''Tonight at the London Palladium'' is a British television

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

that is hosted from the London Palladium theatre in the West End. Originally produced by ATV for the ITV network from 1955 to 1969, it went by its original name ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' from 25 September 1955 until the name was changed to ''The London Palladium Show'' from 1966 to 2 February 1969. It underwent three revivals, first from 28 October 1973 to 28 October 1974 where it retained its ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' title, second in 2000 under the title ''Tonight at the London Palladium'', and third from 2014 until 2015 under the title ''Sunday Night at the Palladium'', dropping ''London''. From 2016, the show is called ''Tonight at the London Palladium'' and is presented by

Bradley Walsh Bradley John Walsh (born 4 June 1960) is an English actor, comedian, singer, television presenter, and former professional footballer. Walsh is known for his roles as Danny Baldwin in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2004–2006), a ...

. A one-off ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' was screened to mark

Bruce Forsyth Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series ''Sunday Nigh ...

's 70th birthday in February 1998.

History

The regular hosts of the show were

Tommy Trinder Thomas Edward Trinder CBE (24 March 1909 – 10 July 1989) was an English stage, screen and radio comedian whose catchphrase was "You lucky people!". Described by cultural historian Matthew Sweet as "a cocky, front-of-cloth variety turn", he w ...

(1955–1958),

(1958–1960 and 1961–1964), Don Arrol (1960–1961), Norman Vaughan (1962–1965, 1974),

Jimmy Tarbuck James Joseph Tarbuck (born 6 February 1940) is an English comedian, singer, actor, entertainer and game show host. He was a host of ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' in the mid-1960s, and hosted numerous game shows and quiz shows on ITV ...

(1965–1967),

Jim Dale Jim Dale (born James Smith; 15 August 1935) is an English actor, composer, director, narrator, singer and songwriter. In the United Kingdom he is known as a pop singer of the 1950s who became a leading actor at the National Theatre. In Britis ...

(1973–1974) and Ted Rogers (1974). Other guest comperes were:

Hughie Green Hugh Hughes Green (2 February 1920 – 3 May 1997) was an English radio and television presenter, game show host and actor. Early life Green was born in Marylebone, London, to a Scottish father, Hugh Aitchison Green, a former British Army offic ...

Alfred Marks Alfred Edward Marks OBE (born Alfred Edward Touchinsky; 28 January 19211 July 1996) was a British actor and comedian. In his 60-year career, he played dramatic and comedy roles in numerous television programmes, stage shows and films. His self-t ...

, Robert Morley,

Arthur Haynes Arthur Haynes (14 May 1914 – 19 November 1966) was an English comedian and star of ''The Arthur Haynes Show'', a comedy sketch series produced by ATV from 1956

Dickie Henderson Richard Matthew Michael Henderson, OBE (30 October 1922 – 22 September 1985) was an English entertainer. Early years He was born in London. His father, Dick Henderson (1891–1958), was a music hall comedian and singer famous for his ...

, Dave Allen,

Des O'Connor Desmond Bernard O'Connor (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. He was a long-time TV chat-show host, beginning with ''The Des O'Connor Show'' in 1963, which ran for ten years. He a ...

Bob Monkhouse Robert Alan Monkhouse (1 June 1928 – 29 December 2003) was an English comedian, writer and actor. He was the host of television game shows including '' The Golden Shot'', ''Celebrity Squares'', ''Family Fortunes'' and '' ''Wipeout'. Earl ...

and

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 19 ...

. The first ever show was compered by

with

Gracie Fields Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was an English actress, singer, comedian and star of cinema and music hall who was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the hi ...

and Guy Mitchell being the night's big guests. The programme was one of ITV's most watched, reaching its biggest audience in January 1960 while

was the host, in an edition featuring

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

and the Shadows, watched by more than 20 million people. However, according to the book ''Television's Greatest Hits'' written and researched by Paul Gambaccini and Rod Taylor the biggest viewing audience was 9.7 million in 1964 (although this would have been homes, rather than viewers, as this was the way British television viewing figures were recorded at the time). This was on Sunday 19 April when Bruce Forsyth introduced

the Bachelors The Bachelors were a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland, but primarily based in the United Kingdom. They had several international hits during the 1960s, including eight top-ten singles in the UK between 1963 and 1966. Car ...

Hope and Keen Mike Hope (born Michael Gerard Harrison; 17 June 1935 – 12 April 2019) and Albie Keen (born Thomas Albert Henry Harrison; 4 June 1935 – 2 March 2020) were a British comedy double act. They were first cousins, the sons of British Var ...

and Frank Ifield with the Pamela Devis Dancers. After the Tiller Girls and the lesser acts in the first part was a game show imported from America, ''

Beat the Clock ''Beat the Clock'' is an American television game show that involves people trying to complete challenges to win prizes while faced with a time limit. The show was a creation of Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. The show began on radio as ...

'', the format of which was rather like Bruce Forsyth's later hit in ''

The Generation Game ''The Generation Game'' is a British game show produced by the BBC in which four teams of two people from the same family, but different generations, compete to win prizes. The game There are eight competitors, hence the catchphrase "Let's m ...

