If you ever want to know the kind of person Noel Edmonds is, I recommend watching an interview with him about this shortly after it happened. He talks about how distressed and upset he was by the incident… but not for the fact that a man lost his life but the fact it almost cost him a career in television. The epitome of odious and self obsessed in full view to the world.
I used to really like him for the likes of Noel's House Party but he has utterly lost the plot these days, he tried to buy the BBC a few years ago despite blaming his bank because they "let a Nigerian steal all his money". The man is nuttier than squirrel shit.
@@stephenowens3687 Yep, that's the one. Just rewatched it and it's just as shocking as I remember. Barely touches on the victim, unless he can shoehorn himself into it and doesn't once mention Michael Lush by name.
Do you remember in the previous weeks they had a lady escaping from a box whilst underwater. She did it, but the look of terror on her face when she got out was unmistakable. The presenters pretended that she was just a "great actress" and I remembered thinking that it was obvious she nearly drowned....
Was it on this show that a guy was was meant to jump a row of cars in another car and approached to fast resulting in him heavily overshooting the landing ramp and crashing into parked cars that they thought were a safe distance away?
God I remember that one, her name was Linda or Lindy I think....she had to train for a week to hold her breath for well over a minute and only just made it out in time....great TV but I wonder if even now she has flashbacks to what could have easily ended in her death.
One of the producers, who I won’t name, lived near me. After this incident he fell into depression, left the production company, and sadly became an alcoholic. He never got over his part in it. He was a nice guy., and felt terrible forever after.
I imagine his girlfriend never recovered from this, especially nominating him, even though it was 100% not her fault. I know because my boyfriend died due to an accident (I won't go over the details) over a decade ago and despite knowing, logically, that I am not responsible for his death, I still struggle with it. Losing a partner so early, way before their time, is hellish and I think everyone in that situation feels some degree of survivor guilt, haunted by what-ifs etc. But sometimes there is such a clear what-if, and it is incredibly hard to accept that it really wasn't your fault. Heartbreaking. RIP Michael. He died before I was born, but my partner was also 25 so I feel a weird kinship to him and his girlfriend. Love to who knew him, especially his partner and parents
I'm really sorry to hear this. I know it is now easy to lose a partner and there can be a lot of anger without direction as well as the obvious grief one expects. Anyway, I hope you are doing well and have found happiness.
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
Selling your soul is quite easy, even if its unintentional. Nothing to do with being a pussy or living in a certain time. Prioritize what you're life is worth, or end up being another youtube video for us to be morbidly entertained.
In all honesty the fact that the two “stunt men” in the “car jump” stunt actually survived is miraculous, the videos of the crashes are pretty horrendous
I remember watching it in horror at the time, when I was a kid. The second car resembled a metal pancake. I was amazed anyone could survive that. They should have stopped the stunts right after that one. It was obviously only a matter of time before the inevitable would happen.
And no roll-cage, just the bare frame of the car. Cars built then weren't designed to be an exoskeleton safety cell like today's. I saw a car of similar age rear-ended at banger racing once (it was empty). It was literally about 2 feet long after that impact! Gives you some idea of the strength of cars they were using. To land upside down would take your head off.
While I was listening, I was smiling at this man's eagerness. He was so excited, thrilled, /happy/ to be taking part of this. He had zer oworries, so much so he declined a preview of what he was going to do. The person who would've gone in his stead, technically was graced by whatever higher power exists. This poor man, he probably didn't even realize what was happening. My jaw utterly dropped at the mention of the bungee cord coiling instead of straightening.
The man who would have went in his stead was a professional stunt man and would have remembered to attach his bungee cord. Letting Michael attach himself to the box despite being giddy with excitement, giddy with lager and completely inexperienced is what killed him.
@@krashd from my understanding it was equipment failure, not a failure to clip in. the bbc was wildly negligent and this was entirely their fault in failing to create and execute a safe plan
@@krashd from the report it was not his fault as the bungee was held with the wrong carabina clip (which couldn't even hold a bag of sugar), no back up rope, no safety net/air bag, inexperienced expert who was into theatrics not stunts, no expect checking equipment before he jumped. Also, who allowed him to drink before jumping? This was not the abiding problem, negligence by the company was. Safety net? Different outcome. Same for expert checking equipment, or any of the other failings sadly.
NO PROFESSIONAL STUNTMAN and the innocent guy was clipped, but the carbiner was inadequate. Seriously does no one listen to the audio??? BBC was found 100% at fault
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
Imagine being the person who was supposed to demonstrate, and realizing the only reason you're still alive is that the contestant wanted to get started right away.
I watched `The Late, Late Breakfast Show´every week as a 13 year old kid and on the week Michael Lush was chosen and told which stunt he was given, I said to my Parents and siblings, "Somebody's gonna end up getting killed on this. These stunts are dangerous.", or words to that effect. We were all gobsmacked a few days later when it was revealed of the tragic accident, due to it actually happening and me coincidentally predicting it. I've always remembered his name probably due to this. R.I.P Michael Lush.
tbh what else was he supposed to do? I doubt he had anything to do with the planning and design of the stunt, he was just the host. The family got a payout from a company. And attending the funeral in person would be overstepping boundaries (I'm sure the family wouldn't want him there).
Even knowing he was "up for anything" and thrilled to have been picked, can you imagine the guilt his girlfriend must have felt because she nominated him?
And of course the worst part of that guilt would be that it wasn't her fault. As the video said, why wouldn't she trust the BBC? I hope she didn't/doesn't blame herself.
With the sheer negligence towards the treatment of this poor man, the BBC should have been tried for manslaughter. A man's life is worth more than a wreath and £120 k. He deserved better justice than that. Rest in Peace. Thank you for sharing FH.
The UK has no law that criminalises negligence. Furthermore, £120,000 in 1986 money is worth over £355,000 today, or US$500,000. So the compensation was more than acceptable, if anything, it was actually quite high, considering Flush's ego prior to the incident, as he even ignored the advice of the so-called "expert" during the rehearsal.
@@DR3ADER1 how did he ignore their advice? They should have insisted on a dummy run first, not allowed the participant to make the call. He was young and enthusiastic and, unfortunately naively, totally trusted the BBC.
@@mushyroom9569 Bold. People who say they have experts, are expected to have high standards, especially since said incidents are few and far between, and nobody had died before, and the guy's an idiot for something he had ZERO control over? So if i ran you over in a car in your yard, it's your fault you werent watching the fence for cars. Cool
@DR3D1 you've gotta be kidding. half a million bucks isn't shit for a family whose breadwinner had to be scraped off the ground. what the hell does his "ego" have to do with anything? he bears no responsibility here; the bbc selected a viewer-volunteer who could have been nearly _anyone,_ with any level of common sense or safety awareness, and it was therefore the BBC's job to ensure their safety -- something well within their capability _if_they had prioritized it even a little. what compels someone to defend the bbc in this case?
This reminds me of what happened in the german show "Wetten das...?", where a person bet that they could hop over a driving car with a pogo stick, and they unfortunately got caught and fell in an incredibly horrific way. I remember watching that as a child alone, while it was broadcast live. It really tore down the wall between me, and probably a lot of people, and what was happening on the screen.
samuel koch... a really sad thing to happen plus the person who was driving the car that led to the terrible accident was unfortunatley his father which must have haunted his father badly, nobody could have imagined what that must of felt like.
We were so furious when we heard this in the morning, we phoned the BBC before going to work in order to complain. A disgraceful incident which was in a sense inevitable given the way this show was heading with these more and more sensational stunts.
This case is a perfect example that many accidents aren’t actually accidents. Much of the time; when you review everything surrounding them; there is some form (or even multiple, compounding forms) of negligence behind it. Carelessness kills.
@@vocexseta Yes, an accident caused by negligence is still an accident. The fact that a person or persons may be liable, even criminally liable, doesn't change that. If somebody had *intentionally* sabotaged the stunt knowing it would cause injury or death, then it wouldn't be an accident
I remember this awful accident. As a kid I'd always watch the Late, Late Breakfast Show, with my family, every Saturday evening. I'd have been 9 at the time, and I remember coming home from school and watching the news, I think it was News round with John Craven, the news show aimed at kids, and hearing that this poor guy Michael Lush, who we'd seen win the chance to do this stunt only a couple of days before, had died during a practice session. It made such an impact on me that, to this day I always remembered the guys name.
I assumed at the time that it was one of those freak occurrences that sometimes happen when people do dangerous stuff. The final report was a real eye opener when it came. It was simply reckless on the BBC'S part.
Imagine how his girlfriend must feel. She's the one who nominated him in the first place. She'll probably be blaming the whole mess on herself for the rest of her life. Honestly I just feel bad for everyone involved.
Week after week I used to say to my wife, " Someone is going to killed doing one of these stunts". I used to call the Show " The Late Late Whirly Wheeler contestant Show". I was right. This was so bloody obvious something like this was a death waiting to happen.
This for some reason reminds me of that America's Got Talent episode where the guy tried to jump over a bunch of chairs, but failed and slammed his neck at an almost 90 degree angle and everyone was freaking out
That reminds me of Samuel Koch who attempted to jump over several cars driving in his direction. He had a very unfortunate landing after jumping over one of them and is paralyzed from the neck down now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetten,_dass..%3F#Samuel_Koch_incident
Edmonds was so devestated that he phoned Interflora and ordered a £25 wreath for the victim's family, aswell as taking a paid vacation from appearing on his show which had already been cancelled. For such empathy one would expect Edmonds to have at least been awarded a Nobel prize
He was working with a company then started makeing claims in twitter about it curing cancer. In the UK the laws strict when it comes to cancer care it goes back to pre NHS anyway the company.made it clear they won't work with him. After a women dieing of cancer complained to him it isn't working. He called her a stupid cow and how she wasn't doing it right
The BBC: the equipment was untested, there were no experts on hand, no ambulance, we've ignored expert advice, there were no safety measures in place; there had been serious incidents preceding this one. We're puzzled. What could have possibly have gone wrong? The sheer arrogance and negligence is breathtaking.
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
So basically they continued Britain's tradition of colonization, but now on their own. Got it! That host should have lost his career and BBC should have been shut down
The equipment was known to be not suitable, they had just bought the cheapest thing which looked the same. Spring clips that do not lock shut cannot be trusted.
I remember this. Edmonds came under fire and was crucified by the press, despite having no real part in the accident. The BBC focused on 'lessons learned' but encouraged vitriol against Edmonds, which took the focus off the corporation. I think the hiatus Edmonds took was as much out of disillusionment with his employers as grief over the death. This was, let's remember, not that long after the Jim'll Fix It era and Saville was still being protected by higher ups at the BBC. A dark period for the corporation which, far from being a reliable and stalwart institution, had become ugly and corrupt.
@mipmipmipmipmip , strongly agree. If you make money from people putting themselves at risk you had damn well take an interest in their safety. Those who disagree are moral eunuchs, lazy, extremely selfish, or all three. You don't have to be a reincarnation of Einstein to ask incisive questions to be followed-up by experts. You just have to care.
I immedialtely thought of Jim'll fix it when it said BBC promised never to allow dangerous stunts to be done again. Being near Saville was one already.
Edmonds was more than just the host, he had creative credit and was a producer. In fact, he had been pushing to have the BBC get with the times and do more daring programming. He was at least partially to blame for having the show he organized run rather sloppily. Sure, the BBC takes most of the blame, but Edmonds was one of the people pushing for more dangerous antics.
I come from north Devon and Edmunds lived (and i think still lives) locally. He came and opened a local village fete a year or two after this incident. During the opening ceremony he picked a young boy from the crowd to join him on the makeshift stage, the boy replied something like "no, you killed someone". Edmunds was understandably upset and walked off. Kids can be cruel without even realising it.
