The idea of bringing back How was conceived in 1989 by Nigel Pickard when he was head of children's programmes at TVS, the company who had taken over Southern's ITV franchise. Nigel approached top producer Tim Edmunds to make it happen.

Tim immediately contacted Fred Dinenage to see if he was interested in bringing back his old show, he was. Tim had worked with Gareth on the first year of ITV's Saturday morning show Get Fresh back in 1986, and knowing his background in science and technology he called Gareth to join the team. The hunt for the third member of the team was on.

At the time Gareth was shooting Pick of The Week at Yorkshire TV in Leeds, where he met Carol Vorderman; explaining the idea to revive HOW, Gareth suggested that Carol should contact Tim as she might be exactly the right person they were looking for. When Vorderman got to her desk there was already a message waiting for her, saying call Tim, so she did.

A pilot was shot at TVS Studios in Maidstone, the new team of the newly named How 2 rehearsed around a desk in a portakabin in a car park, it seemed to be working, the 2 new presenters and the old pro got on, like a house on fire. It just felt right.

A crudely shot pilot was enough to convince the ITV Network Centre to give How 2 a chance to prove itself on Children's ITV. Six programmes were commissioned, and shot in 1990 in Maidstone, directed by Jeremy Cross, and produced by Tim Edmunds. Little did the team realize that they were embarking on a long and very successful run.