''The Cannon and Ball Show'' was a successful comedy variety show on ITV featuring the double act comprising

Tommy Cannon Thomas Derbyshire (born 27 June 1938), known professionally as Tommy Cannon, is an English comic, actor and singer. He is best known as the straight man of the comic double act Cannon and Ball, until Bobby Ball's death in 2020, in TV programme ...

and

Bobby Ball Robert Harper (28 January 1944 – 28 October 2020), known professionally as Bobby Ball, was a British comic, actor, singer and television host. He was best known as a member of the comic double act Cannon and Ball, with Tommy Cannon (Thomas ...

. The pair were booked to perform on seven episodes of ''

Bruce Forsyth's Big Night ''Bruce Forsyth's Big Night'' is a TV show screened on ITV on Saturday nights in late 1978. It starred Bruce Forsyth. 12 episodes were broadcast between 7 October and 31 December 1978. Two further one-off specials were shown on 4 April 1980 and 2 ...

'', but not all of their segments were screened, as producers were trying to shore up ratings and decided to give Forsyth more air time instead. During this time, LWT's then director of programmes

Michael Grade Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, (born 8 March 1943) is an English television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 ( ...

watched the dropped clips and decided to give the pair their own television series. Cannon & Ball's first regular television series was filmed by

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

and lasted nine years, until December 1988. After the series ended, the pair went on to ''

Cannon and Ball's Casino ''Cannon and Ball's Casino'' (also known as ''Casino'') was a short-lived variety programme hosted by the veteran comedy team of Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. It was described as part comedy-show, part game-show and aired on Saturday evening at ...

'', a Saturday-night game show for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

in 1990, and ''

Plaza Patrol ''Plaza Patrol'' is a short-lived 1991 British television sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. S ...

'', also for Yorkshire Television.

Transmission details

* Series One: 6 episodes: 28 July & 4 Aug 1979; 26 Oct – 16 Nov 1979 * Series Two: 7 episodes: 11 April – 23 May 1980 * Series Three: 6 episodes: 25 April – 30 May 1981 * Series Four: 6 episodes: 8 May-12 June 1982 * Series Five: 6 episodes: 3 Dec 1983 – 21 Jan 1984 * Series Six: 6 episodes: 13 October – 17 Nov 1984 * Series Seven: 6 episodes 26 April – 31 May 1986 * Series Eight: 6 episodes 10 January – 14 Feb 1987 * Series Nine: 6 episodes: 28 May – 2 July 1988

Specials

* Christmas Special: Saturday 20 December 1980 * Cannon and Ball at Drury Lane: Saturday 2 January 1982 * Easter Special: Saturday 2 April 1983 * Christmas Cannon and Ball: Saturday 21 December 1985 * Christmas Special Saturday 27 December 1986 * The Cannon and Ball Show Special – 2 Jan 1988 * Christmas Special: Saturday 24 December 1988 (This special was made by Yorkshire Television)

References

External links

*
Ftvdb.bfi.org.ukFtvdb.bfi.org.uk
1979 British television series debuts 1988 British television series endings 1970s British television sketch shows 1980s British comedy television series ITV comedy London Weekend Television shows Television series by ITV Studios {{UK-tv-prog-stub