I don't think that's cruel at all. The little boy knew right from wrong, safety from danger. WTF was NE or any of the producers thinking of ? To get "Nobodies" to do stunts they themselves wouldn't do ? No stunt expert or stunt man was involved in the design, installation, rehersal nor in cheching it through or doing a run through by a stunt per4. They played with people's lives for "fun" & all they cared about were viewing figures. The trial for his death was at a magistrates court, not a county court with a jury and a judge. The magistrates court decided not to refer the case any higher, so conveniently the BBC were only obliged to pay £2000 out, and not millions. The careers of all involved continued including the producers & the head of bbc entertainment. This is all masonic related. They don't "do" admitting crime or paying for them personally nor financially. They "know" how to wriggle free.
@Gorgeous George Really ? I think he & his co-workers /producers & whoever pushed this stunt idea through are narcissists. Their thinking isn't normal because they lack empathy & sympathy with others. It's all about themselves. What they did cones from not thinking normally. So, it wasn't his fault because - He didn't comply with it ? He didn't consent to the event ? He voiced concern over non-professional persons doing stunt work ? He said he felt uncomfortable getting people on the show to do these things ? He offered to do the stunts himself instead ? He spoke out because no stunt man was involved in the design or set-uo, or the checks, or the rehearsal etc ? He had "no idea" how dangerous stunt work is ? He was coerced into presenting the show ? He wasn't allowed to say what he thought ? He feared he would lose his job ? & he was broke ? Well you're entitled to your opinion. I hope he had PTSD but I doubt it. I doubt if any of those responsible for the idea & its setup suffered. The careers of NE, producers & bbc chiefs all did well evidently.
@@Naughtybaz Satanic Worshippers are. Satanic Ritualistic Abuse. Rife in all echelons, all officialdom, all public services. People have said it includes royal blood lines also. All secret societies do it at some level in the hierarchy. This is how they get the "power" to rule on earth. An inverted testimony to the existence of God.
Man, that actually hit me deeply. Something you're so excited to do, and it's all over moments later. It's crazy how fast people can be gone. Mad respect to Mr. Lush. Honestly more balls than every producer behind the BBC. That's what shows need to do if they want to have this type of action. If the dude writing the idea is the one to do it then I'd be REAL interested to watch that shit. RIP brother.
Reminds me of the "Wetten dass" incident. That was a German tv show in which people would bet they could perform a small trick or stunt they studied by themselves. Usually these were harmless but then they allowed a young man to perform saltos over driving cars, predictably he had a terrible accident on live tv and ended up a quadriplegic.
Thankfully I don't think anything like that happened on "You Bet!" which was the UK version of Wetten Dass. Though I think our version was a bit more tame than yours!
I thought of this too. The difference is, this was the first incident in the shows 30 year history and they cancelled the show pretty much immediately afterwards.
@@daisychainexplores That's right. The other was more of a comical nature. A writer for a satirical newspaper snuck himself into the show, claiming the could taste the colours of pencils presented to him. He won and wrote about the way he bluffed Believe it or not, back then that was a scandal
Really appreciate this style of documentary, because it's not sensationalized and you don't use the words "terrible tragedy" 15,000 times. We get the facts of the situation and we learn something cool. Often tragic but still interesting to know. Rather than getting the movie version of something but as a documentary. Where it's more about making it sound interesting then about telling the actual facts which are often interesting by themselves.
Hey I know it might seem like a small thing but I thank you for the subtitles in all your videos. I know they can take some time to do so really thank you.
Safety net would be impractical and way too hard to set up. Being secured to a harness was the best option, but who could've known they fucked up the two separate cords as failsafe?
i was surprised by how little precautions they took. at first i was like, "oh they did a psych eval and did pre-planning?" so i was assuming the result was just a random freak accident. but as it was revealed there was no net, no secondary safety harness, no... anything, i wanted to slap my forehead in frustration
I don't think 'practice run' is even right. It was a test run - that proved the equipment wasn't up to it - and they'd no back up safety system. Given the offer of a proper stuntman to go first - he'd have examined what equipment was being used and likely would have refused to carry on after what he found.
@@RyosukeTakahashiRX7 Safety nets maybe but an airbag landing could have been set up in minutes. Literally no harder than setting up one of those loathsome bouncy castles. If even that was too difficult they could have done the practice runs over water. The fact is the safety precautions added up to no more than hoping nothing would go wrong.
I found this video and your voice along with how clearly knowledgeable your are but still making it so anyone can understand kept me hooked. Great video
Wow, I remember this happening in 1986. I was 15 at the time. I remember the news reports about it. In particular he was a 'hod carrier' by trade and that has always stuck with me, ever since. HUGE controversy at the time as Edmonds was the BBC at the time. Thoughts go to his family.
I remember this so vividly. I was a huge LLBS fan, my husband at the time hated it and only watched it through gritted teeth- he said regularly ‘someone is going to get killed on this stupid programme’. I felt for Mike Smith who is pictured in the photo with Noel Edmonds. He suffered extreme depression and guilt following this tragedy, and was himself later involved in an horrific helicopter crash. He has since died of complications following major surgery- his wife said the death of Michael Lush haunted him.. Noel meanwhile has continued to have a very lucrative career. Looking back, it’s hard to believe what the BBC got away with on that show.
There was an audience for it. You'd have been thrilled seeing animals maul people in the coliseums of Rome. Doesn't sound like your husband (at the time) would have fancied it much.
I never liked this program as a kid and couldn’t understand how the rest of my family thought it was entertaining. I always found it scary and uncomfortable to watch this sort of thing and still do. Yes I am a wimp but people are just put deliberately at risk. Great coverage as always.
I know nothing about stunts and I am horrified by the lack of basic safety precautions taken, no one to demonstrate the stunt, he went up *alone* while *intoxicated*, paramedics had to be *called to the scene*, no crash mat at the bottom of the jump (idk how much that would've saved him, but maybe he would've lived), no training prior, they just threw a regular guy in a box and told him to jump from several meters in the air to the ground with no back up in case something went wrong and absolutely no training or experts to be seen.
I remember this tragic event well. It seemed, even at the time, incredible that the BBC would use members of the public, no matter how willing, to perform dangerous stunts live on TV. It was clearly only a matter of time before a real tragedy occured especially when you consider that a number of participants had already been seriously injured and the Health and Safety Executive had threatened legal action twice prior to this tragedy. I watched the episode where the speeding car crashed at 140 mph, ending up a mangled wreck right in front of the camera. They cut quickly back to a rather embarrassed looking Noel Edmonds in the studio. And yet, even after this, they persisted. Barbabra Sleeman, the woman who broke her shoulder doing the circus cannon stunt, later said 'The BBC don't give a damn. They just want the viewers'.
Receiving a mere £120,000 and a wreath from the BBC and Noel Edmonds respectively must have added significant insult to (fatal) injury for the bereaved family. As your videos often show, huge companies often receive little in the way of punishment or justice despite the extent of their actions. If it weren’t for channels such as yours, these incidents would be eventually forgotten. Keep up the good work.
People complain about American litigious; but when I see how little other countries penalize those responsible for another's death I'm grateful. A minimum fine, flowers and a cancelation? Their actions took someone's life. It's very discordant.
@@GoodGnewsGary big pharma pfizer paid out the biggest fine ever in the world. They still making bank from covid now. Your health is not their priority. Your sickness is. Profit
@@dr.floridaman4805 what the hell does that have to do with anything even if it's true? also if your bar for someone's priorities is set by how many fines they've paid I have reeeeeeeal bad news for your political choices
Just pointing out that it was a voluntary payment, which presumably means their contact legally shielded them for liability, but they choose to pay out anyway. Also, to put it in perspective, you could buy a house for maybe 30000 in those days. It's not a trivial payout.
We had the similar incident in Germany on _Wetten, Dass...?_ in 2010. The show was more of a talent show with a twist: the celebrities and famous people would bet whether the ordinary people with talents could successfully complete the challenges on the show. If they bet wrong, they would have to do the silly skits themselves. One stunt involved Samuel Koch who could jump over the speeding car and clear it. Unfortunately, the stunt went wrong when he didn't jump high enough, and his legs were struck by the top of windscreen. He lost control of his body and crashed, breaking his neck and leaving him quadriplegic. That stunt effectively left _Wetten, Dass...?_ host, Thomas Gottschalk, and everyone at the show in disarray and caused the enormous criticism for stunts getting increasingly dangerous for the sake of ratings. Thomas Gottschalk resigned as a host afterwards.
I drew the parallels immediately as well. Still remember that show moment likr it was yesterday. The man driving the car was his father as well, if I recall correctly.
The difference being that he did have experience, as he also used to be in gymnastics and was an upcoming actor at that time. If I understand the show correctly, he also planned to do this particular stunt.
Same here, I didn't watch the complete show that night, and only switched back to it after the accident, but did notice something was different. 🤔 And here, during the part about ppl having been injured performing stunts in a TV show, this case came to my mind right on the spot.
@@Kkubey well yes, he planned it and pitched it to the show, but he had the show and its fame it could provide in mind when he decided to want to do this. And this is where the show should have said 'no'. A show like that has a partial responsibility towards its participants. They declined other too dangerous stunts for years, because they knew sometimes you have to save people from their own bravado. But just like the Late Late Breakfast Show, _Wetten Dass ...?_ put ratings before safety in this case and operated not on "what could you live with better if you miscalculated?" but on "oh look what ratings we could get if this goes right!" And that's the wrong choice to make when cars and acrobatics are involved. Acrobatics alone? Yeah sure. But a car driving towards you which you have to leap over with acrobatics? Too many risk factors involved without licensed stuntmen.
One of my favorite channels rite now! Love history even if its horrible history! It needs to be remembered and still talked about! Great stuff! And great job!
Being from Australia, the only show that was remotely similar was Who Dares Wins in the mid 90s. I don’t recall anyone dying but some of the stunts were so incredibly high risk; I couldn’t believe some of them were ticked off. For example, swimming through a crocodile infested lake was just madness
I knew Michael Lush, we used to race motocross and belonged to the same club. He was a top top bloke really funny and always up for a laugh. RIP my old mate.
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
Me before watching the video: "How bad could a breakfast show be? I wonder if this is going to be another fire or earthquake video." One of the first things I hear: "The spot would see a member of the public carrying out a movie style stunt after a week of intensive training" Me: ...ah, there it is
It wasn't a breakfast show, It was Saturday night TV. The title is a play on words, The Late Late Breakfast show........in other words so late that it's in the evening
@@noveltybobel Also Edmonds used to present the Breakfast show on the radio so it was a double play on that too. As a child, the week he was chosen and was talking to the studio on the phone, I learned what a hod carrier was, strange that always stuck in my mind, I used to watch every episode growing up, remember this vividly and was very sad the show got cancelled over it, Saturday night TV went downhill rapidly from that moment on.
People who don't remember life before 1990 would be shocked at how lax health and safety was in all walks of life. In the workplace, few employers gave it more than the most basic of attention.
I think the "Corporate Manslaughter" offence was added to the law after this (not necessarily because of this). That allows people in positions of responsibility in companies to face prison for negligent manslaughter.
For those wondering about the bag of sugar, in the UK bags of sugar usually come in weights of 1kg / 2lbs. Only thought I'd mention it as someone I was watching with didn't know how much that was. Maybe there's someone else who doesn't know as well. Edit: Wow. Thanks for the likes. I had no idea sugar bag standards were different in the USA. Adding this to my daily learning points. 😊
@@susanowen1709 Reminds me of the Dollar Store carabiners you can buy to hold your car keys. I remember them coming into fashion for that reason in the 90s and in the beginning they had to have warnings on them; "Don't use this for mountain climbing, genius, it isn't built to hold your weight; that's why it's only 2.99 and tiny." I wonder if that's the kind the BBC used? Apparently he was up there for almost 2 minutes longer than needed before BBC workers started yelling at him to jump. I wonder if he inspected the shoddy crap and was having second thoughts... We'll never know.
