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