The Story Of Light Entertainment...

But some people did take that risk.... and it ended in tears: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_TV

Just because lots of people watch a documentary about it doesn't mean that they want to see 'traditional' entertainment come back into the mainstream, it just means that they like nostalgic documentaries

Ah, but with all the love in the world to one of my friends, the very talented Richard Digance, who was one of the directors of Sound, whilst his heart was well and truly in the right place, it wasn't (tactfully put) PARTICULARLY well done... Mainly due to a total lack of any kind of push, plus having a budget of £8.50 an hour, and it LOOKING that way too.

That said, a great fortune doesn't need to be spent to come up with something decent. And terrestrial TV does have the finances to put something more than acceptable together.

As for people watching it just for nostalgic reasons; totally disagree. Everyone who watched it must have ended up hankering for the return to more traditional fayre... Not to name any one show that performed badly at the weekend, but I guarantee that if Cannon and Ball had made a one-off special and it had been shown last Saturday, it would have got more than 1.7m viewers...

You're not wrong! Other key words include:

Spiky hair
Rectangular specs with dark frames
Suits but no ties

And all the other artefacts beloved of the ladder-climbers who run so much of TV.
They all want to be the one who commissioned the show that halted the decline, the one that's edgier and more boundary-probing than the one that went before, the one that'll secure them that next step up the greasy pole.
These people are young and thrusting. Where's the edginess in getting 8 million ageing C2DEs to watch a variety show, when you could get 1 million younger, cooler, less smelly-and-cardigan-wearing dudes to watch the launch episode of "Celebrity Necrophilia with Jonny Vaughan" ? The former will look nice on the graph, but be quickly forgotten. The latter will keep you in the pages of Broadcast for years.

Another rant over!

I salute you!

Oh and by the way, technically I am one of the yoof, as I am 18, but for the sake of things, I'm not!

I found tonight quite good, and strange after a while we forget how good some people are, like Bruce Forsyth, or Barrymore. (I still think Strike it lucky should come back with Barrymore)

I can’t wait till next week where there look at like between radio and TV, in the relationship of light entertainment

I've only just found this series, half way through tonights

It's quite sad that besides Ant and Dec we don't seem to have any general entertainers anymore

Most presenters aged under 40 thesedays are either wooden autocue readers or alternative comedians who use the show as a vehicle for their own act

One of the best programmes that Sound TV had was the Saturday night variety show. Its a format that could easily work in a late night slot on one of the major commercial stations such as ITV or five.

Tonights show was a real big eye opener, there are so many all-round entertainers that could easily pull in viewers in today's world but today's telly execs are to frightened to use them as the current trend is with "reality" shows. Who will be brave enough to bring back shows such as My Kind of People, My Kind of Music, Surprise! Surprise! etc. Shows that can still bring in the viewers without looking dated at all. Even more so and updated version of Game for a Laugh!!!!

One shocking peice of tonights show were the snippets from MIchael Barrymore - how much has he changed and how incoherent he was - what has happened. Even if he didn't come back to TV, he should work behind the scenes bringing in fresh talent to keep the all-round enmtertainer alive and kicking for future projects.

To be honest I am sure Brian Conley could easily replace Barrymore on Strike it Lucky/Rich, My Kind of People/Music - same type of hyper-vibrancy BUT without the dark hidden split-personality.

There you go, slagging off Greg Scott again.

You've got a very valid point though. It comes to something when Brian Conley said his wife has a go at all the unknowns on TV and wants him to return to TV.

Yes, its sad we've only got Ant and Dec as natural all-round entertainers now, but then again, Brucie's developed (or tried to develop) a second generation of himself.

In regards to the programme, I still think the real reason Cilla decided to leave Blind Date is not only because the format just wasn't working anymore but she had a disagreement with the production crew backstage before the live show. I heard on the grapvine that Cilla can be a very bossy diva and is not a true people person. She is all for the cameras...but anyway, thats another story.

Michael Barrymore certainly seemed slurred and a shadow of his former self in those interview clips. He is a seriously damaged guy and his insecurity certainly shows more now than ever before.

I'm surprised that Noel Edmonds didn't get a mention because after all some of the things on the House Party influence what goes on in shows like Saturday Night Takeaway with an obvious one being the Gotchas which has morphed into Ant & Dec Undercover. Also the difference between Michael Barrymore on Strike it Rich and how he is now is shocking.

Yes indeed, I wondered if it was a few sour grapes why Noel Edmonds didn't get a mention. But then shouldn't Stanley Baxter have gotten a mention for his "complete" entertainment shows which did start off in the early years on the BBC before his big extravaganza shows were made by London Weekend.

Have we even got them anymore? I havent seen them for a while now.

BTW,does anyone else think Ant looked scary when he got paintballed?

Well he's in the titles so a show will feature him. And that show looks like next weeks when it looks at radio stars and ideas crossing to TV.

The show was watched by 2.4 million again last night. And just think last night's Prehistoric Park was watched by 2.5 million and was prmoyed in cinemas and had millions spent on it!!