This Is Tom Jones

This show is a tribute to Sir Lew Grade, impressario and boss of ATV. He took top British talent, built a show around them and through his contacts, marketed it in the USA, making the British star an international superstar. Though featuring Tom Jones, it was also variety show and included top international talent as guests. The result was dazzling entertainment equally popular on both sides of the Atlantic unlike anything either had seen before. So feverishly enthusiastic were some of Tom Jones female fans that a few would threw their underwear to him which he used to briefly mop his sweating brow then throw back to them. Ex-bricklayer Jones had a physical vigour which matched his voice, ATV Elstree had early on installed colour TV cameras using the US NTSC system in order to serve the preexisting US colour TV market. Unlike many others, the conversion to the 625 Pal system for European audiences were of the very highest quality. All in all it was win-win - Tom Jones became launched as a global star, and British audiences were able to see big budget shows featuring their very own star. What is more, it was a considerable export-earner for the UK. Neither before or since has British television Light Entertainment had such an expansive, confident and competent impressario. It was ndeed the Golden Age