The Cannon and Ball Show

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The Cannon and Ball Show
Genre Sketch comedy
Starring
Voices of Robin Houston
Theme music composer Nigel Hess
Opening theme"Together We'll Be OK"
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series9
No. of episodes64 (inc. 9 specials)
Production
Running time30–60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production companies LWT (1979-88)
Yorkshire Television (1988 Christmas Special)
Original release
Network ITV
Release28 July 1979 (1979-07-28) 
24 December 1988 (1988-12-24)

The Cannon and Ball Show was a successful comedy variety show on ITV featuring the double act comprising Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. [1]

Contents

The pair were booked to perform on seven episodes of Bruce Forsyth's Big Night , but not all of their segments were screened, as producers were trying to shore up ratings and decided to give Forsyth more air time instead. [2] During this time, LWT's then director of programmes Michael Grade watched the dropped clips and decided to give the pair their own television series. [3]

Cannon & Ball's first regular television series was filmed by LWT and lasted nine years, until December 1988. [4]

After the series ended, the pair went on to Cannon and Ball's Casino , a Saturday-night game show for Yorkshire Television in 1990, and Plaza Patrol , also for Yorkshire Television.

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
128 July 197916 November 19796
211 April 198023 May 19807
325 April 198130 May 19816
48 May 198212 June 19826
53 December 198321 January 19846
613 October 198417 November 19846
726 April 198631 May 19866
810 January 198714 February 19876
928 May 19882 July 19886

Specials

DateEntitle
20 December 1980Christmas Special
2 January 1982Cannon & Ball at Drury Lane
11 December 1982The Best of Cannon & Ball
2 April 1983Easter Special
7 April 1985The Best of Cannon & Ball
21 December 1985Christmas Special
27 December 1986Christmas Special
2 January 1988The Cannon & Ball Special
24 December 1988Christmas Special

References

  1. "Cannon And Ball Shoot Towards A Bullet Success ". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  2. "Cannon and Ball – TV Appearances – Bruce Forsyths Big Night". Comedykings.co.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  3. Tony Padman (17 August 2013). "Whatever happend [sic] to Cannon and Ball?". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  4. "Comedy Guide – Cannon And Ball". Archived from the original on 9 December 2004. Retrieved 4 September 2013.