Before Ant and Dec waved goodbye to audiences of Saturday Night Takeaway as the show takes a break after 22 years, they introduced a third man to the stage. Although he had the same build, crop of short brown hair, and beaming smile as the presenting duo, he won’t have been recognisable to many fans of the hit show.
This is because Andy Collins is the ‘warm-up guy’ and is familiar only to those who have watched the programme live. Andy has been ‘warming up the crowds’ since the show began, and Declan Donnelly, 48, described him as "a genuine unsung hero of the show’s success.”
But Saturday Night Takeaway isn’t the only prime time show which benefits from the talents of warm-up acts. Here we speak to some of the other hidden heroes of British telly. Meet the warm-up guys and girls…
Stuart Holdham
In 2006 Stu Holdham was working as a TV producer on the show Take It Or Leave It with Richard Arnold. However, three days before the show was about to start recording they realised they hadn’t booked a warm-up act. So Stu decided to step in instead.
“The audience was only 100-strong but I did everything I could including buying every joke book in Waterstones and I threw myself into it,” says Stu, who has been steadily working in the role ever since. Stu gets the crowds going at shows including Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent, Dancing On Ice, Big Brother, Blankety Blank, Family Fortunes and Catch Phrase, among others. While he performs stand-up he also plays games, makes the audience sing, informs them on the show and asks questions.
“You have to acknowledge the audience’s needs, it's not all about you, it's about them really,” says Stu. “You have to turn their frowns upside down because they have been queuing for hours to get tickets sometimes. It's my job to pull the strings and get the energy back onto them. I don’t necessarily think a warm-up guy could go to a stand-up gig, or likewise, a stand-up guy might not be able to do a warm-up gig.”
Stu explains that the role can be vital, especially in shows such as Strictly Come Dancing which are broadcast live. ”If you speak to any contestant that has been on Strictly Come Dancing they know that they are fuelled by the audience, and that’s a major part of it because if the audience are flat it is a bad reflection on the show itself.”
Aside from forming friendships with many of the stars - he has a particular affinity for fellow ‘Watford boy’ Bradley Walsh - Stu has also been part of history. “I did the King’s Coronation outside Windsor Castle and you don’t get much bigger than that," he says. "I would say that that was one of the biggest highlights of my career, if not my life to be honest.”
Although Stu loves his job, there is one downside. "We don’t necessarily get our names on the credits which is probably the biggest bugbear of all because I would like to think I have worked my backside off on a show," he says. "You are a bridesmaid and never the bride really.”
Greg Scott
Greg Scott, 55, has been warming up audiences for a huge range of shows for the last 20 years. He has readied the crowd for programmes such as Countdown, Stars In Their Eyes, The X Factor, Wogan, This Is Your Life, Through The Keyhole and Take Me Out.
“My absolute favourite person to work with was Terry Wogan - he was a guest a few times on Countdown and was always a hero of mine,” explains Greg.
“I was worried he might not be what I hoped he would be but he was just so damn nice.” Greg, who stopped doing warm-up work last year, used to host a morning radio show in Scarborough before heading to Leeds to perform for the Countdown audience in the afternoon.
He says, “I don’t think the viewers at home fully appreciate warm-up artists, only in recent years have their names started appearing in the credits on the end of some programmes. It’s a very supportive industry, everybody’s pals. It never feels like work, it’s just having fun. Having fun and getting paid for it!”
However, work isn't always easy and when things go wrong a good warm-up act will know how to keep the show going. Greg explains, “About two years into doing the warm-up for Countdown, one of the bulbs went in the Countdown clock and it took four hours to fix. So I had to entertain an audience for four hours - that was a challenge!”
In regards to whether warm-up acts are ‘unsung heroes’, Greg is not sure. “Runners and researchers are the unsung heroes of telly and work the hardest on any production. If it’s a live show the warm up acts do 20 minutes at the start, the ad breaks and then they say good night. Researchers and runners are at it all day, every day.”
Lee Peart
Stand-up comic Lee Peart, 33, started doing warm up in 2007 and has performed at shows like Britain’s Got Talent and Jonathan Ross. “Now I just do the warm up for Loose Women, having been doing on and off for seven years,” he says. “It’s a bit different to other shows because it can cover some heartfelt topics so it’s about engaging the audience and not always having them laughing out loud.” Being a warm-up act for a show that can cover sensitive remits requires nuance. It’s often engaging how they’re feeling, chatting to them and bridging that gap really. I love it, it’s really helped me become a better MC because I’ve learnt how to chat to people and bring out the best in them," says Lee who is originally from Lincolnshire.
“It’s a bit different to other shows because it can cover some heartfelt topics so it’s about engaging the audience and not always having them laughing out loud. There’s about 80 people in the audience each day so it’s an intimate environment where it’s not always appropriate to blast out a load of music and get them up dancing.”
“I wouldn’t say it [warm-up] is a thankless job but sometimes you feel the audience are thinking ‘who is this guy?’,” adds Lee. “But You sometimes have moments where you can’t believe this is your job. It’s fun and exciting and different every day.”
Jo Caulfield
Successful comedian and writer Jo Caulfield, 58, was one of the first women to do TV warm-up, and she has worked on The Graham Norton Show and Have I got News for You, as well as sitcoms such as Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
“The downside is that sitcoms can go on for hours and the audience thought they were coming to something that lasted 40 minutes,” she says. “They have come straight from work and are tired and hungry. Sometimes your job is just keeping them in the building. Actors messing up their lives might be funny on a Bloopers show but to me it just meant a long night's work.”
Jo got into the work after she was spotted compèring in a club and recommended for Graham Norton, where she also wrote jokes as well as doing warm-up. “I stopped doing warm-ups a few years ago but I loved it for many years,” says Jo. “But you have to serve the show, as soon as they are ready to record you have to stop talking. That leaves a lot of joke setups started but no punchlines delivered.