LWT PROGRAMMES

LWT ENTERTAINMENT

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. In the late 1970s and early 1980s It'll Be Alright On The Night, Game For A Laugh and Russ Abbot's Madhouse, which gave Les Dennis his break, all made their mark.

bruce forsyth's play your cards right
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.

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.


More Cilla as we move into the late 80s, this time in the form of Blind Date - for your video delectation we present here the titles to the original pilot and then a medley of themes from 1985 to the 1990s. 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. Gladiators proved a blockbuster hit for London Weekend.

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.

bruce forsyth's play your cards right
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.

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.