That Was The Week That Was
Encyclopedia
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television
comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television
in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin
and presented by David Frost
. An American version by the same name aired on NBC
from 1964–65, also featuring Frost.
The programme is considered to be a significant element of the "satire boom
" in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. It broke new ground in comedy through lampooning the establishment
and political figures of the time. Its broadcast coincided with coverage of the politically-charged Profumo affair
and John Profumo, the politician at the centre of the affair, became one of the targets for derision. TW3 was first broadcast on Saturday 24 November 1962.
, political commentator Bernard Levin
, and actors Lance Percival
, who sidelined in topical calypsos, many improvised to suggestions from the audience, Kenneth Cope
, Roy Kinnear
, Willie Rushton
, Al Mancini
, Robert Lang
, Frankie Howerd
, David Kernan
and Millicent Martin
. The last two were also singers and the programme opened with a song – That Was The Week That Was – sung by Martin to Ron Grainer
's theme tune and enumerating topics in the news. Script-writers included John Albery
, John Antrobus
, John Betjeman
, John Bird
, Graham Chapman
, John Cleese
, Peter Cook
, Roald Dahl
, Richard Ingrams
, Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman
, Frank Muir
, Denis Norden
, Bill Oddie
, Dennis Potter
, Eric Sykes
, Kenneth Tynan
, and Keith Waterhouse
.
, incorporating lyrics referring to the news of the week just gone. Lance Percival
would also sing a topical calypso each week. Satirical targets, such as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
and Home Secretary
Henry Brooke
would be lampooned in sketches, debates and monologues. Other targets were the monarchy
, Britain's declining status as a global power, racism
(particularly in the American South and South Africa under Apartheid), sexual and social hypocrisy, the class system, and the BBC
itself. Notable sketches included a 'consumers' guide to religion', which discussed the relative merits of faiths in the manner of a Which?
magazine report.
TW3 was broadcast late on Saturday night and attracted an audience of 12 million. It often under- or overran as cast and crew worked through the material as they saw fit. For the first three editions of the second series in 1963, the BBC attempted to limit the team by scheduling repeats of The Third Man television series after the programme, so that they could not overrun. Frost took to reading synopses of the plots of Third Man at the end of each TW3, meaning there was little point in watching. The BBC dropped the repeats and TW3 was left open-ended.
On Saturday, October 20, 1962 the award of Nobel prizes to John Kendrew
and Max Perutz
, and to Francis Crick
, James D. Watson
, and Maurice Wilkins
was 'satirised' in a short sketch with the Nobel Prizes being referred to as 'The Alfred Nobel Peace Pools'; in this sketch Watson was called "Little J.D. Watson" and "Who'd have thought he'd ever get the Nobel Prize? Makes you think, doesn't it". The germ of the joke was that Watson was only 25 when he helped discover DNA; much younger than the others.
Frost often ended a satirical attack with the remark "But seriously, he's doing a grand job". At the end of each episode, Frost would usually sign off with: "That was the week, that was." At the end of the final programme he announced: "That was That Was The Week That Was...that was."
, TW3 produced a shortened 20-minute programme with no satire, reflecting on the loss, including a contribution from Dame Sybil Thorndike
and the tribute song "In the Summer of His Years" sung by Martin with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
. This edition was screened on NBC
in the US the following day, and the soundtrack was released by Decca Records
. A clip of this broadcast, featuring Roy Kinnear
, was shown in the David L. Wolper
documentary film Four Days in November
and more recently on the History Channel 2009 documentary JFK: 3 Shots that Changed America. In addition to the Millicent Martin studio recording of "In the Summer of His Years" issued in the US by ABC-Paramount
, other versions were recorded and released by Connie Francis
(MGM
), Mahalia Jackson
(Columbia
), Kate Smith
(RCA Victor), Sarah Vaughan
(Vernon) and The Chad Mitchell Trio (Mercury
); the Francis recording became a Top 40 hit on the Cash Box pop singles chart in January 1964. BBC presenter Richard Dimbleby
, who broadcast the president's funeral
from Washington, said that the regular programme was scrapped when news of the assassination was received and that the programme was a good expression of the sorrow felt in Britain.
