You're absolutely spot on about the dread of school and the Sunday night blues. Even now, hearing the music to That's Life, Howard's Way and Spitting Image gives me PTSD. The Newsnight theme instantly sends me back to being a school kid nearly crying in bed as the Theme plays downstairs, knowing soon there will be footsteps as my folks go to to bed and the house will go dark and silent 😂
I think you 2 have messaged the wrong bit.. . Doc Cox was one of the host's on that's life... His music name was Ivor Biggun... Which was perverted and rude songs
mine was surprise surprise with cilla black .It always seemed depressing for me as a child. That line surprise surprise when the unexpected hits you between the eyes......
Absolutely amazing. Sunday Night Dread was a very real and extremely awful part of my life back in those days, and That's Life was its herald. I had no idea that others felt the same. I'm so grateful to have left that, and all the other crappy stuff from the old days, behind me.
I think they ran a Junior version on Saturdays for a while and even the main show was shown on Saturday nights at one point - but it was usually shown on Sundays around half nine - but the starting and finishing time varied! Used to love this show!
I was gutted when I grew up and found out it was the bloke saying sausages and not the dog. I tried to make my oen dog talk when I was a kid after seeing it and was always disappointed. 😅
Watching this was bad enough...but watching it and KNOWING YOU HADN'T DONE YOUR HOMEWORK was really bad. I can look back at it now and laugh, but at the time it was a BIG DEAL!!!
Another highlight from the That's Life annels would be their dogged pursuit of one Peter Foster (then boyfriend of page3 stunner Samantha Fox) and his dodgy slimming pills. Peter Foster resurfaced in the early 00s in connection with Cherie Blair and some dodgy loans.
@@FlyingHeadbutt100 LMAO! Yes, I remember that! Though we should have guessed... As Gareth pointed out Guar Gum is an anagram of "G ur a Mug" Got no shame admitting I LOVED THE SHOW!!!
@@CycolacFan Oh Yes, Very popular topic... If I recall right, Ester Rantzen lost a child to SiD (Sudden Infant Death) or "Cot Death"... So it did hold some personal effect on her. It was also a more serious issue back then... They seem to have lessened since so clearly it had some effect.
I am SO happy to have discovered your channel! The nostalgia is truly EPIC! Thank you for all the memories, both good and bad. The utter SHITE that we used to have to watch due not having the option of anything better!
That's Life! wasn't broadcast at teatime (except for the 1979 Junior That's Life!). Generally it was a late night show broadcast after 9pm on Sundays, though it began in a 10.30pm slot on Saturdays and returned to Saturday night towards the end of its run.
Then after That's Life ended, Esther Rantzen got a BBC2 daytime talk show called er, Esther. Patsy Newey, one of the production team on That's Life, was the editor.
I used to LOVE watching this show with my grandparents, and I'd never have a case of the Sunday night blues, because I'd only ever see it during visits back to the UK on my summer school breaks (I'm half US/UK) - so, no school the next day for me! I'd hear that theme tune and come running! Seriously, there was nothing like this then (or ever since) on US TV. It was quintessentially British, and totally unique. 3 channels (4 later on), snooker/darts/horse racing during the day, open university, the girl with the chalkboard & puppets. Maybe a Norman Wisdom movie on at 10:30am some random morning.etc. And, this show (but also many others) - all fascinating for me, part of such happy summers as a kid in the 70's/80's spent in the UK.
Sunday night dread. The struggle was real! Antiques Roadshow 17:48 , Tenko, Songs of Praise. I still get it sometimes but now I have full access to the biscuit tin. 😂
Sunday night dread last of the summer wine and cheese on toast after a bath ! Then, bedtime . Oh, and I forgot the antiques road show and songs of praise ! The mid eighties
1:45 Really? I remember "That's Life" being late night on a Sunday ("late" being 9pm), on after Mastermind. I don't ever recall it being on during the afternoon/teatime as you've described (I guess that must have been during the first decade of the show). It did ultimately move to saturdays for the final couple years but that was still an evening slot. I especially remember the Gavin Campbell/Doc Cox era and the Benjamin Hardwick story. My favourite thing was the crunching gear changes from bathos to tragedy to innuendo to consumer advice.Also, not to forget their discovery of a mysterious animal known as a "Lirpa Loof" and it's purple poo.
Yes, That’s Life is a weird childhood memory. It was a bizarre show, totally all over the place. It also gave me Sunday night dread. I had no idea that others experienced that terrible feeling.
