Originally Posted by
Bluebrock
Clive Anderson was the one who was the most difficult. He is a very intelligent man with a razor sharp tongue. I just knew he and Diana would clash, but when she was told the show would go out on a prime time Sunday slot she insisted upon doing it. She was there to promote the Voice of Love compilation and we also had appearances on Des O'Connor and Top of the Pops lined up in the same week.
Anderson obviously did his research, and if i didn't know better i would have sworn Mary Wilson hand picked that studio audience! There were some hostile individuals in that audience. Anderson tried to goad Diana into criticising Michael Jackson, but she was having none of it, and she turned on Anderson for poking fun at Michael. She threatened to walk off set which is of course exactly what The Bee Gees did in their infamous appearance on the show. Things eventually calmed down until Anderson asked Diana if she would take questions from the studio audience. It all threatened to explode into open warfare. The "selected" members of the audience asked awkward questions about Mary and Flo. I was cringing backstage as it went from bad to worse. The production team did a wonderful job in editing out some of the more toxic moments, but if you saw the actual broadcast you would have picked up on the strained atmosphere.
When filming wrapped Anderson asked Diana to join him for an after show drink, but Diana was in no mood to do that and stormed backstage and ordered us all to vacate the studio with immediate effect. I was looking forward to going home to spend time with my family, but was told i would have to spend the night in the Hotel just in case things kicked off again. I was totally pissed off and in no mood to calm down a needy Diva, but of course i had no say in the matter.
I realise all this is probably of little interest to our American members, and for that i apologise. There is much more i could say, but i will leave it at that for the moment.