History of Teatime With Matt

Teatime With Matt has a long and convoluted history. Thanks to a combination of Matt’s selective memory and Teatime's continued mucking about with time travel, this history seems to alter drastically every time Matt mentions it on air. Despite these complications, the below is a reasonably accurate record of the show’s history right up until the present day.

Pre-History
The first appearance of Teatime With Matt predates the first episode by around 5000 years. Archaeologists in Egypt have found hieroglyphs which depict the arrival of a man from a far off land in a horseless silver chariot. The hieroglyphs are not very complimentary, describing the man as “an idiot” and “not even worth enslaving”. The hieroglyphs name the idiot as “Teh-ah-tim-eh”.

Teatime also appears to have been present in Boston, Massachusetts on 16th December 1773. Eyewitness accounts from the Boston Tea Party describe the presence of an English man dressed in a velvet jacket and waistcoat. The man appeared to be very distressed by the actions of the crowd, shouting “That’s not how you make tea! You need to BOIL the water first!”

Conception
In his second year at Middlesex University, Matt auditioned for a presenting slot on the student radio station, MUD Radio. Matt recorded a ten minute audition tape, featuring 80s music and a sketch about a cynical London Underground announcer. Although not very good, the audition was successful and Matt was given a slot on the station as a presenter.

Having successfully obtained a regular slot on a Thursday afternoon between 2pm and 4pm, Matt devised a format for his show, which he wanted to feature 80s music, rotating guest co-hosts and occasionally funny comedy sketches. Matt found it very difficult to come up with a name for his show, but finally decided on Teatime With Matt, thanks to staring at a box of teabags on his desk for several hours. Prior to starting the show, Matt had never drunk tea in his life and only had the teabags as something to offer his friends and neighbours when they came over for a chat. Only after admitting on air that this was the case did Matt decide to try drinking a cup of tea and immediately developed a serious addiction.

In a divergent timeline, Matt’s audition tape was interrupted by a stolen time machine crashing into the studio. The time machine contained Teatime and a future version of Matt, who gave the past version information and advice to help make his life (and by extension the show) a reasonable success. Matt also punched his past version in the face, something he admitted he had always wanted to do because he hated himself.

Despite scientific theory predicting that this event should have created a time paradox, which would unravel the fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe, this didn’t actually occur. However, the event may have been a contributing factor in causing damage to the timeline, as discovered by Matt in 2016.

The MUD Radio Years (2009-2011)
The first episode of Teatime With Matt was broadcast on 22nd October 2009, featuring guest co-host Hannah Stanbury. It is not known how many listeners the first episode drew, but due to the 2pm timeslot, it's likely that the number was in single digits.

During the first few weeks, Matt was joined on air by a number of guests, including Scru Love and Emily Edwards, who would both go on to become regular co-hosts of the show.

By the start of 2010, Teatime With Matt had settled into a regular format, with weekly features such as Common Sense Advice. Emily Edwards had also joined the show as co-host on a weekly basis, with guest co-hosts featuring in some episodes. While guest co-hosts were usually invited, several of the other MUD Radio DJs would occasionally "crash" the show.

In January 2010, Matt and Scru Love started working on The Scru Love Show, a web series loosely based on Scru's radio show of the same name. Although Teatime With Matt is not explicitly mentioned in the show, several episodes contained references to Matt's love of 80s music.

In September of 2010, Matt was elected as station manager of MUD Radio. Part of this role included organising the station schedule. In order to free up the afternoon slot for another DJ who could not do any other time, Teatime With Matt moved to an 8pm-10pm slot on Thursdays.

In addition to the different time slot, Matt made a number of changes to the show format for the second series. This included expanding the types of music played on the show from 80s music to an "anything goes". The changes also featured the introduction of The Fail Jingle.

In early 2011, Emily left the show as a regular co-host as she could not commit to coming in every Thursday. As a last minute content filler, Matt developed The Tea Factor as a way to find a new co-host. After several weeks and a public vote, Alayna Hollis became the new co-host of the show.

On 7th June 2011, the final regular episode of Teatime With Matt was broadcast on MUD Radio. In an alternate timeline, just after the episode was broadcast, a stolen time machine crashed into Matt's room on the ground floor of Gubbay Hall. Teatime emerged from the machine and told Matt he had to come back with him. When Matt asked where, Teatime responded "Back to the Future! "

Teatime explained that something had to be done about Matt's future career. After some argument, Matt agreed to go with Teatime and the two headed off in the time machine. It is believed that this version of Matt and Teatime are the same ones that interrupted Matt's initial audition tape by crashing into the MUD Radio studio.