did not return in 1964. The reason given by the BBC was that 1964 was an election year, and it was felt the show's political material could compromise the corporation's impartiality.
was initially supportive, chastising the Postmaster General
Reginald Bevins
for threatening to "do something about it". However, the BBC received many complaints from organisations and establishment figures about the show's content. Lord Aldington, then the vice-chairman of the Conservative Party
, wrote to the BBC's director-general Hugh Carleton Greene saying that Frost had a "hatred" of the Prime Minister, which "he finds impossible to control". The programme also attracted complaints from the Boy Scout Association, who were upset by an item questioning the sexuality
of its founder Lord Baden-Powell, and the government of Cyprus, which claimed that a joke about Archbishop Makarios, the country's ruler, was a "gross violation of internationally accepted ethics".
Historians have identified TW3 as breaking new ground in comedy and broadcasting. Graham McCann said the programme succeeded as it challenged the "convention that television should not acknowledge that it is television, the show made no attempt to hide its cameras, allowed the microphone boom to intrude and often revealed other nuts and bolts of studio technology." In the 1960s, this was still unusual and gave the programme an exciting, modern feel. TW3 also flouted conventions by adopting "a relaxed attitude to its running time: loosely-structured and open-ended, it seemed to last just as long as it wanted and needed to last, even if that meant going beyond the advertised time for the ending [...] the real controversy of course, was caused by the content."
Its subject matter has also been praised. McCann says: "TW3...did its research, thought its arguments through and seemed unafraid of anything or anyone...Every hypocrisy was highlighted and each contradiction was held up for sardonic inspection. No target was deemed out of bounds: royalty was reviewed by republicans; rival religions were subjected to no-nonsense 'consumer reports'; pompous priests were symbolically defrocked; corrupt businessmen, closet bigots and chronic plagiarists were exposed; and topical ideologies were treated to swingeing critiques."
to celebrate the programme's 40th anniversary. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
up by the British Film Institute
in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, That Was The Week That Was placed 29th.
Sherrin attempted to revive the formula with Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
, but this was less successful.
and Henry Morgan
, guests Mike Nichols
and Elaine May
, and supporting performers including Gene Hackman
. The recurring cast included Frost, Morgan, Buck Henry
and Alan Alda
, with Nancy Ames singing the opening song; regular contributors included Gloria Steinem
, William F. Brown
, Tom Lehrer
and Calvin Trillin
. The announcer
was Jerry Damon
. Also a guest was Woody Allen
, performing stand-up comedy
; the guest star on the final broadcast was Steve Allen
. A running gag on this version of the show was a mock feud with Jack Paar
, whose own program followed TW3 on the NBC Friday schedule; Paar would repeatedly refer to TW3 as "Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour." After the series' cancellation, Lehrer recorded a collection of his songs used on the show, That Was The Year That Was
, released by Reprise Records
in September 1965.
In the American version, an episode showed a smiling U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
contemplating an easy 1964 campaign against the Republican
nominee, U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona
. The satirists sang that Goldwater could not win because he "does not know the dance of the liberal Republicans", then a substantial component of the GOP
, many of whose members had supported Governor
Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York
for the Republican nomination.
A Canadian show, This Hour Has Seven Days
, aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBC
. Although partially inspired by That Was The Week That Was, the Canadian show mixed satirical aspects with more serious journalism. It proved controversial and was cancelled after two series amid allegations of political interference. This Hour Has 22 Minutes
, created by Newfoundland
comic Mary Walsh, has been running since 1992 although the two are not related.
The New Zealand
show A Week Of It ran from 1977 to 1979, hosted by Ken Ellis
, and featuring comedians David McPhail
, Peter Rowley and Chris McVeigh and comedian/musicians Jon Gadsby
and Annie Whittle
. The series lampooned news and politics and featured songs, usually by McPhail and Gadsby, who continued with their own show, McPhail and Gadsby in similar vein.