I've worked on (short) zip lines and outdoor climbing walls at a summer camp, and we were told never to tell someone that it was "safe". We could assure them that their harness was "secure" and that we'd be on the other end of the safety rope, but never that they were "safe". That said, the sheer negligence on the part of the BBC is astonishing. Fact is, even the summer camp, staffed mostly by teens and twenty-somethings, had more safety protocols in place.
This is exactly what happened to Owen Hart and the fact that such a simple mistake was allowed to happen more than once is both heartbreaking and infuriating.
Not quite. He tested it and it worked. For Owen he had too much rope and it didn't go taught so fell the 40ft straight. I seen it happen live on TV, and it was played off, he died at the hospital.
Exactly who came to my mind upon hearing of this tragedy. I’m British but wasn’t born when the incident in the video happened, but as a big WWE fan, I was watching the PPV live (at silly o clock in the morning as a young teen) when poor Owen passed, it’s haunted me since, watching all alone, middle of the night, about 13 & then everyone the next day who weren’t allowed to watch live (I was a straight A kid so I was allowed) saying I was mistaking it for a storyline & I had no one to talk to until yet another day had gone by, people had a chance to see it themselves & when it reached all the proper uk news!
@@zagan1 not quite- he wasn’t double clipped & the 1st clip was opened- watch interviews with his wife- nothing about the rope being too long- foolish incorrect comment!!
Lush saved the life of the guy on the production teams staff by nixing the runthrough they offered to show him the stunt was safe. I wonder who he was and how he felt......was he thier "expert"?
The expert would have made sure the carabina was secured properly and wasn't going to catch on anything that might open it. There was probably an issue that they had someone that was an expert in doing the stunt rather than someone who was an expert in training new people in the safety issues. That said, they should have used a locking carabina.
@@apseudonym The expert should have checked everything was safe before allowing a novice to attempt such a stunt. But, that's the thing, they didn't have an expert in that stunt on hand! If they had, the equipment would have been found woefully inadequate, no backup cord, no safety net, no medics on sight...
@@nlwilson4892 The BBC had no one who was an expert at this stunt, never mind teaching the volunteer how to do it. They had an escape artist to help with the strait jacket and chains, that was it. The bungee jumping experts warning the BBC someone would die didn't use carabinas when they jumped; they had a different set-up, with multiple safety features. Apparently, the only safety feature the BBC used was hoping Michael Lush would say no, but he seems to have felt pressured to go ahead with it. Death by misadventure sits uneasy with me - That wasn't informed consent.
Its kind of insane to imagine the ever professional BBC of today throwing the general public into dangerous stunts 35 years ago, and with such reckless ignorance around what they were putting together. The one with the car jump that went wrong was pretty crazy to watch and you'd think that people even then would realise that this sort of segment on the show would end badly eventually. Its quite the contrast
I was a 'contestant' on the LLBS back in October 1983. My 'stunt' was to abseil out of a helicopter from 200ft. This Michael Lush incident horrified me at the time and still does. I was originally supposed to jump out of the helicopter live on the show under floodlights at Crystal Palace football ground. However, the decision was made only in the afternoon for my jump to be recorded that afternoon above BBC TV Centre... In case 'things went wrong'!! 😝 Yes the stunts were definitely rigged, but you were NOT told what you would be doing until Noel phoned you live and the whirly wheel pointed to which one you would be taking part in. The questionnaire you had to complete beforehand when you applied, only asked basic questions... It did NOT ask, for example, if you had a head for heights, which I obviously needed! And I repeat, you had absolutely NO CLUE as to what you would be taking part in until you were told on the phone live on the show. As much as I hate the BBC now for all they stand for, I have to say my training with the Army Air Corps was excellent. I still have the DVD of my appearance!!
A very interesting and sad story. I never heard of this, then again I live in America, so hearing of incidents like these in other countries that are not so well known to this side of the world is always fascinating.
The background is, Noel Edmonds was a horrible little burke, who would do anything for money. He was once described in a court of law as having a "Walter Mitty" personality.
You would think this would be illegal or that no insurance would cover such a thing . Maybe the laws and norms are different outside of the United States? Maybe things were more relaxed back in the day ? Idk but I can’t see this getting off the ground here in the US . Extremely risky. A death waiting to happen
@@domtee no it wouldn't see the light of day in this day and age, but things have always been more stringent in America. You lot sue people for water being wet and somehow win. This is why.
@@CannabrannaLammer very true! Good point! I guess that’s why I’m so shocked 😳 . But your right, It was a different era and culturally different too from how we act over here in the US
@@domtee Just more relaxed then. I was pretty sure I've seen things on US television in a similar vein to this. These days there's no way this would get green lit in the USA or the UK though.
Truly horrific. I feel for the guy and his friends and family. However it is a good choice of subject. Incidentally, I did some voluntary work with a local BBC radio station; late 80s or maybe early 90s. I remarked to an employee how hilarious it was that the kettle in the staff kitchen had a label on it saying: "Warning: may be hot". He told me that everything related to safety at the BBC changed dramatically after the Late Late incident.
In kitchens we always tell new people to assume everything is hot. It’s hard to remember until it’s trained in you or you’ve burned yourself enough. Always use a towel. I’ve even used towels for cold pans 🙄 You don’t know what’s hot and how much of a habit it is to just grab something.
There’s another comment after a similar vid from this RUclips channel on this fatality. Noel’s house party was referred to by crew and suchlike as the safe safe breakfast show
The stupid warnings on nearly everything here in the U. S. are due to the mass lawsuits of stupid people doing stupid things, then suing manufacturers for their own stupidity....
@@carolnacarato4448 "Warning: detergent pods should not be consumed" The best one I saw in the US was "Warning: Cars may be closer than they appear" it made me feel like I was driving a car made for children, but then comparing the idiots of society to children is an insult to children.
I worked at the BBC in the late 80's and 90's. They produced a new Training video after this event. It was on it's own trolley and completely self contained and every Department in TV had one, so no excuses that you didn't have the time to do the training as it was in another building etc, the trolley was delivered to you and you had to do it. I will always remember that the trainings introduction was a clip of a live Children's programme where a stunt went wrong and the presenter's, (Anthea Turner), hair caught on fire.
What I’ve learned about bungee jumping is that 1) make sure you have 2 secure ropes 2) have strong and backup carabiners 3) always have medical professionals on standby. 4) make that list and check it again and again
This one hit me a lot harder than most of the other accidents you've covered. I think it's because everyone knew it was dangerous, but they all put too much faith in each other. As opposed to the building collapses, crushes etc, where no one believes there is any risk at all until disaster strikes.
“The BBC was the National Broadcaster of the U.K.. It could hardly get more official”. At the very least, 300+ kids who encountered BBC employee Jimmy Saville disagree with that statement.
I feel deeply for his girlfriend; I can't imagine the guilt she must feel for nominating him, though of course it wasn't her fault whatsoever. Very sad case of negligence.
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
This reminds me of the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest held by KDND radio of Sacramento which resulted in the death of Jennifer Strange, a 28-year-old mother from Sacramento, California.
@@eggZ663 On January 12, 2007, California radio station KDND 107.9 held a water-drinking contest to win a new Wii video game. Jennifer Strange, a 28-year-old mother of three from Sacramento, drank more than 1.5 gallons of water but did not win the contest. A few hours later, she died of hyponatremia, or acute water intoxication. A jury awarded $16.5 million compensation to her family.
Remember seeing the car stunt one live. It was a record breaking attempt as to who could do the longest jump in a car. The driver who got injured was a qualified stunt driver who happily went on to make a full recovery. Once fully fit he was back to his day job.
I was ten at the time this happened & recall the BBC announcer saying that due to the tragic death of Michael Lush (the actual link is out there on RUclips) "The Late, Late Breakfast Show" would no longer be broadcast. I was a real fan of the show at the time as it was something we could all settle down to watch as a family, but it was quite a lesson in mortality - I remember my blood running cold when I realised what had happened to the poor man. It suddenly hit home that those stunts really were real.
Exactly. I remember the news item on TV and in the papers the next day. I think I remember reading it in the mirror as that was the paper my parents read. I couldn't believe it because Noel Edmonds seems like a fun guy all jokey. Remember thinking he wouldn't allow anything like this to happen. Was a similar age at the time.
As an American I'm like, there goes the BBC overreacting, canceling the whole damn show instead of just the stunt segment. They should have taken compensating the family so seriously.
@@poutinedream5066 oh I think they did the right thing in cancelling it…but the compensation the family received plus the strange attitude in the media (check out the video of Noel on Wogan his first TV appearance since the accident) was woefully inadequate
@@poutinedream5066 Tell that to the family of Owen Hart. Oh wait, don't bother, the WWE was considered responsible for the act because they also cut corners and were forced to grant them compensation and never attempted such a stunt ever again, 22 years after the fatal fall. Safety is NEVER an overreaction, dumbfuck.
I remember the Late Late Breakfast show well, despite being young at the time. I remember it being cancelled by a stunt gone wrong, but I never knew that such a catalogue of errors caused the death of a member of the public. It just shows that no amount of safety can be enough during any kind of stunt, and I'm glad members of the public no longer do this sort of thing. What is so sad is that no one was held accountable for it going wrong
As Ross says there was no safety ? This stunt should've worked safely if the correct people were on site. And perhaps a dummy run done with a test dummy to test everything. Seems to me organizing this was left to junior members of the production crew - or people without the required qualifications... Sad Remember the news item about it.
@Ross Outdoors these stunts were normally done with the safety in place. I just never knew that the safety lacked so badly on this occasion. And even if it had, this stunt was more of a risk than usual
Awesome channel. I had to binge it one evening and was impressed. You offer no opinion just the facts to these disasters, which is refreshing. That's rare by today's standards. I found you after looking up the Haunted Castle fire at Great Adventure in Jackson NJ and we hooked.
There was a similar incident here in Australia in mid 90s during the filming of the movie "Love Serenade". The story is about two sisters who are after the same man and in the finale the man gets pushed from the top of a wheat silo and falls to his death. Tragically, the stunt man doing the scene DID fall to his death when he landed on a faulty airbag. The scene was kept in the movie however.
...Seriously? THAT’S fucking disgusting of the producer and director to keep that particular take in the movie. Kind of reminds me of the infamous helicopter incident with the Twilight Zone movie here in the States. :/
@@christmashake8968 I heard he survived the attempt that was filmed for the movie, BUT he wanted to do a second attempt from a higher point, because he had recently lost a record he owned for the highest free fall. He would have regained his title if the airbag hadn't failed. Probably never knew what hit him.
@@christmashake8968 Vic Morrow and the 2 kids. But the video is so insanely fast, you couldn't have felt a thing. Which might beat dying of cancer or something...
This reminds me of the Canadian WWF wrestler Owen Hart who fell from the rafters during an ring entrance in the USA in 1999. These guys are stunt men but not with bungee cords.
@@MomMom4Cubs The Owen Hart situation wasn't helped by what he was actually supposed to do that night. Hart at the time was playing a masked character called The Blue Blazer, a buffoonish superhero. Also at that time, Sting over in WCW had a gimmick where he'd repel down from the rafters to clean house on the bad guys. Hart was supposed to come down from the rafters but the rope wouldn't go all the way to ring, and he'd fall the last few feet. Just saying that now sounds insane. If you go back and watch Sting's entrances the supposed shocking suddenness of his appearance was kind of hurt by everyone having to stand there as he unhooked the main rope and a safety rope from his harness. Hart was _supposed_ to separate from the main rope and didn't even have a backup. It was an incredibly dangerous thing to do.
So that's two horrific, nation scarring incident Noel's been involved in. Somehow this was worse than unleashing Mr Blobbby on the nation. I'm half expecting that to get a video at some point for the sheer, unbridled terror that produced....maybe?
Still . . . . no one held responsible, jailed, reprimanded or fired. Well . . . not as bad as the USA where these sort of things are dealt with by tying court proceedings up for years and no one paying any money or being punished. But . . . well done UK. Love u guys . . . . really. Hi from America 🌞and Arizona where it sunshines ALL the time!
