![\"Anthea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1_JS375511058.jpg\")
Anthea Turner on Manchester’s UP2U children’s TV show in 1989<\/p>\nWARNING: Video of the moment a stunt went terribly wrong during a live broadcast from Manchester<\/p>\n
17:51, 20 Jul 2025Updated 18:07, 20 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
Anthea Turner on Manchester’s UP2U children’s TV show in 1989<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
However, one moment still stands out as just how wrong live TV<\/a> can go. Lasting series between July 1988 and September 1989<\/a>, UP2U was a children’s TV show broadcast live from Manchester on Saturday mornings.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Each week, one of the presenters would be out of the studio on location, reporting on different events.<\/p>\n It was during one of these segments in 1989 that Anthea Turner would catch fire after a motorbike stunt went horribly wrong.<\/p>\n Love Greater Manchester’s past? Sign up to our nostalgia newsletter <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Following the incident, the programme cut to presenter Jenny Powell, who said: “You might have just seen something dangerous happen to Anthea.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n An investigation later found the blame to be a miscommunication between programme staff and stunt organisers.<\/p>\n Anthea later told an interviewer: “I had just got those first words out and these two pyrotechnics went off.<\/p>\n Adding: “I just remember rolling on the floor, my face feeling like somebody had thrown acid in it.”<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anthea said in later interviews she felt she was lucky to get away with her life in the terrifying incident.<\/p>\n This would also prove to be the final series of UP2U.<\/p>\n It was replaced on Saturday mornings by another Manchester children’s TV show, The 8:15 from Manchester, which ran from 1990 to 1991.<\/p>\n Anthea later went on to become one of Blue Peter’s iconic presenters, and remains in demand as a TV presenter to this day.<\/p>\n![\"Anthea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1_JS375511052.jpg\")
Anthea Turner was presenting while sitting on the back of truck with a stunt rider inside(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1_JS375511056.jpg\")
The moment a pyrotechnic set the presenter alight (Image: BBC)<\/p>\n