A Dutch
version, Zo is het toevallig ook nog 's een keer, aired from November 1963 to 1966. It became controversial after the fourth edition, which included a parody of the Lord's Prayer
("Give us this day our daily television"). Angry viewers directed their protests especially against the most popular cast member: Mies Bouwman
. After receiving several threats to her life she decided to quit the show. The show was praised as well: in 1966 it received the Gouden Televizier-ring, a prestigious audience award.
Kristy Glass and Kevin Ruf
starred in a remake of TW3 for ABC's Primetime Live in the fall of 2004. Soon after its premiere, Shelley Ross, the executive producer, was fired and TW3 ended with her dismissal.
An Indian version titled The Week That Wasn't was launched and hosted by Cyrus Broacha.
, local personality Ghoulardi
(played by Ernie Anderson), host
of WJW-TV's Shock Theater in the 1960s, ran clips of local celebrities and politicians and satirised them in a Shock Theater segment entitled That Was Weak Wasn't It ?
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin
Ned Sherrin
Edward George "Ned" Sherrin CBE was an English broadcaster, author and stage director. He qualified as a barrister and then worked in independent television before joining the BBC...
and presented by David Frost
David Frost (broadcaster)
Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE is a British journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and daytime TV game show host best known for his two decades as host of Through the Keyhole and serious interviews with various political figures, the most notable being Richard Nixon...
. An American version by the same name aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from 1964–65, also featuring Frost.
The programme is considered to be a significant element of the "satire boom
Satire boom
The satire boom is a general term to describe the emergence of a generation of English satirical writers, journalists and performers at the end of the 1950s. The satire boom is often regarded as having begun with the first performance of Beyond the Fringe on 22 August 1960 and ending around...
" in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. It broke new ground in comedy through lampooning the establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
and political figures of the time. Its broadcast coincided with coverage of the politically-charged Profumo affair
Profumo Affair
The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
and John Profumo, the politician at the centre of the affair, became one of the targets for derision. TW3 was first broadcast on Saturday 24 November 1962.
Cast and writers
Cast members included cartoonist Timothy BirdsallTimothy Birdsall
Timothy Birdsall was an English cartoonist.Birdsall appeared on the BBC’s That Was The Week That Was. He was shown behind a glass panel improvising drawings on it with an ink-marker. While at Cambridge, he illustrated Granta. He also contributed to Private Eye, The Spectator, and The Sunday Times...
, political commentator Bernard Levin
Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin CBE was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics,...
, and actors Lance Percival
Lance Percival
Lance Percival is an English actor, comedian and after-dinner speaker.-Biography:Educated at Sherborne School, Percival first became well known for performing topical calypsos on television satire shows such as That Was The Week That Was. He appeared in the Carry On film, Carry On Cruising...
, who sidelined in topical calypsos, many improvised to suggestions from the audience, Kenneth Cope
Kenneth Cope
Kenneth Cope is an English actor. He is most famous for his roles as Marty Hopkirk in Randall and Hopkirk , Jed Stone in Coronation Street and Ray Hilton in Brookside.- Career :...
, Roy Kinnear
Roy Kinnear
Roy Mitchell Kinnear was an English character actor. He is best remembered for playing Veruca Salt's father, Mr. Salt, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
, Willie Rushton
Willie Rushton
William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas,...
, Al Mancini
Al Mancini
Alfred Benito "Al" Mancini was an American stage, television and film actor, born in Steubenville, Ohio....
, Robert Lang
Robert Lang (actor)
Robert Lang was an English actor of stage and television. Laurence Olivier invited him to join the new National Theatre Company, at the Old Vic, Robert Lang was already earning high praise as an actor. From 1971 until his death he was married to Ann Bell, best known for her portrayal of Marion...
, Frankie Howerd
Frankie Howerd
Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...
, David Kernan
David Kernan
David Kernan is an English actor and singer, best known as an interpreter of the songs of Stephen Sondheim. He has appeared in stage musicals and was a soloist in British TV variety shows of the 1960s and 1970s including That Was the Week That Was 1962-63.Kernan was born in London...
and Millicent Martin
Millicent Martin
Millicent Mary Lillian Martin is an English actress, singer and comedienne.Martin was born in Romford, England. She made her Broadway debut opposite Julie Andrews in The Boy Friend in 1954...
