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Remembered as one of the highlights of BBC2's wildly uneven
late-'80s/early-'90s youth slot, DEF II (1988-94), Rapido had its origins on
French television, where it was spotted by youth TV guru Janet Street-Porter,
then newly installed as the BBC's Head of Youth and Entertainment Features.
She was sufficiently impressed to commission a British version,
complete with original host Antoine de Caunes. It was the first British exposure
for the immaculately dressed presenter, who brought with him a flirtatious
Gallic charm, a flip, slightly smug sense of humour and an appropriately rapid
delivery - in an accent so excessively French that many viewers simply refused
to believe that he really was French. Back at home, though, de Caunes was
already a supremely hip figure, with a reputation as a mischievous prankster
thanks to a regular spot on cult early evening show Nulle Part Ailleurs, and an
association with rock TV dating back to the early 1980s.
Rapido got its first outing in a Saturday late-night slot on BBC1 before
moving to DEF II's eclectic early Wednesday evening slot, where it initially
found itself sandwiched between Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and The Rough
Guide to Europe (1988-89). Mysteriously, the third series saw it moved back to
Saturday, this time in an early evening BBC2 slot, but it was back under the DEF
II umbrella for the remainder of its run.
Misty hindsight has led some to remember Rapido as primarily an indie-based
show, perhaps eliding it with DEF II stablemate Snub TV (1989-91). In fact,
Rapido's programme was often surprisingly mainstream, with ageing stars like
Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel and Eric Clapton at least as common as more of-the-moment acts like Nirvana or The Stone Roses. Diversity was enhanced by features on such subjects as Arab music and the Belgian rock scene. At
times the series seemed to try a little too hard to please everyone - one
edition encompassed neo-soul singer Terence Trent D'Arby, Phil Collins and The Pixies. But it was saved from incoherence by de Caunes' animated and highly
entertaining links and by a hip, witty visual identity courtesy of French
designer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who would subsequently direct Madonna's Justify
My Love video.
Rapido came to a close in March 1992, after which de Caunes (accompanied by
director Peter Stuart) decamped to Channel 4 to present the notoriously
scatological magazine show Eurotrash (1993-).
Mark Duguid
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