Mighty Truck of Stuff


Mighty Truck of Stuff is a British children's television programme, where a truck was filled with toys and one phone-in viewer won its contents. After the show, the truck was driven to the home of the winner. It was shown on Saturday mornings from 15 October 2005 to 8 July 2006 on BBC Two and the CBBC Channel. It was presented by Reggie Yates and Dani Harmer. The format was devised by Joe Mace and Juliet Denison.
Although it was targeted at children between the ages of 8 and 12, the frequent references to TV production issues, mixture of characters and bizarre humour won it a small cult following amongst adults.

Series overview

Series 1

The programme first aired on 15 October 2005 on the CBBC Channel, for a duration of one hour after Dick and Dom in da Bungalow. For this series, the truck was filled with items generally given by other children.
It was made at Capital Studios in London by Initial for the BBC.

Series 2

Mighty Truck of Stuff returned for a second series on 1 April 2006. This series was shown on both BBC Two and the CBBC Channel, with the programme run time being increased to 165 minutes. This series had a greater budget and saw an upgrade in terms of the truck's content, with prizes being donated from celebrities, etc.
This second series was made at Riverside Studios.

Cast/Characters

All the packers have 'packer' added onto their names; this usually applies also to guests.
The Mighty Truck of Stuff is located in a depot in West London. It is turquoise in colour. The sides display the Mighty Truck of Stuff logo. The Truck is also used for a stage when they play "Show Me the ropes" – a game where two people have to simulate an event with their arms controlled by the packers via ropes.

Catchphrases

When the viewer wins the Mighty Truck of Stuff, the audience, Packers, guest packers, Reggie and Kojo all cheer and the music/song "All comes back to you". Reggie, usually accompanied by Nick, drive out of the studio/depot to the winning viewer.
The last in the series was broadcast on 8 July 2006. Following that, on 15 July were 2 special Sport Relief shows called Get Sub'd! and Reggie Goes the Extra Mile. Then a week later, a new Saturday morning show called The POD began to broadcast on both the CBBC Channel and BBC Two.

Allusions

Mighty Truck of Stuff cast, particularly Reggie, frequently make references to entertain older viewers. In one episode, Reggie encountered a man with bad breath, and said: "Get that man a Tic-Tac! But of course, here on the BBC, Tic-Tacs are as good as any other breath mint". In another episode, where judges for a dancing contest were holding up paddles with scores, Reggie exclaimed: "Paddle me! Er yes, mums, I did just say paddle me." An actress playing Pablo's mother appeared in one episode, making highly suggestive moves towards Reggie. The Old Man, Fat Man, Bat Fan section was also a source of in-gags and humour generally beyond the scope of the young target audience.

Old Man, Fat Man, Bat Fan

Every week, before showing The Batman cartoon, Reggie would receive a phone call from a 'Commissioner' character, who would set an 'evil' challenge to win toys for the show. In typical MTOS fashion, Reggie would be amazed at the demands of the Commissioner, before moving on to chat about cookery or pubs. Always rhyming or alliterating, these challenges created comical scenarios, such as the task to "Glue 42 blue shoes to the boxing kangaroo's blue canoe, before the tattooed dude eats his stew". In that episode, an unidentified man dressed in an obese Batman suit faced the task of glueing shoes to a plastic boat while a man dressed in a boxing kangaroo outfit played around on top. The cartoon was introduced, and when it had finished, the number of blue shoes was compared against the amount of stew that another unidentified tattooed man had consumed. For these games, the audience of children was oblivious to the bizarre humour, but it provided entertainment for older viewers. In the second series it was decided to use a regular Old Man, Fat Man, Bat Fan who was played by Nigel Rouine every week, he had such tasks as "Eating the pasta fasta than the rasta" and to "Sticker the vicar quicker than the penalty kicker". In the final episode the character was played by Jade Goody.

Episodes

Many of the episodes of series 2 had a theme which ran throughout the show.

Strictly Dance Fever episode

Guest-starring Wayne Sleep and Arlene Phillips. The Packers, thanks to Reggie's suggestion, decide to enter in their own Strictly Come Dancing show. Nick graces the viewers and the audience with a Chicago number. Pablo and Dani dance together, while Kojo does a breakdance. After votes from the panel and the viewers at home, Kojo is the winner of Strictly Come Dancing and receives a gold tracksuit for his prize. Meanwhile, on Reggie's Week, Reggie and Kojo have to spend some time in a haunted house in order to get some prizes for the truck.

''Big Brother'' episode (27 May 2006)

With Big Brother returning to Channel 4 there was a parody of the programme throughout involving the packers called 'Big Depot'. During the show the packers were set tasks, and individual packers were 'evicted'.

Football episode (3 June 2006)

Guest-starring Brian McFadden. Since it is the build-up to the World Cup, the Packers, along with Brian, get into the spirit. However, Nick's costume is a little too tight and shows his big frame, which Reggie teases him about. And, on Reggie's Week, Reggie and Pablo have to spend some time at a zoo, in order to get some stuff for the truck.

World Cup episode (10 June 2006)

Guest-starring girl-band Frank from the TV series Totally Frank and Hollyoaks actors Simon Cole and Ciara Janson. As it was the start of the World Cup the phrase callers had to say was altered to "Show me the World Cup!". The Packers make themselves into a band, Nick became a rocker, Dani was a 1960s flower child, Pablo was a 1970s era and Double H looks like Pat Sharp in his mullet era. Due to Reggie being ill 'Reggies Week' was renamed Dani's week. Dani and Nick go around advertising for stuff. Nick tries it up in the air, wing-walking and Dani tries water-skiing. However, all does not go to plan and, as a consequence, they don't get any stuff for the truck, which reduces Nick to tears.

Cartoons

Mighty Truck of Stuff ran from 9 am to 11:45 am, and the show was interspersed with short popular cartoons, in order to give the presenters time to prepare another game. These are the cartoons aired in the second series: