My mother was a massive Tiswas fan back in 1980, and wanted to be involved with the show. I was into the film Watership Down at the time, and would frequently burst into the song Bright Eyes. A thought lit up in my mum's mind, and I was whisked off to Birmingham where they would regularly hold auditions for child performers to appear on Tiswas.

Being a creative type, my mother had made me a rabbit costume to wear on the day. I was just five years old. Chris Tarrant would be judging all day, and would be tired as a procession of stage-school brats would put on dull routines. I was one of the last kids to be sent in front of him, and just before I went on, my mother draw some whiskers on my face with her mascara, as a finishing touch.

I sang my little heart out, and Chris, with the rest of the Tiswas crew, were very happy with my song. They were crying... tears of laughter, some would say! Chris thought it was a pretty unique act, in the way Tommy Cooper performed magic or Les Dawson played the piano. It was a definite yes, and I appeared on the following Tiswas.


The appearance on Tiswas was meant to be a one-off, but the viewers loved it so much that I was invited back two weeks later. This time I was singing the Pink Floyd classic, Another Brick In The Wall. This was a big song at the time, and my mother had me dressed as a rock star.

Some bright spark at ATV thought it would be good for me to be holding a hammer. They couldn't find a prop comedy hammer, so they just handed me a real one! Looking back, a five year old waving a proper hammer about is astonishing when you consider how risky the health-and-safety implications! Thankfully, nothing went wrong.


I was invited back for further Bright Eyes recitals, in my furry rabbit outfit. Tiswas itself had gained a cult following with the current series having aired in London for the first time, along with many other regions, and it meant there was public demand for merchandise.

The Bucket Of Water Song become a viewer favourite, and it spawned a record release. I shared the same agent as Chris Tarrant, and was persuaded to release my Bright Eyes recital to the public! With the Tiswas gang now in gear to become pop stars, it wasn't long before we had a live tour, and an album, under the name of the Four Bucketeers.


As many of the live Tiswas shows were held at venues such as universities, they weren't always suitable for six-year-old me to attend! But one memory I do have is being on stage at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in front of hundreds of Tiswas fans! Great days!


Alas, my rock star pretensions came to a premature end when I learnt my single release had stalled at the lowly chart position of number 121! To this day I swear blind it was a fault with distribution, or a computer database going wrong!


Despite the chart set-back, I was still a frequent face on Tiswas. I made plenty of appearances on the 1980-81 series, and rubbed shoulders with the stars!


In October 1980, I was given real megastar treatment on Tiswas, being chauffered in by limo, and ushered into ATV through a massive crowd in order to be the subject of their This Is Your Life spoof. At the end of the sketch, I was given the chance to belt out Bright Eyes once again, and that's the performance you may be familiar with on Tiswas Reunited and the Tiswas video compilations.


It didn't end there. I was in various others sketches throughout that series, including one with Max Boyce. There was a competition for two lucky Tiswas viewers to meet me too!

Despite all the flan-flinging on Tiswas, I was given special treatment. ATV insisted I was never pied, as they thought it would be too cruel. Now, I'm no diva, and I wanted to be pied! It did happen one day, after the show was over. On the instructions of my family, the Phantom sneaked behind me and gave me a flanning!


Chris Tarrant presented his final Tiswas at the end of the 1980-81 series. It also meant a goodbye for Bob Carolgees, Lenny Henry and John Gorman. They had decided to create a late night big-budget version of Tiswas for 1982, which was O.T.T..

A falling out with the agent meant it was my last Tiswas too. I had done well, and so had my family. My mother achieved her dream. She made various props and costumes for the show, such as the big furry spider and the El Escapo sack! My brothers and sisters had got in on the action too, having been frequent visitors to Studio 3 on Saturday mornings.

It was a brilliant time of my life, and it made me feel like the coolest kid on the planet!

Tiswas continued for another series, still fronted by Sally James but with other presenters. My family had ideas of me becoming a big star, and there were murmurings of me going to stage school to learn acting, but it was not to be! I continued with a normal life, like any other kid.


People ask why my real name is Matthew Lewis. Well, my family split up, and I decided to take my mother's maiden surname. I'm not offended when people refer to me as Matthew Butler, I like to think of it as a stage name!


These days I am a fire-fighter, and I just enjoy life by travelling to London to see my girlfriend. I spend the summer going off to music festivals!


An ITV researcher contacted me earlier this decade when Chris Tarrant was due to be a guest on the Frank Skinner Show. The plan went smoothly. Frank brought up Tiswas, and played a clip of my Bright Eyes recital, and asked Chris what happened to me. After the expected "I don't know", Frank would introduce me in the audience!

It almost didn't happen because no-one on the production had a copy of my Bright Eyes performance! In the end it was sourced from a More Of The Best Bits VHS compilation!

Chris was overjoyed to see me, and we've stayed in contact ever since.


With a bit of press interest from the Frank Skinner Show, I decided to launch a Tiswas mailing list on the internet. A hardcore bunch of Tiswas fans provided a lot of discussion, and with some tape trading going on from my collection and theirs, it wasn't long before a proper Tiswas website was set up - TiswasOnline became established in early 2005, and I was the face of it.

TiswasOnline sent out a press release on the launch, and we had BBC and ITV fighting over each other to cover the story for the midlands regional news! ITV offered us the chance to go inside the old studios which had not been in use since 1997.

I eagerly went in with the Central News camera crew, and we discovered Studio 3 - big, empty and stale-smelling! But it was a place of happy memories! That Friday evening, the bulletin played out classic clips in a three minute report that aired all across the west midlands! The website did well out of that!

The following Saturday morning, I was on Wolverhampton City Radio and BBC WM, chatting with Sally James for a big Tiswas special now we had launched our own fan site!


In 2005, the webmaster of TiswasOnline had a crazy idea. To appear on Dick And Dom In Da Bungalow, which was the BBC1 flagship Saturday morning show! The plan was to have the TiswasOnline team, including myself, all dressed as rabbits singing Bright Eyes! A lot of people have said that Dick And Dom's show is the spiritual successor to Tiswas, and they do have a point!

We applied for the talent show spot, which usually featured very strange acts. We'd fit in beautifully! The remaining snag was that I hadn't sung Bright Eyes for years! We only had to sing the chorus twice, and had just come up with a routine made up on the spot in a BBC corridor!

For comedy value, my backing group were all in proper adult-sized rabbit outfits, while I would bring out my original rabbit costume and attempt to put it on! Obviously being in my thirties, it was never going to fit! I had to carefully look after my felt carrot, as that was where the chorus lyrics were printed!

We got judged by five children and Ryan Maloney (Toadfish) from Neighbours. We got totally slated, but Dick and Dom recognised me from Tiswas, and chatted about their Tiswas memories for ages! The adult audience must have loved it!


To date, my last outing as a rabbit was on the 2007 Tiswas revival show, Tiswas Reunited! A prime-time ITV1 spectacular that brought back all the old gang together, in front of a massive celebrity-filled audience!

ITV had made up a special adult-sized rabbit costume for me. They played out the classic clip which had all 300 audience members singing along spontaneously, and then the cameras panned to me sitting in the audience!