That's Life! | |
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Genre | Current affairs Consumer protection Light entertainment Satire |
Written by | John Lloyd, Esther Rantzen |
Directed by | Peter Chafer, Bob Marsland, Chris Fox, Stuart Macdonald, Robin Bextor, Pieter Morpurgo |
Presented by | Esther Rantzen, Cyril Fletcher, Glyn Worsnip, Kieran Prendiville, Paul Heiney, George Layton, Chris Serle, Adrian Mills, Gavin Campbell, Bill Buckley, Michael Groth, [1] Doc Cox, Scott Sherrin, Joanna Monro, John Gould, [2] Grant Baynham, [3] Kevin Devine, [4] Howard Leader, [5] Simon Fanshawe, Maev Alexander, Mollie Sugden, Barry Cryer, June Whitfield [6] |
Composer | Dave Lee |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 21 |
No. of episodes | 442 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Peter Chafer, Ron Neil, John Morrell, Shaun Woodward, John Getgood, Bryher Scudamore |
Producers | Esther Rantzen, Henry Murray, John Lloyd, Norma Shepherd |
Editors | Brian Freemantle, Roger Guertin, Christine Pancott, Annie Tyrrell |
Running time | 40-45 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | BBC1 |
Release | 26 May 1973 – 19 June 1994 |
That's Life! was a satirical consumer affairs programme on the BBC, at its height regularly reaching audiences of fifteen to twenty million, and receiving between 10,000 and 15,000 letters a week. [7] The series was broadcast on BBC1 for 21 years, from 26 May 1973 until 19 June 1994. [8]
That's Life! was a magazine programme that blended light-hearted observations on everyday life, reports on consumer affairs (often blended with satire), and hard-hitting investigations in a studio-based format, with film inserts. Devised by Peter Chafer, John Lloyd [9] and Esther Rantzen, it was presented and produced by Esther Rantzen [10] with various teams of reporters and contributors. Special spin-off programmes concentrated on serious topics that were first aired on That's Life!, such as childbirth, mental health and child abuse. The programme's journalism relied on the skills of researchers many of whom went on to hold senior jobs both inside and outside the media industry.[ citation needed ]
The large audiences, regularly topping the ratings charts and reaching a maximum of 22.5 million viewers,[ when? ] resulted in several changes in laws and practice, such as the introduction of compulsory seat belts for children, support for transplantation and the installing of safe surfaces in children's playgrounds.[ citation needed ]
Bernard Braden, the Canadian actor and broadcaster, invented consumer programmes for British television with his ITV show On the Braden Beat. When in 1968 Braden and his wife Barbara Kelly agreed to transfer to the BBC, he starred with her in a situation comedy for the Entertainment Department, and he presented a consumer show which was produced in Desmond Wilcox's Features Department. John Lloyd was a freelance producer who had worked with Braden on the ITV consumer show, and in 1968 was hired to produce Braden's Week for the BBC. That show ran from 1968 to 1972 on Saturday nights on BBC1, featuring Esther Rantzen and John Pitman as reporters, and Ronald Fletcher, Chris Munds and Hilary Pritchard as humorous punctuation. It also featured Frankie Howerd, Victor Ross of Reader's Digest , [11] and an expose of Robert Maxwell's company Pergamon Press.