. The last two were also singers and the programme opened with a song – That Was The Week That Was – sung by Martin to Ron Grainer
Ron Grainer
Ronald Erle “Ron” Grainer was an Australian-born composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his film and television music.- Biography :...
's theme tune and enumerating topics in the news. Script-writers included John Albery
John Albery
Wyndham John Albery FRS is a British chemist and academic.John Albery was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. He undertook his D.Phil. with Ronnie Bell, starting in 1960...
, John Antrobus
John Antrobus
John Antrobus is an English playwright and script writer. He has written extensively for stage, screen, TV and radio, including the epic World War II play, Crete and Sergeant Pepper at the Royal Court...
, John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
, John Bird
John Bird (actor)
John Bird is an English satirist, actor and comedian.-Early life:Born in Bulwell, Nottingham, England, and educated at High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham, Bird briefly joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain, while still at school...
, Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman
Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...
, John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
, Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
, Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
, Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
, Lyndon Irving, Gerald Kaufman
Gerald Kaufman
Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman is a British Labour Party politician, who has been a Member of Parliament since 1970, first for Manchester Ardwick, and then subsequently for Manchester Gorton...
, Frank Muir
Frank Muir
Frank Herbert Muir was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. His writing and performing partnership with Denis Norden endured for most of their careers. Together they wrote BBC radio's Take It From Here for over 10 years, and then appeared on BBC radio...
, Denis Norden
Denis Norden
Denis Mostyn Norden CBE is a former English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during World War II. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme Take It from Here with Frank Muir...
, Bill Oddie
Bill Oddie
William "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....
, Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
, Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...
, Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
, and Keith Waterhouse
Keith Waterhouse
Keith Spencer Waterhouse CBE was a novelist, newspaper columnist, and the writer of many television series.-Biography:Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
.
Programme
The programme opened with a song ("That was the week that was, It's over, let it go ...") sung every week by Millicent MartinMillicent Martin
Millicent Mary Lillian Martin is an English actress, singer and comedienne.Martin was born in Romford, England. She made her Broadway debut opposite Julie Andrews in The Boy Friend in 1954...
, incorporating lyrics referring to the news of the week just gone. Lance Percival
Lance Percival
Lance Percival is an English actor, comedian and after-dinner speaker.-Biography:Educated at Sherborne School, Percival first became well known for performing topical calypsos on television satire shows such as That Was The Week That Was. He appeared in the Carry On film, Carry On Cruising...
would also sing a topical calypso each week. Satirical targets, such as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
and Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Henry Brooke
Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor
Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor CH, PC was a British Conservative Party politician.-Political career:...
would be lampooned in sketches, debates and monologues. Other targets were the monarchy
British monarchy
The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
, Britain's declining status as a global power, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
(particularly in the American South and South Africa under Apartheid), sexual and social hypocrisy, the class system, and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
itself. Notable sketches included a 'consumers' guide to religion', which discussed the relative merits of faiths in the manner of a Which?
Which?
Which? is a product-testing and consumer campaigning charity with a magazine, website and various other services run by Which? Ltd ....
magazine report.
TW3 was broadcast late on Saturday night and attracted an audience of 12 million. It often under- or overran as cast and crew worked through the material as they saw fit. For the first three editions of the second series in 1963, the BBC attempted to limit the team by scheduling repeats of The Third Man television series after the programme, so that they could not overrun. Frost took to reading synopses of the plots of Third Man at the end of each TW3, meaning there was little point in watching. The BBC dropped the repeats and TW3 was left open-ended.
On Saturday, October 20, 1962 the award of Nobel prizes to John Kendrew
John Kendrew
Sir John Cowdery Kendrew, CBE, FRS was an English biochemist and crystallographer who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz; their group in the Cavendish Laboratory investigated the structure of heme-containing proteins.-Biography:He was born in Oxford, son of Wilford George...
and Max Perutz
Max Perutz
Max Ferdinand Perutz, OM, CH, CBE, FRS was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins...
