This Is Your Life

This Is Your Life was a television show hosted by Ralph Edwards, first broadcast in the United States from 1952 to 1961.

The show was exported to several countries, including the United Kingdom, where it was launched in 1955 on the BBC and was presented by Eamonn Andrews (who also ended up being the very first "victim"). It moved to ITV in 1969, and Michael Aspel (himself a "victim" in 1980 (http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/itvlondon/thames/progs/thisisyourlife1980s.rm)) became presenter after Andrews died in 1988. It returned to the BBC in 1993, and was axed in 2003.

The format of the show was simple: the host would ambush a celebrity or public figure, present them with a 'red book', and then conduct a biography of them in a television studio.

Guests on the UK version included Muhammed Ali, Joan Collins, Shirley Bassey, Bill Oddie, George Best, Spike Milligan, and Barbara Windsor. Only three people have turned down the 'red book' in the history of the show: footballer Danny Blanchflower in the 1950s, author Richard Gordon (of "Doctor in the House" fame) in 1974 and Bill Oddie (The Goodies) in 2001.

This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it (http://www.mywiseowl.com/index.php?title=This_Is_Your_Life&action=edit).

Retrieved from "http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/This_Is_Your_Life"

This page has been accessed 208 times. This page was last modified 07:32, 19 Nov 2004. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).