The Wright Stuff

Infobox Television
show_name = The Wright Stuff


caption =
genre = Chat show
runtime = 90 minutes
related = Loose Women
presenter = Matthew Wright
co-presenter = [Aime Morris]
co-presenter = [Eric Johnson]
channel = Five
country = UK| first_aired = 11 September, 2000
last_aired = Present
producer = Princess Productions

"The Wright Stuff" is a British
television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, andcurrently airing on Five each weekday at 9:00am. It is repeated later on at 11:00am on Fiver.

It first aired on 11 September 2000 and was created at Anglia Television who produced it for two years until their takeover by Granada. It is now produced by Princess Productions. Originally broadcast from Anglia TV in Norwich, it is currently broadcast from Princess Productions studios on the third floor of Whiteley's Shopping Centre, Bayswater, London.

Presenter & Guest Hosts

presenting The Wright Stuff.]

Matthew Wright has hosted the show since it began in 2000. When Wright goes on holiday or is ill others fill in for him, many of the regular panel members have hosted the show. Richard Bacon is also a regular fill in host and Wright's former boss Piers Morgan also guest-hosted the show a lot in the early days. Jerry Springer, Stephen Nolan and Anneka Rice among others have also guest-hosted the show.

Co-Presenters

There is always a young woman in a booth towards the side of the desk; she takes calls and often reads out e-mails and text messages. The longest running woman was Korin Nolan who performed the task for four years between 2004 and 2008. While others in this role included Becky Jago, Beth Palmer, Sarah Hogan, Pollyanna Woodward and Stef Alexander. Korin left the show in May 2008 and actress Phina Oruche filled in for a week before a regular replacement was found. Amie Morris is currently the residing 'Babe in the Booth'.

There is also a 'Man with the Mic' who sits in the audience and takes views on the various topics from them. Eric Johnson took the role in September 2007. He and Wright often share banter about Eric's love life on screen. Eric has also participated in several segments, including 'Something new for Eric to do' - a whole week where he had to learn a new skill each day, such as pole dancing and cow milking.

Eric and the booth girl often stage photo casebooks demonstrating a topic expert Dr Miriam Stoppard can help viewers with. Amie and Eric both went to De Montfort University in Leicester to study media, graduating a year apart in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

Regular Guests

Every week Matthew is joined by two regular panel members and a third special guest, the guest changes daily while the panel changes every week. A lot of the time panel members rotate and there is always a male and female panel member as well the special guest.

Regular panel members include journalists, politicians and comedians these include:

Janet Ellis
Dr David Bull
Carol Thatcher
Lowri Turner
Anne Diamond
David Grant
Ed Vaizey
Stephen K. Amos
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Dave Gorman
Amanda Lamb
George Galloway
Martin Lewis
Dominic Holland
Matt Allwright
Kaye Adams
Carole Malone
Christopher Biggins
Gail Porter
David Ian
Craig Revel Horwood
John Torode
Shobna Gulati
Aled Jones
Jane Moore

Former regulars James O'Brien and Vanessa Feltz no longer appear on the programme as they now host rival morning radio shows on LBC and BBC London respectively. Kate Silverton appeared regularly until her BBC TV News career took off.

TV critic Ian Hyland used to appear on the show every Monday with a review of the week's T.V. he took the space of the guest panelist in the final segment of the show. However he left when the show was extended to 90 minutes.

The special guest is often on the show to promote something for example a new film, show or book recent guests on the show have included Morgan Spurlock, Michael Barrymore, Jane Asher, Terry Waite, Sarah Brightman, Martin Fry and Ian Smith (the week that "Neighbours" moved to Five).

On rare occasions, if a guest is unable to appear 'live', they will do their piece on the phone, an example being Simon Cowell who featured in a discussion on whether it pays to be nasty.

Format

The format is based upon the more traditional radio phone-in,featuring well-known guests discussing topical issues, and encouraging contributions from the studio and television audiences, text messages, e-mails and a phone vote.

When the show was first broadcast it was only an hour long but it was then extended to 90 minutes. The show starts at 9am and is divided into five segments:

When the advice segment does not occur a fourth debate segment of the show: often short, is added.

Controversies and Criticisms

In 2002, the show was at the centre of a media scandal when Wright 'accidentally' named John Leslie on air as the anonymous rapist mentioned in Ulrika Jonsson's autobiography. Since this time, Wright has been notably reticent about discussing issues that involve "unnamed" celebrities, such as the 2006 "football player and mobile phone" scandal - often remarking "given my previous record on certain issues,I feel more than a little nervous discussing this".

In May 2008, the show came under scrutiny from animal rights group PETA. The group claimed that the fishbowl containing Wright Stuff fish, Brad and Jen was too small. On the 27th May show, Wright told viewers that the show's resident vet would look into the matter. [ [http://news.scotsman.com/petaprotests/Animal-rights-activists-on-warpath.4117400.jp Animal rights activists on warpath over goldfish bowl ] ]

On 13th August, 2008, Asian entrepeneur, James Caan, appeared on the program and jokingly mocking Prince Charles wearing a kilt. The Dragons Den star, held up a copy of a daily UK newspaper which showed the Prince wearing a kilt, when Caan remarked that people should not take him too seriously, because he was wearing a "skirt". He apologized later in the show saying he had not meant to cause offence. Caan also offered to return to the show in future wearing a kilt.

Popular Culture References

In 2003, Wright appeared in the video for "Proper Crimbo" the Christmas single released from the team behind Bo' Selecta. In a spoof of the Michael Jackson video for Thriller. In the video Wright took the place of the girl in the car while instead of morphing into a wolf the Michael Jackson character morphed into John Leslie who 'wanted a word' with Matthew Wright a reference to Wright revealing the John Leslie scandal by mistake on his show.

In 2006 The Wright Stuff featured in the third episode of the second series of "Extras" (TV series). Both Wright and Lowri Turner were discussing the fictional incidents of the characters that had appeared in the press. Wright has since revealed on his show that he receives a small repeat fee every time the episode is shown.

References

External links

* [http://www.five.tv/thewrightstuff "The Wright Stuff"] at five.tv
* [http://www.princesstv.com/opportunities/audience_form_tws.html Free tickets] Studio audience application form
* [http://www.princess.uk.com/ Princess Productions]
* [http://www.wrightonproductions.com/ Wright On Productions] Matthew Wright's Official Site
* [http://www.eric-johnson.co.uk Eric Johnson Online] 'The Man with the Mic' - his official site