''Rapido'' was a British-French music programme presented by

Antoine de Caunes Antoine de Caunes (born 1 December 1953) is a French television presenter, comedian, actor, journalist, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and televis ...

in 1987. After the BBC’s head of youth and entertainment

Janet Street-Porter Janet Vera Street-Porter (''née'' Bull; born 27 December 1946) is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality. She began her career in 1969 as a fashion writer and columnist at the ''Daily Mail'' and was appointed fashion ...

saw the programme, she decided to commission an English-language version with de Caunes, which would become part of her

DEF II DEF II was a programming strand on BBC2, which aired at 6 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 May 1988 to 23 May 1994, to serve the teenage market. It was produced by Janet Street-Porter, and followed on from her influential youth TV show '' ...

programming block on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

. The English-language version of ''Rapido'' ran from 1988 to 1992, with the show usually debuting new episodes on a Wednesday night in DEF II's early evening slot, though episodes from the first series were initially scheduled after Question Time's Thursday night episode on BBC1 from November 1988. The show which would feature reports from up-and-coming new bands, European acts (like Françoise Hardy, and Violent Eves) and established acts like

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, the

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John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

and

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is known for his non-rhotic Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early America ...

. These reports would be narrated in the BBC version by Lisa I'Anson, linked together with footage of De Caunes standing in front of a large Rapido sign on a white background. These parts were directed in France by Bernard Faroux, while the main titles for this Anglo-French TV music show were designed by French fashion photographer and music video director

Jean-Baptiste Mondino Jean-Baptiste Mondino (born Aubervilliers, France on 21 July 1949) is a French fashion photographer and music video director. He has directed music videos for Madonna (entertainer), Madonna, David Bowie, Sting (musician), Sting, Björk, Don Henley, ...

. The last BBC edition was broadcast on 25 March 1992 as part of DEF II and featured reports on

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and Rosie the Raving Granny. ''Rapido'' ran in over 14 countries worldwide. and gave the name to the production company Rapido TV (later Planet Rapido) which created the late night

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

television show '' Eurotrash''. Rapido was notable for De Caunes' idiosyncratic delivery. His English is completely fluent, but he (deliberately) spoke it with French intonations and speech rhythms on the programme.

References

External links

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Rapido
at Screen Online
Rapido Television
Pop music television series 1988 British television series debuts 1992 British television series endings 1980s British music television series 1990s British music television series British English-language television shows BBC One original programming BBC Two original programming {{UK-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub