This Is Your Life article

Bristol Evening Post 26 April 1958

We say adieu to This Is Your Life on May 5, when the final programme in the current series completes the third series, during which 67 different life stories have been presented.

Eamonn Andrews was the original "victim" when This Is Your Life made its debut in July 1955, and he has compered every programme since that date. Leslie Jackson, who has been the producer throughout, says, in answer to the suggestion that the surprise expressed by the victims as their name is called is not always genuine.

"An average of four weeks of research is spent on preparing each of these programmes, but it has been known for us to mount a completely new show at only 48 hours notice. There was one occasion when five different life stories collapsed round our ears and the programme was saved by the sixth."

The Northern Whig and Belfast Post: This Is Your Life article

The Northern Whig and Belfast Post 28 April 1958

THE final programme in the current series of This Is Your Life will be on Monday, May 5. This completes the third separate series of these shows, during which time 67 different life stories have been presented.

Eamonn Andrews, the original "victim" when This Is Your Life made its debut in July 29, 1955, has compered every programme. And Leslie Jackson has been the producer throughout.

It has been suggested from time to time that the surprise expressed by the "victims" as their name is called is not always genuine. Leslie Jackson has something to say on the subject.

"An average of four weeks of research is spent on preparing each of these programmes, but it has been known for us to mount a completely new show at only 48 hours notice," he says. "In most cases this is, in fact, because the subject either finds out what is going on or is suspected to have found out."

There was one occasion, he points out, when five different life stories "collapsed round our ears and the programme was saved by the sixth."

Radio Times 4 May 1958

Cover Story

A great many people have written to us in the past suggesting that This Is Your Life should one day turn the tables on Eamonn Andrews and present his life for the benefit of his millions of admirers. For the record, and for those who did not see the programme, the very first edition in July 1955 did just that, and although Eamonn was taken aback at the time, he has never since regretted it, for it has enabled him to appreciate fully the feelings of the many subjects he has introduced during the long and successful run.

This Monday sees the last in the present series, but Eamonn will, of course, still be seen and heard in a number of programmes in the coming weeks. Apart from What's My Line?, and his various sporting commitments, he has recently been winning himself a new band of followers for his Saturday-night series Toast of the Town in the Home Service in which he salutes the stars and personalities of the entertainment world.

This Saturday his toast-list bears the names of Vic Oliver, Rawicz and Landauer, Diana Wynyard and Michael Gwynn, Dorothy Reynolds, Julian Slade and the cast of Free as Air, Terry Scott, David Hughes coupled with the name of Irving Berlin, and that vigorous and sparkling singer, Eve Boswell.

Although Eamonn is shortly going to America for a while, he has pre-recorded a number of editions of Toast of the Town, which will run until the end of June.