, and to Francis Crick
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
, James D. Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
, and Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS was a New Zealand-born English physicist and molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction, and to the development of radar...
was 'satirised' in a short sketch with the Nobel Prizes being referred to as 'The Alfred Nobel Peace Pools'; in this sketch Watson was called "Little J.D. Watson" and "Who'd have thought he'd ever get the Nobel Prize? Makes you think, doesn't it". The germ of the joke was that Watson was only 25 when he helped discover DNA; much younger than the others.
Frost often ended a satirical attack with the remark "But seriously, he's doing a grand job". At the end of each episode, Frost would usually sign off with: "That was the week, that was." At the end of the final programme he announced: "That was That Was The Week That Was...that was."
Kennedy tribute
For the edition broadcast on Saturday 23 November 1963, the day after the assassination of United States President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
, TW3 produced a shortened 20-minute programme with no satire, reflecting on the loss, including a contribution from Dame Sybil Thorndike
Sybil Thorndike
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE was a British actress.-Early life:She was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral...
and the tribute song "In the Summer of His Years" sung by Martin with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
Herbert Kretzmer
Herbert Kretzmer OBE is a South African-born English journalist and lyric writer. He is perhaps best known as the lyricist for the English-language musical adaptation of Les Misérables.-Journalist:...
. This edition was screened on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in the US the following day, and the soundtrack was released by Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. A clip of this broadcast, featuring Roy Kinnear
Roy Kinnear
Roy Mitchell Kinnear was an English character actor. He is best remembered for playing Veruca Salt's father, Mr. Salt, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
, was shown in the David L. Wolper
David L. Wolper
David Lloyd Wolper was an American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as Roots, The Thorn Birds, North & South, L.A. Confidential, and the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory...
documentary film Four Days in November
Four Days in November
Four Days in November is a 1964 American documentary film directed by Mel Stuart about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.The film includes Dallas radio and television coverage of:...
and more recently on the History Channel 2009 documentary JFK: 3 Shots that Changed America. In addition to the Millicent Martin studio recording of "In the Summer of His Years" issued in the US by ABC-Paramount
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
, other versions were recorded and released by Connie Francis
Connie Francis
Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...
(MGM
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
), Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel"...
(Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
), Kate Smith
Kate Smith
Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American Popular singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s.Smith was born in Greenville, Virginia...
(RCA Victor), Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
(Vernon) and The Chad Mitchell Trio (Mercury
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
); the Francis recording became a Top 40 hit on the Cash Box pop singles chart in January 1964. BBC presenter Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby CBE was an English journalist and broadcaster widely acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in British broadcasting history.-Early life:...
, who broadcast the president's funeral
State funeral of John F. Kennedy
The state funeral of John F. Kennedy took place in Washington, DC during the three days that followed his assassination on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas....
from Washington, said that the regular programme was scrapped when news of the assassination was received and that the programme was a good expression of the sorrow felt in Britain.
Cancellation
After two successful series in 1962 and 1963, the programmeTelevision program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
did not return in 1964. The reason given by the BBC was that 1964 was an election year, and it was felt the show's political material could compromise the corporation's impartiality.
Reception
Prime Minister Harold MacmillanHarold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
was initially supportive, chastising the Postmaster General
United Kingdom Postmaster General
The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom is a defunct Cabinet-level ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the postal system, the Telegraph Act of 1868 established the Postmaster General's right to exclusively maintain electric telegraphs...
Reginald Bevins
Reginald Bevins
Reginald Bevins was a British politician who served as a Liverpool Member of Parliament for fourteen years...
for threatening to "do something about it". However, the BBC received many complaints from organisations and establishment figures about the show's content. Lord Aldington, then the vice-chairman of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, wrote to the BBC's director-general Hugh Carleton Greene saying that Frost had a "hatred" of the Prime Minister, which "he finds impossible to control". The programme also attracted complaints from the Boy Scout Association, who were upset by an item questioning the sexuality
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
of its founder Lord Baden-Powell, and the government of Cyprus, which claimed that a joke about Archbishop Makarios, the country's ruler, was a "gross violation of internationally accepted ethics".
