Surprise Surprise (British TV series)

Last updated

Surprise Surprise
Surprise Surprise 2015.jpg
Revival show's title card (2015)
Also known asCilla's Surprise Surprise!
Genre Light entertainment
Presented by Cilla Black (1984–2001, 2003)
Holly Willoughby (2012–2015)
Starring Christopher Biggins (1984)
Bob Carolgees (1985–1995)
Gordon Burns (1986–1991)
Tessa Sanderson (1990–1992)
Kian Egan (2012)
Dave Berry (2012–2015)
Marvin Humes (2013–2015)
Mark Wright (2013–2015)
Michael Underwood (2014–2015)
Peter Andre (2014–2015)
Matt Johnson (2015)
Narrated by Robin Houston (1984–2001)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series14 (Original)
4 (Revival)
No. of episodes128 (Original: inc. 9 specials)
23 (Revival: inc. 3 specials)
Production
Production location The London Studios
Running time60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production companies LWT (1984–2001)
ITV Studios (2012–2015)
Original release
Network ITV
Release6 May 1984 (1984-05-06) 
26 December 2001 (2001-12-26)
Release21 October 2012 (2012-10-21) 
26 December 2015 (2015-12-26)
Related
Jim'll Fix It
Keith Lemon's LemonAid
OMG! Jedward's Dream Factory

Surprise Surprise is a British light entertainment television programme for ITV that originally ran from 6 May 1984 to 26 December 2001 with Cilla Black as the host initially with Christopher Biggins. The show returned from 21 October 2012 to 26 July 2015 and was hosted by Holly Willoughby. On 17 June 2016, ITV announced that the show had been cancelled and would not return for 2017. [1]

Contents

Format

The show was hosted by Cilla Black, and filmed in front of a studio audience. Its premise involved surprising members of the public with long-held wishes, setting up tricks to fool members of the public, making prank calls to people and reuniting guests with long-lost loved ones. Christopher Biggins was initially part of the team but later, Black was assisted for eight series by Bob Carolgees, famous for his glove puppetry act Spit the Dog. He'd previously appeared in the first series with a puppet ferrett. Gordon Burns and Tessa Sanderson were roving reporters. Other featured acts were "Cilla-grams," where Black would perform a song in a musical sketch relevant to the surprise a person was receiving. (Example: a soldier was celebrating his 21st birthday, so the featuring song Black sang was "Celebration" by Kool & The Gang.)

The concept of the first series had been to film surprising and often unusual moments similar to those previously seen on Game for a Laugh . This included a phone game that used viewers numbers and answering questions to try and form a winning line. Items on the show included Biggins out and about and even doing black face in one episode. Others included dancing and sporting events. There were surprise reunions and these proved popular. In his autobiography though, Biggins revealed that a lot of those reunited with loved ones weren't too happy seeing them again. The popularity of this element of the show led executive producer Alan Boyd to change the format slightly so that all items in subsequent series involved surprises, rather than just being surprising. Although including many pre-filmed inserts, the first series and some early episodes of the second series were televised live in their entirety, but thereafter all episodes were pre-recorded.

From 1984 to 1988, the show was broadcast on Sunday evenings. From 1989 to 1992, the show moved to Fridays, before returning to the Sunday evening timeslot from 1993 to 1996. The final series of the original run in 1997 was broadcast on Friday evenings. Between 1998 and 2001, a one-off special episode was produced per year which aired on Mother's Day from 1998 until 2000, and then at Christmas for 2001.

Over the years, the show had many special guests, some of whom appeared live, including Neil Diamond. Many variety acts were also featured on the show. The Spice Girls made their live debut on an episode in 1996.

Revival

In March 2012, it was announced that Holly Willoughby would host a revamped one-off episode of Surprise Surprise for ITV, although a full series was later announced. [2] The series had six hour-long episodes, with episode 1 airing on 21 October 2012. [3] A second series followed this in 2013, a third in 2014 and a fourth in 2015.

In the show, Willoughby is joined by various locations reporters, these have included Marvin Humes, Mark Wright, Dave Berry, Peter Andre and Matt Johnson.

In one 2013 episode, Cilla Black made a surprise appearance on the show, singing a bit of the original theme as the show went to commercials (after Holly made the comment that the producers just wouldn't let her sing the song).

Final episodes

The last series hosted by Holly Willoughby aired on ITV1 between 21 June 2015 and 26 July 2015.

