 Art Attack was a British children's television series about art. It was one of CITV's longest running children's programmes, running from 1989 until 2007. It was presented throughout by Neil Buchanan. The show involves Buchanan producing three or four works of art, taking the viewer through its production step by step. It was originally fifteen minutes long but this was extended to twenty minutes from series 11. He often introduces a particular segment by showing the finished piece, then the litany "Come have a look at this!!". When a piece involves painting or gluing or anything else that requires time to dry or set, he puts the piece — with a few slops of paint or such over it — to one side and says, "and then you'll have something that looks like this". His works are designed so children can follow his technique and make their own copy of his piece, and they are generally pictures with some quirk added to them, e.g. 'Lolly Lettering' (a type of calligraphy using lolly sticks) and using cardboard squares as paint palette knives to create a painting of a ship. In several episodes he makes something that included lots of torn-up newspaper and papier-mâché (using a solution of PVA glue and water), like the 'Dinosaur Banks'. Once he has finished explaining his work, he says the famous "Try it yourself" line to the viewers. One of Art Attack's most famous inclusions is the Big Art Attacks. These are pieces of art done by Buchanan on a huge scale, often on a playing field, tarmac ground and similar. One of his most well-known is a 'picture' of Queen Elizabeth II made up of £250,000 worth of £10 banknotes. In a special Christmas episode of Art Attack, Buchanan arranged for a big art attack on the skyline of New York, having specific apartments turn their lights on and off to pixelate a Christmas scene. Also memorable is 'The Head', an animated stone bust who laughs and recaps the steps needed to produce the last art piece made. Although he follows Neil's instructions, he always makes it hilariously wrong. In series one, The Head was played by Steve Sweeney, in series 2, Andrew O'Connor and from series 3, it was voiced and operated by Francis Wright. It did not appear in series 13 and from series 17 to date. The programme was originally a TVS production, devised by two TVS employees, Neil Buchanan and Tim Edmunds. Buchanan and Edmunds met each other at Southern Television in 1978, and worked together on No.73 and Do It. The Art Attack pilot was shot on location at a disused swimming pool in Gillingham, Kent in 1988, and the series began the following year. When TVS lost its franchise, Edmunds and Buchanan produced the programme through their company, The Media Merchants. The Media Merchants produced the show for SMG Productions (Scottish Television). At this time (1992) another ex-TVS employee, Peter Urie set up a production management company, Television Support Services. Television Support Services managed all of the Media Merchants productions. The show was filmed from The Maidstone Studios, Maidstone, Kent. ITV announced the cancellation of the series in July 2007. |
