Pat Sharp says Fun House could never be made now because the kids on it were often left in tears or injured from the tasks.
The 63-year-old presenter hosted the popular children’s game show for 10 years between 1989 and 1999 flanked by famous twin cheerleaders Melanie and Martina Grant. The young contestants on each team would have to compete in a variety of challenges often being placed in gunge or bubbles as they tried to secure the points.
Pat admits health and safety would never allow the programme to be made now because he can remember many of the kids crying after the games.
Appearing on the Celebrity Catch Up podcast, he said: “There were some interesting moments. The kids were, after some games, they were not happy. They were crying. I don’t think it would happen these days. Health and safety would not allow it.
“The kids used to say, ‘What’s in there?’ I went, ‘I don’t know, just gunge. Stick your head in and get on with it. What you worried about?’ But it wasn’t ideal.
“With the way of the world now. It would not happen.
“Look, the kids were looked after. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no blame going to STV here at all. But it was just a different time. The kids were told, you stick your head in there, and you come out with a bit of gunge on you, and then you run through the balloons, jump in the water and do it. They were all up for it, but sometimes they looked like they were struggling because… it wasn’t SAS Who Dares Wins, but it was certainly quite tough for youngsters, and they did very well.”
Pat even got run over by one of the Fun Carts once during the racing section and one lad had to be taken to hospital for treatment after being severely winded in the gut.
He said: “One of the kids had got winded during the game for some reason. You know what it’s like as a kid when you get winded, you’re just gasping for air. And because we’d done the game and it was really hard to edit from the end of it with me standing there, if we didn’t carry on, I had to always run in and go, ‘OK, let’s move on, see who’s got the points and here we go.’ And then they would do an edit … I’m coughing now thinking about it. I was thinking, ‘Just don’t collapse until I finish this bit, please.’ And it was a bit awkward because I think the kid had to go to hospital and we had to wait about four-and-a half hours for the kid to return. It was a terrible ordeal.
“I got hit by a go-kart as well. One of the go-kart, Fun Karts, sorry. One of the Fun Karts did not stop when I pulled the checkered flag down, and just kept going and ran over me. I was sent back into the hoardings, much to the delight of the studio audience, which was a local school, who was just thinking it was hysterical.”
Pat did hatch a plan to bring Fun House back as an adults-only immersive experience but he couldn’t secure the rights to tour the country with it.
He said: “I would safely say pretty much now that those plans have gone, sadly, because we just couldn’t get anybody to agree all the terms with the rights and this and that, to enable it to happen as an adult, immersive attraction, which is what we wanted to do. We wanted to do what the Crystal Maze had done. We had venues in place, we had companies in place who knew what they were doing to make this happen and make it brilliant. And we just weren’t allowed to get the rights to do it because of various reasons.
“So I would say safely now, sadly, it won’t happen. We did try a few years ago with Crowdfunding, and that didn’t quite do the trick. It’s probably missed the boat now. I think it would have had its time maybe perhaps 10 years ago would have been a really good time to do it.”
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