 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Light entertainment encompasses a broad range of television and radio programming that includes comedies, variety shows, game shows, quiz shows and the like.
In the early days of the BBC virtually all broadcast entertainment would be considered light by today's standards, as great pains were taken not to offend audiences—which is not to say that they always succeeded in this.
Singers, magicians and comedians were drafted from the music hall circuit to fill the schedules. Stage acts were transferred directly to screen and in the case of productions such as Sunday Night at the London Palladium the broadcasts actually came from large theatres. Many future household names, including The Beatles, were given their first public airings during these programmes, which attempted to cater for varying tastes through staging variety acts. Bruce Forsyth was one of several hosts for the show and went on himself to present the studio-based Generation Game which remains a landmark in the light entertainment genre. The Generation Game revolved around the now-common television standby of getting members of the public to provide the entertainment themselves by doing silly things for prizes. The show's format was somewhere between the old variety programmes and the increasingly ubiquitous quiz shows and it and its descendants still appear in the television schedules.
The 1970s continued the move away from the music hall format to studio-based shows. Staged concert acts lived on through television magicians such as Paul Daniels and Royal Variety Performances. The Comedians was another programme which looked back at the live entertainment of the music halls and was also a prototype of many later stand-up comedy series. It employed a number of comics from the working men's club circuit to do their routines on camera.
In the 1980s the budgets available for light entertainment increased, and shows had dazzling sets and expensive prizes. With the simultaneous ascendancy of alternative comedy, however, the popularity of light entertainment shows started to decline among audiences. An example of this phenomenon is found in the name of a lesser-known panel show Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment (which is also a pun on a broadcasting job description). Part of the complaint was that light entertainment sought to amuse, yet younger audiences found the attempts at humour weak and watery.
Popular light entertainment in the 1990s included Barrymore , Des O'Connor Tonight , Noel's House Party , Surprise Surprise , Stars in Their Eyes and The Paul Daniels Magic Show aswell as radio shows such as Wake Up to Wogan . Shows typically averaged over ten million viewers and over fifteen was not unusual. [1]
In spite of critical reaction, light entertainment continues to be popular, perhaps because it provokes no awkward questions when the viewing is shared by different generations of the same family. Current light entertainment stars include the Geordie double act Ant & Dec. They have in the past included the late Bruce Forsyth and the late Cilla Black. Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway achieved a viewing figures ratings high of 8.5 million viewers in 2020. [2]
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2013) |
During the 1970s, CBC Television introduced Sunday at Nine, a time slot where '"dramas [such as Corwin ] alternate with light entertainment [such as The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour ] and special documentaries." [3]
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He went on to host several game shows, including The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right, The Price Is Right and You Bet!. He co-presented Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2013. In 2012, Guinness World Records recognised Forsyth as having the longest television career for a male entertainer.
Anthony David McPartlin is an English television presenter, singer, comedian and actor. He is best known for working alongside Declan Donnelly as part of the presenting duo Ant & Dec. McPartlin came to prominence, alongside Donnelly, in the children's drama series Byker Grove, with both of the boys establishing successful careers as television presenters, in which presented SMTV Live, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and Britain's Got Talent.
Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo, consisting of comedians, television presenters and singers Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Formed after their meeting as child actors on CBBC's drama Byker Grove, they performed together as pop musicians PJ & Duncan, the names of their characters from the series. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Ant & Dec were named the eighteenth most influential people in British culture.
Declan Joseph Oliver "Dec" Donnelly is a British television presenter, television producer, former singer, comedian and actor from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He is best known for working alongside Ant McPartlin as part of the presenting duo Ant & Dec. Donnelly came to prominence, alongside McPartlin, in the children's drama series Byker Grove, with both men establishing successful careers as television presenters, in which they are most known for presenting SMTV Live, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and Britain's Got Talent.
The National Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.
Debra Ann McGee is an English television, radio and stage performer who is best known as the assistant and widow of magician Paul Daniels. McGee is a former ballet dancer and for three years was artistic director of her own ballet company. She presents a Sunday morning show for BBC Radio Berkshire. McGee was a finalist in BBC's 2017 Strictly Come Dancing, a winner of the 2019 Christmas Special, and as of January 2018 is a recurring member of the Loose Women panel.
In broadcast programming, dayparting is the practice of dividing the broadcast day into several parts, in which a different type of radio programming or television show appropriate for that time period is aired. Television programs are most often geared toward a particular demography, and what the target audience typically engages in at that time.
