Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
For the first time since the programme began, This Is Your Life's place in the weekly BBC schedules was moved, as editions for the programme's eighth series - now almost entirely all pre-recorded - were broadcast on a Tuesday evening at 7.55pm.
A Radio Times preview of series eight highlighted how being honoured by the programme can have positive results for the subject and included details of how the exposure to the millions of viewers of television's most popular programme has benefited various charities.
The milestone of reaching the programme's 200th edition during this series was celebrated with another Radio Times article which included several past subjects recalling their reactions to being surprised.
The programme was recorded outside of the UK for the first time as the production team travelled to Dublin to surprise an Irish housepainter - and father of writers Brendan, Brian and Dominic - at the television studios of Irish broadcaster RTE.
related pages...
the show's fifty year history
Radio Times previews the eighth series
Radio Times marks the 200th edition
Radio Times profiles Eamonn Andrews
| Rupert DAVIES | Actor | 2 October 1962 |
| Kenneth REVIS | Royal Engineers bomb disposal officer | 9 October 1962 |
| Sydney MACEWAN | Scottish priest and tenor | 16 October 1962 |
| Cleo LAINE | Jazz singer and actress | 23 October 1962 |
| Arthur BALDWIN | Servant | 30 October 1962 |
| Edith SITWELL | Poet and critic | 6 November 1962 |
| Ben FULLER | Stage Door keeper | 13 November 1962 |
| Robert MCINTOSH | Aviation pioneer | 20 November 1962 |
| Mabel LETHBRIDGE | Peggy the Chair Girl! | 27 November 1962 |
| Stephen BEHAN | Irish republican | 4 December 1962 |
| Ruby MILLER | Actress | 11 December 1962 |
| Richard ATTENBOROUGH | Actor | 18 December 1962 |
| Daniel KIRKPATRICK | Coxswain | 1 January 1963 |
| Michael WILSON | Established Sunfield Children's Home | 8 January 1963 |
| Dick HOSKIN | Charity organiser | 15 January 1963 |
| James CARROLL | Former East End police sergeant | 22 January 1963 |
| Uffa FOX | Boat designer and sailing enthusiast | 29 January 1963 |
| George CUMMINS | Royal Artillery Officer |
5 February 1963 |
| Hattie JACQUES | Comedy actress | 12 February 1963 |
| Samuel Ironmonger DERRY | Royal Artillery Officer | 19 February 1963 |
| Finlay CURRIE | Actor | 26 February 1963 |
| Phyllis LUMLEY | Foster mother | 5 March 1963 |
| Ben LYON | American actor | 12 March 1963 |
| Bertie TIBBLE | Night watcher and blood donor | 19 March 1963 |
| Zena DARE | Singer and actress | 26 March 1963 |
| Victor WILLCOX | Unemployed craftsman | 2 April 1963 |
| Learie CONSTANTINE | Cricketer, broadcast, lawyer and politician | 16 April 1963 |
| Phyllis Holman RICHARDS | Founder of an adoption society | 23 April 1963 |
| Michael BENTINE | Comedian and actor | 30 April 1963 |
| Joe LOSS | Musician and band leader | 7 May 1963 |
| Gladys AYLWARD | Evangelical Christian missionary to China | 14 May 1963 |
Broadcast details
BBC tv31 editions | 30 x 30 minutes | 1 x 25 minutes
Tuesday | 7.55pm x 30 | 8.00pm x 1
Production team
Devised by: Ralph EdwardsProducer: T Leslie Jackson | Director: Vere Lorrimer | Writers: Nickola Sterne, John Dalzell, Peter Moore
Researchers: Nickola Sterne, John Dalzell, Suzanne Twiston-Davies, Alan Haire
Script Editor: Robert Stuart | Music: James Turner