Having just listened to the phone box story in the You Are Haunted video, watching this straight after jogged a memory I haven't thought about in a long time. As a kid, me and some mates were mucking about in a phone box, around 1990 I guess. We'd dial freephone numbers just for the novelty of making a phone call. It was something to do. We weren't malicious with it, but we'd try and get a bit of a laugh out of it by putting on an accent or something and attempt to prank the call handler in some way. Anyway, Childline was a free number. I repent for my sin, but I dialed it. The call was answered after a short few rings with the softly spoken words "Hello, Childline." and I just froze. With god as my witness, it was Esther Rantzen. Because I didn't speak, she started to coax me into talking, as for all she knew I was a genuine caller who was maybe a little scared to say anything. This was not some kind of recorded greeting, this was a live conversation. I said "Hello?" and she responded. We then had a very short exchange of words, and I told her I'd called the wrong number and hung up. I told my mates it was her, but they didn't really respond much. They must have not believed me, and I can understand why. I don't know why Esther Rantzen was personally answering calls, and I know that people would likely presume that I was mistaken, but all I can say is I'd know her voice anywhere. It was absolutely her. I hoax called Esther Rantzen, and I suppose I blew the opportunity. I am sorry to have wasted Childline's time though.
Man, I actually fell off the frame of a swing, which admittedly isn't what you should be climbing, and cracked my head open. I don't remember anything other than falling off and then being home. Apparently the lollypop lady rushed me to the local hospital. All of 2 weeks later they put that spongy stuff all over the playground. That would have been in 1989 I think
There were certain theme tunes to programmes that will indelibly be linked with the realisation of having to go to school in the morning. That's Life was certainly one of them. Usually shown in the after the 9 o' clock slot on a Sunday night, that was usually the last one before you were sent up the, 'wooden hill.' Showing my age, I can name many shows that the end theme tunes meant bed-time, and not just on Sundays, either. The Goodies and Porridge being a couple that immediately spring to mind. And, for those of us who used to go home for lunch from school, the theme tune to News at One, was the signal to leave home and get your skates on before school started for the afternoon. That's Life had its funny moments, but it was all very formulaic and predictable, especially after it had been on a few years. You got to know what was coming, by who would address the camera next. The film segments were very reminiscent of the articles they used to have in, 'Nationwide.' Particularly the ones were they've visit someone in their home who claimed to have some extraordinary hobby, or a pet that could do some trick or other. Some bloke in Scunthorpe who made an entire 3 piece suite out of nothing but bodily by-products, or a pet pearl gourami that can glug along to Max Bygraves. The usual quirky, non-relevancy you'd expect from, 'normal', members of the public. The iguana that farts in the bathroom is a good one, though.
All I remember from this show was out of nowhere in one episode without warning just showed photos a kid with severe burn scars from a hot kettle this would of been late 80s or mid 90s. Then a few years back Ashens did a Twitch stream of old UK TV shows and some how that episide he picked was that exact same one and no they dint show the scared kid in the credits scroll art. Tarrant on TV had that same Tonal Whiplash too going from funny monkey clip to some graphic PSA's in seconds.
I remember something similar, about a boy who had severe burns to his face, something to do with electrical arching from an electricity pylon. At least there was a warning with that one.
@@therookerybookeryone that springs to mind is an anti smoking advert where a jazz singer smokes while singing, her skin goes tarry and the message was if smoking did the same to your outside as it does to your insides, would you still smoke? Horrifying!
I remember 2 things from That's Life. First was a receipt someone sent if for a copy of The Animals of Farthing Wood that said "The Animals Fart". The other was how, on their last episode, a lady awarded the Woking Toys R Us the dirty nappy award for being the worst shop in Britain. Mostly cos she didn't understand the layout and couldn't find the loos. I worked at that store a few years later. it was a pretty normal shop. the aisles were arranged in groupings quite clearly and the toilets were sign posted and in the back corner where you'd probably expect them to be. No-one at the store remembered the Dirty Nappy award and as far as I'm aware they never got sent one. I would have taken it home with me if they had.
I get a bit giddy when you sing. Your deadpan vocals for your hilarious version of the That’s Life theme had me pissing myself. You’re hilarious and I’m so glad I found your channel! (More Cilla videos by the way pleaseeee 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻)
It was the ITV show Boon on Sunday Nights for me. The intro would start and it was upbeat with him riding a horse like a cowboy but as the intro went on the horse turned into a motorbike and by the time the show had started I realised it was a shit program and the weekend was over and it was school in the morning 😢
Very good and spot on analysis! The episode with Nicholas Winton is still one of the most deeply moving bits of telly, partly because they present such a powerful and emotional moment using the same tropes and methods that they would use to present a story about a cloud that looked like Jim Callaghan.
