''Tonight's the Night'' is a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

light entertainment Light entertainment encompasses a broad range of television and radio programming that includes comedies, variety shows, game shows, quiz shows and the like. In the UK In the early days of the BBC, virtually all broadcast entertainment would b ...

television programme which was shown on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

from 18 April 2009 to 3 December 2011, presented by actor and singer

John Barrowman John Scot Barrowman MBE (born 11 March 1967) is a Scottish-American actor, author, presenter, singer and comic book writer. He is known for his roles as Captain Jack Harkness in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2010; 2020–2021) and its spin-off ''Torc ...

Format

The show is based around making audience members' wishes come true, featuring ordinary people living out their fantasies for real. There are no rules as to who can appear on the show; it features ordinary members of the public nominated by friends who think they have a hidden talent or other special reason. Every guest has the help of Barrowman and other celebrity guests. The studio audience are also involved in the show, as John surprises unsuspecting members of the public, making their wishes come true on the night even if they hadn't signed up for the show. It contains at its heart elements of classic 1980s entertainment shows, such as '' Surprise, Surprise'', ''

Jim'll Fix It ''Jim'll Fix It'' is a British television series broadcast by the BBC, presented by Jimmy Savile and running for almost two decades, between May 1975 and July 1994. Devised by Bill Cotton, the show encouraged children to write a letter to Savi ...

'', and ''

Beadle's About ''Beadle's About'' was a British television programme hosted and written by Jeremy Beadle, where members of the public became victims of practical jokes behind hidden cameras. It was produced by LWT for ITV, and ran on Saturday nights from 22 N ...

''.

Transmissions

''Doctor Who'' Sketch

A short ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' sketch aired as part of the 23 May 2009 episode. It featured

reprising his role as

Jack Harkness Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in ''Doctor Who'' and its spin-off series, '' Torchwood''. The character first appears in the 2005 ''Doctor Who'' episode " The Empty Child" and subsequently features in t ...

David Tennant David John Tennant (; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the Tenth Doctor, tenth and Fourteenth Doctor, fourteenth incarnations of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction series ''Docto ...

as himself, and competition winner Tim Ingham as alien Sao Til. In the short, set on the

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...

, Barrowman and Ingham alternate between playing their characters and playing themselves as actors on the TARDIS set.

International versions

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tonight's The Night (Tv Series) BBC television game shows 2009 British television series debuts 2011 British television series endings BBC high definition shows British English-language television shows