The format was highly popular and included a studio audience, a regular music slot featuring singer/songwriter Jake Thackray, and sketches performed by Munds and Pritchard. It is sometimes wrongly thought that Braden was sacked by the BBC for making a commercial for Stork margarine in the summer of 1971, and although advertising a product was not felt compatible with Braden's role in a consumer show, Desmond Wilcox interceded for him with BBC senior executives, pointing out that at the time he was not under contract to the BBC, and he returned to make another series that autumn. [12]
In 1972, however, Braden was hired by a Canadian network to create a similar programme there. After he left, producers Peter Chafer, John Lloyd and presenter Esther Rantzen were tasked by the BBC to create a replacement consumer programme without Braden. Rantzen invented the title, That's Life! When Bernard Braden returned to the UK having completed his contract to make a consumer programme in Canada, his show Braden's Week had been replaced in his absence, and Esther Rantzen was fronting That's Life! Braden's wife Barbara Kelly never forgave Rantzen, who she was convinced had stolen the role from Braden and had only been given the job because she was in a relationship with (and later married to) Features Department head Desmond Wilcox. [13] [14]
The first series of That's Life! broadcast in the summer of 1973 was written by John Lloyd, executive-produced by Peter Chafer and was presented by Bob Wellings (co-presenter of the nightly current affairs magazine programme Nationwide), George Layton, (actor, director and screenwriter) and Esther Rantzen. A regular feature was "Heap of the Week" filmed by Bill Nicholson, later a novelist and Oscar-nominated screenwriter. At the end of the run the Controller of BBC1 decided that the show had potential, but not with that presentation team, since only Rantzen was comfortable in the consumer role.[ citation needed ]
A second series was commissioned for which Rantzen was promoted to producer and presenter, a role she held for the next twenty years. Kieran Prendiville, a journalist who had worked on Man Alive (and who was part of the That's Life! production team at the beginning) and actor Glyn Worsnip, both joined the team as reporters and stayed for five years.
Throughout the programme's 21 years, research and investigative journalism were the backbone of the programme, since most material was based on the first-hand experience of viewers which had to be rigorously investigated. All the reporters were also involved in researching items, as part of a team many of whom went on to senior roles in broadcasting and elsewhere. Alumni of the That's Life! production team include, among many others:
During the programme's 21 years, many investigations highlighted dangers, swindles and injustices. [15] Among the conmen were Peter Foster who was first exposed for selling a fake "slimming" tea called Bai Lin, various door-to-door salesmen selling double glazing, Coach House Finance based in Colchester in 1975 which resulted in a conviction for fraud, [16] and many fake slimming aids.
Including stories publicising dangerous cots, lifts, taxi doors, the introduction of safe playground surfaces, [17] and inspiring the legal requirement for seat belts for children in cars.
This was regularly exposed on the programme. The launch of Childline by Esther Rantzen was inspired by a helpline for abused children set up after one episode of the programme. [18]
Ben Hardwick was a two-year-old toddler dying of biliary atresia, with only a few weeks to live. He was being treated by Professor Sir Roy Calne in Addenbrooks Hospital who told his mother Debbie that Ben's only hope would be a liver transplant, but transplantation had virtually ceased in the UK due to a Panorama documentary which implied that organs were being taken from patients who were still alive. Professor Calne suggested the only way to encourage organ donation would be to tell Ben's story on TV, Debbie therefore contacted That's Life!
The film of Ben captured the nation's imagination, a donor (Matthew Fewkes) was found and Ben lived for another year. On his death, Marti Webb recorded his favourite song, "Ben" to raise money for a charity founded in his name, and Shaun Woodward and Esther Rantzen wrote a book Story of Ben Hardwick by Shaun Woodward and Esther Rantzen [19] which also raised money for the Ben Hardwick Fund which still exists. The impact of Ben's story doubled the number of transplants " [20]
A letter to Esther Rantzen which was forwarded to her by Childline came from a boy at the boarding school, Crookham Court School in Newbury, [21] who had been sexually abused by the owner of the school and had discovered that his brother was also sexually abused by another teacher. A three-month investigation uncovered widespread abuse of the boys in the school; Rantzen, Woolfe and Hereward Harrison (a Childline executive) visited the school to speak to pupils. Paedophile Philip Cadman [22] was the millionaire owner of the school who was later tried and convicted of abuse, as were teachers Bill Printer and Philip Edmonds.
A special programme, The Scandal of Crookham Court, reconstructed the court case at which the children gave evidence. Author Ian Mucklejohn assisted the investigation and has written a book based on his experience teaching at the school and the evidence of pupils who suffered abuse there. [23] [24]
Sir Nicholas Winton was revealed for the first time on That's Life! as having rescued a generation of Czech children from the Holocaust. Unknown to him, or them, Sir Nicholas was placed in the audience next to three people and about twenty others around him who had been on the trains he organised and owed their life to him. Piers Morgan described it as the "best moment of television he had ever seen". [25] It has been viewed on Facebook and YouTube more than forty million times. [26] For his actions, Winton has been compared by the British press to Oskar Schindler. [27]
A biography of Winton was written by his daughter, The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton by Barbara Winton, [28] [29] and documentaries were later made about his achievements. [26] Other members of his team included Trevor Chadwick and Doreen Warriner.
