LWT Entertainment Programmes
This section focuses on London Weekend Television's impressive light entertainment output, from compelling quiz shows to the first reality programmes starring real people.
Entertaining the nation at the weekend
LWT founder David Frost got a chatshow on each night of the weekend in the early days. Networked at first, other ITV regions soon dropped them in favour of films or action-adventure series repeats.
LWT's most prolific strand, providing the mainstay of ITV Saturday and Sunday evening viewing through the 1970s, 80s and 90s was entertainment and light entertainment.
It'll Be Alright On The Night, 1977 to 2002
Copyright © London Weekend Television/ITVplc
Presented by Denis Norden for LWT, It'll Be Alright On The Night ran from 1977, and showcased gaffes and bloopers from TV stations in the UK and around the world. The show has spawned an army of derivatives on numerous channels. |
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Play Your Cards Right, 1979-1987 and 1994-1999
Copyright © London Weekend Television/ITVplc
Play Your Cards Right is one of ITV's most popular gameshows, hosted by Bruce Forsyth since 1979 until 1987 and then again from 1994 until 1999. Check out the giant Play Your Cards Right playing cards that one of our readers has stored at home. |
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Game For A Laugh, 1981-1985
Copyright © London Weekend Television/ITVplc
Game For A Laugh, hosted by Jeremy Beadle, Henry Kelly, Sarah Kennedy and Matthew Kelly was a seminal show in many ways. It was one of the first 'people shows' and its tag line brazenly announced at the start of each edition 'The Show Where The People Are The Stars'. It was an entertaining mix of candid camera-type stunts, gameshow, and bizarre and unusual topical items. Produced by LWT, Game For A Laugh ran on the ITV network from 1981 to 1985. |
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Pranks and people set the tone
Kids says the funniest things' was the theme for Child's Play in the mid-1980s, hosted by Michael Aspel. Jeremy Beadle graduated from Game for a Laugh with his Beadle's About prank-a-thon and Cilla returned to our screens with the sentimental Surprise, Surprise.
Live variety got its share of attention at the weekend, with shows such as Live from her Majesty's and Live from the Palladium, both hosted by Jimmy Tarbuck.
Michael Aspel pulled in the star guests in the mid to late 1980s in his networked Aspel & Company chatshow. Gloria Hunniford was the compere for LWT's networked We Love TV gameshow. Clive James on Television looked at whacky TV from around the world.
Blind Date, 1984-2003
Copyright © London Weekend Television/ITVplc
More Cilla Black as we move into the mid 1980s, this time in the form of Blind Date - for your video delectation we present here a medley of themes from 1985 to the 1990s. The show was discontinued in 2003. |
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Gladiators, 1992-2000 (Sky TV, 2009)
Copyright © London Weekend Television/ITVplc
The Gladiators was produced by London Weekend Television and ran on the ITV network from 1992 until 1 January 2000. It was brought back by Sky Television for a run in 2009. |
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Playing to the audience
Dame Edna Everage presented her popular Dame Edna Experience chatshow with a twist and went on to present LWT's Dame Edna's Neighbourhood Watch as well as An Audience With Dame Edna.
Michael Barrymore built on his fame with My Kind Of People and Chris Tarrant stepped into Clive James' shoes with Tarrant On TV.
The long-running An Audience With ... series of one-off spectaculars has featured megastars from Kenneth Williams and Victoria Wood to Elton John and Kylie Minogue. Saturday Live, LWT for Channel Four, gave many stand-up comedians their big break.
Philip Schofield moves into adult telly with Schofield's Quest, Barrymore's back with more of the same in Barrymore and Michael Aspel dons a velvet smoking jacket to examine the supernatural in Strange But True.