On this date sixty years ago, the legendary satirical TV show That Was the Week That Was first hit our screens.
From Nostalgia Central:
It was deliberately made by the Current Affairs department and not by Light Entertainment, in case the latter played it too safe. Producer Ned Sherrin intended that it should “discuss anything that people might talk about on a Saturday night”.
They certainly talked about TW3, as it rapidly drew an audience of 10 million, way above the expected figure.
The show was fronted by the hitherto unknown David Frost, a minister's son, with resident accomplices William Rushton (famed for his impersonation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan), Bernard Levin (famed for his acidic interview style), Lance Percival, Roy Kinnear, Kenneth Cope, John Bird, John Wells, Eleanor Bron, Al Mancini, David Kernan and Roy Hudd [and Millicent Martin!]...
...Much of the show was written by journalists rather than by scriptwriters, and among regular contributors were Dennis Potter and Kenneth Tynan.
The show covered such previously taboo comic subjects as racism, royalty and religion. Politicians of the day were also fiercely lampooned.
The series provoked an enormous public outcry, but those who made the programme would have been disappointed if it hadn’t!
Let's have a few clips, by way of a celebration of this landmark programme for the BBC:
Love it.
Happy birthday, TW3!
More That Was the Week That Was at the marvellous Shapers of the 80s site
I've heard of TW3 of course, but never seen any. Until now. Most amusing!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jon!
P.S. Wasn't Willy Rushton on 'Through the Keyhole' later in life, or am I thinking of someone else?
Willie was a most influential and brilliant man - co-founder of Private Eye, cartoonist, sometime actor and singer, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue panellist, Jackanory reader, voice of The Trap Door, audiobook narrator, cricket fanatic, and yes! among his many panel game appearances (including Blankety Blank, Celebrity Squares and Countdown) he was on Through the Keyhole. Truly a "national treasure" - he even (bizarrely) brought back the late Tony Hancock's ashes from Australia to the UK in an Air France bag! Jx
DeleteI wish we had something similar now - I suppose the closest we have is HIGNFY.
ReplyDeleteSx
The Golden Age of satire is long gone, I fear. Jx
DeleteI weep.
DeleteMe too, dear. Jx
DeleteAn American version also including David Frost ran the following 2 years. I was young, but loved it and watched it and the British version in reruns several years later.
ReplyDeleteDavid Frost was a savvy man to bring satire to a country that barely understood the concept of irony! Jx
DeleteYou’re right about that. And That Was The Week That Was was more than a decade ahead of its time. Brilliant.
DeleteIconic.
ReplyDeleteIt paved the way for so much that followed. Jx
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