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That's Life!
Presented by Esther Rantzen
Broadcast
Original channel BBC 1
Original run 1973 – 1994
External links
IMDb profile

That's Life! was a magazine-style television series on BBC between 1973 and 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen throughout the entire run, with various changes of co-presenters. Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born) is an English Journalist and Television presenter who is best known for her long stint in That's Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) A presenter, or host (sometimes hostess, in feminine form is a Person or Organization responsible for running an event Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born) is an English Journalist and Television presenter who is best known for her long stint in That's The show was generally recorded about an hour prior to transmission slot, which was for many years originally on Saturday and then on Sunday nights (In latter days, to try to win back falling ratings, it was moved back to Saturday nights).

Contents

Format

The original purpose of the programme was consumer protection, particularly safety issues. Consumer protection is a form of Government Regulation which protects the interests of Consumers For example a government may require businesses to disclose detailed The importance of wearing seat belts, for example, was illustrated before attitudes supporting their use became widespread. Britain's telephone helpline for children, ChildLine, was developed by Rantzen following items on the programme. ChildLine is a Charity and free 24 hour counselling service for young people provided by The NSPCC. Awareness for the need for child organ transplants was increased through the 1985 death of Ben Hardwick, a toddler whose liver disease was followed by the show. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Benjamin Hardwick ( 6 December 1981 - 23 March 1985) was Britain's youngest Liver transplant patient The liver is a vital organ in the human body and is present in Vertebrates and some other animals In tribute, Marti Webb released a version of Michael Jackson's 'Ben'. Marti Webb (born 13 December 1944, Cricklewood, North West London) is a musical actress from England Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29 1958 is an American musician entertainer and businessman

The programme also featured less serious items, which over time grew in number. These included the 'Jobsworth,' exposing companies and authorities who had implemented obscure regulations and policies causing more grievances than they aimed to correct. A jobsworth is a person who uses his or her job description in a deliberately un-cooperative way or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner. In another feature, 'Heap of the Week', viewers would write in regarding annoying unreliable domestic appliances and other failed items, which would then be disposed of in destructive ways to the delight of their owners. A regular feature as the final feature of each show was various members of the team disguised as various people or things in locations such as supermarkets and garden centres, suddenly breaking into song and grabbing passers by and getting them to join in. Some of the more light-hearted features tapped into the British seaside postcard-style humour, being cheeky and suggestive but never out and out rude.

The co-presenters added extra personality to the show. They were all men and were popularly nicknamed "Esther's nancies" (as they were mostly young and effeminate — A "nancy" or "nancy boy" being British slang for an effeminate man or homosexual). They would dramatise cases by each reading the dialogue of a 'character. ' This resulted in 'hilarity' during less-serious cases when they attempted to imitate foreign accents; Adrian Mills was famously unable to perform in a Spanish accent in an undercover item looking at a crooked money-making scam. Adrian Mills is a British television presenter He appeared in the 1980s on That's Life! with Esther Rantzen, and in later years was a host on

The show was also infamous for showcasing unusually-shaped vegetables, "odd odes" (humorous poems), comical newspaper and advertisement typographical errors, performing pets (memorably, a dog able to "say" "sausages" and "Esther"!), and street interviews with members of the public, including an eager old lady called Annie Mizzen who became a regular on the show after she was discovered at a street market. An unusually-shaped vegetable is a Vegetable or Fruit that has grown into an unusual shape not in line with the normal Body plan.

There were also musical interludes from performers such as Jake Thackray, Victoria Wood, Doc Cox, and occasionally Grant Baynham. John Philip "Jake" Thackray ( 27 February 1938 &ndash 24 December 2002) was an English Poet and Singer-songwriter Victoria Wood CBE (born 19 May 1953 in Prestwich, Lancashire) is a BAFTA award winning English Comedian Robert "Doc" Cox (born 1 July 1946 in Sheffield, Yorkshire) also known as Ivor Biggun, is a British musician and former television journalist Baynham had several buckets of water thrown over him in several live programmes after Rantzen had apparently objected to him smoking, much to his considerable chagrin; on his final show, he got his own back by doing the same to Esther. Smoke is the collection of airborne solid and liquid Particulates and Gases ref> ''Smoke Production and Properties'' - SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering

Presenters often left the confines of the studio for various stunts; Esther was arrested during one vox pop for apparently obstructing the pavement. The incident was broadcast in its entirety, along with Esther being driven away in a police van and the crowd's humorously cheering her arrest.