If you like BBC magazine shows, you might like the short lived Bill Oddie series, "Fax". Full of "Did you know?" type trivia that no one was really that curious about.
When this world is dead and gone, and the winds have blown the soils that cover our corpses into the ether, the only thing that will remain are Esther Rantzen's teeth.
Oh yeah. Doc Cox was so 'great' that he was never heard of again after the show ended, His only 'talent' was being vulgar. Like he said in his childish song, he was a ' wa**ker'.
Love your videos: they're my teen years. Have to say I loved That's Life when I was 13/14 - I saw it as adult and sophisticated (like M*A*S*H and Cheers) and it was some kind of ephemeral bulwark against Monday morning
That's Life was a big part of my Saturday night childhood entertainment in the late 1970s in particular. It was always on before Starsky and Hutch or what US TV cop show the BBC was showing at the time.
I was never allowed to stay up late enough to watch it as it was on around 9pm, but I remember hearing the theme tune from downstairs as I lay there with ‘the dread’😂 I seem to recall as others have said, Songs of Praise and maybe a spot of Ski Sunday with cheese on toast for tea before bath and bed👍
kids still gotta go to school on monday morning... and be taken away from all their video games, phones, tik toks and whatevers. Surely there's some dread there?
I think what made it great for it's time was the satire and the obsurdity with a hint of reality like little britain as a real life documentary but still being a comedy mixed in with some daft older people who gems in themselves who respond with a naive whimsical response
There was always some pillock who'd paid ten quid for a world cruise and was whinging because he hadn't realised he'd be sleeping in a fold-up bed in the boiler room. It was utterly dreadful.
"we rang the electricity board - they said it was nothing to do with us" 🤣. After that brilliant NTNON sketch it was hard to take the show seriously. And never noticed before that by the end of the series esther had morphed into Margaret thatcher
Does anyone remember the sweet old woman who they often bumped into on the street while doing their Vox Pop? I think her name was Annie. She became famous for wanting to taste-test one tipple too many.
Anybody remember the army bloke playing the tune popcorn on his head with a pair of spanners? That was my old man he still nuts lol. Never could find a clip of it..
I actually used to love That's Life! Especially Doc Cox's songs, "Underwater Bingo" and "It Means Something Different There But It's Certainly Not Rude"
The opening theme for Highway 0:45 was banging. A lot more upbeat than the closing credit music on That’s Life that I could never escape hearing from the TV downstairs. Howard’s Way yacht yuppie shag fest to the bottom of the Solent seemed so flash.
That was one of the most genuinely funny stories they told. How they managed to keep it together when showing the result of that cat having been stuffed, I'll never know. Fundamentally, it was a bit of a sad story, but cat's face when it was revealed was comedy gold.
Not The Nine O'Clock News did a good pisstake of this show... Strangely, the Red Dwarf end credit theme still gives me that gutpunch of Sunday Night Dread, though when I watched it as a kid, it was probably on Thursdays or Fridays instead? All I know is that theme meant bedtime, and I'd stroppily insist I had to stay up til the very last note, tearfully fighting for those last seconds to stay up just that tiny bit longer. Fun fun fuuuuuuun 😅
Excellent as always. I thought I remembered someone singing lyrics to the theme song on the programme (yes I am that old) so with a bit of googling I found them on reddit. May I document them here? No? Fair enough, you're not missing much. I'll just point out Keith Chegwin's drag act at 5.34 then.
I'll never forget the beauty cream that was actually Rhinoceros spit. Which gave you a smooth face but the side effect of extra wrinkly knees and elbows. Never been sure if it was all bollocks or not y'know.
I remember them rabbiting on about the controversy of Guar gum. But really, getting to stay up til 10pm to watch a programme with zero cartoons or puppets was a challenge. I was waiting on Spitting Image which I rarely got to see. Because bed.
The show name music thing made me realise how many itv region idents do that…or at least appear to. LW/LWT river - “London weekend, London weekend” LWT blinds “Lon…don weekend, London weekend” ATV ZOOM - ATV, ATV, ATV, ATV! TVS - Te-le-vision south, tvs. Etc
You're absolutely spot on about the dread of school and the Sunday night blues. Even now, hearing the music to That's Life, Howard's Way and Spitting Image gives me PTSD. The Newsnight theme instantly sends me back to being a school kid nearly crying in bed as the Theme plays downstairs, knowing soon there will be footsteps as my folks go to to bed and the house will go dark and silent 😂
To the Manor born was my music of Sunday dread!