An anti-bullying campaign was inspired by the suicide of teenager Katharine Bamber, [30] [31] after a phone call to the programme from her mother Susan. It resulted in schools adopting anti-bullying policies. [32]
Although the Braden's Week comedy sketches were discontinued, music was still provided each week by a range of artists, including Alex Glasgow, Jake Thackray, Five Penny Piece, Richard Stilgoe and Victoria Wood. For many years the British drummer and composer Tony Kinsey was musical director and arranged the title song "That's Life!" for the Hanwell Brass Band. Eventually the musical interludes were provided by non-singers; staff of big companies sang "The Lay of the Week" to customers who complained, and unsuspecting members of the public became a choir in "Get Britain Singing" in which the team of reporters went undercover in gloomy locations such as service stations and hospitals in order to startle people with a cheerful blast of music that inspired them to burst into song. [33] [ better source needed ]
Charity records introduced on That's Life! were Pie Jesu written by Andrew Lloyd Webber sung by Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston; Wet Wet Wet "With a Little Help From My Friends"; [34] Tom Jones and Dave Stewart "All You Need is Love". [35]
In 1992, That's Life's talent contest called Search for a Star discovered singer Alison Jordan, and record producer Simon Cowell who offered a contract as the top prize. [36] [37] The singer Jeremy Taylor invented the term Jobsworth in one of his songs, which prompted the creation of a That's Life's Jobsworth Award, presented to anyone who insisted on imposing a stupid rule – such as the clamper who clamped the car in a hospital car park belonging to a husband attending the imminent birth of his baby. From there the term entered the Oxford Dictionary.[ citation needed ]
Rude vegetables sent in by viewers were notably memorable, cropping up in The Times more than 20 years after That's Life! ended. [38] Also popular were the talented pets discovered by the show, which included dogs that played football, a cat who played ping-pong, dogs who caught soda water from a syphon and many others including a horse that could count. Besides the pets there were "talented tots", such as toddlers who could play the piano, snooker and golf.[ citation needed ]
Talented passers-by were also featured each week in the vox pops at the start of the show, including Annie Mizen, who was discovered in a street market in her eighties and became a star. [39]
Esther Rantzen was arrested for obstruction when vox popping in the North End Road. [40] [41] The resulting film took pride of place in her edition of This Is Your Life in which the arresting officer P.C. A. Herbert was a surprise guest. [42]
During its 21-year run That's Life! was broadcast three times on 1 April, and each time created a prank film to fool the viewers. The first directed by Nick Handel appeared to show a dog that could drive. [43] The second was an animal in London Zoo called a Lirpa Loof. [44] starring David Bellamy, which persuaded charabanc-loads of visitors to search the zoo for the non-existent animal with purple droppings. The third was a face cream made from rhinoceros spit that eradicated wrinkles from the face but transferred them to a backside.[ citation needed ]
In 1994 the show ended with a 90-minute special recalling the most memorable moments and listing some of the changes inspired by the series. "That's Life All Over!" included a surprise section that Rantzen did not know about in advance, hosted by David Frost. [45] [46]
In April 2024 Kirsty Wark presented an edition of the BBC Radio 4 series The Reunion , with guests George Layton, Chris Serle, Paul Heiney, Bill Buckley, Adrian Mills, Sir Peter Bazalgette, Jane Elsdon Dew and Esther Rantzen. [47]
Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 26 May 1973 | 18 August 1973 | 13 |
2 | 16 March 1974 | 17 August 1974 | 19 |
3 | 29 March 1975 | 23 August 1975 | 19 |
4 | 4 January 1976 | 23 May 1976 | 20 |
5 | 2 January 1977 | 28 May 1977 | 19 |
6 | 7 May 1978 | 23 July 1978 | 12 |
7 | 7 January 1979 | 17 June 1979 | 21 |
8 | 4 January 1981 | 12 July 1981 | 26 |
9 | 5 September 1982 | 12 December 1982 | 14 |
10 | 10 April 1983 | 26 June 1983 | 12 |
11 | 8 January 1984 | 15 July 1984 | 24 |
12 | 6 January 1985 | 7 July 1985 | 24 |
13 | 19 January 1986 | 6 July 1986 | 22 |
14 | 11 January 1987 | 5 July 1987 | 22 |
15 | 17 January 1988 | 3 July 1988 | 22 |
16 | 22 January 1989 | 25 June 1989 | 19 |
17 | 14 January 1990 | 1 July 1990 | 23 |
18 | 20 January 1991 | 30 June 1991 | 20 |
19 | 11 January 1992 | 11 July 1992 | 22 |
20 | 23 January 1993 | 3 July 1993 | 20 |
21 | 15 January 1994 | 11 June 1994 | 19 |
Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
---|---|---|---|
Junior That's Life | 1 September 1979 | 5 October 1979 | 6 |
That's Life Report | 22 May 1980 | 26 June 1980 | 6 |
That's Family Life | 16 October 1984 | 20 November 1984 | 6 |
Special programmes were created on serious issues discussed on That's Life!, such as stillbirth, mental health, fire safety, and volunteers in their own time refurbishing the St Petersburg Children's Hospital.