In 1993 Taxi driver Tom Morton who knew over 16,000 telephone numbers in Lancashire beat the British Olympia Telephone Exchange computer with his recall. The interviewer, Adrian Mills, said he had never seen anything like it. [1]

A cartoon strip, drawn by Rod Jordon, featuring items from that edition accompanied the closing credits.

The award winning documentary film maker Adam Curtis, who went on to make The Power of Nightmares and The Century of the Self started his career on the show. Adam Curtis (born 1955 is a British Television documentary maker who has during the course of his television career worked as a writer producer The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC Documentary film series written and produced by The Century of the Self is an acclaimed documentary by filmmaker Adam Curtis released in 2002 According to The Observer he "found dogs that could sing and researched investigative segments. The Observer is a British Newspaper published on Sundays In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Along the way he learned a lot about comic timing and the ways an audience might be engaged by issues. "The best lesson that Esther taught me was that people who think they are funny rarely are'" he is quoted as saying. [1]

The show was a staple of the post-watershed Sunday night BBC 1 schedules for many years (having originally been broadcast on Saturday nights), and despite its criticisms (see below section), pulled in very high viewing figures, becoming somewhat of a minor national institution in its heyday. The Watershed is a term used to describe a time in television schedules which divides the period when it is permissible to show television programmes which have ' Adult content' However, by the 1990s, times had changed. There were by now other, more hard-hitting consumer investigation programmes on air, and the always slightly uneasy mix of hard-hitting and comical articles of the show was by now seen as very awkward and somewhat dated. In 1992, to try and win back straying viewers, the show was moved from its traditional haunt of Sunday nights, back to Saturdays. There was also a radical revamp of the set (bringing the co-presenters out from behind their desk, and several other tweaks), but the move did not fully rejuvenate the programme as was hoped. The show was generally felt to have run its course, belonging to an era which had now passed. It was finally dropped in 1994, but was given a decent send-off.

The very last edition was named That's Life All Over, and was predominantly a highlight show. Esther had been deliberately given a false finish time, and when she expected the programme to close, she was surprised that a whole extra section of the programme was introduced looking at the work she had done over the years.

Origins

The BBC conceived the programme as a replacement for the remarkably similar Braden's Week, hosted by Bernard Braden between 1968 and 1972. Bernard Chastey Braden ( 16 May 1916 &ndash 2 February 1993) was a Canadian -born English Actor and Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [2] Rantzen was a reporter on this show, while her future husband, Desmond Wilcox, was an editor. Desmond John Wilcox ( 21 May 1931 &ndash 6 September 2000) was a British documentary maker at the BBC and ITV Braden was dismissed when he appeared in an advert on ITV, breaking his contract terms, leading to the introduction of That's Life! a year later. A television advertisement or television commercial (often just commercial or advert (US or ad (UK is a span of television programming produced Independent Television (generally known as ITV) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters set up under the Independent

However, although Braden himself was publicly circumspect about the decision, his wife Barbara Kelly (also a TV presenter) was forthright in condemning it and was plainly hostile towards Rantzen. Barbara Kelly (5 October 1924 &ndash 14 January 2007 was a Canadian -born actress best remembered for her television roles in the United Kingdom opposite [3]