I think you 2 have messaged the wrong bit..
.
Doc Cox was one of the host's on that's life...
His music name was Ivor Biggun... Which was perverted and rude songs
@monkeyswift100 No, we just spoke about a feeling this fantastic video provoked in is
mine was surprise surprise with cilla black .It always seemed depressing for me as a child.
That line surprise surprise when the unexpected hits you between the eyes......
The intro theme tune of Raising Damp always reminds me of bath time
Songs of Praise was peak Sunday night dread
Think ITV's 'Highway' did the same
Or Ski Sunday.
The Muppet Show. Always incredibly unfunny.
Miss Marple for me.
There most depressing show on Sunday … it was like music before the execution … ( Monday morning school )
Absolutely amazing. Sunday Night Dread was a very real and extremely awful part of my life back in those days, and That's Life was its herald. I had no idea that others felt the same. I'm so grateful to have left that, and all the other crappy stuff from the old days, behind me.
I remember Sunday night dread. Now I have it 24/7
That’s Life was never on at teatime. It was 9pm, because we had to have our bath before school tomorrow 😊
i was about to comment that , it was Songs of Praise on the BBC and Bullseye on ITV at teatime
Yes, I was going to say the same thing. I used to watch it then go straight to bed. I was too old to be going to bed at teatime!
I think they ran a Junior version on Saturdays for a while and even the main show was shown on Saturday nights at one point - but it was usually shown on Sundays around half nine - but the starting and finishing time varied!
Used to love this show!
I remember it being on even later in the 70s.
@@arthurvasey Gosh - you're right! "Junior That's Life". Had forgotten about that!
"And finally Cyril" was the final nail in the coffin of the weekend.
😆 (creepy man) even as a child he was dodgy!
I still to this day, every single time I go shopping with my son and enter the meat section say “sausages” just like that dog. Every. Single. Time!
I was gutted when I grew up and found out it was the bloke saying sausages and not the dog. I tried to make my oen dog talk when I was a kid after seeing it and was always disappointed. 😅
My dad still says Sausages in a gruff dog voice whenever we have em for tea/family BBQ etc
You're not alone.
What?????@@tonycowin
I spend a disproportionate amount of time (about five minutes per decade) explaining what the 'Sausages' I absent mindedly grunted was all about.
Watching this was bad enough...but watching it and KNOWING YOU HADN'T DONE YOUR HOMEWORK was really bad.
I can look back at it now and laugh, but at the time it was a BIG DEAL!!!
🤣
In ireland our Sunday Night dread show was Glenroe. Moment you heard that intro music the weight of the world was dropped upon your shoulders.
I feel you
Was the moment you realised you had no homework done.
@@29memyselfandi obair Bhaile
@@ghostfires 😆
@@ghostfiresNil aon obair bhaile,a muninteor :(
It never leaves you…I’m 53 ….and still get Sunday night dread….i loved this!
lol same here mate
Another highlight from the That's Life annels would be their dogged pursuit of one Peter Foster (then boyfriend of page3 stunner Samantha Fox) and his dodgy slimming pills. Peter Foster resurfaced in the early 00s in connection with Cherie Blair and some dodgy loans.
Guar gum!
@@FlyingHeadbutt100 LMAO! Yes, I remember that! Though we should have guessed... As Gareth pointed out Guar Gum is an anagram of "G ur a Mug"
Got no shame admitting I LOVED THE SHOW!!!
And cot deaths. It was always something to do with children dying.
@@CycolacFan Oh Yes, Very popular topic... If I recall right, Ester Rantzen lost a child to SiD (Sudden Infant Death) or "Cot Death"... So it did hold some personal effect on her.
It was also a more serious issue back then... They seem to have lessened since so clearly it had some effect.
@@Phoenix2312 Anne Diamond too iirc, though that may have been later.
I am SO happy to have discovered your channel! The nostalgia is truly EPIC! Thank you for all the memories, both good and bad. The utter SHITE that we used to have to watch due not having the option of anything better!
The theme to Ever Decreasing Circles would send into a spiral of despair on Sunday nights.
😆
That's Life! wasn't broadcast at teatime (except for the 1979 Junior That's Life!). Generally it was a late night show broadcast after 9pm on Sundays, though it began in a 10.30pm slot on Saturdays and returned to Saturday night towards the end of its run.
Then after That's Life ended, Esther Rantzen got a BBC2 daytime talk show called er, Esther.
Patsy Newey, one of the production team on That's Life, was the editor.
