THAT’S A WRAP
Goodbye to That’s Life! MARION McMULLEN looks at how the BBC’s long-running show ended 30 years ago
INVESTIGATIONS, entertainment and rude-looking vegetables were all part of a typical That’s Life! episode.
The BBC consumer programme was headed by Dame Esther Rantzen and ran for 21 years, notching up more than 400 episodes before finally calling it a day.
The show ended 30 years ago with a 90-minute special on June 19, 1994, that included highlights from over the years and contributions from past presenters and performers like comedy favourite Victoria Wood, who wrote topical songs for the show offering a funny look at events in the news.
Jake Thackery and Richard Stilgoe also presented music specials over the years, while Cyril Fletcher urged people to “pin back your lugholes” for his Odd Odes.
That’s Life! attracted 20 million viewers at its peak, and Esther was once even arrested for serving bat stew to the public in a London Street.
She said the mix of serious subjects and entertainment was one of the reasons the programme was so popular. “It talked about injustices, washing machines that broke, and showed you a talking dog, at its funniest,” said Dame Esther. The show also introduced the trophy nobody wanted to win – the Jobsworth award highlighting examples of petty-minded officials at work. The word became so popular it ended up in the Oxford Dictionary.
Some of the programme’s campaigns led to changes in the law. Dame Esther set up children’s charity Childline in 1986 and it has since become part of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
That’s Life! was revived for one night only in 2013, when Dame Esther appeared on The One Show on BBC 1 to present an updated version of the long-running magazine programme.
Dame Esther said last year she treasures the “fantastic friendships” she made while working on That’s Life! and said the team “laughed so hard, together for so long”.