Kids’ TV shows are supposed to bring a little anarchy and mayhem to the weekend – but back in the mid 1980s No.73 brought a different kind of mayhem to Maidstone TV Studios, when a black widow spider escaped and forced the entire building to be evacuated.

It’s now 40 years since TVS brought its new show to Maidstone, having caused outrage the previous year when the show – initially launched in Southampton – replaced Chris Tarrant's anarchic Saturday morning show Tiswas.

Fans of Tiswas might have been annoyed but many were soon converted to No.73 - a live drama set in a fictional house, starring newcomer Sandi Toksvig, little-known Liverpudlian guitarist Neil Buchanan and singer Kim Goody, who were often joined by visiting pop and rock stars.

And on one occasion a guest of a different kind brought even more drama than any wild-eyed rock star could, courtesy of zoo vet David Taylor, who had brought in a jar of spiders.

“During rehearsals a poisonous Black Widow - its venom is reported to be 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake's - escaped,” recalled journalist John Nurden, who worked behind the scenes on the live show after joining TVS as a publicist.

“The spider went AWOL during a two-minute commercial break while Neil and a guest were rehearsing the item.”

“The studio had to be evacuated and cooled to below zero with nitrogen gas,” added John. “They expected the body of a dead spider to fall to the ground. But it was never found!”

What became of the spider, we’ll never know, but for most of those involved No.73 was the catalyst to kick start their careers.

Sandi, who went onto become a TV legend and acclaimed writer, was landlady Ethel Davis, while lodgers Dozy Harry Stern (Nick Staverson) and Dawn Lodge (the flame-haired Andrea Arnold) sped around on roller skates.

The first show included guests Buster Bloodvessel (Doug Trendle of Bad Manners) and Paula Yates, while the No.73 would go on to be visited by stars like Elton John, Iggy Pop, Kylie Minogue, Peter Andre and Take That.

"No 73 was groundbreaking,” said John. “It was the first live comedy sitcom for youngsters on British TV and became the big break for Liverpool rock guitarist Neil Buchanan, who went on to host Art Attack, Andrea Arnold who played the roller-skating Dawn and is now an award-winning film director, and young comedian Sandi Toksvig who is now a national treasure.

"But people forget about the controversy when it first began.

"At that time, the anarchic Tiswas hosted by Chris Tarrant and Sally James was all the rage. TVS decided it wanted a piece of the Saturday morning action and unilaterally launched No 73. Viewers in the south were up in arms.

"But slowly No 73 became the show to watch. It was centred on a terraced house. Sandi was the landlord and everyone else were her lodgers or guests.

"It became known for top pop groups performing their latest hits live in 'the cellar'. Among them was the badly chosen Iggy Pop who ended up doing obscene things with a prop teddy bear he found on the sideboard.

"I understand the performance can still be found on YouTube."

He added: "The first time I visited the set was awe-inspiring. It was huge and took up the whole of the largest studio at the Maidstone studios.

"Pride of place was the big red front door. All visitors insisted on having their photos taken standing in front of it. It was television's equivalent to 10 Downing Street.

"It was an exciting programme to work on. It had a script and most of the show was well rehearsed. But being live, anything could, and often did happen.”

Aside from the famed spider incident, another time saw Maidstone plunged into darkness because of a power cut – and because the emergency generators weren't powerful enough to light all the studio lamps, the entire show was broadcast from the car park outside.

The show also launched a career for teenager Nic Ayling, who began as a fan, watching mesmerised at home in Canterbury and began sending in drawings, which researcher Tim Edmunds dutifully stuck on a wall of the set.

Having been invited to join the studio audience, Nic was offered the chance to help Sandi introduce the quiz, where guests buttered slices of bread for every question they got right.

No.73 takes trip around Maidstone Market in 1983

Nic, who now runs his own production company Terrific Television from the same studios, recalled the experience, speaking to John back in 2020.

"I was in awe of the place”, he said. “I'd never been in a TV studio before. I was only 13 and my mum had to come as a chaperone. Looking back, I have no idea how I had the nerve to join Sandi."

He was later given a summer job helping on Art Attack and never looked back.

"I never returned to school to take my A-levels or go to university,” he added. “I just learned everything I needed on the job. I don't suppose that would happen today. But back then there was a new studio and people were needed to work in it. There were a lot of young people like me."

Prior to No.73, Sandi Toksvig had been a budding stand-up comedian, while working backstage at London theatres, when she spotted an advert in the back of The Stage newspaper.

Sandi Toksvig recalls her time on No.73

"It asked 'Would you like to have breakfast with a gorilla?'” she wrote in her autobiography Between The Stops. “I thought perhaps I would, so I applied. The ad requested contact details and a photo.

"Those were the days when actors sent off glossy black and white pictures of themselves. I didn't have any so I toddled off to Victoria Station to get some passport photos.

"The wretched seat was broken so I ended up with just the top of my head. I think the producers thought I was trying to be funny because I got the job."

Also working behind the scenes was former Maidstone schoolgirl Vanessa Hill who joined as a production secretary and ended up as a researcher and then producer.

"It turned out to be one of the best jobs in the world," she recalled: "I was being paid to go to shows and meet people to find out things kids would like to see on TV. One evening I had dinner with Michael Palin, a vicar who made fireworks and two stunt men who arranged fights for the National Theatre. It was glorious."

She went on to become one of the most innovative children's TV producers, founding her own company The Foundation with husband Ged Allen, who she met in Japan while trying to film Richard Branson taking off in a hot air balloon. Vanessa also ended up working with Holly Willoughby on Ministry of Mayhem, the final live Saturday morning show to come from Maidstone, and admitted the escaped spider story inspired another notorious incident.

"I remembered the Black Widow story from Number 73 so as a prank we filled Holly's dressing room with 100 tarantulas,” recalled Vanessa. “She was furious. When we came to pack them away three were missing. We found the last one hiding in her computer's CD port."

Of course, all things – like the presumably ill-fated black widow – must come to an end, and after No.73 was weirdly transformed into a Wild West theme park called 7T3, it gave way to Motormouth in 1988.