I had mercifully forgotten about the existence of Doc Cox
Also known as Ivor Biggun
He recorded under the pseudonym ivor biggun
I used to LOVE watching this show with my grandparents, and I'd never have a case of the Sunday night blues, because I'd only ever see it during visits back to the UK on my summer school breaks (I'm half US/UK) - so, no school the next day for me! I'd hear that theme tune and come running! Seriously, there was nothing like this then (or ever since) on US TV. It was quintessentially British, and totally unique. 3 channels (4 later on), snooker/darts/horse racing during the day, open university, the girl with the chalkboard & puppets. Maybe a Norman Wisdom movie on at 10:30am some random morning.etc. And, this show (but also many others) - all fascinating for me, part of such happy summers as a kid in the 70's/80's spent in the UK.
Sunday night dread. The struggle was real! Antiques Roadshow 17:48 , Tenko, Songs of Praise. I still get it sometimes but now I have full access to the biscuit tin. 😂
The theme tune at end of Heartbeat meant “pack your homework/text books for school” for me
Sunday night dread last of the summer wine and cheese on toast after a bath ! Then, bedtime . Oh, and I forgot the antiques road show and songs of praise ! The mid eighties
I just told my other half the same three things ! Last of summer wine, bath, cheese on toast - every Sunday ! 😂 were we living in the same house? 😂
@@scott48k21 hilarious i think bread and cheese was the main stay of 80s children !
The commentor rbr2030 above said the same thing lol...bath and cheese on toast.
That whistling guy was great
I hated last of the Summer wine but made out it was my favourite tv series ever ! i feel better now that this deceit of mine is out there .
This was the woolworths of tv shows
Spot on . This 45 year old agrees wholeheartedly . Highway with Harry Secombe was also a source of doom for me
People who weren't there think the 80's was nothing but cool synth, big hair and neon lights....but mostly it was shite like that's life
It was mostly the 70s.
@@lordprotector3367 it was on from 73 to 94 so you're incorrect
@@leedobson Most of the iconic moments were in the 70s. Didn't watch it in the 80s, so I'm not wrong.
@@lordprotector3367 so because you didn't watch it the show didn't exist for anyone else from 1980 to 1994
Beadles About too!😄
NOt The NIne Oclock news skit on Thats Life is hilarious!
1:45 Really? I remember "That's Life" being late night on a Sunday ("late" being 9pm), on after Mastermind. I don't ever recall it being on during the afternoon/teatime as you've described (I guess that must have been during the first decade of the show). It did ultimately move to saturdays for the final couple years but that was still an evening slot. I especially remember the Gavin Campbell/Doc Cox era and the Benjamin Hardwick story. My favourite thing was the crunching gear changes from bathos to tragedy to innuendo to consumer advice.Also, not to forget their discovery of a mysterious animal known as a "Lirpa Loof" and it's purple poo.
I miss this show, comfy feeling and fun.
That bloke who came on to whistle, I'd swear that's Harry Hill with hair!!!
Yes, That’s Life is a weird childhood memory. It was a bizarre show, totally all over the place. It also gave me Sunday night dread. I had no idea that others experienced that terrible feeling.
Adrian Mills in proto-Partridge form.
Partridge is absolutely based on him
"Is that Terry Gilliam?" Brilliant!!!!
Victor Lewis Smith calling up that's life and talking to Adrian Mills still cracks me up to this day.
Sad news that Victor Lewis Smith passed away today :(
@@B3tanTyronne Another unexpected celebrity bites the dust
@@B3tanTyronne "He was an unfunny, crude, ugly little man"...His critics were less kind, lol.
@@MLB9000 Ahhh, TV Offal... If I ever want to cheer myself up, I'll bung on the Kamikazi Kareoke with Boyzone
ruclips.net/video/VnRv46RUmn8/видео.htmlsi=94uZEzuUcwVy-amD
Having just listened to the phone box story in the You Are Haunted video, watching this straight after jogged a memory I haven't thought about in a long time. As a kid, me and some mates were mucking about in a phone box, around 1990 I guess. We'd dial freephone numbers just for the novelty of making a phone call. It was something to do. We weren't malicious with it, but we'd try and get a bit of a laugh out of it by putting on an accent or something and attempt to prank the call handler in some way. Anyway, Childline was a free number. I repent for my sin, but I dialed it. The call was answered after a short few rings with the softly spoken words "Hello, Childline." and I just froze. With god as my witness, it was Esther Rantzen. Because I didn't speak, she started to coax me into talking, as for all she knew I was a genuine caller who was maybe a little scared to say anything. This was not some kind of recorded greeting, this was a live conversation. I said "Hello?" and she responded. We then had a very short exchange of words, and I told her I'd called the wrong number and hung up. I told my mates it was her, but they didn't really respond much. They must have not believed me, and I can understand why. I don't know why Esther Rantzen was personally answering calls, and I know that people would likely presume that I was mistaken, but all I can say is I'd know her voice anywhere. It was absolutely her. I hoax called Esther Rantzen, and I suppose I blew the opportunity. I am sorry to have wasted Childline's time though.