ITV never made an official announcement confirming the series had been axed, but another series of the show has not been produced since 2015. Holly Willoughby called for the show to return for another series in 2017. [4]

A previously unbroadcast episode of the show, hosted by Cilla Black that featured appearances from Irish boyband Westlife and singer Gareth Gates, which was originally produced in 2003 to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, was broadcast on ITV3 on 27 December 2015, four months after Black's death. It wasn't originally broadcast in 2003 due to Black's departure from ITV that year. [5]

Theme songs

Cilla Black introduced and closed each show by singing a theme song. The theme song from series one to eight was written by Kate Robbins and was often imitated by Black impersonators, beginning "The more the world is changing, the more it stays the same...". The track was included on Black's 1985 album Surprisingly Cilla , and as a single through Towerbell Records. A new song was written from series nine in 1992, until the show's conclusion in 2001, and the 2003 birthday special: "Reaching out, holding hands, reliving memories... Life is full, full of surprises...And the nicest surprise in my life is you!"

Around 2022-23, the song enjoyed a resurgence on the social media app TikTok.

The revived series updated its theme for 2013. This theme uses a remixed instrumental version of the chorus from Black's original song "Surprise, Surprise".

Transmissions

Series

Original
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
16 May 198410 June 19846
214 October 19842 December 19848
319 January 19869 March 19868
418 January 198715 March 19879
510 January 19886 March 19889
66 January 19893 March 19899
716 February 199020 April 19909
822 February 199126 April 199110
93 April 199229 May 19929
1025 April 19934 July 199310
1110 April 199419 June 199411
1223 April 19952 July 199510
1331 March 19962 June 199610
144 July 19975 September 199710
Revival
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
121 October 201225 November 20126
215 September 20131 December 201310
322 October 201417 December 20147
421 June 201526 July 20156

Specials

Original
Original Air dateSpecial
23 December 1984Christmas special
22 December 1985Christmas special
28 December 1986Christmas special
27 December 1987Christmas special
24, 25, 26 March 1989Searchline Specials
13 April 1990Searchline Special
22 June 1997Surprise Surprise...in Australia
22 March 1998Mother's Day special
14 March 1999Mother's Day special
2 April 2000Mother's Day special
26 December 2001Christmas special
27 December 2015Anniversary Special (from 2003)
Revival
AirdateSpecial
18 December 2013Christmas special
30 March 2014Mother's Day special
21 December 2014Christmas special
26 December 2015Christmas special

Awards

YearGroupAwardResultReferences
2014 National Television Awards Most Popular Entertainment ProgrammeNominated [6] [7] [8]
2015 Nominated [9]

International versions

CountryTitleBroadcasterPresenterPremiereFinale
Germany Surprise! Die Bruce Darnell Show ProSieben Bruce Darnell 2 December 202123 December 2021
Italy Carràmba! Che sorpresa (1995–98; 2002)
Carràmba! Che fortuna (1998–2001; 2008–09)
Rai 1 Raffaella Carrà 21 December 19956 January 2009
Netherlands Surpriseshow (1988–2008)
Surprise, Surprise (2014–15)
Nederland 1 (1988–89)
RTL 4 (1990–2001; 2008)
Talpa (2006)
SBS 6 (2014–15)
Henny Huisman (1988–2001; 2006)
Robert ten Brink (2008)
Henny Huisman, Do and Airen Mylene (2014–15)
1988
2006
2008
2014
2001
2006
2008
2015
Poland Surprise, Surprise Polsat Wojciech Błach and Stefano Terrazzino12 March 2016 [lower-alpha 1] 2 September 2016 [lower-alpha 2]
Romania Surprize, Surprize TVR 1 Andreea Marin and Gabriel Coveșanu19992008
Spain Sorpresa ¡Sorpresa! Antena 3 Isabel Gemio (1996–98; 2007)
Concha Velasco (1999)
8 May 1996January 2007
Ukraine Сюрприз, Сюрприз! STB Masha Efrosinina 1 September 20171 December 2017
United States Surprise, Surprise, Surprise [10] CBS Kathie Lee Gifford May 14, 1999 (Special)
Surprise with Jenny McCarthy NBC Jenny McCarthy Non-broadcast pilot

Notes

  1. The show debuted on 12 March but due to low viewing figures it was axed after just one episode. The remaining seven episodes returned on air on 21 July.
  2. The last episode of the series aired at around 1:30 AM.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cilla Black</span> English singer and media personality (1943–2015)

Priscilla Maria Veronica White, better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer and television presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ant & Dec</span> British television presenting duo

Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo consisting of Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly from Newcastle upon Tyne. After 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillip Schofield</span> English television personality (born 1962)

Phillip Bryan Schofield is an English television personality, known for presenting a wide range of high-profile programmes for the BBC and ITV from 1982 to 2023; presenting BBC programmes from 1985 to 1993 and 2001 to 2006 and ITV programmes from 1993 to 2023.