''. It featured couples having to perform a trick or stunt, like even changing clothes (previously put on, on top of their ordinary clothes) with each other within a set time. If a couple could complete both stunts, the wife must rearrange words stuck to a magnetic board and people had to "arrange them into a well known phrase or saying" in 30 seconds. If she succeeded, the couple won a major prize. Whenever a bell rang, the couple who played at that time would play a jackpot stunt for a cash bonus worth £100 for each week since the last jackpot win. The second part of the show was where the big stars shone. It featured many top people over the years including

Bill Haley William John Clifton Haley (; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was an American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-sel ...

rocking around the clock,

Chubby Checker Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans; October 3, 1941) is an American rock and roll singer and dancer. He is widely known for popularizing many dance styles, including The Twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard & The Midni ...

who introduced the "new dance" the ''

Twist Twist may refer to: In arts and entertainment Film, television, and stage * ''Twist'' (2003 film), a 2003 independent film loosely based on Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist'' * ''Twist'' (2021 film), a 2021 modern rendition of ''Olive ...

'' to the country with a whole stage full of people dancing the Twist and Sammy Davis, Jr. met the Tiller Girls in 1961. Other star guests included:

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...

Johnnie Ray John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and bl ...

Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...

, Petula Clark, the Seekers, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Italian mouse puppet Topo Gigio came back a number of times. The Beatles' publicist Tony Barrow said that after the band's first appearance on the show on 13 October 1963,

Beatlemania Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By ...

took off in the UK. The show always ended using the huge revolving stage where the Tiller Girls, the compere and that night's guests stood on it as it slowly turned around to the familiar end tune of the show. A famous episode took place in 1961 during a strike by the British acting union Equity, who refused to allow its performers to appear that week. Exempt from this, Bruce Forsyth and comedian

Norman Wisdom Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010) was an English actor, comedian, musician and singer best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring a hapless onscreen character often called Norman ...

performed the entire show themselves. In 1967, the head of ATV, Lew Grade, axed the show. The reasons for this remain obscure, but Grade later said that axing the series was a mistake.

Revivals

First revival (1973–1974)

This revival was hosted by Jim Dale and Ted Rogers, with each episode being broadcast live. Two episodes were cancelled mid-broadcast due, apparently to a reported bomb scare. One of these, hosted by Jim Dale, was broadcast for the first time on Talking Pictures UK on Sunday 3 May 2020. At the end a caption stated that this episode was never broadcast and was missing most of the graphics due to a bomb scare with cuts from previous shows being used to fill in the time.

Second revival (1998)

A one-off edition of ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' was broadcast on 15 March 1998, to celebrate Bruce Forsyth's 70th birthday. It included appearances by

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

and

Joe Longthorne Joseph Patrick Daniel Longthorne (31 May 1955 – 3 August 2019) was an English singer and impressionist. He performed on stage and television, and released three platinum albums. Longthorne started his TV career at the age of fourteen when h ...

Third revival (2000)

The format of ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' was revived in 2000 as ''Tonight at the London Palladium'' and was fronted by

. It was pre-recorded and aired on Friday evenings. The series was not a ratings success.

Fourth revival (2010)

On 29 August 2010, ''Gareth Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' was performed by the staff of the theatre as a one-off commemorative show for the centenary of the Palladium.

Fifth revival (2014–2017)

A further revival in 2014, called ''Sunday Night at the Palladium'' began airing on ITV from 14 September 2014. The series aired for six episodes. On 19 October 2014, it was announced that the show had been recommissioned for a second revived series. This series began airing on 3 May 2015 for five episodes. Presenters of the revived series have included

Jimmy Carr James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer, and actor. He is known for his deadpan delivery of controversial one-liners and distinctive laugh, for which he has been both praised and criti ...

and

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', as well as the morning show on Classic FM. He is ...

. From the third series onwards, it was renamed as ''Tonight at the London Palladium''. The third series began airing on 13 April 2016. Episodes aired on Wednesday evenings and were presented by

. Comedian Joe Pasquale featured in the series.

Peter Andre Peter Andre (born Peter James Andrea, 27 February 1973) is an English-Australian singer and television personality of Australian descent. Andre gained popularity as a singer, best known for his singles " Mysterious Girl" and " Flava". He is al ...

also appeared in all episodes during the series. This series featured two old lady puppet characters called Alice and Audrey who worked at the venue's kiosk, which were designed and built by Puppets Magic Studio for ITV. Following the ratings success of the series, ''Tonight at the London Palladium'' returned for a fourth series on 19 April 2017: the puppets were in the Royal Box and called Ruby and Pearl.

Transmissions

Episodes

=2014

=2015

=2016

=2017

Archive status

Very few episodes survive of the earliest versions of this series, including the 1973–1974 revival, though surviving episodes of ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' are being repeated by

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 ...

as of 2021. (For a general overview of the potential reasons for this, see Wiping.)

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2019 1950s British television series 1960s British television series 1970s British television series 2000s British television series 1955 British television series debuts 2017 British television series endings English-language television shows Television shows produced by Associated Television (ATV) London Weekend Television shows Television series by ITV Studios British television series revived after cancellation