10/10 anecdote.
You sir are quality…just stumbled upon your channel…can’t get enough of it (in between watching ufo docs obviously 😂)
Please keep up the great work
Unbelievably this was unmissable TV on a Sunday night back in the day.
Looking back it was dreadful! 😂😂
Rantzen and her choppers!
We traded the precious hours of our life for a bad memory.
@@opinion3742 We could have been learning Spanish and be living in Costa Rica right now.
Will she let me listen to my ufo podcasts. You sir, are a genius!
This channel is going to suddenly get boosted by the algorithm and reach the audience it deserves. Less than 10k subs is criminal.
"So we contacted the electricity board, who replied: we're sorry, this has got nothing to do with us!"
Isn't a bogus astrologer just any astrologer?
As I remember That's Life did succeed in one thing and that was getting the concrete in playgrounds replaced with soft tarmac
Yes! I remember that campaign. It was such a daft TV show but it was so right about health and safety 😂
Man, I actually fell off the frame of a swing, which admittedly isn't what you should be climbing, and cracked my head open. I don't remember anything other than falling off and then being home. Apparently the lollypop lady rushed me to the local hospital. All of 2 weeks later they put that spongy stuff all over the playground. That would have been in 1989 I think
There were certain theme tunes to programmes that will indelibly be linked with the realisation of having to go to school in the morning. That's Life was certainly one of them. Usually shown in the after the 9 o' clock slot on a Sunday night, that was usually the last one before you were sent up the, 'wooden hill.' Showing my age, I can name many shows that the end theme tunes meant bed-time, and not just on Sundays, either. The Goodies and Porridge being a couple that immediately spring to mind. And, for those of us who used to go home for lunch from school, the theme tune to News at One, was the signal to leave home and get your skates on before school started for the afternoon.
That's Life had its funny moments, but it was all very formulaic and predictable, especially after it had been on a few years. You got to know what was coming, by who would address the camera next. The film segments were very reminiscent of the articles they used to have in, 'Nationwide.' Particularly the ones were they've visit someone in their home who claimed to have some extraordinary hobby, or a pet that could do some trick or other. Some bloke in Scunthorpe who made an entire 3 piece suite out of nothing but bodily by-products, or a pet pearl gourami that can glug along to Max Bygraves. The usual quirky, non-relevancy you'd expect from, 'normal', members of the public. The iguana that farts in the bathroom is a good one, though.
That's Life was hitting us with dank memes years before they'd been invented.
That's life was spot on and bloody British humour. Great show great TV era.
The theme from antiques roadshow still paralyses me with a case of the howling phantods.
All I remember from this show was out of nowhere in one episode without warning just showed photos a kid with severe burn scars from a hot kettle this would of been late 80s or mid 90s. Then a few years back Ashens did a Twitch stream of old UK TV shows and some how that episide he picked was that exact same one and no they dint show the scared kid in the credits scroll art.
Tarrant on TV had that same Tonal Whiplash too going from funny monkey clip to some graphic PSA's in seconds.
I remember something similar, about a boy who had severe burns to his face, something to do with electrical arching from an electricity pylon. At least there was a warning with that one.
Tarrant on TV used to scare the shit out of me because of that.
I thought I was the only one shit up by Tarrant on TV 😅
@@therookerybookeryone that springs to mind is an anti smoking advert where a jazz singer smokes while singing, her skin goes tarry and the message was if smoking did the same to your outside as it does to your insides, would you still smoke? Horrifying!
I've been watching your videos over the last few weeks and you are one of the funniest Vloggers I've watched.
Loved the show back then .....we'll wait and see what the future brings out about a certain cast member when they are gone.....
I remember 2 things from That's Life. First was a receipt someone sent if for a copy of The Animals of Farthing Wood that said "The Animals Fart". The other was how, on their last episode, a lady awarded the Woking Toys R Us the dirty nappy award for being the worst shop in Britain. Mostly cos she didn't understand the layout and couldn't find the loos. I worked at that store a few years later. it was a pretty normal shop. the aisles were arranged in groupings quite clearly and the toilets were sign posted and in the back corner where you'd probably expect them to be. No-one at the store remembered the Dirty Nappy award and as far as I'm aware they never got sent one. I would have taken it home with me if they had.