<i>This Morning</i> (TV programme) British daytime television programme

This Morning is a British daytime magazine programme that is broadcast on ITV. It debuted on 3 October 1988 and is broadcast live every weekday from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm across the United Kingdom, and in Ireland by Virgin Media One. The programme features a variety of news, showbiz, fashion, health and beauty, lifestyle, home and garden, food, tech, live phone-ins, and competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holly Willoughby</span> English television presenter, model and author (born 1981)

Holly Marie Willoughby is an English television presenter, author and model. She has presented various television shows for ITV, most notably This Morning (2009–2023) and Dancing on Ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Shephard</span> English television personality

Benjamin Peter Sherrington Shephard is an English television presenter and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Mulhern</span> English entertainer (born 1977)

Stephen Daniel Mulhern is an English television presenter, magician and comedian. He began his career at CITV presenting the children’s television shows Finger Tips (2001–2004) and Tricky TV (2005–2010). Mulhern went on to present 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 (2019–2024), Rolling In It (2020–2021), Deal or No Deal (2023–present) and Dancing on Ice (2024–present).

<i>Soapstar Superstar</i> British television series

Soapstar Superstar is a British talent show that aired on ITV from 6 January 2006 to 13 January 2007. The show's format works in a similar format to that of Pop Idol and The X Factor, in that the competition features a group of soap opera actors performing in front of a celebrity panel of judges, with the weakest performers being eliminated when they receive the fewest votes from the judges and a public vote. Unlike these shows, the audience decides upon the song contestants sung in the next round, with the eliminated contestant joining the judging panel for that episode to save one of the other contestants and decide on which song they would sing next.

<i>Dancing on Ice</i> British ice skating competition series

Dancing on Ice is a British television series currently presented by Stephen Mulhern and Holly Willoughby. Former hosts include Phillip Schofield, who hosted from 2006 to 2023, and Christine Bleakley, who hosted in Willoughby's absence from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their professional partners figure skating in front of a panel of judges. The series, broadcast on ITV, started on 14 January 2006 and initially ended on 9 March 2014.

<i>Blind Date</i> (British game show) UK game show

Blind Date is a British dating game show first produced by London Weekend Television. An unscreened pilot was made with comic Duncan Norvelle as presenter but it was eventually hosted by Cilla Black, who already hosted the LWT series Surprise Surprise. Blind Date originally ran on Saturday nights from 30 November 1985 to 31 May 2003 on ITV.

The Xtra Factor is a companion show to the British television music competition The X Factor. It was broadcast on ITV2 and on TV3 in the Republic of Ireland, on Saturday and Sunday nights after the main ITV show from 4 September 2004 to 11 December 2016. It featured behind-the-scenes footage of The X Factor and shows the emotional responses of the contestants after the judges comment on their performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Lampard</span> TV presenter

Christine Louise Lampard is a Northern Irish broadcaster. She has presented various television programmes with Adrian Chiles, such as The One Show (2007–2010) and Daybreak (2010–2011), while with Phillip Schofield she has presented Dancing on Ice (2012–2014) and This Morning. Lampard has also presented factual series for ITV including Off The Beaten Track (2013) and Wild Ireland (2015). Since 2016 she has been a presenter of the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women.

<i>Im a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!</i> (British TV series) British reality television series

I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! is a British survival reality television show, that is broadcast on ITV. It was created by London Weekend Television (LWT) and is produced by Lifted Entertainment. The format sees a group of celebrities living together in extreme conditions with few creature comforts. Each member undertakes challenges to secure additional food and treats for the group, and to avoid being voted out by viewers during their stay, with the final episode's votes nominating who wins a series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Willis</span> English television presenter and former model

Emma Louise Willis is an English broadcaster. She is known for her television and radio work with Channel 5, BBC, ITV and Heart FM. Willis has presented Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother (2013–2018), as well as the spin-off series Big Brother's Bit on the Side (2011–2015). She has presented The Voice UK (2014–present), and the children's spin-off The Voice Kids UK (2017–2023). In 2019 and 2021, Willis presented the second and third series of The Circle. She co-hosts Love Is Blind: UK with her husband Matt Willis.