Entitle | Air date |
---|---|
That's Life 1974 | 28 December 1974 |
That's Life Superpets | 24 December 1977 |
Best of That's Life | 5 August 1981 |
That's Life: Having a Baby | 2 editions: 18 March 1982 |
Best of That's Life | 23 August 1983 |
Summer 1984 Compilation | 28 August 1984 |
Best of That's Life 1985 | 30 August 1985 |
Holiday Edition Compilation 1986 | 24 August 1986 |
Best of 1987 | 9 August 1987 |
The Gift of Life | 10 January 1988 |
Best of 1988 | 28 August 1988 |
Britain's Most Talented Pets | 2 January 1989 |
Best of 1989 | 28 August 1989 |
Talented Pets | 1 January 1990 |
Holiday Special Compilation | 27 August 1990 |
Talented Pets 3 | 31 December 1990 |
The Scandal of Crookham Court | 13 January 1991 |
Summer Special Compilation | 26 August 1991 |
Talented Pets 4 | 31 December 1991 |
Summer Special Compilation | 20 August 1992 |
Summer Special Compilation | 29 August 1993 |
Fire! Special Report | 8 January 1994 |
That's Life – All Over: Final edition | 19 June 1994 |
In October 2018, it was announced that a consumer show, Do The Right Thing would air on Channel 5, with Rantzen presenting alongside Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford. Another Channel 5 consumer programme, Esther Rantzen's House Trap was a production more in keeping with the format of the BBC's long-running Watchdog programme, with hidden cameras trying to trap rogue traders in the homes of a number of undercover actors. Unlike Watchdog, these actors were all people of an advanced age with each episode focusing on a different trade, such as locksmiths, where older people were likely to being preyed upon. [48]
Esther Rantzen's House Trap was a four-part series produced by Karen Plumb and Grant Mansfield at Plimsoll Productions [49] for Channel 5, who commissioned the show alongside other consumer-focused shows such as Shop Smart Save Money and Do the Right Thing. [50]
Shaun Anthony Woodward is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2010.
Childline is a British counselling service for children and young people under 19 in the United Kingdom provided by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. They deal with any issues which cause distress or concern; some of the most common issues include child abuse, bullying, mental illness, parental separation and or divorce, teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, neglect, and psychological abuse.
Angela May Rippon is an English broadcaster, former newsreader, writer and journalist.
Dame Esther Louise Rantzen is an English journalist and television presenter, who presented the BBC television series That's Life! for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes and founded the charities Childline, a helpline for children, which she set up in 1986, and The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness in older people's lives, which she set up in November 2012.
A jobsworth is a person who uses the authority of their job in a deliberately uncooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner. It characterises one who upholds petty rules even at the expense of effectiveness or efficiency. Related concepts include malicious compliance, passive-aggressive behavior, and micromanagement, which can impair progress through excessive focus on details and obsessive control over those one has authority over.
Nicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell OBE is a Scottish broadcaster and journalist. He has worked in television and radio since 1981 and as a network presenter with BBC Radio since 1987.
