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Oddly, in 1990, Saddam didn't know who Cowell was, either
Some delicious footage has emerged of what is believed to be Simon Cowell's first TV appearance, on the ill-fated 1990 Sky revival of Sale of the Century. Barbara Humphreys was on the show with home, and it was she who had a tape of the programme - to be honest, she's probably the only person who ever saw the programme.
Cowell won twenty quids worth of kitchen tools - spatula! spatula! Because he wasn't very bright, it seems:
“He was very pleasant and said he was a record company director. But the main thing I remember about him is he couldn’t answer one of the questions.
“He didn’t know who Saddam Hussein was, but I suppose in 1990 a lot of people would have been the same.”
“He didn’t know who Saddam Hussein was, but I suppose in 1990 a lot of people would have been the same.”
Well... if the Iran-Iraq war had passed you by, surely the invasion of Kuwait in that year - to say nothing of the frantic negotiations prior to it - might have given you a hint?
Cowell's dream prize on the show would have been a Fiat Uno. We do wonder, if he'd won that, if perhaps he might not have spent the last decade wreaking a terrible revenge on the gameshow format.
3 comments:
That would have been the version of SOTC hosted by Peter Marshall (who, in his days as an Anglia announcer, played the John Benson role on the first UK series back in 1971/72).
Royal Film Performances, Come Dancing, doing his Come Dancing role on a Paul McCartney album, Radio 2 weekend shows, and now this Simon Cowell connection ... he was pleasant enough on Thames, but there's a reason why Mordant Music used Philip Elsmore rather than him.
Oh, and I'd forgotten Wish You Were Here. Just as heinous.
Just purely on the side, I had a close encounter with a contestant on this series: I was reading over the shoulder of a bloke I sat next to on a train at the time; he was reading and re-reading his invitation to appear on the programme.
I never saw any of the programmes; I was still resolutely four channels in those days.
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