Historians have identified TW3 as breaking new ground in comedy and broadcasting. Graham McCann said the programme succeeded as it challenged the "convention that television should not acknowledge that it is television, the show made no attempt to hide its cameras, allowed the microphone boom to intrude and often revealed other nuts and bolts of studio technology." In the 1960s, this was still unusual and gave the programme an exciting, modern feel. TW3 also flouted conventions by adopting "a relaxed attitude to its running time: loosely-structured and open-ended, it seemed to last just as long as it wanted and needed to last, even if that meant going beyond the advertised time for the ending [...] the real controversy of course, was caused by the content."
Its subject matter has also been praised. McCann says: "TW3...did its research, thought its arguments through and seemed unafraid of anything or anyone...Every hypocrisy was highlighted and each contradiction was held up for sardonic inspection. No target was deemed out of bounds: royalty was reviewed by republicans; rival religions were subjected to no-nonsense 'consumer reports'; pompous priests were symbolically defrocked; corrupt businessmen, closet bigots and chronic plagiarists were exposed; and topical ideologies were treated to swingeing critiques."
Legacy
TW3 was live and recordings were not made of all editions, although only two editions are known to be missing; the first pilot, and the 13/04/63 editions. A compilation of the surviving material was shown on BBC FourBBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
to celebrate the programme's 40th anniversary. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
up by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, That Was The Week That Was placed 29th.
Sherrin attempted to revive the formula with Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life is a BBC-TV satire programme produced by Ned Sherrin, which aired during the winter of 1964-1965, in an attempt to continue and improve on the successful formula of his That Was The Week That Was , which had been taken off by the BBC because of the coming...
, but this was less successful.
Alternative versions
An American version of TW3 was on NBC, initially as a pilot episode on 10 November 1963, then as a series from 10 January 1964 to May 1965. The pilot featured Henry FondaHenry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan (comedian)
Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He is remembered best in two modern media: radio, on which he first became familiar as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist, and on television, where he was a regular and cantankerous panelist for the game show I've Got a Secret...
, guests Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
and Elaine May
Elaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
, and supporting performers including Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
. The recurring cast included Frost, Morgan, Buck Henry
Buck Henry
Henry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...
and Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
, with Nancy Ames singing the opening song; regular contributors included Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
, William F. Brown
William F. Brown (writer)
William Ferdinand Brown is an American playwright best known for writing the book of the musical, The Wiz , an adaptation of L...
, Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
and Calvin Trillin
Calvin Trillin
Calvin Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist.-Biography:Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and was a member of Scroll and Key before graduating...
. The announcer
Announcer
An announcer is a presenter who makes "announcements" in an audio medium or a physical location.-Television and other media:Some announcers work in television production , radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, news updates, station identification, or an introduction of a product in...
was Jerry Damon
Jerry Damon
H. Jerome D'Amato , known professionally as Jerry Damon, was an American radio and television announcer and actor.-Biography:Damon was a staff announcer for NBC in New York from 1954 until his death...
. Also a guest was Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, performing stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
; the guest star on the final broadcast was Steve Allen
Steve Allen (comedian)
Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent...
. A running gag on this version of the show was a mock feud with Jack Paar
Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962...
, whose own program followed TW3 on the NBC Friday schedule; Paar would repeatedly refer to TW3 as "Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour." After the series' cancellation, Lehrer recorded a collection of his songs used on the show, That Was The Year That Was
That Was the Year That Was
That Was the Year That Was is a live album recorded at the hungry i in San Francisco, containing performances by Tom Lehrer of satiric topical songs he originally wrote for the NBC television series That Was The Week That Was, known informally as TW3...
, released by Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
in September 1965.
In the American version, an episode showed a smiling U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
contemplating an easy 1964 campaign against the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
nominee, U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. The satirists sang that Goldwater could not win because he "does not know the dance of the liberal Republicans", then a substantial component of the GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, many of whose members had supported Governor
Governor of New York
The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
for the Republican nomination.
