It'll be Alright on the Night
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It'll be Alright on the Night was a long-running British television bloopers show screened on ITV and produced by London Weekend Television. It was one of the first shows created with the specific purpose of showing behind the scenes bloopers from film and TV, and ran from September 18, 1977, to March 18, 2006. It was presented by Denis Norden.
The show is reportedly set to return this year, with Paul Merton hosting.
Contents |
[edit] Format
The show, which was one hour in length, usually aired on a Saturday evening entertainment slot. However, some of the first few episodes up to and including It'll Be Alright on the Night 6, which aired in 1990, originally went out on a Sunday evening. Two episodes also debuted on a Friday: It'll Be Alright on the Night 3, on Christmas Day 1981, and It'll Be Alright on the Night 5 (as It'll Be Alright on Christmas Night) on Christmas Day 1987.
The shows followed a simple format. Norden, who was always shown with his trademark clipboard in hand, appeared on an otherwise empty stage and delivered a humorous piece to camera, which would then be followed by a selection of outtakes taken from various sources. Popular sources for clips included numerous British and Amercian sitcoms, news reports and foreign broadcasts which may or may not have included explanatory subtitles.
[edit] Episodes
Despite being a staple of ITV's light entertainment programming for nearly 30 years, comparatively few episodes of It'll be Alright on the Night were produced, with rarely more than one new episode a year being screened. Episodes included a number in their title screens to aid identification with the audience. The last new episode to be aired was It'll be Alright on the Night 20, which was aired in 2006.
During its run, several special episodes were also made, including anniversary specials, "late night" versions with less family-friendly content and a one-off 2001 election edition.
The majority of the episodes were filmed at The London Studios, but in the show's later years, Granada's studios in Manchester were also used, as well as the now-closed Meridian Broadcasting studios at Northam, Southampton. A few episodes were filmed on-location; most notably, Alright on the Night's Cockup Trip which was presented from the Great Cockup fell in the Lake District, and It'll Be Alright on the Night 11 which was presented from an empty Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
During its run, the series has had three main producers: Paul Lewis (1977-1984), Paul Smith (1984-2002) and Simon Withington (2003-2006). Sean Miller and James Sunderland also produced some episodes.
The series also inspired the spin-off show Denis Norden's Laughter File, which started in 1991. Although it followed largely the same format as its sister show, while It'll be Alright on the Night focused solely on bloopers/outtakes, Laughter File also screened clips that included pranks, practical jokes and content which was just plain odd.
[edit] Broadcast
The original dates of broadcast of each edition are given below:
Regular editions
- It'll Be Alright on the Night (September 1977)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 2 (October 1979)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 3 (December 1981)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 4 (November 1984)
- It'll Be Alright on Christmas Night (December 1987) - billed as It'll Be Alright on the Night 5 for all subsequent repeats
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 6 (December 1990)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 7 (January 1993)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 8 (December 1994)
- Alright on the Night's Cockup Trip (October 1996) - although billed as a special it was actually an all-new edition
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 10 (November 1997)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 11 (October 1999)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 12 (January 2001)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 13 (August 2001)
- More Kids from It'll Be Alright on the Night (September 2002) - although billed as a special it was actually an all-new edition
- it'll Be Alright on the Night 15 (September 2002) - billed as Alright on the Night's Silver Jubilee Special on its first broadcast
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 16 (September 2003)
- Alright on the Night's All-Star Special (August 2003)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 18 (September 2004)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 19 (December 2004)
- It'll Be Alright on the Night 20 (March 2006)
Specials
- The Worst of Alright on the Night (September 1980)
- It'll Be Alright Late at Night (July 1985) - originally first broadcast on Channel 4
- The Second Worst of Alright on the Night (November 1985) - featured special guest Rory Bremner as the "It'll Be Alright on the Night Selection Committee"
- 10 Years of Alright on the Night (December 1988)
- The Utterly Worst of Alright on the Night (April 1994)
- The Kids from Alright on the Night (November 1994)
- 21 Years of Alright on the Night (January 1998)
- It'll Be Alright on Election Night (June 2001)
- Alright on the Night's 50 Years of ITV (September 2005)