OMG talk about gutsy... How they ever thought they could avoid a serious accident trying to pull-off such dangerous stunts with everyday people... How did they ever get their insurance carriers to agree!?! Poor Mr. Lush.
Insurance carriers running the world seems bleak af. I don't want to live in that world. You can take that line of thinking and smother it firmly with a pillow. Maybe just follow basic safety standards? Hell my jobsites are better prepared that that was.
I work in TV production. The problem in the industry is that the people has no education, they all start as a hobbyist but there is no formal education. Video editors, camera operators, everybody is just a technician, no one has education aboud risk and management. And that happens in every TV station and production company.
Incidentally this video came up in my recommended the same time I'm learning about torts, negligence, and criminal negligence in my legal class. And this case is a tragic example of negligence, at the least. Ideally, BBC should've been charged for manslaughter because of this man's death.
What an absolute nightmare, poor fella, so tragic and completely preventable too! I can't believe I hadn't heard of this incident until just today. Great video as always.
That “clip” that was supposed to hold him but couldn’t even hold the weight of a bag of sugar, reminds me exactly of the Owen Hart incident where he fell to his death because of a “clip” that was supposed to support all his weight but in actuality it would open up after about 6lbs of weight.... Sounds like the exact same “clip” and same type of incident. I remember in that episode of “Dark Side of the Ring” they talked about how it was a new, kind of random rigging company....
Thats right man. Vince Mcmahon or the corporation has never admitted fault on that horrible tragedy either (as far as I know..not a big fan but was in my mates house watching that night..it all felt like a 'work' until we knew it wasnt) R.I.P Owen Hart.
I don't get what kind of clip it was? I mean a large bulldog clip can hold a few pounds yet this was an actual climbing clip, not something from a desk drawer. Did they get a mountaineering one mixed up with a kids toy or something?
@@CalvinsWorldNews No. Vince McMahon chose an expedientially cheaper company with absolutely 0 stunt experience. We're HUGE wrestling fans and never miss an episode of Dark Side of Wrestling.
I think they are saying that the clip could be *opened* with 2lb of pressure, not that it would break with 2lb of weight on it. In other words it was too easy to open and accidentally unhook.
1 bungee cord? Smh. That's like skydiving with 1 parachute and no back up. The BBC should have been sued to the point of shutting the whole company down. That small fine was just an insult and slap in the face.
I would probably never have forgiven myself. Poor woman. She nominated him, but he was happy to do it and he trusted the people who should have been ensuring his safety. It wasn't her fault at all.
The fact that he had two pints of beer for lunch is important to note because although it could help with nerves, it can in any capacity, dampen common sense and lead to mistakes even for an experienced person. That and the wet boots just further highlight how ridiculously negligent the BBC was about this whole ordeal.
As soon as I seen that I felt very bad for his family. My stepfather died in a horrific accident and the life insurance wouldn't pay out because he had trace alcohol.
Yep. Only 35 years ago, but I look back on it and think what the actual. TOTALLY different world. Even the name "Michael Lush" just sounds so typically 80s.
Yep. Starts off with the Bears finally winning the Super Bowl, only to be overshadowed by the Challenger disaster. Not to mention the big hair styles and Boy George!
"Paramedics were called to the scene." I overlooked the beer at lunch, but for stunts such as this I thought "Paramedics were standing by", you know like actually on set. With this outcome though, I doubt there was anything they could've done to save Mr. Lush's life....aside from advising him to double check the bungee cord was properly tethered before he jumped. In the end he became a local celebrity to some degree I hope.
i just scrolled down to let you know how much I fucking love your voice and how freaking amazing it is, that I really appreciate your work! PLEASE NEVER STOP YOUR VOICE IS GODLY
3:21 John Peel, the Radio 1 DJ was persuaded by the team and Edmonds to provide commentary as a reporter alongside this car stunt, but was fortunate not to be severely hurt himself. Apparently Peel never had much time for Edmonds after this incident.....
So let me get this straight, a civilian was sent up to carry out a dangerous stunt without training, any emergency staff, with alcohol in his blood, with no ground contact... and he died because of faulty hardware. That is one heck of a tragic twist.
Remember 'It's a Knockout' (and the European version 'Je san Frontiers')? HUGE fun to watch - and I imagine also to participate in, but apparently lots of quick A&E trips afterwards for broken wrists, fractured collar bones, twisted ankles etc etc. As American style litigation - 'where there's a blame there's a claim' - gained popularity tv shows like those were driven out. No tv channel could possibly afford the insurance needed...
@@shadymcnasty5920 Love Parade was a music festival that drew huge crowds. In 2010, owing to poor planning and poor understanding of crowd crushes, too many people were packed into a confined space with limited exits. I don't remember how many dead, but it was in double digits. 'Mass panic' is a poor term for this, because the panic doesn't begin until after the crush is already on; it's a consequence, not a cause. The twisted thing is that crowd crushes aren't caused directly by any human action. It's not panic, or pushing, or drunkenness, or bad behaviour. It's a physical phenomenon that happens when humans in a crowd reach a critical density -- they lose their individual freedom of movement and collectively turn into a fluid that sloshes, the individual human particles being helplessly shoved about. Waves appear in the crowd -- they're called crowd surges, and seen from above they behave exactly like water waves. (This is THE red flag announcing that crowd crush conditions exist.) When one of those waves crashes against a wall or similar unyielding object ... anyone caught against that object is in a bad way.
@@shadymcnasty5920 If you're interested, here's a video that assembled recovered video footage into a synchronized timeline. ruclips.net/video/up95bUU3L0M/видео.html
@@emilybarclay8831 tbf this stunt should've been safe. The correct people weren't on site.. you'd of thought with high risk events like this the BBC would have everyone there to make sure it all went smoothly... Just sheet Negligence.
If you ever want to know the kind of person Noel Edmonds is, I recommend watching an interview with him about this shortly after it happened. He talks about how distressed and upset he was by the incident… but not for the fact that a man lost his life but the fact it almost cost him a career in television. The epitome of odious and self obsessed in full view to the world.
I used to really like him for the likes of Noel's House Party but he has utterly lost the plot these days, he tried to buy the BBC a few years ago despite blaming his bank because they "let a Nigerian steal all his money". The man is nuttier than squirrel shit.
@Gorgeous George 😂😂😂👍👍👍
@Gorgeous George hahaha the kick my dog part 🤣🤣...takes me back to when the internet was a baby!
Was it his interview on Wogan, you are referring too?
@@stephenowens3687 Yep, that's the one. Just rewatched it and it's just as shocking as I remember. Barely touches on the victim, unless he can shoehorn himself into it and doesn't once mention Michael Lush by name.
Do you remember in the previous weeks they had a lady escaping from a box whilst underwater. She did it, but the look of terror on her face when she got out was unmistakable. The presenters pretended that she was just a "great actress" and I remembered thinking that it was obvious she nearly drowned....
Was it on this show that a guy was was meant to jump a row of cars in another car and approached to fast resulting in him heavily overshooting the landing ramp and crashing into parked cars that they thought were a safe distance away?
God I remember that one, her name was Linda or Lindy I think....she had to train for a week to hold her breath for well over a minute and only just made it out in time....great TV but I wonder if even now she has flashbacks to what could have easily ended in her death.
Is that video available online anywhere? That sounds terrifying.
@@ecw445 ruclips.net/video/IRhoFzLRRsA/видео.html
Best I could find mate.
@@joey_bonzo Thought as much. I was 13 or 14 at the time and you don't see danger in the same way when you're that age.
One of the producers, who I won’t name, lived near me. After this incident he fell into depression, left the production company, and sadly became an alcoholic. He never got over his part in it. He was a nice guy., and felt terrible forever after.
Mike Smith?
@@alexnacud25 Im not going to leave any clues as to who, it’s private.
Jesus… that’s awful
@Chime In he’s not alive any more actually, but regardless what a pointless comment. You added nothing.
@Chime In my dad died 14 years ago. since im not the victim i guess i shouldnt get sympathy
I imagine his girlfriend never recovered from this, especially nominating him, even though it was 100% not her fault. I know because my boyfriend died due to an accident (I won't go over the details) over a decade ago and despite knowing, logically, that I am not responsible for his death, I still struggle with it.
Losing a partner so early, way before their time, is hellish and I think everyone in that situation feels some degree of survivor guilt, haunted by what-ifs etc. But sometimes there is such a clear what-if, and it is incredibly hard to accept that it really wasn't your fault. Heartbreaking.
RIP Michael. He died before I was born, but my partner was also 25 so I feel a weird kinship to him and his girlfriend. Love to who knew him, especially his partner and parents
I'm really sorry to hear this. I know it is now easy to lose a partner and there can be a lot of anger without direction as well as the obvious grief one expects. Anyway, I hope you are doing well and have found happiness.
Hope youre ok and find some kind of peace
Hey are u a furry as well? I'm wanting to know how to meet others and make friends.
sorry for your terrible loss. Just remember, he wouldnt have wanted you to blame yourself or suffer
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
Imagine thinking the concept of having untrained stunt people do stunts was ever a good idea. The '80s were bonkers.
All that coke.
The 80s sure didn't raise any wussies. I have so many scars I can't remember how I got em all. Ahh, the good old days haha
Selling your soul is quite easy, even if its unintentional. Nothing to do with being a pussy or living in a certain time. Prioritize what you're life is worth, or end up being another youtube video for us to be morbidly entertained.
And yet America still had shows like Wipeout in 2008 and a reboot of the show this year.
Trained people die in stunts, too.
Please see Vic Morrow and the 2 kids decapitated by a falling helicopter.
Can't imagine how much guilt his girlfriend must have felt having nominated him.
Yes. I thought about that too 😔
Honestly same that guilt would live with me for the rest of my life if that was me
She let him go.
Yeah, when I watch these I always feel so so bad for the people who aren’t at fault but you know must blame themselves….
We all know the only guilt they feel is having sabotaged their meal ticket.
In all honesty the fact that the two “stunt men” in the “car jump” stunt actually survived is miraculous, the videos of the crashes are pretty horrendous
I remember watching it in horror at the time, when I was a kid. The second car resembled a metal pancake. I was amazed anyone could survive that. They should have stopped the stunts right after that one. It was obviously only a matter of time before the inevitable would happen.
And no roll-cage, just the bare frame of the car. Cars built then weren't designed to be an exoskeleton safety cell like today's. I saw a car of similar age rear-ended at banger racing once (it was empty). It was literally about 2 feet long after that impact! Gives you some idea of the strength of cars they were using. To land upside down would take your head off.
While I was listening, I was smiling at this man's eagerness. He was so excited, thrilled, /happy/ to be taking part of this. He had zer oworries, so much so he declined a preview of what he was going to do. The person who would've gone in his stead, technically was graced by whatever higher power exists. This poor man, he probably didn't even realize what was happening. My jaw utterly dropped at the mention of the bungee cord coiling instead of straightening.
The man who would have went in his stead was a professional stunt man and would have remembered to attach his bungee cord. Letting Michael attach himself to the box despite being giddy with excitement, giddy with lager and completely inexperienced is what killed him.
@@krashd from my understanding it was equipment failure, not a failure to clip in. the bbc was wildly negligent and this was entirely their fault in failing to create and execute a safe plan
@@krashd from the report it was not his fault as the bungee was held with the wrong carabina clip (which couldn't even hold a bag of sugar), no back up rope, no safety net/air bag, inexperienced expert who was into theatrics not stunts, no expect checking equipment before he jumped. Also, who allowed him to drink before jumping? This was not the abiding problem, negligence by the company was. Safety net? Different outcome. Same for expert checking equipment, or any of the other failings sadly.
NO PROFESSIONAL STUNTMAN and the innocent guy was clipped, but the carbiner was inadequate. Seriously does no one listen to the audio??? BBC was found 100% at fault
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
Imagine being the person who was supposed to demonstrate, and realizing the only reason you're still alive is that the contestant wanted to get started right away.