<i>The X Factor</i> (British TV series) series 5 British TV series

The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The fifth series was broadcast on ITV from 16 August 2008 until 13 December 2008. Dermot O'Leary returned to present the main show on ITV, while Fearne Cotton was replaced by Holly Willoughby as presenter of spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2. Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, and Dannii Minogue returned to the judging panel. Sharon Osbourne left after four series and was replaced by Cheryl Cole. The series was won by Alexandra Burke, with Cole emerging as the winning mentor. Auditions in front of producers were held in April and May, with callbacks in front of the judges in June. The number of applicants for series 5 reached an all-time high with a reported 182,000 people auditioning. A number of well-established music acts from around the world, such as Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Girls Aloud, Take That, Il Divo, and series 3 winner Leona Lewis, performed during the live stages of the show.

<i>Text Santa</i> British TV series or programme

Text Santa was a charity initiative set up in 2011 by ITV to support UK-based charities during the Christmas period. The appeal to the public is to donate money mainly via text donation and profits from merchandise. The telethons have been hosted by popular ITV presenters including Phillip Schofield, Christine Bleakley, and Ant & Dec. The 2015 appeal show was the last after ITV decided to axe the show to make way for an all-year appeal.

<i>The Voice UK</i> British talent competition series

The Voice UK is a British singing competition television series. Created by John de Mol and Roel van Velzen, it premiered on BBC One on 24 March 2012. Based on the original Dutch singing competition The Voice of Holland, and part of The Voice franchise, it has aired twelve series and aims to find currently unsigned singing talent contested by aspiring singers, drawn from public auditions. Presented by Emma Willis since 2014, it was previously presented by Holly Willoughby and Reggie Yates from 2012 to 2013 and Marvin Humes from 2014 to 2016. The winners receive a recording contract with Universal Music Group. Winners of each series have been: Leanne Mitchell, Andrea Begley, Jermain Jackman, Stevie McCrorie, Kevin Simm, Mo Adeniran, Ruti Olajugbagbe, Molly Hocking, Blessing Chitapa, Craig Eddie, Anthonia Edwards and Jen & Liv.

The One and Only... is a British entertainment show, celebrating some of Britain's best loved stars from the world of entertainment. The first show aired on 8 April 2012 and was presented by Des O'Connor. The second aired on 16 October 2013, which was presented by Paul O'Grady, starred the comedian's good friend, Cilla Black.

<i>Gadget Man</i> British television series

Gadget Man is a British television series, which aired from 19 November 2012 to 22 June 2015 on Channel 4 and was presented by Stephen Fry in the first series and Richard Ayoade in the remaining three. Each episode presented a variety of innovative products related to the episode's theme. The series was mainly filmed in and around The Lime Works, a 1930s art deco converted water tower in Norton, Kent. Since the Stephen Fry: Gadget Man series was first broadcast, the franchise has also been expanded by Channel 4/North One to include Travel Man with Ayoade and current presenter Joe Lycett, and new commission Hobby Man, with Alex Brooker from Channel 4's Friday night comedy show The Last Leg.

<i>The Masked Dancer</i> (British TV series) British television series

The Masked Dancer is a British reality dancing competition television series that premiered on ITV on 29 May 2021. It was based on the original programme, The King of Mask Singer. In December 2021, the show was recommissioned for a second series which aired September–October 2022. In March 2024 it was officially announced by ITV that the show has been axed.

References

  1. Colin Daniels (10 October 2012). "Holly Willoughby's 'Surprise Surprise' revamp airdate confirmed by ITV". Digital Spy .
  2. "Willoughby to host 'Surprise Surprise'". Digital Spy . 15 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  3. "'Surprise Surprise' return date confirmed". Digital Spy . 10 October 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  4. "'Surprise! Holly Willoughby wants to bring back Surprise Surprise'". Digital Spy . 14 April 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  5. "Surprise Surprise - previously unaired show: Split from Cilla Black has died - TV Forum".
  6. "National Television Awards 2014 nominees revealed: Voting opens". Digital Spy. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  7. "National Television Awards 2014 voting opens: The full longlist". Digital Spy. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  8. "2014 Vote – The National Television Awards". Nationaltvawards.com. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  9. "NTAs 2015: Which TV stars are nominated?". Digital Spy . 13 October 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  10. "Granada, LMNO Eye 'Surprise'". 24 January 1999. Retrieved 11 June 2020.