Sunday Night at the London Palladium is a British television variety show produced by ATV for the ITV network, originally running from 1955 to 1967, with a brief revival in 1973 and 1974. The London Palladium is a theatre in London's West End. The programme was one of ITV's most watched, reaching its biggest audience in January 1960 while Bruce Forsyth was the host, in an edition featuring Cliff Richard and The Shadows, watched by more than 20 million people. However according to the book 'Television's Greatest Hits' written and researched by Paul Gambaccini and Rod Taylor the biggest viewing audience was 9.7 million in 1964 (although this would have been homes, rather than viewers, as this was the way British television viewing figures were recorded at the time). This was on Sunday 19 April when Bruce Forsyth introduced The Bachelors, Hope and Keen and Frank Ifield with the Pamela Devis Dancers.
A part of the show was the game show, Beat The Clock, the format of which was rather like Bruce Forsyth's later hit in The Generation Game.
The regular hosts of the Palladium show were Tommy Trinder (1955-1958), Bruce Forsyth (1958-1960 and 1961), Don Arrol (1960-61), Norman Vaughan (1962-1965, 1974), Jimmy Tarbuck (1965-67) and Jim Dale (1973).
Perhaps the most famous episode took place during a strike by the British acting union Equity, who refused to allow its performers to appear that week. Exempt from this, Bruce Forsyth and comedian Norman Wisdom performed the entire show themselves, improvising wildly to the delight of the audience.
In 1967 TV mogul Lord Grade axed the show. The reasons for this remain obscure, but he was first to admit that that, and dropping the axing of soap opera Emergency Ward 10 at the same time, were the two biggest mistakes he made.[citation needed]
During the early 70s revival, which went out live, two episodes were pulled mid-broadcast, due, apparently to a reported bomb scare.
The format was revived in the 1980s as Live From Her Majesty's, Live from the Piccadilly and Live From the Palladium with comedian Jimmy Tarbuck again host. Live from Her Majesty's is mainly remembered as the show on which comedian Tommy Cooper suffered a fatal heart attack, collapsing midway through his act.
A further revival, in 2000, was called Tonight at the London Palladium, fronted by Bruce Forsyth, however this was not a ratings success.
Archive status
Very few episodes of this programme have survived (5 out of original run's 126); the rest were either wiped by Associated TeleVision (a similar fate happened to a large amount of Crossroads) or deteriorated to the point where they were un-airable.
References
- Vahimagi, Tise. British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford. Oxford University Press / British Film Institute. 1994. ISBN 0-19-818336-4.
'Television's Greatest Hits' written by Paul Gambaccini and Rod Taylor. By Network Books (BBC Books)
External links
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