O.T.T.

O.T.T. ("Over The Top") is a late-night adult version of the anarchic ATV children's show Tiswas, which was made by its ITV franchise successor Central Independent Television. It was broadcast at 11.00pm on Saturday nights for one series in 1982. O.T.T. was created and presented by Chris Tarrant, and also starred ex-Tiswasians John Gorman, Lenny Henry and Bob Carolgees. Helen Atkinson-Wood was the female sidekick replacement for Sally James, who stayed behind to present the concurrent and final series of Tiswas alone.

The programme's origins can be traced to Independent Broadcasting Authority worries about the increasingly risqué content of Tiswas. To find an outlet for this aspect of Tiswas's content, Tarrant joined up with Gorman, Henry and James in a live tour of nightclubs and colleges called The Four Bucketeers. The success of this tour (plus album, single and Top of the Pops appearance) made them realise that an appreciative adult audience existed. On 28 March 1981, Tarrant, Carolgees, Gorman and Henry left Tiswas for good to start work on O.T.T..

In January 1982 Chris Tarrant told Kenneth Kennaugh: "We know it has enormous potential appeal for adults. Quite what that appeal was remained remarkably ill defined." The same article stated that Lenny Henry "doesn't know what he will be doing in tonight's O.T.T.. But one thing is sure. When the show ends he'll be standing under a hot shower - 'just to recover' ... Henry loves the uncontrolled humour where even he never knows what is going to happen next. Tiswas was marvellous to work on. It was a new style of lunatic humour, and we got away with murder. When I first started Tiswas, my nerves used to go before each show simply because it was live. But now, in OTT I just get on with it."

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