Almost thirty years later Kelly told Alice Pitman of The Oldie that she was "very bitter at the time, very, very bitter" and recalled that Braden's producer, Desmond Wilcox, who subsequently married Rantzen, had brought together Kelly, Rantzen and newsreader Angela Rippon for a pilot of an afternoon show, although, in Kelly's view, "it was just a front - he wanted Esther, and Angela and I were sort of left dangling. The Oldie is a monthly Magazine launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who for 23 years was the editor of Private Eye. Desmond John Wilcox ( 21 May 1931 &ndash 6 September 2000) was a British documentary maker at the BBC and ITV 'Victoria Plum' redirects here For other uses see Victoria plum. A television pilot is a test episode of an intended Television series. "[4] At the turn of the 21st century Kelly weighed into a spat in the press between Rantzen and her stepdaughter Cassandra Wilcox, as a result of which she received a large number of supportive letters from members of the public who recalled her husband's usurpation by Rantzen. Kelly placed these in a folder marked "Hate Rancid File". [4]

The ITV sketch show End of Part One in 1979, scripted by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, created a spoof of That's Life entitled "That's Bernard Braden's Show Really". End of Part One was a British Television comedy Sketch show written by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall and produced by For the other writer with the same name see Andrew Marshall (journalist. David Peter Renwick (born 4 September 1951 in Luton, Bedfordshire) is an English Television writer best known for creation

Criticisms

Throughout the show's life, there was criticism of the format of the typical edition moving abruptly from a deeply serious issue to a comical one (such as the infamous rudely shaped vegetables), and back again. This was always defended by Esther and the crew, who said that the aim was to represent the full spectrum of life, from the sad to the funny, and always tried to end editions on an uplifting, light-hearted and / or humorous item.

Over time the programme increasingly concentrated on sentimental, light and humorous items - particularly after being taken to court by a doctor it tried to discredit and landing the BBC with huge litigation costs (estimated at £1. 2 million in a Guardian article) - and featured and appealed to senior citizens. The public hence became increasingly polarized between those who loved the programme, and those who loathed both it and its presenter Esther Rantzen. Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born) is an English Journalist and Television presenter who is best known for her long stint in That's The latter camp included Victor Lewis-Smith, who made some hoax phone calls to the programme, sometimes referring to Rantzen as 'Teeth' after her most prominent feature. Victor Lewis-Smith is a British satirist producer critic and prankster

Co-presenters

References

  1. ^ "The Exorcist", The Observer, 24 October 2004. Bill Buckley (William Anthony Buckley born 8 January 1959 in Birmingham, United Kingdom) is a former That's Life! Robert "Doc" Cox (born 1 July 1946 in Sheffield, Yorkshire) also known as Ivor Biggun, is a British musician and former television journalist Kevin Devine is an American Songwriter and Musician from Brooklyn, New York, who is known for alternately introspective and political Simon Hew Dalrymple Fanshawe (born December 26, 1956, in Devizes, England) is a Writer and broadcaster Cyril Fletcher ( June 25 1913 &ndash January 2 2005) was an English Comedian; his catchphrase was 'Pin back your lugholes' Paul Heiney (born 20 April 1949 in Sheffield, Yorkshire) has been a Television reporter in the United Kingdom for over George Layton (born March 2, 1943 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England) is an English Actor, director Adrian Mills is a British television presenter He appeared in the 1980s on That's Life! with Esther Rantzen, and in later years was a host on Joanna Munro is a former Television presenter who appeared in the 1980s on the BBC show That's Life! with Esther Rantzen. Kieran Prendiville (b 25 December 1947, Rochdale, Lancashire) is a television writer and producer and has also presented some shows Chris Serle (born July 13, 1943, Bristol, England) is a former BBC TV presenter reporter and actor Scott Sherrin (31 May 1972 - March 1996 was a transracial Adoptee, adopted by a white couple in London. Mary Isobel Sugden (born 21 July 1922 is an English Comedy actress, known as Mollie Sugden, who is best known for playing Mrs Slocombe Victoria Wood CBE (born 19 May 1953 in Prestwich, Lancashire) is a BAFTA award winning English Comedian Glyn Worsnip ( 2 September 1938 - 7 June 1996) was a British radio and television presenter The Observer is a British Newspaper published on Sundays In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The  
  2. ^ Evans, Jeff (1995). The Guinness Television Encyclopaedia. Guinness. ISBN 0-85112-744-4.  
  3. ^ "Barbara Kelly Obituary", The Times, 17 January 2007. The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register.  
  4. ^ a b The Oldie
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