This Is Your Life: Anita Harris

Anita HARRIS (1942-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Anita Harris, actress, singer and entertainer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while being presented with a 'Champagne Star' award at the Talk of the Town cabaret venue in central London.

Anita, who was born in Midsomer Norton, was a keen figure skater as a teenager and regularly skated at the Queens Ice Rink in London, where, having been spotted by a talent scout, she accepted an offer to dance in the chorus line in cabaret shows at the El Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas.

After returning to the UK in 1959, she joined the Cliff Adams Singers before beginning a successful solo career as a recording artist. She achieved her chart breakthrough in 1967 with the single Just Loving You. Anita later appeared in two Carry On films and became a regular television performer, guest starring on many light entertainment programmes during the 1970s.

"Eamonn Andrews, I'm going to...!"

programme details...

Edition No: 587
Subject No: 584
Broadcast date: Wed 6 Jan 1982
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Tue 5 Jan 1982
Venue: Royalty Theatre
Series: 22
Edition: 14
Code name: Skate

on the guest list...

Mike Margolis - husband
Jimmy Jewel
Jimmy Tarbuck
Marion - mother
Eric - father
Philip - brother
Samantha - niece
Debbie - niece
Nellie Gregory
Peter Gregory
Wendy Neame
Mavis Linter
Courtney Jones
Rose - mother-in-law
Cliff Adams
Bernard Braden
Pauline Grant
David - brother
Tommy Trinder
Roy Hudd
Clive Dunn
Dora Bryan
Leslie Crowther
Billy Dainty
Danny La Rue
Aimi MacDonald

production team...

Researchers: Brian Klein, Cathy Parnall
Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
Directors: Paul Stewart Laing, Terry Yarwood
Producer: Jack Crawshaw

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

That's Entertainment

there's no business like it

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Anita Harris recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in March 2012

Screenshots of Anita Harris This Is Your Life

The Times article: Anita Harris This Is Your Life

The Times 2 February 1982

THE TIMES DIARY

Half way through its 13th season, television's weekly potted biog show, This Is Your Life is still clocking up some impressive viewing figures - 16 million is the average, and Anita Harris, first subject of 1982, drew a mammoth 19.3 million.

The secret of its success, according to its compere, Eamonn Andrews, is that it remains a friendly show, topical to the extent that people in the news get a look in alongside the basically showbiz element. It has a back-room staff of 20 and is recorded 24 hours before transmission. Hand on heart, Eamonn Andrews assures me there have been no refusals since Danny Blanchflower turned them down. Richard Gordon said no but relented. And more recently a doctor whose dossier was being completed rang up to say his wife was in the process of having a nervous breakdown so great was the strain of trying to keep it all secret.

They may fit him in next time round.

The Times 13 February 1982

Top 20 sweep for ITV

The BBC did not get one programme among the top 20 television shows for January, joint audience research figures show.

Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett the comedians, pulled in the BBC's biggest audiences with three of their Saturday evening shows during the month. But they gained only 22nd place, joint equal twenty-eighth place and tenth place in the top 50 programmes named by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.

This is Your Life, which was taken up by independent television after the BBC scrapped the show, and Coronation Street dominated the top 20.

When Anita Harris, the singer, was on This Is Your Life it topped the ratings with 19,300,000 viewers on January 6. It also took sixth equal place, eighth place and fourteenth equal place.

Eleven editions of Coronation Street were among the top 29 programmes. It was in second place with 18,950,000 viewers, ninth and tenth places, thirteenth and fourteenth places and seventeenth and nineteenth places. The Two Ronnies's biggest audience was 16,400,000.

The BBC had only one other programme in the top 50, an edition of Dallas.

But overall the BBC's two networks won the biggest share of the audience during the month. BBC1 had 38.73 per cent; and BBC2 11.58 per cent, giving them 50.31 per cent against ITV's 43.69 per cent.

Series 22 subjects