Cyril Fletcher was an English comedian, broadcaster, pantomime impresario, actor, gardener and businessman. His catchphrase was 'Pin back your lugholes'. He was best known for his "Odd Odes", which later formed a section of the television show That's Life! a role he excelled in. So successful was he that he stayed on the show from 1973 to 1981. He only left then because Alan Hart, the Controller of BBC1, wanted him to be replaced, although Esther Rantzen, the producer and presenter who had hired him when they met on the Radio 4 programme Start the Week with Richard Baker, very much wanted him to stay. Besides reading humorous cuttings and reciting his Odd Odes on the programme, Fletcher also took a great interest in the campaigning consumer journalism, which was the basis of the programme. He also took part in films such as a lawn mower race in full racing driver costume.
Bernard Chastey Braden was a Canadian-born British actor and comedian, who is best known for his appearances in UK television and radio shows.
Sir Nicholas George Winton was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had immigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he helped compile a list of children in danger and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport.
Adrian Mills is a British television presenter and actor. He appeared on That's Life! with Esther Rantzen for seven years until 1994. The programme regularly attracted 20 million viewers. Since then, he has presented talk show Central Weekend Live, reported for BBC viewer feedback programme Bite Back and appeared as a location reporter on the TV series Surprise, Surprise. He was later a host on TV Travel Shop and Sky Travel, having become the new face of the BBC's daytime schedule, hosting Daytime UK and People today. He is currently the consumer expert on Talk TV.
William Anthony Buckley is a radio and television presenter and former actor. For three years, he was a co-presenter of BBC Television's consumer affairs programme That's Life!. He currently presents on BBC Radio Berkshire and has presented shows on BBC Radio Solent, BBC Southern Counties Radio, BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Oxford, London talk radio station LBC 97.3, BBC London 94.9, and numerous others.
Barbara Kelly was a Canadian-British actress, best known for her television roles in the United Kingdom opposite her husband Bernard Braden in the 1950s and 1960s, and for many appearances as a panelist on the British version of What's My Line?
Anthony Paul Beke, known professionally as Anton Du Beke, is a British ballroom and Latin dancer, author and television presenter, best known for being a professional dancer and a judge on the BBC One celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing. His professional dance partner since 1997 has been Erin Boag.
Desmond John Wilcox was a British television producer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and television executive. He worked at the BBC and ITV during his career and was producer of series such as This Week, Man Alive, and That's Life!.
The Big Time was a British documentary and reality television series made by the BBC, consisting of 15 original episodes which ran from 1976 to 1980. A revised, extended repeat of episode 12 was broadcast in 1981.
Benjamyn Paul Hardwick was Britain's youngest liver transplant patient. He became a celebrity through appearing on the BBC television programme That's Life! after his parents appealed for more awareness of organ donation when their son, who suffered from biliary atresia, urgently needed a transplant. While he also became the first child in the country to receive a liver transplant, the initial transplant failed. After a second transplant the following year, he died of complications at the age of 3. Following this event, at least £10,000 was raised in Hardwick's name to support other seriously ill children.
Life's Too Short is a British mockumentary sitcom created and written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and starring Warwick Davis, about "the life of a showbiz dwarf." Davis plays a fictionalised version of himself, and both Gervais and Merchant appear in supporting roles as themselves. The show began airing on BBC Two on 10 November 2011. Premium cable channel HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC, has the US rights and aired the series from 19 February 2012.
John Pitman was an English journalist, television producer and documentary filmmaker. He began his on-screen career as a researcher on Braden's Week but later became known for his reporting work on the BBC2 documentary series Man Alive.
Hearts of Gold was a BBC television programme devised and presented by Esther Rantzen, with Michael Groth and Carol Smillie as co-presenters. Running for six years in the 1980s and 1990s, the programme commended members of the public for their good deeds.
One Life is a 2023 biographical drama film directed by James Hawes. Based on the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, the film alternates between following Anthony Hopkins as a 79-year old Winton reminiscing on his past, and Johnny Flynn as a 29-year old Winton who successfully helps 669 predominantly Jewish children in German-occupied Czechoslovakia to hide and flee in 1938–39, just before the beginning of World War II. Helena Bonham Carter, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp and Jonathan Pryce co-star in supporting roles.