal Variety Performance
[21] 25.10.96 Wildscreen 96