This Is Your Life article

Sunderland Echo 15 February 1958

Something like fifty letters a week are reaching the office of This Is Your Life, suggesting that Eamonn Andrews would make an excellent 'subject.' Some of the helpful writers go to five or six pages describing how he could be lured unknowingly into the seat of honour.

Matters have reached the point where producer Leslie Jackson has had to get out a duplicated reply, thanking them for their kindly interest and pointing out that the first person to have his life story told in the series was Mr Eamonn Andrews.

Leicester Mercury: This Is Your Life article

Leicester Mercury 14 February 1958

DID you know that the BBC receives an average of 50 letters a week suggesting Mr Eamonn Andrews for the subject role of This Is Your Life?

It is true, say BBC. Some writers even contribute five or six closely-written pages suggesting how he could be lured before the cameras to be surprised with the line, "This Is Your Life, Eamonn Andrews!"

But of course, it has been done before. The Andrews story was the first to be told. "Matters have reached the point," says the BBC, "where producer Leslie Jackson has had to get out a duplicated reply."

Birmingham Weekly Post and Midland Pictorial: This Is Your Life article

Birmingham Weekly Post and Midland Pictorial 21 February 1958

How long is the public memory? I am prompted to ask this question because something like 50 letters a week are arriving at the office of This Is Your Life which suggest that Eamonn Andrews, the compere, would make a suitable "subject" for the programme. Here's the rub - producer Leslie Jackson has had to write to each of these writers pointing out that the first person to have his life story told in this series was – can you guess? – Eamonn Andrews.

The Sunday Sun: This Is Your Life article

The Sunday Sun 23 February 1958

FIFTY letters a week are reaching the office of producer Leslie Jackson. Some are five or six pages long.

All suggest that Eamonn Andrews would be a good subject for This is Your Life. Mr Andrews was a good subject - in the first programme of this weepy series. Since then - July 29, 1955 - the audience must have grown...

Halifax Daily Courier: This Is Your Life article

Halifax Daily Courier and Guardian 25 February 1958

Tele News and Views by Irene Roper

HUNDREDS of viewers in this area have taken a television set into their homes since the start of the BBC's This Is Your Life programmes. Each week they see Eamonn Andrews conducting the programme with a touch and understanding as sure and expert as a psychiatrist faced with any situation.

It has occurred to thousands of viewers throughout the country - as it must have done to many in this area - that Eamonn Andrews himself would make a first class "subject" for this programme. Over 50 letters a week reach the BBC making this suggestion, and some correspondents go into five and six page detail describing how he could be lured unknowingly into the seat of honour.

Matters have reached the point where producer T Leslie Jackson has had to get out a duplicated reply, thanking the writers for their kindly interest and pointing out that the first person to have his life story told in the series was - Eamonn Andrews.

For that first programme he had been asked to accompany into the theatre audience the person whom he understood it was to be. He did his work so well that he didn't leave the "subject" from early morning.

That night, Ralph Edwards, whose idea This Is Your Life was for American Television, held the microphone and the book. He had come over from America especially for this first programme, and Eamonn Andrews, who was to take over the telling of everybody's life story from the next programme on, was his greatest collaborator - only to find he had collaborated against himself!

Perhaps that is the reason he understands so well the varying emotional reactions of each week's honoured guest.