I get a bit giddy when you sing. Your deadpan vocals for your hilarious version of the That’s Life theme had me pissing myself. You’re hilarious and I’m so glad I found your channel! (More Cilla videos by the way pleaseeee 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻)
Esther Rantzens favorite drink you ask?
A small aperitif.
The main purpose of watching this show was evading homework
I bet you still haven't done your homework 4 decades later. 🤨
In my dreams l have never done my homework 😨
As a hormonal teensger this was not why I watched that's life
@@467Thiundercatxt3cb you fancied Esther rantzen?
You still had to do it, though, unless you were inventive and used the excuse why you didn't hand it in the next day, on your dog having eaten it.
It was the ITV show Boon on Sunday Nights for me. The intro would start and it was upbeat with him riding a horse like a cowboy but as the intro went on the horse turned into a motorbike and by the time the show had started I realised it was a shit program and the weekend was over and it was school in the morning 😢
Banger of a tune though
Love this channel - something to show when someone says it was better in the old days
Esther Rantzen was on a train I was working once. She went to Ludlow. It was probably one of the events in my career.
I was a toddler when this started so I thought it was called "Dad's Life" and Cyril was Dad. Baffled me. But I grew to love it.
@4:13 So _that's_ why Esther has been wandering around snogging everyone in sight for the last few months!
Very good and spot on analysis! The episode with Nicholas Winton is still one of the most deeply moving bits of telly, partly because they present such a powerful and emotional moment using the same tropes and methods that they would use to present a story about a cloud that looked like Jim Callaghan.
If you like BBC magazine shows, you might like the short lived Bill Oddie series, "Fax". Full of "Did you know?" type trivia that no one was really that curious about.
Sounds awful. I was searching for it within 0.5 seconds of reading this comment.
Remember that…. What a play on words for time😂
When this world is dead and gone, and the winds have blown the soils that cover our corpses into the ether, the only thing that will remain are Esther Rantzen's teeth.
Best part of my month when these videos come out.
Thank you. I'd forgotten how naff the past was. Although I feel like Ant and Dec are keeping the tradition alive and...um, ill?
It was Awesome!!! 😂
I thought Doc Cox was Great, and my brother introduced me into his alter ego musical career..😂
Oh yeah. Doc Cox was so 'great' that he was never heard of again after the show ended, His only 'talent' was being vulgar. Like he said in his childish song, he was a ' wa**ker'.
@@k.avilla8061 I was 6 at the time😂
Love your videos: they're my teen years. Have to say I loved That's Life when I was 13/14 - I saw it as adult and sophisticated (like M*A*S*H and Cheers) and it was some kind of ephemeral bulwark against Monday morning
Was certain that the Whistling Man was going to throw in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em for some sort of mash-up
That's Life was a big part of my Saturday night childhood entertainment in the late 1970s in particular. It was always on before Starsky and Hutch or what US TV cop show the BBC was showing at the time.
I was never allowed to stay up late enough to watch it as it was on around 9pm, but I remember hearing the theme tune from downstairs as I lay there with ‘the dread’😂 I seem to recall as others have said, Songs of Praise and maybe a spot of Ski Sunday with cheese on toast for tea before bath and bed👍
Ski Sunday ! I remember that a lot!!
Mate the editing on your videos is outstanding. Hilarious! Hats off to you.
The Sunday night dread was a real thing. Something kids don't get these days.
How do you know?
kids still gotta go to school on monday morning... and be taken away from all their video games, phones, tik toks and whatevers. Surely there's some dread there?
I think what made it great for it's time was the satire and the obsurdity with a hint of reality like little britain as a real life documentary but still being a comedy mixed in with some daft older people who gems in themselves who respond with a naive whimsical response
They didn't get that crash-test film specially made. It was from a public information film of a good few years prior, narrated, IIRC, by Wendy Craig.
There was always some pillock who'd paid ten quid for a world cruise and was whinging because he hadn't realised he'd be sleeping in a fold-up bed in the boiler room. It was utterly dreadful.
"we rang the electricity board - they said it was nothing to do with us" 🤣. After that brilliant NTNON sketch it was hard to take the show seriously. And never noticed before that by the end of the series esther had morphed into Margaret thatcher
'Cyril....'
Pamela Stephenson held down with tent pegs…..
