Yes, yes. A few days early or late, but that doesn’t really matter.
If you were about my age in the UK when I was my age in the UK, then you might remember Timmy Mallett and his Wide Awake Club on ITV: a Saturday morning staple. The co-star for some of the series was wildlife expert and now Hout Bay resident Michaela Strachan.
It also featured Mallett’s Mallet: a massive foam hammer.
But that’s beside the point.
Wide Awake Club ran until 1989, and was followed by Wacaday, which ran during the school holidays.
In 1990, Mallett released a cover version of Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini with Bombalurina. It reached number 1 and, together with its Europop vibes, it was the perfect song for him: deliciously wacky and zany and juvenile and just silly.
Quite reasonably, I’d forgotten all about Timmy Mallett until I came across the piece below, published in a UK Sunday supplement.
And it’s amazing.
It’s all massively Monty Pythonesque and wholly fabricated, except, you kind of get the idea that some of it might not be. But, like watching Bob Mortimer on WILTY, you’ve really no idea which bits are made up, which are genuine, and which are “embellished truths”. Whichever they are, they conjure up some wonderful mental images.
Anyway, you’ve likely read enough of my spoutings, so do take a minute or two to properly read Timmy’s.
