“Wacky! Fun! Crazy! It’s outrageous!” So began the theme tune of Fun House, a kids’ game show which anyone who grew up with British TV between 1989 – 1999 will probably have watched. It was presented by Pat Sharp and his impressive mullet hairstyle, assisted by cheerleading twins Melanie and Martina. Pat’s career includes radio DJing and appearances on a variety of celebrity contestant shows but he is best known for presiding over go-karts and gunge on Fun House. Like the TV programme, this book is “a whole lot of fun” although there are no “prizes to be won.”
This book claims to be a spoof autobiography, but I have my doubts. I think most of it’s probably true. Pat confesses his addiction (to hair products, of course), his intense rivalry with nemesis Neil Buchanan (also a children’s presenter with ITV), his devotion to Fun House (why did it run for only 10 years?), his influence on the 90s cultural zeitgeist and how desperate he is for any work opportunities now that even the university students are too young to recognise him from TV. It also appears that his hair is a character in its own right and that Pat is jealous of the attention it gets.
An amusing read with some laugh-out-loud moments, Re-run the Fun would make a great gift for someone nostalgic for 90s kids’ TV.
Pat Sharp himself liked my Instagram post about the book and it also turns out we share the same birthday! Twenty-seven years apart, that is.
Published by Constable in 2020.
I loved 90s kids TV especially Fun House 😊
Yes the kids’ TV was better then 🙂 But I guess anyone would say that about whatever decade they grew up in 😉
Yeah that would be the case 😊 I find myself going to say to my daughter that program is silly and then I remember all the programs I enjoyed with gunge and things, and I stop myself 🤣
I didn’t grow up in Britain and I’m not familiar with the show. However, I seem to remember the hairstyle being quite characteristic for that period. Ah, the nostalgia…
I do remember him having short hair by the time of the late 90s when the show was in its last years 😀 Actually I think mullets are not the worst hairstyle, they do get taken the mickey out of though…
Haha, well, I guess mullet may have its charm, but I am quite happy to have left that particular hairstyle back in the 80s… Gah, just googled it and found this – apparently it’s making a comeback!! https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210205-thoroughly-modern-mullets-styles-unlikeliest-comeback
Interesting article, thanks for sharing! 😀