“Cyriiiiiiillllll…”
I’m from the US and I’m pretty sure we had something similar but I don’t remember
Does anyone remember the sweet old woman who they often bumped into on the street while doing their Vox Pop? I think her name was Annie. She became famous for wanting to taste-test one tipple too many.
lol I shared a Christmas carol book with the curly-haired dude from That's Life in Nottingham city square in around 1984
Anybody remember the army bloke playing the tune popcorn on his head with a pair of spanners? That was my old man he still nuts lol. Never could find a clip of it..
Rantzen definitely acquired the Thatcher look and style in the 80s.
I think she was an admirer of her.
I actually used to love That's Life! Especially Doc Cox's songs, "Underwater Bingo" and "It Means Something Different There But It's Certainly Not Rude"
That Bottom insert (Ooh-err) was genius. A niche reference for the ages.
The Esther Rantzen!
2:53 The Esther Rantzen, because it pulls your gums back over your teeth
I literally came here to comment the same thing..what do we win?
Suffered Sunday blues until my mid 30's ..then quit everything and became a roadie for a band, never known what day it is since...
Grant was the spitting image of INXSs Kirk Pengilly, during their 1980s era
The opening theme for Highway 0:45 was banging. A lot more upbeat than the closing credit music on That’s Life that I could never escape hearing from the TV downstairs. Howard’s Way yacht yuppie shag fest to the bottom of the Solent seemed so flash.
Thats Life inventing auditing of traffic wardens there. This video is a work of art, and earned a sub for sure.
My favourite That's Life moment (apart from Esther getting arrested on camera) was the stuffed cat....
Nice that the dearly departed cat was beautifully replaced
That was one of the most genuinely funny stories they told. How they managed to keep it together when showing the result of that cat having been stuffed, I'll never know. Fundamentally, it was a bit of a sad story, but cat's face when it was revealed was comedy gold.
I nearly got up and left the room when the theme tune came on just like I did back then.
Nightmarish and uncomfortable yet faintly nostalgic and welcoming. The 80s; no one escaped unharmed.
James Acaster's dad at 10:03
Not The Nine O'Clock News did a good pisstake of this show...
Strangely, the Red Dwarf end credit theme still gives me that gutpunch of Sunday Night Dread, though when I watched it as a kid, it was probably on Thursdays or Fridays instead? All I know is that theme meant bedtime, and I'd stroppily insist I had to stay up til the very last note, tearfully fighting for those last seconds to stay up just that tiny bit longer. Fun fun fuuuuuuun 😅
Excellent as always. I thought I remembered someone singing lyrics to the theme song on the programme (yes I am that old) so with a bit of googling I found them on reddit. May I document them here?
No?
Fair enough, you're not missing much. I'll just point out Keith Chegwin's drag act at 5.34 then.
I just googled those so-called 'official' lyrics, and I have to say, not enough mentions of Dignitas for my liking.
Well. I never expected an unironic “full blown AIDs” from Esther.
"ahh, that explains why I'm 1000 years old". Dude, you're so funny.
"I'm sorry, this has nothing to do with us"
😂😂😂
Not the 9 o’clock news captured it perfectly.
Early Victoria Wood sketch shows clearly took a lot of inspiration from That’s Life presenters
I always remember the loof lirpa bit they did we the 'newly discovered' creature in the zoo.
Ah, yes, I thought that "April Fool" was a real creature 😳
I'll never forget the beauty cream that was actually Rhinoceros spit. Which gave you a smooth face but the side effect of extra wrinkly knees and elbows. Never been sure if it was all bollocks or not y'know.
I remember knowing that after That’s life, the TV would affectively close down, almost telling you to go to bed, ready for work in the morning!.
Oh and Last of the Summer Wine. Big time existential dread
Too right, as soon as the poirot tune started the cloud of impending doom for school was upon me.😩
"Child Michael Jacksons"
😂😂😂
Subday nights were Bullseye , Highway, songs of praise ,last of the summer wine, Bath Time, thats life then Hale and Pace was on...
I remember them rabbiting on about the controversy of Guar gum. But really, getting to stay up til 10pm to watch a programme with zero cartoons or puppets was a challenge. I was waiting on Spitting Image which I rarely got to see. Because bed.
If I see guar gum on a list of ingredients, I get flashbacks
Head and shoulders above a lot of the bilge on reality TV now.
The show name music thing made me realise how many itv region idents do that…or at least appear to.
LW/LWT river - “London weekend, London weekend”
LWT blinds “Lon…don weekend, London weekend”
ATV ZOOM - ATV, ATV, ATV, ATV!
TVS - Te-le-vision south, tvs.
Etc