A Canadian show, This Hour Has Seven Days
This Hour Has Seven Days
This Hour Has Seven Days is a controversial CBC Television newsmagazine which ran from 1964 to 1966. The show, inspired by the BBC-TV and NBC-TV satire series That Was The Week That Was, was created by Patrick Watson and Douglas Leiterman as an avenue for a more stimulating and boundary-pushing...
, aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
. Although partially inspired by That Was The Week That Was, the Canadian show mixed satirical aspects with more serious journalism. It proved controversial and was cancelled after two series amid allegations of political interference. This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials...
, created by Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
comic Mary Walsh, has been running since 1992 although the two are not related.
The New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
show A Week Of It ran from 1977 to 1979, hosted by Ken Ellis
Ken Ellis
Kenneth Alfonzo Ellis is an athlete who played in the National Football League from 1970 to 1979.Ellis's football career began at Ralph Johnson Bunche High School in Woodbine, Georgia. He was one of the best high school running backs in the state of Georgia...
, and featuring comedians David McPhail
David McPhail
David Alexander McPhail, ONZM, QSM is a New Zealand comedic actor and writer. He is most famous for the political satire show McPhail and Gadsby in which he co-starred with Jon Gadsby....
, Peter Rowley and Chris McVeigh and comedian/musicians Jon Gadsby
Jon Gadsby
Jon Gadsby QSO is a New Zealand television comedian and writer, most well known for his role in the comedy series McPhail and Gadsby co-starring alongside David McPhail.-Biography:...
and Annie Whittle
Annie Whittle
Annie Whittle is a British-born New Zealand singer and actress who has appeared on such shows as Shortland Street, where she played Barbara Heywood for four years and has had a singing career that has spanned three decades....
. The series lampooned news and politics and featured songs, usually by McPhail and Gadsby, who continued with their own show, McPhail and Gadsby in similar vein.
A Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
version, Zo is het toevallig ook nog 's een keer, aired from November 1963 to 1966. It became controversial after the fourth edition, which included a parody of the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
("Give us this day our daily television"). Angry viewers directed their protests especially against the most popular cast member: Mies Bouwman
Mies Bouwman
Maria Antoinette "Mies" Bouwman is a Dutch television presenter.Born in Amsterdam, she started her career on the very first broadcasting evening of the Dutch broadcasting association KRO on 16 October 1951....
. After receiving several threats to her life she decided to quit the show. The show was praised as well: in 1966 it received the Gouden Televizier-ring, a prestigious audience award.
Kristy Glass and Kevin Ruf
Kevin Ruf
Kevin Ruf is an American actor and comedian. He recently starred in the Comedy Central show Halfway Home as Kenny Carlyle, the house supervisor of a halfway house. He was the newsman in That Was The Week That Was on ABC's Primetime Live. He is also an attorney...
starred in a remake of TW3 for ABC's Primetime Live in the fall of 2004. Soon after its premiere, Shelley Ross, the executive producer, was fired and TW3 ended with her dismissal.
An Indian version titled The Week That Wasn't was launched and hosted by Cyrus Broacha.
Parodies
Cleveland, OhioCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, local personality Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi was a fictional character invented and portrayed by disc jockey, voice announcer, and actor Ernie Anderson as the horror host of late night Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8, in Cleveland, Ohio from January 13, 1963 through December 16, 1966....
(played by Ernie Anderson), host
Horror host
Horror hosts are a particular type of television presenter, often tasked with presenting low-grade films to television audiences. This tradition is primarily American, though there have been a few international hosts over the years.-Film Packages:...
of WJW-TV's Shock Theater in the 1960s, ran clips of local celebrities and politicians and satirised them in a Shock Theater segment entitled That Was Weak Wasn't It ?
External links
- That Was the Week That Was at the British Film InstituteBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
- That Was the Week That Was at the Museum of Broadcast CommunicationsMuseum of Broadcast CommunicationsThe Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...