| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1981 [1] |
| Founder | Mel Smith [1] Griff Rhys Jones [1] |
| Headquarters | , England |
| Parent | Fremantle |
| Website | talkbackproductions |
Talkback is a British television production company established in 1981 by comedy duo Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. [1]
Talkback was sold to Pearson Television in 2000. [2] The company merged with Thames Television in 2003 and the combined entity was renamed Talkback Thames. However, on 1 January 2012, Talkback Thames was split into four separate production companies; Boundless, Retort, Talkback and Thames . [3]
On 2 September 2018, FremantleMedia UK was renamed to simply Fremantle UK. This was soon followed by Talkback receiving a new logo after six-and-a-half years of the old one, which was inspired by the original design from 1984 since its launch whilst retaining the green colour the company has been associated with since 2003, when it merged with Thames to form Talkback Thames. It was designed in-house.
Melvyn Kenneth Smith was an English comedian, actor and filmmaker. He worked on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the United Kingdom's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 9:25 Monday morning to 5:15 Friday afternoon at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT).
Griffith Rhys Jones, often known and credited as Griff Rhys Jones, is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, and television presenter. Rhys Jones starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. He and Smith came to national attention in the 1980s for their work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones.
Hat Trick Productions is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London.
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series starring comedy duo and namesake Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and later as Smith and Jones for six series on BBC1 until 1998. A spin-off from Not the Nine O'Clock News, the show also had a brief run in the United States on A&E and PBS in the late 1980s, as well as on CBS in the early 1990s during their late-night block.
T4 was a scheduling slot on Channel 4 and E4. It also aired on weekdays in the school holidays. The slot had a separate station identification on screen graphic from Channel 4 and E4. Channel 4 originally produced the strand in-house until 2002, when production was passed onto independent companies. The slot was targeted at the 16-24 age group.
Leigh Izaak Francis, who is often known by the name of a character he plays, Keith Lemon, is an English television presenter, actor, writer, and comedian. He is best known for creating and starring in Channel 4's sketch comedy show Bo' Selecta! (2002–2009) and presenting the ITV shows Celebrity Juice (2008–2022) and Through the Keyhole (2013–2019). His other comedy shows include Lemon La Vida Loca (2012–2013), The Keith Lemon Sketch Show (2015–2016), and The Keith & Paddy Picture Show (2017–2018).
Talkback Thames was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle. It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames Television. This merger was arranged in February 2003 and reversed in January 2012.
Tiger Aspect Productions is a British television and film production company, particularly noted for its situation comedies. Founded by Peter Bennett-Jones, its productions have included popular hits such as Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. The present-day company was founded in 1993 from the merger of Bennett-Jones' Tiger Television and Paul Sommers' Aspect Film & Television.
Peter Dickson is a Northern Irish voice-over artist. He is best known as the brand voice of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent and also as the voice of television channel E4. His other work includes Ireland's Got Talent, The Price Is Right, Family Fortunes and All Star Mr & Mrs.
Peter Arthur Fincham is a British television producer and executive. From 2008 until 2016, he was the Director of Television for the ITV network. He was also formerly the Controller of BBC One, the primary television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation, until his resignation on 5 October 2007, following criticism over the handling of the Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work debacle.
The 2005 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 17 April at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The ceremony was hosted by Irish comedian and television presenter Graham Norton.
The 2004 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 18 April at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London. The ceremony was hosted by Davina McCall and broadcast on ITV the following day.
CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and previously a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged 6–12. It replaced the earlier Watch It! branding and introduced networked in-vision continuity links between programmes. These links were originally pre-recorded from a small London studio up until 1987, when Central won the contract to produce live links from their Birmingham studios. In 2004, presentation of CITV was relocated to Granada Television in Manchester, which saw the demise of in-vision continuity. Nine years later, the operations moved to ITV Granada's MediaCityUK studios in Salford.
Ash Atalla is an Egyptian-born British television producer. He has produced several British TV series such as The Office, The IT Crowd, Man Stroke Woman and People Just Do Nothing. He has also made cameo appearances in productions such as Ricky Gervais's Politics.
Celebrity Juice was a British television comedy panel game broadcast on ITV2 between 24 September 2008 and 15 December 2022. The show was written and presented by Leigh Francis in the role of his alter ego Keith Lemon. The format for the series was first suggested in 2007, after the final series of Francis’s Channel 4 sketch show Bo' Selecta!. ITV approached him to create a show featuring Lemon, and after the success of the five-part series Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour, the channel commissioned Celebrity Juice. The original premise of the show was to see which team knows most about the week's tabloid news stories, although later series focus more on the comedy factor of the participating celebrity guests and games involving them, rather than discussing the week's news.
Wimbledon Film & Television Studios is an English film and television production company and facilities provider, located in Colliers Wood, between Mitcham and Wimbledon in south London.
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