An experienced stuntman likely would have carefully checked the rigging, discovered the inadequate clip and stopped the stunt.
Oh **snap!**
@@21stcenturyfossil7 we have a professional stuntman in the comments
@@jonathansoko5368
Or... just a dude with common sense.
talk about survivor's guilt.
Poor bloke. He trusted them. Put his life on the line. And the BBC failed him.
Hi soviet 👍
Fancy seeing you here, nice eye for documentary channels
Soviet !!!!
He didn't put his life on the line. He did a stupid and dangerous stunt.
Sovie womle
I watched `The Late, Late Breakfast Show´every week as a 13 year old kid and on the week Michael Lush was chosen and told which stunt he was given, I said to my Parents and siblings, "Somebody's gonna end up getting killed on this. These stunts are dangerous.", or words to that effect. We were all gobsmacked a few days later when it was revealed of the tragic accident, due to it actually happening and me coincidentally predicting it. I've always remembered his name probably due to this. R.I.P Michael Lush.
He sent a wreath to the family......wow what a swell and caring guy. You can just feel his true level of devastation with that little gesture 🤦♀️
tbh what else was he supposed to do? I doubt he had anything to do with the planning and design of the stunt, he was just the host.
The family got a payout from a company. And attending the funeral in person would be overstepping boundaries (I'm sure the family wouldn't want him there).
Even knowing he was "up for anything" and thrilled to have been picked, can you imagine the guilt his girlfriend must have felt because she nominated him?
That's exactly what I was thinking
And of course the worst part of that guilt would be that it wasn't her fault. As the video said, why wouldn't she trust the BBC? I hope she didn't/doesn't blame herself.
Literally came in the comments to see if I was the only one thinking it
8,000 people a year enter and her entry was picked, that’s just cruel luck
Or well planned
No, why should she?
With the sheer negligence towards the treatment of this poor man, the BBC should have been tried for manslaughter. A man's life is worth more than a wreath and £120 k. He deserved better justice than that. Rest in Peace. Thank you for sharing FH.
The UK has no law that criminalises negligence. Furthermore, £120,000 in 1986 money is worth over £355,000 today, or US$500,000. So the compensation was more than acceptable, if anything, it was actually quite high, considering Flush's ego prior to the incident, as he even ignored the advice of the so-called "expert" during the rehearsal.
@@DR3ADER1 how did he ignore their advice? They should have insisted on a dummy run first, not allowed the participant to make the call. He was young and enthusiastic and, unfortunately naively, totally trusted the BBC.
@@rruth82 “totally trusted the BBC” Good riddance to bad rubbish.
@@mushyroom9569 Bold. People who say they have experts, are expected to have high standards, especially since said incidents are few and far between, and nobody had died before, and the guy's an idiot for something he had ZERO control over?
So if i ran you over in a car in your yard, it's your fault you werent watching the fence for cars. Cool
@DR3D1 you've gotta be kidding. half a million bucks isn't shit for a family whose breadwinner had to be scraped off the ground. what the hell does his "ego" have to do with anything? he bears no responsibility here; the bbc selected a viewer-volunteer who could have been nearly _anyone,_ with any level of common sense or safety awareness, and it was therefore the BBC's job to ensure their safety -- something well within their capability _if_they had prioritized it even a little. what compels someone to defend the bbc in this case?
This reminds me of what happened in the german show "Wetten das...?", where a person bet that they could hop over a driving car with a pogo stick, and they unfortunately got caught and fell in an incredibly horrific way. I remember watching that as a child alone, while it was broadcast live. It really tore down the wall between me, and probably a lot of people, and what was happening on the screen.
samuel koch... a really sad thing to happen plus the person who was driving the car that led to the terrible accident was unfortunatley his father which must have haunted his father badly, nobody could have imagined what that must of felt like.
@@anthonybradley1555 Oh I didn't even know that, that's awful...
We were so furious when we heard this in the morning, we phoned the BBC before going to work in order to complain. A disgraceful incident which was in a sense inevitable given the way this show was heading with these more and more sensational stunts.
This case is a perfect example that many accidents aren’t actually accidents. Much of the time; when you review everything surrounding them; there is some form (or even multiple, compounding forms) of negligence behind it. Carelessness kills.
Ive noticed a lot of people call things that happen due to negligence “accidents”.
Accident just means what happened wasn't intentionally done.
Absolutely! Total negligence or even total stupidity by the producers I would say
@@vocexseta Yes, an accident caused by negligence is still an accident. The fact that a person or persons may be liable, even criminally liable, doesn't change that. If somebody had *intentionally* sabotaged the stunt knowing it would cause injury or death, then it wouldn't be an accident
Super apropos considering what just happened in set with Alec Baldwin.
I remember this awful accident. As a kid I'd always watch the Late, Late Breakfast Show, with my family, every Saturday evening. I'd have been 9 at the time, and I remember coming home from school and watching the news, I think it was News round with John Craven, the news show aimed at kids, and hearing that this poor guy Michael Lush, who we'd seen win the chance to do this stunt only a couple of days before, had died during a practice session. It made such an impact on me that, to this day I always remembered the guys name.
I remember seeing the Challenger disaster on Newsround! Still haunts me to this day.
@Dan Lee dude, it's Fascinating Horror. Spoiler alert for next week, something goes horribly wrong and people died. 😉
@@spddiesel Exactly. Lol. And don't read any comments ever, before watching...that's a given.
@@spddiesel and the week after that and so on!
I assumed at the time that it was one of those freak occurrences that sometimes happen when people do dangerous stuff. The final report was a real eye opener when it came. It was simply reckless on the BBC'S part.
Imagine how his girlfriend must feel. She's the one who nominated him in the first place. She'll probably be blaming the whole mess on herself for the rest of her life. Honestly I just feel bad for everyone involved.
Week after week I used to say to my wife, " Someone is going to killed doing one of these stunts". I used to call the Show " The Late Late Whirly Wheeler contestant Show". I was right. This was so bloody obvious something like this was a death waiting to happen.
This for some reason reminds me of that America's Got Talent episode where the guy tried to jump over a bunch of chairs, but failed and slammed his neck at an almost 90 degree angle and everyone was freaking out
Is that a planned stunt or an actual accident?
That reminds me of Samuel Koch who attempted to jump over several cars driving in his direction. He had a very unfortunate landing after jumping over one of them and is paralyzed from the neck down now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetten,_dass..%3F#Samuel_Koch_incident
@@faizalf119 I can't remember. I think it happened when I was still in high school, which was a loooong time ago
Tv stunt goes wrong - absolute faceplant ruclips.net/video/TxYBpZ70y70/видео.html 😬😬
Didn’t someone literally just get badly injured on AGT?! Like he fell on his head or something maybe a week ago?
“Whirly Wheel” is the most British thing I’ve heard all year.
My husband is British, so I hear British things all the time!🤣
THE FACT THAT IT WAS RIG IS.
i raise you with "Peppa Pig"
Give it a fuller English flavor by having Benedict Cumberbatch spin the wheel.
innit
Edmonds was so devestated that he phoned Interflora and ordered a £25 wreath for the victim's family, aswell as taking a paid vacation from appearing on his show which had already been cancelled. For such empathy one would expect Edmonds to have at least been awarded a Nobel prize
He was working with a company then started makeing claims in twitter about it curing cancer. In the UK the laws strict when it comes to cancer care it goes back to pre NHS anyway the company.made it clear they won't work with him.
After a women dieing of cancer complained to him it isn't working. He called her a stupid cow and how she wasn't doing it right
Lush was "up for anything with a hint of danger."
Classic British understatement
The BBC: the equipment was untested, there were no experts on hand, no ambulance, we've ignored expert advice, there were no safety measures in place; there had been serious incidents preceding this one. We're puzzled. What could have possibly have gone wrong? The sheer arrogance and negligence is breathtaking.
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
With that kind of narrative, people should be in prison for manslaughter. But, its the 80s and no one cares about safety.
So basically they continued Britain's tradition of colonization, but now on their own. Got it! That host should have lost his career and BBC should have been shut down
BBC: im inevitable 😎
The equipment was known to be not suitable, they had just bought the cheapest thing which looked the same. Spring clips that do not lock shut cannot be trusted.
I remember this. Edmonds came under fire and was crucified by the press, despite having no real part in the accident. The BBC focused on 'lessons learned' but encouraged vitriol against Edmonds, which took the focus off the corporation. I think the hiatus Edmonds took was as much out of disillusionment with his employers as grief over the death. This was, let's remember, not that long after the Jim'll Fix It era and Saville was still being protected by higher ups at the BBC. A dark period for the corporation which, far from being a reliable and stalwart institution, had become ugly and corrupt.
At the end Edmonds was just the presenter, it’s the production crew and stunt organisers that should have been vilified
@mipmipmipmipmip , strongly agree. If you make money from people putting themselves at risk you had damn well take an interest in their safety. Those who disagree are moral eunuchs, lazy, extremely selfish, or all three.
You don't have to be a reincarnation of Einstein to ask incisive questions to be followed-up by experts. You just have to care.
I immedialtely thought of Jim'll fix it when it said BBC promised never to allow dangerous stunts to be done again. Being near Saville was one already.
@@kissarococo2459 - Especially if you were a child.
Edmonds was more than just the host, he had creative credit and was a producer. In fact, he had been pushing to have the BBC get with the times and do more daring programming. He was at least partially to blame for having the show he organized run rather sloppily. Sure, the BBC takes most of the blame, but Edmonds was one of the people pushing for more dangerous antics.
I come from north Devon and Edmunds lived (and i think still lives) locally. He came and opened a local village fete a year or two after this incident. During the opening ceremony he picked a young boy from the crowd to join him on the makeshift stage, the boy replied something like "no, you killed someone". Edmunds was understandably upset and walked off. Kids can be cruel without even realising it.
I don't think that's cruel at all.
The little boy knew right from wrong, safety from danger.
WTF was NE or any of the producers thinking of ? To get "Nobodies" to do stunts they themselves wouldn't do ?
No stunt expert or stunt man was involved in the design, installation, rehersal nor in cheching it through or doing a run through by a stunt per4.
They played with people's lives for "fun" & all they cared about were viewing figures.
The trial for his death was at a magistrates court, not a county court with a jury and a judge.
The magistrates court decided not to refer the case any higher, so conveniently the BBC were only obliged to pay £2000 out, and not millions.
The careers of all involved continued including the producers & the head of bbc entertainment.
This is all masonic related.
They don't "do" admitting crime or paying for them personally nor financially.
They "know" how to wriggle free.
@Gorgeous George
Really ?
I think he & his co-workers /producers & whoever pushed this stunt idea through are narcissists. Their thinking isn't normal because they lack empathy & sympathy with others.
It's all about themselves.
What they did cones from not thinking normally.
So, it wasn't his fault because -
He didn't comply with it ?
He didn't consent to the event ?
He voiced concern over non-professional persons doing stunt work ?
He said he felt uncomfortable getting people on the show to do these things ?
He offered to do the stunts himself instead ?
He spoke out because no stunt man was involved in the design or set-uo, or the checks, or the rehearsal etc ?
He had "no idea" how dangerous stunt work is ?
He was coerced into presenting the show ?
He wasn't allowed to say what he thought ?
He feared he would lose his job ? & he was broke ?
Well you're entitled to your opinion.
I hope he had PTSD but I doubt it. I doubt if any of those responsible for the idea & its setup suffered.
The careers of NE, producers & bbc chiefs all did well evidently.
I think the BBC has been exceptionally cruel to many children
@@Naughtybaz
Satanic Worshippers are.
Satanic Ritualistic Abuse.
Rife in all echelons, all officialdom, all public services.
People have said it includes royal blood lines also.
All secret societies do it at some level in the hierarchy.
This is how they get the "power" to rule on earth.
An inverted testimony to the existence of God.
