‘What was in the gunge? I don’t know. The stage hands made it in industrial vats out the back, stirring it with planks of wood’

Pat Sharp, presenter

Filming Fun House was chaotic. You’d be in that boiling hot studio for up to 17 hours each day with kids screaming and gunge everywhere. We had go-karts racing around the same piece of studio where you might have been playing a messy game half an hour earlier. There was no studio A and B to switch between – it was two women who came in with a mop and a bucket to clean up the gunk.

I would get every game explained to me by a researcher – “We put two kids in there, they pass the balloons with their hands behind their backs” – then I’d have to put it into my own words immediately to camera. We didn’t use Autocue in those days, and it had to work first time. We couldn’t reset the games – there was too much mess.

The kids used to say, “What is this stuff I’m dunking my head in” and I’d say, “I dunno, just stick your head in it – you’re on TV!” The stage hands made the gunge out the back in industrial vats, stirring it with giant planks of wood. There could have been a few splinters in there. But nobody had an allergic reaction and nobody ever sued. The world was a much easier place then.

Most of the prizes in the Fun House weren’t amazing (“You’ve won a ruler!”), but the Power Prize was worth a fortune – we gave kids trips to Niagara Falls. Quite often the winners would ask if they could swap with the runners-up, though, because they’d got Fun House jackets. We used a cock-a-doodle-do sound to announce the Power Prize. That was because nobody had thought about what effect to use, so the sound guy just hit the first thing he had and said: “Yeah, we’ll have that.” It stuck for 10 years.

I was crushed against the wall by a go-karter once who was a bit too enthusiastic. He just kept going. Can’t blame him. Another kid got winded and was in a terrible state, but we suggested he carried on filming otherwise it would mess up the recording. He did it and he was fine! Half of the things we did to those children would never pass health and safety today.

Every dog has its day, though. Satellite TV came in and there were more cartoons and kids TV channels available. But Fun House was still the most successful kids show of its generation. In fact, I don’t think anyone’s ever beaten it in the ratings – they were huge! Saturday-night television would be proud of them now.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘You don’t need a qualification to work with pompoms’ … Martina and Melanie Grant in the first episode of Fun house. Photograph: Youtube/ITV

Martina Grant, one of the Fun House twins

Melanie and I applied for Fun House when we were about 15, after spotting an ad in the Stage looking for “crazy twins”. We were travelling around the UK in my mum and dad’s motor home at the time and ended up driving up to Scotland so we could get dropped off at the audition in our Winnebago. All our friends were saying, “I don’t know what to do when I leave school, I want to get married” and all that rubbish. We were like: “We’re going to do Fun House!” It was very surreal.

We’d never done cheerleading before, but I don’t think you need a qualification to work with pompoms. We named ourselves the Funettes, which was cheesy but we were cheesy. We still are cheesy. You have to bear in mind that we were 16 and wearing tiny miniskirts. We didn’t really think about it too much, but there were kids in the audience shouting, “Melanie, Martina, I want to get hold of ya!” and, “I can see up your skirt!” We were their childhood dream.

Pat got run over by a go-kart once, but nothing too disastrous ever happened on set. We had a couple of kids who were lively when they were auditioned at school, then they’d freeze on camera. I remember one kid saying: “I don’t want to get gunged!” I thought, you have to get gunged, that’s the whole point of the show. He was full of attitude so I gunged him – a lot. He didn’t like that.

We used to get recognised, but we had a lot of jealousy, too. We’ve had drinks thrown over us, pint glasses thrown at my dad’s car. We’ve also had fantastic reactions like: “Wow, what’re you doing here in Tesco?”

The theme tune stuck in everybody’s minds – “Fun House, a whole lotta fun, prizes to be won!” The minute you mention the show to anyone, they know it instantly. It’s one of those retro things that nobody’s forgotten.