WARNING: Video of the moment a stunt went terribly wrong during a live broadcast from Manchester
17:51, 20 Jul 2025Updated 18:07, 20 Jul 2025
Anthea Turner on Manchester’s UP2U children’s TV show in 1989
Live telly can be a minefield for children’s TV presenters. From animals relieving themselves in the Blue Peter studio to 80s pop sensations Five Star being abused by a caller during a phone-in on Going Live, live TV is full of potential hazards.
However, one moment still stands out as just how wrong live TV can go. Lasting series between July 1988 and September 1989, UP2U was a children’s TV show broadcast live from Manchester on Saturday mornings.
Presenters Anthea Turner, Jenny Powell, and Tony Dortie began their early careers on UP2U. The show was a mix of entertainment, interviews, guides and location reports where viewers could write or phone in suggestions for what they would like see covered.
Each week, one of the presenters would be out of the studio on location, reporting on different events.
It was during one of these segments in 1989 that Anthea Turner would catch fire after a motorbike stunt went horribly wrong.
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As the much-loved TV presenter, now 65, introduced a stunt at the motor show, the motorbike rider got a bad cue and ended up blasting out of the truck she was sat on the back of.
Anthea Turner was presenting while sitting on the back of truck with a stunt rider inside(Image: BBC)
As the rider shot out of the back of the truck, part of the pyrotechnic display exploded in her face during a piece to camera, setting the presenter’s hair and clothing alight.
Following the incident, the programme cut to presenter Jenny Powell, who said: “You might have just seen something dangerous happen to Anthea.
“I’m just here to say, she’s okay, she’s just gone to first aid and she’s going to have a nice hot cup of tea as she’s got some shock.”
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An investigation later found the blame to be a miscommunication between programme staff and stunt organisers.
Anthea later told an interviewer: “I had just got those first words out and these two pyrotechnics went off.
Adding: “I just remember rolling on the floor, my face feeling like somebody had thrown acid in it.”
The moment a pyrotechnic set the presenter alight (Image: BBC)
She suffered burns to her head and hands as well as temporary hearing loss, but after recovering from the trauma, she successfully sued the BBC.
Anthea said in later interviews she felt she was lucky to get away with her life in the terrifying incident.
This would also prove to be the final series of UP2U.
It was replaced on Saturday mornings by another Manchester children’s TV show, The 8:15 from Manchester, which ran from 1990 to 1991.
Anthea later went on to become one of Blue Peter’s iconic presenters, and remains in demand as a TV presenter to this day.
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