Uh thats not cruel thats just a fact,smart kid
Man, that actually hit me deeply. Something you're so excited to do, and it's all over moments later. It's crazy how fast people can be gone. Mad respect to Mr. Lush. Honestly more balls than every producer behind the BBC. That's what shows need to do if they want to have this type of action. If the dude writing the idea is the one to do it then I'd be REAL interested to watch that shit.
RIP brother.
Reminds me of the "Wetten dass" incident. That was a German tv show in which people would bet they could perform a small trick or stunt they studied by themselves. Usually these were harmless but then they allowed a young man to perform saltos over driving cars, predictably he had a terrible accident on live tv and ended up a quadriplegic.
Is there a video of this
Thankfully I don't think anything like that happened on "You Bet!" which was the UK version of Wetten Dass. Though I think our version was a bit more tame than yours!
@@Pacmanfan-po9rn ruclips.net/video/iMmN3TGKavo/видео.html
I thought of this too. The difference is, this was the first incident in the shows 30 year history and they cancelled the show pretty much immediately afterwards.
@@daisychainexplores That's right. The other was more of a comical nature. A writer for a satirical newspaper snuck himself into the show, claiming the could taste the colours of pencils presented to him. He won and wrote about the way he bluffed Believe it or not, back then that was a scandal
Had nothing to do so decided to watch "Britain's Chernobyl" episode, finished it and came here. What a nice morning
What do you want? A badge or a medal 🥇🏅
@@LunchSays Both. Both is good!
Just got done with 3rd shift: watching this while getting breakfast and driving home. About to sleep till the sun sets now, good day y’all.
@@047Kenny no one cares
@@iaincowell9747 ur life must suck yikes.. sad for you
Really appreciate this style of documentary, because it's not sensationalized and you don't use the words "terrible tragedy" 15,000 times. We get the facts of the situation and we learn something cool. Often tragic but still interesting to know. Rather than getting the movie version of something but as a documentary. Where it's more about making it sound interesting then about telling the actual facts which are often interesting by themselves.
Hey I know it might seem like a small thing but I thank you for the subtitles in all your videos. I know they can take some time to do so really thank you.
Damn. They didn't even give him a safety net for a practice run
Safety net would be impractical and way too hard to set up. Being secured to a harness was the best option, but who could've known they fucked up the two separate cords as failsafe?
i was surprised by how little precautions they took. at first i was like, "oh they did a psych eval and did pre-planning?" so i was assuming the result was just a random freak accident. but as it was revealed there was no net, no secondary safety harness, no... anything, i wanted to slap my forehead in frustration
I don't think 'practice run' is even right. It was a test run - that proved the equipment wasn't up to it - and they'd no back up safety system. Given the offer of a proper stuntman to go first - he'd have examined what equipment was being used and likely would have refused to carry on after what he found.
@@RyosukeTakahashiRX7 Safety nets maybe but an airbag landing could have been set up in minutes. Literally no harder than setting up one of those loathsome bouncy castles. If even that was too difficult they could have done the practice runs over water.
The fact is the safety precautions added up to no more than hoping nothing would go wrong.
@@xxxggthyf hope you know that hitting water at terminal velocity is equivalent to hitting a solid
"A unique memory that he would carry with him for the rest of his life."
Well, that bit was true, at least.
As unfortunate a choice of words as ‘it was to have a great impact…’
@@CycolacFan Yes, that one is unfortunate too. Thanks for pointing it out. I'd missed that one.
He carried it bloody fast as well!
@@Vortigan07 Yes, it was one of those "short-term memory" kind of things. No long-term memory needed.
@@CycolacFan I have noticed that the narrator enjoys such plays on words
I found this video and your voice along with how clearly knowledgeable your are but still making it so anyone can understand kept me hooked. Great video
Wow, I remember this happening in 1986. I was 15 at the time. I remember the news reports about it. In particular he was a 'hod carrier' by trade and that has always stuck with me, ever since. HUGE controversy at the time as Edmonds was the BBC at the time. Thoughts go to his family.
I remember this so vividly. I was a huge LLBS fan, my husband at the time hated it and only watched it through gritted teeth- he said regularly ‘someone is going to get killed on this stupid programme’. I felt for Mike Smith who is pictured in the photo with Noel Edmonds. He suffered extreme depression and guilt following this tragedy, and was himself later involved in an horrific helicopter crash. He has since died of complications following major surgery- his wife said the death of Michael Lush haunted him.. Noel meanwhile has continued to have a very lucrative career. Looking back, it’s hard to believe what the BBC got away with on that show.
it’s easy to believe it
There was an audience for it. You'd have been thrilled seeing animals maul people in the coliseums of Rome. Doesn't sound like your husband (at the time) would have fancied it much.
I mean, considering the BBC was actively shielding Jimmy Saville at the same time, it is incredibly believable.
Mike Smith wasn't a victim here. He was a wealthy and successful man who lived his life exactly as he chose to.
The BBC have been getting away with evilness for a long time and continue to do so.
I never liked this program as a kid and couldn’t understand how the rest of my family thought it was entertaining. I always found it scary and uncomfortable to watch this sort of thing and still do. Yes I am a wimp but people are just put deliberately at risk. Great coverage as always.
I wouldn't even say that you're a wimp. Seeing people potentially in danger is uncomfortable to watch, so, honestly it's totally understandable.
Not a wimp, you just have a functioning brain and common sense.
Agree, I also dislike these types of TV programs & would never watch them
Being rational and skeptical is not a bad thing. Literally "if everyone was jumping off a bridge, should you too?" NEVER cave to peer pressure.
I get anxious watching professionals like stunt folks and gymnasts do their craft-I can’t imagine watching a show like this! You’re not a wimp at all.
I know nothing about stunts and I am horrified by the lack of basic safety precautions taken, no one to demonstrate the stunt, he went up *alone* while *intoxicated*, paramedics had to be *called to the scene*, no crash mat at the bottom of the jump (idk how much that would've saved him, but maybe he would've lived), no training prior, they just threw a regular guy in a box and told him to jump from several meters in the air to the ground with no back up in case something went wrong and absolutely no training or experts to be seen.
I remember this tragic event well. It seemed, even at the time, incredible that the BBC would use members of the public, no matter how willing, to perform dangerous stunts live on TV. It was clearly only a matter of time before a real tragedy occured especially when you consider that a number of participants had already been seriously injured and the Health and Safety Executive had threatened legal action twice prior to this tragedy. I watched the episode where the speeding car crashed at 140 mph, ending up a mangled wreck right in front of the camera. They cut quickly back to a rather embarrassed looking Noel Edmonds in the studio. And yet, even after this, they persisted. Barbabra Sleeman, the woman who broke her shoulder doing the circus cannon stunt, later said 'The BBC don't give a damn. They just want the viewers'.
Receiving a mere £120,000 and a wreath from the BBC and Noel Edmonds respectively must have added significant insult to (fatal) injury for the bereaved family. As your videos often show, huge companies often receive little in the way of punishment or justice despite the extent of their actions. If it weren’t for channels such as yours, these incidents would be eventually forgotten. Keep up the good work.
People complain about American litigious; but when I see how little other countries penalize those responsible for another's death I'm grateful. A minimum fine, flowers and a cancelation? Their actions took someone's life. It's very discordant.
@@GoodGnewsGary big pharma pfizer paid out the biggest fine ever in the world. They still making bank from covid now.
Your health is not their priority. Your sickness is. Profit
@@dr.floridaman4805 what the hell does that have to do with anything even if it's true? also if your bar for someone's priorities is set by how many fines they've paid I have reeeeeeeal bad news for your political choices
Just pointing out that it was a voluntary payment, which presumably means their contact legally shielded them for liability, but they choose to pay out anyway. Also, to put it in perspective, you could buy a house for maybe 30000 in those days. It's not a trivial payout.
@@dr.floridaman4805 That was Purdue, not Pfizer.
We had the similar incident in Germany on _Wetten, Dass...?_ in 2010. The show was more of a talent show with a twist: the celebrities and famous people would bet whether the ordinary people with talents could successfully complete the challenges on the show. If they bet wrong, they would have to do the silly skits themselves. One stunt involved Samuel Koch who could jump over the speeding car and clear it. Unfortunately, the stunt went wrong when he didn't jump high enough, and his legs were struck by the top of windscreen. He lost control of his body and crashed, breaking his neck and leaving him quadriplegic. That stunt effectively left _Wetten, Dass...?_ host, Thomas Gottschalk, and everyone at the show in disarray and caused the enormous criticism for stunts getting increasingly dangerous for the sake of ratings. Thomas Gottschalk resigned as a host afterwards.
I drew the parallels immediately as well. Still remember that show moment likr it was yesterday. The man driving the car was his father as well, if I recall correctly.
The difference being that he did have experience, as he also used to be in gymnastics and was an upcoming actor at that time. If I understand the show correctly, he also planned to do this particular stunt.
Same here, I didn't watch the complete show that night, and only switched back to it after the accident, but did notice something was different. 🤔
And here, during the part about ppl having been injured performing stunts in a TV show, this case came to my mind right on the spot.
Omg, was this recorded on video???
@@Kkubey well yes, he planned it and pitched it to the show, but he had the show and its fame it could provide in mind when he decided to want to do this. And this is where the show should have said 'no'. A show like that has a partial responsibility towards its participants. They declined other too dangerous stunts for years, because they knew sometimes you have to save people from their own bravado. But just like the Late Late Breakfast Show, _Wetten Dass
...?_ put ratings before safety in this case and operated not on "what could you live with better if you miscalculated?" but on "oh look what ratings we could get if this goes right!" And that's the wrong choice to make when cars and acrobatics are involved. Acrobatics alone? Yeah sure. But a car driving towards you which you have to leap over with acrobatics? Too many risk factors involved without licensed stuntmen.
One of my favorite channels rite now! Love history even if its horrible history! It needs to be remembered and still talked about! Great stuff! And great job!
Being from Australia, the only show that was remotely similar was Who Dares Wins in the mid 90s. I don’t recall anyone dying but some of the stunts were so incredibly high risk; I couldn’t believe some of them were ticked off. For example, swimming through a crocodile infested lake was just madness
I knew Michael Lush, we used to race motocross and belonged to the same club. He was a top top bloke really funny and always up for a laugh. RIP my old mate.
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
Lies
Me before watching the video: "How bad could a breakfast show be? I wonder if this is going to be another fire or earthquake video."
One of the first things I hear: "The spot would see a member of the public carrying out a movie style stunt after a week of intensive training"
Me: ...ah, there it is
It wasn't a breakfast show, It was Saturday night TV. The title is a play on words, The Late Late Breakfast show........in other words so late that it's in the evening
@@noveltybobel Also Edmonds used to present the Breakfast show on the radio so it was a double play on that too. As a child, the week he was chosen and was talking to the studio on the phone, I learned what a hod carrier was, strange that always stuck in my mind, I used to watch every episode growing up, remember this vividly and was very sad the show got cancelled over it, Saturday night TV went downhill rapidly from that moment on.
People who don't remember life before 1990 would be shocked at how lax health and safety was in all walks of life. In the workplace, few employers gave it more than the most basic of attention.
Worst part about all of this. If this hadn't happened, we may never have suffered Mr Blobby a few years later.
What I thought Toon, the curse of blobby ! Blobby ! Blobby.
Excellent, quiet and respectful video. I too remember this happening - and sharing the national feeling that people should have gone to jail for it.
Agreed! Negligent manslaughter...poor man and his family.
I think the "Corporate Manslaughter" offence was added to the law after this (not necessarily because of this). That allows people in positions of responsibility in companies to face prison for negligent manslaughter.
BBC altogether should be shut down.... giving a kids show to Jimmy Savile.
Jail 100%! That's what would happen today
For those wondering about the bag of sugar, in the UK bags of sugar usually come in weights of 1kg / 2lbs. Only thought I'd mention it as someone I was watching with didn't know how much that was. Maybe there's someone else who doesn't know as well.
