Bad Influence! (1992–1996) User Reviews

brilliant nostalgia from my youth

[messiah-square · 15 September 2005]

i remember vividly but somehow strongly the memories of the television show, bad influence.

a TV show rarely whetted my appetite as a child who was hooked on video games i remember the data blasts and cries to my mother, asking her, how do i set the video for the end sequence, amazing, fantastic, just thinking about it brings me back, i particularly remember an episode in which they showed this gadget that turned your console off after 15 minutes i think it was for epilepsy or something., well what more can i say those days are over and now the quality of such shows has wained, awwk well whatta ya Doro??

The best show of the 90s

[peter_leigh01 · 10/10 · 15 October 2014]

Well, almost. I remember Bad Influence with the fondest of fond memories. Not only because of my teenage crush on Violet Berlin either! Andy and Violet presented the show exactly as it needed to be (bad acting and the occasional gaff included). The "tips and cheats Guru", Nam Rood (Doorman backwards) also used to appear and offer the latest cheats for your favourite games.

Generally the show consisted off a home computing section for the first part, followed by console and game reviews in the latter part. There was also usually a report from their American correspondent "Z", pronounced Zee, being American.

The show was light hearted, set at a good pace and covered all you needed to know in the days before the internet became commonplace.

Running for a total of 4 seasons, the show changed somewhat by series 4 and Violet Berlin became a reporter, replaced by Sonya Saul. This was the era where Playstation's were appearing and times were changing. Sadly that was the last season of the show. By this time I wasn't really watching it as closely as I considered myself a "bit old" for it. Although now, I clearly don't and have been re-watching it on Youtube. You can read my full thoughts at where there's also a link to the Youtube shows.

All in all, a great show.

Bad to the bone? Pretty good actually.

[buckaroobanzai50 · 6 April 2004]

This was one of the few entertaining computer and video game programmes to appear on children's television in years. The many presenters who appeared on it, boyish Violet Berlin, BBC defector Andy Crane, and the gorgeous Sonya Saul did not patronise their young viewers, and made a real effort to be informative and educational at the same time. I can recall a weird skin-head guy who would every week display cheats for games by sticking them onto his forehead in large handwriting. Also, there was a sort of high speed information blast at the end of every show, and viewers were incouraged to video tape this broadcast of cheats and tips which were essential to their gaming experience.