Massive! (TV programme)
Encyclopedia
Massive! was a short-lived Saturday morning British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 programme aimed at a "youth" audience. It ran for two seasons, each of 22 episodes, between 1995 and 1996. A spin-off from the children's Saturday morning show Scratchy and Co, Massive! was aimed at a slightly older audience, and was presented by Denise van Outen
Denise van Outen
Denise van Outen is an English actress, singer and television presenter. Her most notable roles to date are as a presenter on The Big Breakfast, and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago on both the West End and on Broadway.- Early life :Born Denise Kathleen Outen in Basildon, Essex, she is the...

.

One of the regular guests on the show was the horror-themed magician Simon Drake
Simon Drake
Simon Drake is the stage name of Simon Alexander; a British magician based in London. He is best known for the innovative and shocking television series Secret Cabaret made for Britain's Channel 4.-Early life:...

, who made a number of appearances on the show performing both sleight-of-hand tricks and larger illusions. One of these larger illusions, a sawing in half
Sawing a woman in half
Sawing a woman in half is a generic name for a number of different stage magic tricks in which a person is apparently sawn or divided into two or more pieces.-History:...

 performed using van Outen as the assistant being sawed in half, drew a large number of viewer complaints due to the liberal use of fake blood, and the fact that van Outen was not restored into one piece before the show cut to a commercial break. Following an investigation of these complaints, the British television regulator, the ITC
Independent Television Commission
The Independent Television Commission licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003....

, warned the show's producers to moderate its content.

After the show's second season, it was cancelled due to low viewing figures, and some of its content incorporated into a revised version of Scratchy and Co.
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