Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
This is Your Life returned to reveal more inspirational and entertaining life stories on Monday evenings at 7.30pm for its seventh series.
In the first 'pick-up' of its kind, the production team travelled outside the UK - to the Italian city of Naples - to surprise a Roman Catholic priest before returning to London's BBC Television Theatre for the live broadcast.
For the first time, the programme was not recorded on the same day as the 'pick-up' - an actor-manager was surprised at a friend's Surrey house party one evening - while the actual tribute was recorded the following evening.
For the programme's first-ever Christmas Day broadcast – which honoured a former nurse – each guest brought a present, and the tribute ended with all the guests sitting down to a full Christmas dinner.
History was made with two editions in this series - a schoolboy, who lost his legs in a mortar bomb explosion, became the programme's youngest ever subject at the age of 17, while, just several weeks later, a former cricketer became the programme's oldest subject - at the age of 100.
related pages...
Max BYGRAVES | Entertainer | 2 October 1961 |
Mario BORRELLI | Italian priest and charity worker | 9 October 1961 |
Alastair PEARSON | Highland Light Infantry Officer | 16 October 1961 |
Brian RIX | Actor and charity worker | 23 October 1961 |
Derek DOOLEY | Footballer | 30 October 1961 |
Elizabeth TWISTINGTON HIGGINS | Polio stricken dancer and artist | 6 November 1961 |
Sandy MACPHERSON | Theatre organist | 13 November 1961 |
Ronald MENDAY | Highland Light Infantry Officer | 20 November 1961 |
Harry DAY | Royal Marine and Royal Air Force pilot | 27 November 1961 |
Peter FINCH | Actor | 4 December 1961 |
Charlie DRAKE | Comedian, actor, writer and singer | 11 December 1961 |
Timothy CAIN | Survivor of destroyer HMS Electra | 18 December 1961 |
Isabella WOODFORD | Nurse and matron to Army Officers | 25 December 1961 |
David PARK | Scottish miner | 1 January 1962 |
Sefton DELMER | Journalist and foreign correspondent | 8 January 1962 |
COCO the Clown | Circus clown | 15 January 1962 |
Jenny GLEED | Cockney pub landlady | 22 January 1962 |
Arthur E DAVIES | Musical director | 29 January 1962 |
Tom EVANS | Royal Navy officer | 5 February 1962 |
David Pelham JAMES | Politician, author and adventurer | 12 February 1962 |
Kenneth HORNE | Radio comedian | 19 February 1962 |
Marie RAMBERT | Ballet dancer and teacher | 26 February 1962 |
David BUTLER | Student | 5 March 1962 |
Glen MOODY | Welsh light heavyweight boxer | 12 March 1962 |
Kenneth COOKE | Ship's carpenter on SS Lulworth Hill | 19 March 1962 |
Tom BREAKS | Fireman | 26 March 1962 |
Dora BRYAN | Actress | 2 April 1962 |
Bob OATWAY | Scrap merchant and charity worker | 9 April 1962 |
Acker BILK | Clarinetist and jazz musician | 16 April 1962 |
Hester MEAKIN | Scottish district nurse | 23 April 1962 |
Joe FILLISTON | 100-year-old cricketer | 30 April 1962 |
Ellaline TERRISS | Actress and singer | 7 May 1962 |
Broadcast details
BBC tvProduction team
Devised by: Ralph Edwards