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The Wright Stuff
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The Wright Stuff is a British
television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, and
currently 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.
hew Wright has hosted the show since it began in 2000.
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Encyclopedia
The Wright Stuff is a British
television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, and
currently 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 and guest hosts
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. Beth Palmer now works as a continuity announcer on Channel 4.
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.
The first 'Man with the Mic' was Matt Rudge who left to pursue a successful career as a writer and stand-up comic.
The longest-running 'Man with the Mic' was Seyi Rhodes, who worked on the show for just over 2 years. He took over from Matt in 2003. Seyi now works as a Foreign Affairs Reporter on Channel 4 series 'Unreported World'. He was named as one of Channel 4's "next generation of presenting voices" in 2008.
The role has become more prominent since Eric Johnson took over in September 2007, following Amol Rajan, who left to become a journalist at The Independent. Previous to The Wright Stuff, Eric was a freelance News & Entertainment producer, assistant editor of real.com and reporter for Mercury FM radio station in Watford.
Eric 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:
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:
| Segment | Content |
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| Segment one | The show will always start with a chat with the special guest and then a look at the talking points of the day before the panel delve into the daily papers. The special guest will always go first and each panel member picks three or four articles from a selection of the papers. This segment lasts about 25 minutes. | | Segment two | The first 'talking point' or debate segment of the show this is often the most serious topic and the debate will last the longest. This will last about 20 minutes | | Segment three | Often the shortest 'talking point' of the show sometimes light-hearted this segment is short to make up for time lost elsewhere in the show and only a couple of calls will be taken. | | Segment four | Sometimes a regular 'talking point' but sometimes a human interest story which often features members of the public who've dealt with the issues raised such as cleaning up council estates or parent power in schools. There are more likely to be guests in the audience if Segment Five is a 'talking point'. | | Segment five | The final segment of the show is more often than not an advice section where a specialist in a certain field discusses certain topics with Wright and fields calls from viewers. This section always occurs away from the desk set up for the panel where both Wright and the guest are sitting on comfy chairs. A regular contributor to this segment is Dr. Miriam Stoppard who deals with topics such as divorce, relationships and marriage. Dr. Christian Jessen has recently become a regular in this segment since the success of his programme Embarrassing Illnesses he helps callers who are too embarresed to see their GP. Jasmine Birtles advises callers how to make money in their spare time, Michael Rosen also hosts a children's reading clinic occasionally in this segment and is often a guest on the show. Other Experts include Joe Inglis (Vet), Davina McCail (Dream Expert), Janie Lee Grace (Environmental Issues), Lorraine Maier (Children and Teenage advice), Suzie Kendall (Life Coach), Francine Kaye (Divorce and Marriage Expert) Zita West (Fertility) and Janey Goddard (Homeopathy) |}
When the advice segment does not occur a fourth debate segment of the show: often short, is added.
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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 February 2005, during the 2005 election campaign, Tony Blair appeared on the show. A member of the audience, Maria Hutchings, walked up to the desk and confronted Blair about the closure of special needs schools. Her son, John Paul, suffers from autism. The incident made national headlines. Mrs Hutchings was subsequently revealed to have been a Conservative Party member and prospective future Tory MP.
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.
On 13 August 2008, Asian entrepeneur James Caan appeared on the program and mocked Prince Charles wearing a kilt. Caan held up a copy of a UK daily newspaper, which showed the Prince wearing a kilt, and 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. 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.
External links
- at five.tv
- Studio audience application form
- Matthew Wright's Official Site
- - her Official Site
- 'The Man with the Mic' - his official site
- Official Youtube Page featuring discussion segments and classic clips
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