The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour is a Canadian television variety show that aired on CBC Television in 1970 and 1971. It was part of Sunday At Nine, a CBC anthology that included documentaries, dramas, and "light entertainment", both domestic and imported. The show starred Hart Pomerantz and Lorne Michaels. The show mixed comedy sketches with musical guests, in a format similar to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the show that Michaels was working on before returning to Canada to star in his own show.
SMTV Live, was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, produced by Blaze Television for ITV. Operating on a similar format to other Saturday morning programmes for children, such as BBC's Live & Kicking, the programme premiered on 29 August 1998 and ran for over 270 episodes across five years, before its conclusion on 27 December 2003.
Tonight at the London Palladium is a British television variety show that is hosted from the London Palladium theatre in the West End. Originally produced by ATV for the ITV network from 1955 to 1969, it went by its original name Sunday Night at the London Palladium from 25 September 1955 until the name was changed to The London Palladium Show from 1966 to 2 February 1969.
Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme broadcast between 2001 and 2012 on ITV. The show was produced by Avalon Television and was written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. Each episode took a humorous look back at the previous week of programming on British television.
Stephen Daniel Mulhern is an English television presenter, magician, and comedian. He began his television career on CITV, appearing in the children's shows Finger Tips (2001–2008) and Tricky TV (2005–2010). Mulhern has presented various television shows for ITV, including Britain's Got More Talent (2007–2019), Animals Do the Funniest Things (2007–2011), This Morning's Hub (2011–2014), Catchphrase (2013–present), Big Star's Little Star (2013–2018), In for a Penny (2019–present) and Rolling In It (2020–2021). He also co-hosted the Sunday breakfast show on Heart Radio, alongside Emma Willis, and the 'Ant vs Dec' segment on Saturday Night Takeaway.
Johnnie Hamp is a British television producer, now retired. He is responsible for the early British television appearances of such acts as the Beatles, Burt Bacharach, Cannon and Ball, Paul Daniels comedian Woody Allen and singer Lisa Stansfield as Head of Light Entertainment with Granada Television.
Claudia Emma Rosencrantz FRTS is a British television executive and journalist. She was formerly the Controller of Entertainment for ITV, for over ten years. She was also Director of Television for Virgin Media for five years and worked with Jamie Oliver, including as CEO of the Jamie Oliver Media Group. Rosencrantz is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and a trustee of JW3.
Britain's Got Talent is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global Got Talent franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, it is produced by both Thames and Syco Entertainment, distributed by Fremantle, and broadcast on ITV every year in late Spring to early Summer. The show was originally intended for production in 2005, but filming was suspended in the wake of a dispute between ITV and the programme's originally planned host. Following the success of America's Got Talent that year, production resumed and the programme eventually premiered on 9 June 2007.
Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow is a British stand-up comedy television series hosted by comedian Michael McIntyre from different venues around the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first series was broadcast with six episodes in 2009. Each episode features a routine from McIntyre, followed by three other comedians before the headline act. A second six-episode series in the same format followed in 2010.
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway is a British television variety show, created and presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, and broadcast on ITV since its premiere on 8 June 2002, enduring a four-year hiatus between 2009 and 2013, while its presenters worked on other projects. The show's format, heavily influenced by previous Saturday night light entertainment shows such as Noel's House Party, Opportunity Knocks and Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, focuses on a mixture of live and pre-recorded entertainment and quiz segments, including an audience-based quiz involving the television adverts during a week's episode of one of ITV's programmes, and a competition in each series between the two presenters.
Chris & Julia's Sunday Night Takeaway is an Australian television variety show, presented by Chris Brown and Julia Morris. It premiered on Network 10 on 24 February 2019 and airs on Sunday nights. It is based on the British television show, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, created and presented by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. The show features a mixture of live and pre-recorded entertainment, quiz segments and competitions. Chris & Julia's Sunday Night Takeaway was filmed at Fox Studios Australia.
Saturday Night Rove, also referred to as Saturday Night, is an Australian television variety show hosted by comedian Rove McManus. The program premiered on Network Ten on 24 August 2019 and aired on Saturdays at 7:30 pm. It featured a mixture of live and pre-recorded entertainment, including skits, live crosses, guest interviews, pranks, challenges and comedy acts & routines.
It was scheduled in the Sunday at Nine (1970–73) slot, where 'single dramas alternate with light entertainment and special documentaries' (CBC Times, 8-14/11/69).
