That's Life!

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That's Life! was a magazine-style television series on BBC between 1973 and 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen throughout the entire run, with various changes of co-presenters. The show was generally recorded about an hour prior to transmission on Saturday and, later, Sunday nights.

1 Format
2 Origins
3 Criticisms
4 Co-presenters
5 References

[edit] Format

The original purpose of the programme was consumer protection, particularly safety issues. The importance of wearing seat belts, for example, was illustrated before attitudes supporting their use became widespread. Britain's telephone helpline for children, ChildLine, was developed by Rantzen following items on the programme. Awareness for the need for child organ transplants was increased through the 1985 death of Ben Hardwick, a toddler whose liver disease was followed by the show. In tribute, Marti Webb released a version of Michael Jackson's 'Ben'.

The programme also featured less serious items, which over time grew in number. These included the 'Jobsworth,' exposing companies and authorities who had implemented obscure regulations and policies causing more grievances than they aimed to correct. In another feature, Heap of the Week, viewers would write in regarding annoying unreliable domestic appliances and other failed items,which would then be disposed of in destructive ways to the delight of their owners.

The show was also infamous for showcasing abnormally shaped vegetables, "odd odes" (humorous poems), performing pets (memorably, a dog able to "say" "sausages" and "Esther"!), and street interviews with members of the public. There were also musical interludes from performers such as Jake Thackray, Victoria Wood, Doc Cox, and occasionally Grant Baynham. Baynham had several buckets of water thrown over him in several live programmes after Rantzen had apparently objected to him smoking, much to his considerable chagrin; on his final show, he got his own back by doing the same to Esther.

Presenters often left the confines of the studio for various stunts; Esther was arrested during one vox pop for apparently obstructing the pavement. The incident was broadcast in its entirety, along with Esther being driven away in a police van and the crowd's humorously cheering her arrest.

The co-presenters added extra personality to the show. They were all men and were popularly nicknamed "Esther's nancies" (as they were mostly young and effeminate — A "nancy" or "nancy boy" being British slang for an effeminate man or homosexual). They would dramatise cases by each reading the dialogue of a 'character.' This resulted in hilarity during less-serious cases when they attempted to imitate foreign accents; Adrian Mills was famously unable to perform in a Spanish accent in an unrehearsed item.

In 1993 Taxi driver Tom Morton who knew over 16,000 telephone numbers in Lancashire beat the British Olympia Telephone Exchange computer with his recall.The interviewer, Adrian Mills, said he had never seen anything like it.[1]

A cartoon strip, drawn by Rod Jordon, featuring items from that edition accompanied the closing credits.

The very last edition was named That's Life All Over, and was predominantly a highlight show.

[edit] Origins

According to the Guinness Television Encyclopaedia, the BBC conceived the programme as a replacement for the similar Braden's Week, hosted by Bernard Braden between 1968 and 1972. Rantzen was a reporter on this show, while her husband, Desmond Wilcox, was an editor. Braden was dismissed when he appeared in an advert on ITV, leading to the introduction of That's Life! a year later.

[edit] Criticisms

Over time the programme increasingly concentrated on sentimental, light and humorous items - particularly after being taken to court by a doctor it tried to discredit and landing the BBC with huge litigation costs (estimated at £1.2 million in a Guardian article) - and featured and appealed to old age pensioners. The public hence became increasingly polarized between those who loved the programme, and those who loathed both it and its presenter Esther Rantzen. The latter camp included Victor Lewis-Smith, who made some hoax phone calls to the programme, sometimes referring to Rantzen as 'Teeth' after her most prominent feature.