Edit: Wow. Thanks for the likes. I had no idea sugar bag standards were different in the USA. Adding this to my daily learning points. 😊
I was imagining the US standard (at the time) 5lb bag (2.26kg). The fact that they couldn't even hold half that weight is mind-boggling.
@@susanowen1709 Reminds me of the Dollar Store carabiners you can buy to hold your car keys. I remember them coming into fashion for that reason in the 90s and in the beginning they had to have warnings on them; "Don't use this for mountain climbing, genius, it isn't built to hold your weight; that's why it's only 2.99 and tiny." I wonder if that's the kind the BBC used? Apparently he was up there for almost 2 minutes longer than needed before BBC workers started yelling at him to jump. I wonder if he inspected the shoddy crap and was having second thoughts... We'll never know.
@DJ Random Hajile
Thank you for posting. I wondered the same.
5lbs standard at the time? Who needs that much sugar unless you’re maybe a baker? What the standard now? 20lbs?😳🤣😨
@@piperjaycie people who actually cook and bake their own food would buy 5 lbs of sugar. There are even things called "sugar cannisters" to store it.
A member of the public was allowed to do this 😂. Only the wonderful 80's
I've worked on (short) zip lines and outdoor climbing walls at a summer camp, and we were told never to tell someone that it was "safe". We could assure them that their harness was "secure" and that we'd be on the other end of the safety rope, but never that they were "safe".
That said, the sheer negligence on the part of the BBC is astonishing. Fact is, even the summer camp, staffed mostly by teens and twenty-somethings, had more safety protocols in place.
This is exactly what happened to Owen Hart and the fact that such a simple mistake was allowed to happen more than once is both heartbreaking and infuriating.
Yep, exactly the same circumstances. The clip probably came loose when he adjusted himself, just as Owen Hart's did
I watched that happen. I'm a commercial roofer and can imagine the gut wrenching feeling.
Not quite.
He tested it and it worked.
For Owen he had too much rope and it didn't go taught so fell the 40ft straight.
I seen it happen live on TV, and it was played off, he died at the hospital.
Exactly who came to my mind upon hearing of this tragedy. I’m British but wasn’t born when the incident in the video happened, but as a big WWE fan, I was watching the PPV live (at silly o clock in the morning as a young teen) when poor Owen passed, it’s haunted me since, watching all alone, middle of the night, about 13 & then everyone the next day who weren’t allowed to watch live (I was a straight A kid so I was allowed) saying I was mistaking it for a storyline & I had no one to talk to until yet another day had gone by, people had a chance to see it themselves & when it reached all the proper uk news!
@@zagan1 not quite- he wasn’t double clipped & the 1st clip was opened- watch interviews with his wife- nothing about the rope being too long- foolish incorrect comment!!
Lush saved the life of the guy on the production teams staff by nixing the runthrough they offered to show him the stunt was safe. I wonder who he was and how he felt......was he thier "expert"?
Omg! That's a really good point. The "expert" must suffer from a mix of survivor's guilt and responsibility for Mr Lush death.
The expert would have made sure the carabina was secured properly and wasn't going to catch on anything that might open it. There was probably an issue that they had someone that was an expert in doing the stunt rather than someone who was an expert in training new people in the safety issues. That said, they should have used a locking carabina.
no, the expert would have pretended it from occurring if he went first because he would have checked everything thoroughly.
@@apseudonym The expert should have checked everything was safe before allowing a novice to attempt such a stunt. But, that's the thing, they didn't have an expert in that stunt on hand! If they had, the equipment would have been found woefully inadequate, no backup cord, no safety net, no medics on sight...
@@nlwilson4892 The BBC had no one who was an expert at this stunt, never mind teaching the volunteer how to do it.
They had an escape artist to help with the strait jacket and chains, that was it. The bungee jumping experts warning the BBC someone would die didn't use carabinas when they jumped; they had a different set-up, with multiple safety features. Apparently, the only safety feature the BBC used was hoping Michael Lush would say no, but he seems to have felt pressured to go ahead with it. Death by misadventure sits uneasy with me - That wasn't informed consent.
Its kind of insane to imagine the ever professional BBC of today throwing the general public into dangerous stunts 35 years ago, and with such reckless ignorance around what they were putting together. The one with the car jump that went wrong was pretty crazy to watch and you'd think that people even then would realise that this sort of segment on the show would end badly eventually. Its quite the contrast
I was a 'contestant' on the LLBS back in October 1983. My 'stunt' was to abseil out of a helicopter from 200ft. This Michael Lush incident horrified me at the time and still does.
I was originally supposed to jump out of the helicopter live on the show under floodlights at Crystal Palace football ground. However, the decision was made only in the afternoon for my jump to be recorded that afternoon above BBC TV Centre... In case 'things went wrong'!! 😝
Yes the stunts were definitely rigged, but you were NOT told what you would be doing until Noel phoned you live and the whirly wheel pointed to which one you would be taking part in.
The questionnaire you had to complete beforehand when you applied, only asked basic questions... It did NOT ask, for example, if you had a head for heights, which I obviously needed!
And I repeat, you had absolutely NO CLUE as to what you would be taking part in until you were told on the phone live on the show.
As much as I hate the BBC now for all they stand for, I have to say my training with the Army Air Corps was excellent.
I still have the DVD of my appearance!!
Can you upload your appearance?
A very interesting and sad story. I never heard of this, then again I live in America, so hearing of incidents like these in other countries that are not so well known to this side of the world is always fascinating.
The background is, Noel Edmonds was a horrible little burke, who would do anything for money. He was once described in a court of law as having a "Walter Mitty" personality.
You would think this would be illegal or that no insurance would cover such a thing . Maybe the laws and norms are different outside of the United States? Maybe things were more relaxed back in the day ? Idk but I can’t see this getting off the ground here in the US . Extremely risky. A death waiting to happen
@@domtee no it wouldn't see the light of day in this day and age, but things have always been more stringent in America. You lot sue people for water being wet and somehow win. This is why.
@@CannabrannaLammer very true! Good point! I guess that’s why I’m so shocked 😳 . But your right, It was a different era and culturally different too from how we act over here in the US
@@domtee
Just more relaxed then. I was pretty sure I've seen things on US television in a similar vein to this.
These days there's no way this would get green lit in the USA or the UK though.
Truly horrific. I feel for the guy and his friends and family. However it is a good choice of subject. Incidentally, I did some voluntary work with a local BBC radio station; late 80s or maybe early 90s. I remarked to an employee how hilarious it was that the kettle in the staff kitchen had a label on it saying: "Warning: may be hot". He told me that everything related to safety at the BBC changed dramatically after the Late Late incident.
Yikes...
In kitchens we always tell new people to assume everything is hot. It’s hard to remember until it’s trained in you or you’ve burned yourself enough. Always use a towel. I’ve even used towels for cold pans 🙄 You don’t know what’s hot and how much of a habit it is to just grab something.
There’s another comment after a similar vid from this RUclips channel on this fatality. Noel’s house party was referred to by crew and suchlike as the safe safe breakfast show
The stupid warnings on nearly everything here in the U. S. are due to the mass lawsuits of stupid people doing stupid things, then suing manufacturers for their own stupidity....
@@carolnacarato4448 "Warning: detergent pods should not be consumed"
The best one I saw in the US was "Warning: Cars may be closer than they appear" it made me feel like I was driving a car made for children, but then comparing the idiots of society to children is an insult to children.
I worked at the BBC in the late 80's and 90's. They produced a new Training video after this event. It was on it's own trolley and completely self contained and every Department in TV had one, so no excuses that you didn't have the time to do the training as it was in another building etc, the trolley was delivered to you and you had to do it. I will always remember that the trainings introduction was a clip of a live Children's programme where a stunt went wrong and the presenter's, (Anthea Turner), hair caught on fire.
Awful that it takes someone dying horrifically for such measures to be enacted. Some foresight would have gone a long way.
What I’ve learned about bungee jumping is that
1) make sure you have 2 secure ropes
2) have strong and backup carabiners
3) always have medical professionals on standby.
4) make that list and check it again and again
Poor bloke. The HSE later demonstrated that the clip used sprang loose 14 times in 20.
This one hit me a lot harder than most of the other accidents you've covered. I think it's because everyone knew it was dangerous, but they all put too much faith in each other. As opposed to the building collapses, crushes etc, where no one believes there is any risk at all until disaster strikes.
That is absolutely horrific. However it seems to me a bit ironic that he “steeled his nerves with a couple of pints of lager “and his name was Lush.
“The BBC was the National Broadcaster of the U.K.. It could hardly get more official”.
At the very least, 300+ kids who encountered BBC employee Jimmy Saville disagree with that statement.
I feel deeply for his girlfriend; I can't imagine the guilt she must feel for nominating him, though of course it wasn't her fault whatsoever. Very sad case of negligence.
GOVERNMENT TV ALSO FAILED this guy’s family. They promised it was safe, instead he died, and the family got just $400,000. The guy’s life earnings would be 3,000,000 but the Government Broadcaster killed him.
This reminds me of the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest held by KDND radio of Sacramento which resulted in the death of Jennifer Strange, a 28-year-old mother from Sacramento, California.
Elaborate please, I'm imagining the worst based on the contest name?!
@@eggZ663 On January 12, 2007, California radio station KDND 107.9 held a water-drinking contest to win a new Wii video game. Jennifer Strange, a 28-year-old mother of three from Sacramento, drank more than 1.5 gallons of water but did not win the contest. A few hours later, she died of hyponatremia, or acute water intoxication. A jury awarded $16.5 million compensation to her family.
@@PipRLagenta so the contest didn’t have saltwater or anything there to counteract the massive amounts of water? They’re lucky no one else died
@@kanyesmemeemporium836 I don't think water intoxication is common knowledge. Also, salt water tastes terrible
Fack. I forgot about that. Why are we putting these horror stories in our brains?
I love how "bag of sugar" is an official measurement in the UK. Pounds? Kilos? Newtons? Nahhhhh, bag o' sugar.
Remember seeing the car stunt one live. It was a record breaking attempt as to who could do the longest jump in a car. The driver who got injured was a qualified stunt driver who happily went on to make a full recovery. Once fully fit he was back to his day job.
I was ten at the time this happened & recall the BBC announcer saying that due to the tragic death of Michael Lush (the actual link is out there on RUclips) "The Late, Late Breakfast Show" would no longer be broadcast. I was a real fan of the show at the time as it was something we could all settle down to watch as a family, but it was quite a lesson in mortality - I remember my blood running cold when I realised what had happened to the poor man. It suddenly hit home that those stunts really were real.
Exactly.
I remember the news item on TV and in the papers the next day.
I think I remember reading it in the mirror as that was the paper my parents read.
I couldn't believe it because Noel Edmonds seems like a fun guy all jokey.
Remember thinking he wouldn't allow anything like this to happen.
Was a similar age at the time.
As an American I'm like, there goes the BBC overreacting, canceling the whole damn show instead of just the stunt segment. They should have taken compensating the family so seriously.
@@poutinedream5066 oh I think they did the right thing in cancelling it…but the compensation the family received plus the strange attitude in the media (check out the video of Noel on Wogan his first TV appearance since the accident) was woefully inadequate
@@poutinedream5066 Tell that to the family of Owen Hart. Oh wait, don't bother, the WWE was considered responsible for the act because they also cut corners and were forced to grant them compensation and never attempted such a stunt ever again, 22 years after the fatal fall. Safety is NEVER an overreaction, dumbfuck.
@@DR3ADER1 Ummm, right. They canceled the stunt. Like they should have. They didn't cancel all of wrestling. Little de-caf never hurts, just sayin.
I remember the Late Late Breakfast show well, despite being young at the time. I remember it being cancelled by a stunt gone wrong, but I never knew that such a catalogue of errors caused the death of a member of the public. It just shows that no amount of safety can be enough during any kind of stunt, and I'm glad members of the public no longer do this sort of thing. What is so sad is that no one was held accountable for it going wrong
@Ross Outdoors Yeah stunts can be perfectly safe, it was more the precautions, or lack thereof.
