This Is Your Life article

Eamonn Andrews' This Is Your Life, one of television's all-time successes, starts a new life on Wednesday when Thames present it for the first time on ITV. The show, as Eamonn says, will still balance on a tightrope: "I'll be terror-stricken on the night..." Bridging the years between old show and new, we present a flashback and a forecast.

FLASHBACK: You're not going on? Said Eamonn. You bet I'm not! I replied... By Danny Blanchflower

In an interview with Michael McKellar

That night – in February, 1961 – an assistant of Eamonn's invited me to the BBC in Portland Place on the pretext that I would be taking part in a discussion on footballers' wages with Matt Busby and Denis Law.

They insisted upon taking me round the back where all the guys were working over typewriters and so on; they said they didn't want people to see me, for some reason or other.

Then I was slipped into the studio with Eamonn and the first thing I noticed was that Eamonn seemed better dressed than usual. He'd got his good suit on, and I thought maybe he was going somewhere afterwards.

Then he asked me if I'd seen these cameras before – they have electronically-controlled TV cameras at Broadcasting House which they sometimes use for sport news. I thought it was a strange thing for him to say. But I said "Yes" – I'd been there a few times before. And he then said, "Come over and look at them."

I said, "What the hell do I want to go over and look at them for?" And he said "They're on, you know!" And I said "Yes, I can see the pilot light."

Then he moves over and pulls out this book and says "Danny Blanchflower, Captain of..." and instinctively, I repeat instinctively I ran.

But he ran too – and for a moment, it was like a Keystone comedy. I knew perfectly well why I was running. What I couldn't figure out was why Eamonn was running. I was running to get out of the cameras because I realised they were recording – and I didn't want to create a situation, to present them with something they couldn't use.

I remember going down cement stairs, and Eamonn right after me with the Book under his arm and the assistant all worried about me maybe breaking my leg! Oh, it was a real comedy situation.

Finally, when we all stopped running, Eamonn said: "That's the greatest start we've ever had." I said, "You must be joking!" He said, "You're not going on?" and I replied, "You bet I'm not going on."

Eamonn then objected: "But publicity's your business." To which I again replied, "No, publicity's your business – football is my business!"

I remember Eamonn then asking, "Why don't you want to go on?" and my replying, "I don't have to have a reason: you didn't ask me."

Some years later, the wife of a BBC producer met me at a party. "I know why you didn't go on," she said. "You were in Borstal, weren't you?" she said.

Of course I wasn't but that's the sort of idea some people seemed to have.

It was purely an instinctive reaction. I didn't stop to think. There are a lot of things in my life that might embarrass me to have brought up again, but I wouldn't have minded...

What I didn't like, when I learned the details later, was the kind of thing that had been "scripted" beforehand, prepared for me. I found out that they had a man there who'd known me in the past and hadn't liked me much.

Somebody had written a script for him and he had written it all down on the cuffs of his shirt so that he wouldn't forget what to say – he was very nervous and excitable in front of the cameras, it seems.

Anyhow, as I say, this fellow hadn't particularly liked me and for him to say something nice about me would have been carrying artificiality to a new level... I think I'd like people to recognise that I was sincere about the good things and the bad things I've done.

Would I ever "go on" again? No!