Push button click

The Push Button Click was a United Kingdom childrens entertainment group which was contracted exclusively to Butlins where they provided a variety of themed childrens live theatre shows in the camps between 1982 and 1987.
The Push Button Click was managed by Jean Wren productions.

Shows
The Push Button Click appeared several evenings each week at every Butlins holiday camp. Because most guests only stayed at Butlins for a week or less, the shows were usually repeated weekly throughout a whole tourist season. New shows were written for each subsequent year.

Storylines were always quite simple, being aimed at primarily 5 to 10 year old children. They always involved the whole cast of Push Button Click first appearing on stage and singing their signature song, which the children in the audience were encouraged to join in with.

Then the characters would discuss with each other where they should go, as if they had the ability (using their time-travel robot Video Vera) to go to any time or place. Once this was decided Video Vera would be brought on stage, and with the aid of strobe lights and organ music, a background set would be revealed on stage, and the audience was asked to believe they had been transported to another place, and sometimes another time.

The story would then proceed along fairly predictable lines, following closely the expected plot. For example the "Sinbad the Sailor" show borrowed heavily from this classic childrens story, but in simplified form to save time.
Elements of humour were added through the interaction between Push Button Click characters, especially IQ who was a simple minded, but likeable young lad who could never quite get things right.

Characters
Push Button Pete - Push Button Pete was the lead character, a young man cast in a similar 'cool' image to Fonzie from the popular Television sitcom Happy Days. As such Pete could usually be seen wearing dark sunglasses, with his hair slicked back and either a metallic, or leather jacket to complete the image.

Video Vera - Video Vera was a supposedly female robot (actually made from very basic materials such as milk cartons, springs and cardboard tubes, painted silver). This robot was a very important part of the act, because it proportedly had the power to magically transport the cast, along with the audience of children in the theatre, to another time and place! An actor backstage provided the voice for Video Vera.

IQ - IQ was an ironically named male character who actually wasn't particularly intelligent at all, and thereby provided many of the most humorous moments in Push Button Click shows.

Songs
Over the 6 years that Push Button Click operated, several songs were written and performed by the cast on stage, and some were also produced as vinyl records which the children in the audience could buy after the show.
The most commonly performed song was simply titled "Push Button Click". Others included "The Name's Push", and "P.U.S.H."

Quotes
"Hold onto your hats, 'cos here we go!" This is the line that was used in every show immediately before the background set was revealed, and strobe lighting and organ music was used to make the audience believe they were travelling to a different time and place for the clicks adventures.

"Remember, if you're being met here, stay here, and don't move until the lights come on!" This was a friendly safety message given at the end of each evenings performance to encourage unaccompanied children in the audience to wait until their parents came to the theatre to collect them.

Most children in the audience would have been unaccompanied, whilst their parents were in another venue within the Butlins camp enjoying more adult-oriented entertainment.

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