As Ross says there was no safety ?
This stunt should've worked safely if the correct people were on site.
And perhaps a dummy run done with a test dummy to test everything.
Seems to me organizing this was left to junior members of the production crew - or people without the required qualifications...
Sad
Remember the news item about it.
@Ross Outdoors these stunts were normally done with the safety in place. I just never knew that the safety lacked so badly on this occasion. And even if it had, this stunt was more of a risk than usual
Awesome channel. I had to binge it one evening and was impressed. You offer no opinion just the facts to these disasters, which is refreshing. That's rare by today's standards. I found you after looking up the Haunted Castle fire at Great Adventure in Jackson NJ and we hooked.
There was a similar incident here in Australia in mid 90s during the filming of the movie "Love Serenade". The story is about two sisters who are after the same man and in the finale the man gets pushed from the top of a wheat silo and falls to his death. Tragically, the stunt man doing the scene DID fall to his death when he landed on a faulty airbag. The scene was kept in the movie however.
I remember this incident, although I had no idea of the film it was for.
I've never heard of that incident - or that movie. I'll have to look that one up.
...Seriously? THAT’S fucking disgusting of the producer and director to keep that particular take in the movie. Kind of reminds me of the infamous helicopter incident with the Twilight Zone movie here in the States. :/
@@christmashake8968 I heard he survived the attempt that was filmed for the movie, BUT he wanted to do a second attempt from a higher point, because he had recently lost a record he owned for the highest free fall. He would have regained his title if the airbag hadn't failed. Probably never knew what hit him.
@@christmashake8968 Vic Morrow and the 2 kids. But the video is so insanely fast, you couldn't have felt a thing.
Which might beat dying of cancer or something...
I really enjoy how you tell stories from widespread loss of life to a single passing and make each of them just as important.
I was doing dishes while listening to this and I literally dropped a plate and stared at my laptop in shock when I found out how the stunt went wrong.
That poor man.. he was so excited to be able to do that 🥺
This reminds me of the Canadian WWF wrestler Owen Hart who fell from the rafters during an ring entrance in the USA in 1999. These guys are stunt men but not with bungee cords.
Or the guy on that's incredible that fell hanging from an airplane
The main thing in common is the weight limit on the carabineer used in both tragedies.
Rest In Peace, Gents.
@@MomMom4Cubs The Owen Hart situation wasn't helped by what he was actually supposed to do that night. Hart at the time was playing a masked character called The Blue Blazer, a buffoonish superhero. Also at that time, Sting over in WCW had a gimmick where he'd repel down from the rafters to clean house on the bad guys. Hart was supposed to come down from the rafters but the rope wouldn't go all the way to ring, and he'd fall the last few feet. Just saying that now sounds insane. If you go back and watch Sting's entrances the supposed shocking suddenness of his appearance was kind of hurt by everyone having to stand there as he unhooked the main rope and a safety rope from his harness. Hart was _supposed_ to separate from the main rope and didn't even have a backup. It was an incredibly dangerous thing to do.
It was at a payper view event called "Over the Edge" it doesn't get more creepier and foreshadowing than that.
So that's two horrific, nation scarring incident Noel's been involved in.
Somehow this was worse than unleashing Mr Blobbby on the nation. I'm half expecting that to get a video at some point for the sheer, unbridled terror that produced....maybe?
What was the other?
@@vincitveritas3872 Mr Blobby
This video and Mr Blobby . . . .trust me, Mr Blobby was more than enough to scar a nation.
And the fact Mr Blobby got to number one in the music charts
The mind Blobbles...🤷🤦
Oh my god, Mr Blobby! I can still hear him....scarred for life!
As tragic as this was, I can only imagine the additional horror if this had happened when it was broadcast live.
Still . . . . no one held responsible, jailed, reprimanded or fired. Well . . . not as bad as the USA where these sort of things are dealt with by tying court proceedings up for years and no one paying any money or being punished. But . . . well done UK. Love u guys . . . . really. Hi from America 🌞and Arizona where it sunshines ALL the time!
Thank you for always having captions! 💕
OMG talk about gutsy... How they ever thought they could avoid a serious accident trying to pull-off such dangerous stunts with everyday people... How did they ever get their insurance carriers to agree!?! Poor Mr. Lush.
Because the UK is a less litigious culture.
Insurance carriers running the world seems bleak af. I don't want to live in that world. You can take that line of thinking and smother it firmly with a pillow.
Maybe just follow basic safety standards?
Hell my jobsites are better prepared that that was.
It was the 80s...
@@nobodynoone2500 couldn't agree more. You don't need profiteers in order to have safety standards. Just enforce safety standards.
@@nobodynoone2500 Yeah, insurance is just for when things go wrong. It's simpler to make sure nothing does go wrong.
I work in TV production. The problem in the industry is that the people has no education, they all start as a hobbyist but there is no formal education. Video editors, camera operators, everybody is just a technician, no one has education aboud risk and management. And that happens in every TV station and production company.
Incidentally this video came up in my recommended the same time I'm learning about torts, negligence, and criminal negligence in my legal class. And this case is a tragic example of negligence, at the least. Ideally, BBC should've been charged for manslaughter because of this man's death.
What an absolute nightmare, poor fella, so tragic and completely preventable too! I can't believe I hadn't heard of this incident until just today. Great video as always.
That “clip” that was supposed to hold him but couldn’t even hold the weight of a bag of sugar, reminds me exactly of the Owen Hart incident where he fell to his death because of a “clip” that was supposed to support all his weight but in actuality it would open up after about 6lbs of weight....
Sounds like the exact same “clip” and same type of incident.
I remember in that episode of “Dark Side of the Ring” they talked about how it was a new, kind of random rigging company....
Thats right man. Vince Mcmahon or the corporation has never admitted fault on that horrible tragedy either (as far as I know..not a big fan but was in my mates house watching that night..it all felt like a 'work' until we knew it wasnt) R.I.P Owen Hart.
I don't get what kind of clip it was? I mean a large bulldog clip can hold a few pounds yet this was an actual climbing clip, not something from a desk drawer. Did they get a mountaineering one mixed up with a kids toy or something?
@@CalvinsWorldNews No. Vince McMahon chose an expedientially cheaper company with absolutely 0 stunt experience.
We're HUGE wrestling fans and never miss an episode of Dark Side of Wrestling.
I think they are saying that the clip could be *opened* with 2lb of pressure, not that it would break with 2lb of weight on it. In other words it was too easy to open and accidentally unhook.
I watched that live- as soon as he slammed down I said, "Man, that wasn't fake- he's dead"!
Michael: "I'm up for anything"
The BBC: "How about death?"
1 bungee cord? Smh. That's like skydiving with 1 parachute and no back up.
The BBC should have been sued to the point of shutting the whole company down. That small fine was just an insult and slap in the face.
Imagine being the girlfriend that nominated him! Holy shit how would you be
inconsolable. guilt and grief stricken
Definitely would never be the same again.
I would probably never have forgiven myself. Poor woman. She nominated him, but he was happy to do it and he trusted the people who should have been ensuring his safety. It wasn't her fault at all.
@Nevar Stopme Ok edgelord 👍
@Nevar Stopme Aww, who hurt you? :-(
The fact that he had two pints of beer for lunch is important to note because although it could help with nerves, it can in any capacity, dampen common sense and lead to mistakes even for an experienced person. That and the wet boots just further highlight how ridiculously negligent the BBC was about this whole ordeal.
I had a suspicion that this poor guy was going to have had at least some alcohol beforehand, given his trade and age and that he was in Britain.
As soon as I seen that I felt very bad for his family. My stepfather died in a horrific accident and the life insurance wouldn't pay out because he had trace alcohol.
They ended up letting that poor drunken' lush kill himself!!
(Forgive the pun)
@@paulmurphy5244 not funny mate really
@@kimgrant3879 Too soon?
bro that straight up is unfortunate. can’t imagine dropping to my death and being completely helpless.
Having steeled his nerves with two pints of beer at lunch, Michael Lush was living up to his surname...
...but not for too much longer, unfortunately.
Sometimes 1986 can seem like a whole different universe.
Yep. Only 35 years ago, but I look back on it and think what the actual. TOTALLY different world.
Even the name "Michael Lush" just sounds so typically 80s.
Yep. Starts off with the Bears finally winning the Super Bowl, only to be overshadowed by the Challenger disaster. Not to mention the big hair styles and Boy George!
The cocaine was flowing back then.
So many things were better then.
"Paramedics were called to the scene."
I overlooked the beer at lunch, but for stunts such as this I thought "Paramedics were standing by", you know like actually on set. With this outcome though, I doubt there was anything they could've done to save Mr. Lush's life....aside from advising him to double check the bungee cord was properly tethered before he jumped. In the end he became a local celebrity to some degree I hope.
i just scrolled down to let you know how much I fucking love your voice and how freaking amazing it is, that I really appreciate your work!
PLEASE NEVER STOP YOUR VOICE IS GODLY
3:21 John Peel, the Radio 1 DJ was persuaded by the team and Edmonds to provide commentary as a reporter alongside this car stunt, but was fortunate not to be severely hurt himself. Apparently Peel never had much time for Edmonds after this incident.....
So let me get this straight, a civilian was sent up to carry out a dangerous stunt without training, any emergency staff, with alcohol in his blood, with no ground contact... and he died because of faulty hardware. That is one heck of a tragic twist.
A carabiner clip?? That's it?! Oh, boy. Incredible.
Remember 'It's a Knockout' (and the European version 'Je san Frontiers')? HUGE fun to watch - and I imagine also to participate in, but apparently lots of quick A&E trips afterwards for broken wrists, fractured collar bones, twisted ankles etc etc. As American style litigation - 'where there's a blame there's a claim' - gained popularity tv shows like those were driven out. No tv channel could possibly afford the insurance needed...
You could do an episode about the mass panic at loveparade in Duisburg in 2010
What's the story behind that
@@shadymcnasty5920 Love Parade was a music festival that drew huge crowds. In 2010, owing to poor planning and poor understanding of crowd crushes, too many people were packed into a confined space with limited exits. I don't remember how many dead, but it was in double digits.
'Mass panic' is a poor term for this, because the panic doesn't begin until after the crush is already on; it's a consequence, not a cause. The twisted thing is that crowd crushes aren't caused directly by any human action. It's not panic, or pushing, or drunkenness, or bad behaviour. It's a physical phenomenon that happens when humans in a crowd reach a critical density -- they lose their individual freedom of movement and collectively turn into a fluid that sloshes, the individual human particles being helplessly shoved about. Waves appear in the crowd -- they're called crowd surges, and seen from above they behave exactly like water waves. (This is THE red flag announcing that crowd crush conditions exist.)
When one of those waves crashes against a wall or similar unyielding object ... anyone caught against that object is in a bad way.
@@Tindometari Wow! That is so interesting! I’ve always been afraid of crowds and water. Maybe related, huh?
@@shadymcnasty5920 If you're interested, here's a video that assembled recovered video footage into a synchronized timeline.
ruclips.net/video/up95bUU3L0M/видео.html
You can email him with suggestions. His email is in the video description :)
People volunteered for this? Sounds like my nightmare.
Unfortunately there will always be people with more balls than common sense that’ll do anything for the camera
@@emilybarclay8831 tbf this stunt should've been safe.
The correct people weren't on site..
you'd of thought with high risk events like this the BBC would have everyone there to make sure it all went smoothly...
Just sheet Negligence.
@@stuartd9741 absolutely. But then again, this was the 70s/80s and the BBC we’re letting kids get molested so are we really surprised
Same. I had anxiety all the way through the video. I would never volunteer for something like that.
@@stuartd9741 The BBC is a whole different thing nowadays. Largely due to this stuff happening.