Spanish Archer

Spanish Archer
Genre	Talent show
Presented by	Rhodri Williams, Ruth Madoc
Original language(s)	English
Production company(s)	L!VE TV

Spanish Archer was a talent show hosted by Rhodri Williams and occasionally Ruth Madoc. It was produced by L!VE TV and filmed at the station's headquarters at Canary Wharf in London.

The title for the show derives from the phrase meaning rejection, where "Spanish Archer" would be said to translate to "El Bow", hence "Given the elbow". The TV show deliberately took this in a very literal manner, and expanded the joke as far as it possibly could.

The show would begin with Willams arriving on the set of a cartoon Spanish village, dressed in a Robin Hood style outfit, complete with toy bow and arrow, and declaring "I am El Bow, I am the Spanish Archer". The contradictions of the supposedly Spanish character, such as the costume, and Williams’ undisguised Welsh accent, were played for laughs.

After a few jokes with the studio audience, El Bow would open a door in the set, where the audience would be introduced to a character named Pedro Paella who wore a sombrero, an obviously fake moustache, and rode a toy donkey. After some witty banter, Paella would use an inflatable toy guitar to mime to a backing track of Flamenco music, while singing a comedy introduction to the first act. The tune of the song would always be the same. Pedro Paella appeared in 85 episodes before being succeeded by Terry Tenerife, played by Neville Wilding, later of The Fall.

The acts would then be given one minute to perform, at which point El Bow would appear in the background, loading his toy bow and arrow, and pointing them at a cut-out of a bull, inviting the audience to decide whether the act should continue. If the audience wanted to see more, El Bow would vacate the stage until the end, at which point, they would be presented with a prize of a Seville orange.

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