In July 2011, Matt attempted to bring back the show on a weekly basis via Livestream, broadcasting from a makeshift studio in his garage. Matt found it very difficult to maintain the quality of the show every week, so after several weeks made the decision to put the show on hiatus.

During his time as a paid presenter/producer on the MUD Radio Breakfast Show, Matt took part in MUD Radio's 48 Hour Lock-In to raise money for War Child. As part of the event, Matt dedicated the second half of the Breakfast Show to a one-off special episode of Teatime With Matt, which poked fun at the format of the Breakfast Show by combining features from both. This was the last appearance of Teatime With Matt on MUD Radio.

2012
In August 2012, Matt released a teaser trailer announcing that "Teatime Is Back" and would be returning in Autumn that year.

In October 2012, Matt released a short video entitled Back To The Teatime. The video is edited in the style of the Back To The Future  films and parodies the ending of Back To The Future Part II.

In the video, Matt is seen reading a book in his bedroom. The sound of a TARDIS materialising is heard and Teatime emerges from a room at the end of the landing, brandishing a Sonic Screwdriver. He bursts into Matt's room shouting "Matt!", causing Matt to jump and throw the book away.

Teatime tries to calm Matt down, telling him "It's Me! It's Teatime!" Matt is visibly shocked, stammering "No, it can't be you! I left you back at MUD Radio!" Teatime replies "Yes, you did leave me Matt, but I'm back! I'm back FROM MUD radio!" He grins and gives Matt a thumbs up. Matt puts his head in his hand, stating "Oh balls!"

The video then transitions into the show's new ident, announcing the show would return on Wednesdays from 8pm-10pm on Livestream.

This video is the first appearance of Teatime as an anthropomorphic personification of the show.

The new series launched on 7th November 2012, marking the start of the shows current format of six weekly episodes with a different theme each week. The series also featured the first appearance of a What If? scenario, with an episode taking place during the apocalypse.

2013
In October 2013, Matt released a short teaser trailer featuring Teatime getting ready for a show. The trailer announced that the show would return on Wednesday 6th November. At the start of the series, a new stylised logo and ident was introduced. The logo featured a teapot with a 'T' engraved in the centre and a 'T' formed of 3 clock hands (pictured right).

During the 2013 series, Matt presented a special Doctor Who themed episode of Teatime With Matt to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary. During this show, an anonymous viewer posted a link to the Livestream page on Reddit. As a result, the show received over 100 simultaneous viewers. To date, this is the highest number of live viewers the show has ever received.

2015
In January 2015, Matt posted a teaser trailer for the show, referencing the fact that he hadn't broadcast an episode for over a year. The trailer featured the words "Teatime Isn't Dead" and announced that the show would return in Spring 2015.

In February, Matt released another trailer, which was once again edited in the style of Back To The Future. The trailer showed Matt assembling his studio equipment and preparing to go on air and featured music and sound effects from the film. The trailer announced that Teatime With Matt would be returning on Wednesday 18th March, with an episode entitled Back To The Teatime Part II. Along with the trailer, Matt updated the Teatime With Matt Facebook Page with a show logo in the style of the Back To The Future logo (pictured left).

At the start of the series, Matt performed a sketch portraying Teatime using the stolen time machine to travel back to 7th June 2011, with the intention of saving Matt's future career.

The third episode of the series featured another What If? scenario, with Matt assembling an expedition to colonise Mars.

In the final episode of the series (Teatime With Matt's Inevitable Clip Show, broadcast on the 29th April 2015), Matt performed two further sketches about time travel. The first of the sketches featured Matt and Teatime interrupting Matt's audition for MUD Radio by crashing the stolen time machine into the studio.

The second sketch took place at the end of the show, with Matt's closing segment being interrupted by the stolen time machine crashing into his dining room. Matt hurriedly wrapped up the show and stormed downstairs to confront the driver, who he assumed was Teatime, yelling "quit destroying my things with your time machine!"

It turned out that the driver wasn't Teatime at all, but was in fact Matt's Future Self. Matt had travelled back from the year 2016 in order to resolve a problem with the next series of the show. The sketch ended with the two versions of Matt blasting into the time vortex to save their future.

On the 7th May 2015 Matt hosted the first Teatime With Matt Election Special, with an episode covering the 2015 UK General Election. In a departure from the regular time-slot, the show ran from 8pm to 10:30pm, allowing Matt to broadcast the release of the exit polls at 10pm.

On Saturday 10th October 2015, Matt hosted Teatime With Matt's 24 Hour Tea Break to raise money for the UK mental health charity Mind. The show raise £409 for the charity via JustGiving. The show also featured the first appearance of The Hype Train.

2016
On the 1st November 2016, Matt released a teaser trailer announcing the show would return on 16th November 2016. The trailer introduced a new show ident and logo, which featured clockwork as the background (pictured right).

The first episode of the show featured another time travel sketch, following directly on from the sketch at the end of the 2015 series. Matt and his past self arrived in 2016 to find Teatime a jibbering wreck. They established that Teatime has been traumatised by the events of the last year, including a large number of celebrity deaths, the US presidential election  and The Great British Bake Off  moving to Channel 4.

The two versions of Matt theorised that their constant mucking about with time travel had damaged the space-time continuum and caused these unusual events to occur. They resolved to destroy the time machine and fix Teatime by "rebooting" him. Past Matt did this by punching Teatime very hard.

During the 2016 series, Matt began uploading clips from the shows to his YouTube Channel as a way of growing the audience. The first episode of the series also introduced Bren Tenkage as a regular co-host via Skype.

The third episode of the series featured another What If? theme, which imagined Matt as "the voice of the revolution" taking over a state controlled radio station , in an unnamed country in the process of overthrowing a totalitarian regime.

Another notable theme was used in the fifth episode of the series. Matt started the show by admitting he had no idea what the episode was supposed to be about and that he'd been unable to refer to his notes because Alfie  had eaten them. The remainder of the show featured Matt and the audience coming up with random things to talk about, while Matt continually apologised for being so disorganised. During the Bedtime Story, Matt revealed that the whole show had been an elaborate prank and that the prepared theme was actually about having nothing to talk about.

On 31st December 2016, Matt broadcast a special New Years Eve show from his dining room. This show was the first time that Matt's parents appeared on air as co-hosts, although they had previously appeared in the background of several shows. It was also the first time that Matt played a video game as part of the show content.

2017
On Wednesday 12th April 2017, Matt broadcast a special Easter themed show. Matt had broken his leg a few weeks earlier and this event featured heavily in the episode. A sketch at the beginning of the show explained that this had happened because Teatime had accidentally caused Matt to fall off the top of a steam locomotive. Following the announcement of a snap general election in April 2017, Matt announced that there would be another Teatime With Matt Election Special. This was broadcast on Thursday 8th June 2017. In October 2017, Teatime With Matt was also added to the popular audio streaming service TuneIn. Matt claimed that this meant he was "famous now". On Matt 22nd october, Matt released a teaser trailer, announcing that the show would return on 15th November 2017. The first show featured Matt, still claiming that he was "famous now", reading endorsements for various fictional products. Matt also spoke about his participation in a television programme called "The Biggest Little Railway in the World ". The fifth episode of the show was themed around the future, with futuristic graphics replacing the usual clockwork themed ones. The show also featured Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon. Matt described Alexa as "the co-host of the future", able to play music, tell jokes and look up facts on the internet. Unfortunately, Alexa was not very reliable. The final show of 2017 was broadcast on Boxing Day. It featured much of the same content as the New Years Eve show from 2016. During the show, Matt once again presented the 2017 Annual Teatimey Awards, including presenting the Platinum Hammer Award For Most Useless Piece Of Studio Equipment to Alexa. The final show also featured a trailer for The Biggest Little Railway In The World, which had been scheduled for broadcast on Channel 4 in January 2018.

2018
In June 2018, Matt broadcast a special show entitled Matt's Moving House. The show was broadcast to commemorate the closure of Livestream, which was moving to a paid subscription service and ending support for free channels. As such Matt was forced to move the show to YouTube for the new series.

The special show ended with a silent tribute to Livestream, including a eulogy written by Matt. The eulogy simply read "You crashed. A lot."

The first episode of the new series is due to be broadcast on Wednesday 14th November 2018.