This Is Your Life article

The Guardian 7 February 1961

Danny Blanchflower keeps his life to himself

By our own reporter

At last someone has refused to appear in This Is Your Life – for the first time since the programme began in July 1955. The man who said "No" was Mr Danny Blanchflower, the Irish and Tottenham Hotspur footballer.

Viewers, however, were spared the look on Eamonn Andrews' face, for this was one of the film introductions to the programme. A BBC statement, issued last night, said:

"The BBC hoped to tell the story of Danny Blanchflower. Unfortunately, he felt unable to take part in the programme and, as a result, the BBC transmitted a programme which told the story of Dr Robert Fawcus, of Chard, Somerset. In the history of This Is Your Life, which has now been transmitted regularly since July 1955, this is the only occasion when the subject has felt unable to take part."

Mr Blanchflower was lured to the BBC All Souls Studio yesterday afternoon on the pretext of making a sports sound recording, said a BBC spokesman. When he was informed that he had been chosen as the subject of This Is Your Life he declined.

Explaining why the programme was being filmed in the afternoon, the spokesman said that 7.30 on a Monday night at a BBC studio was a rather obvious This Is Your Life date for celebrities and that in some instances it was necessary to film the opening scenes. This had been done recently in the case of Arthur Askey.

The Times: Danny Blanchflower This Is Your Life article

The Times 7 February 1961

MR BLANCHFLOWER'S TV REFUSAL

Danny Blanchflower, Irish and Tottenham Hotspur footballer, became last night the first to refuse to appear in This Is Your Life, which has been running since 1955, and the BBC broadcast instead a programme which told the story of Dr Robert Fawcus, of Chard, Somerset.

It was one of the occasions when an introduction to the programme is telerecorded about an hour before the programme goes on air. This had just begun at All Souls' studio, next door to Broadcasting House, when Mr Blanchflower realised what it was for. "He declined and we did not try to persuade him to take part – we never do", said a BBC spokesman.

The Guardian 8 February 1961

BLANCHFLOWER STILL OBJECTS

Right to private life

Danny Blanchflower, the Irish and Tottenham Hotspur footballer, said at a press conference in London yesterday that he did not like being "shanghaied" into the BBC television This Is Your Life programme. His walk-out shortly after Eamonn Andrews had begun the usual introduction was not calculated. "It was a split-second decision and I would do it again. I had a feeling and I acted instinctively. I can't give any reason."

Mr Blanchflower added:

"Basically, I did not want to expose myself to the public without the right to say yes or no. You get shanghaied into this situation where you are suddenly exposed to something. Had it been before the studio audience and not for a telerecorded introduction, I would still have said no."

He pointed out that he did not work for the publicity it gave him, but felt he had a private life "somewhere along the line." A cash offer would not have made him change his mind.

After refusing to appear, he had gone "straight home" and later entertained friends and relatives who had been brought along for the programme. They included two distant cousins flown from Detroit.

The Guardian 8 February 1961

This is your life

Many a heart will warm to Mr Danny Blanchflower, the Tottenham Hotspur's captain, for his forthright refusal to appear on the BBC's This Is Your Life programme. He was entirely justified in choosing to take no part in these proceedings, and to remain a private person in all respects, except upon the football field. He was lucky in that, for technical reasons, he was able to say no in advance, instead of being driven to repudiate his hosts before the public. It would have served them right if he had.

This Is Your Life has never been one of the BBC's more likeable programmes. In part an impertinence, in part a fraud, it has always been more in the vein of the American studios (from which in essence it sprang) than in the decent tradition of Broadcasting House. There have been some subjects, mainly those with long experience of the limelight, who have thriven in its atmosphere of garish emotion and have given as good as they got. There have been others who were clearly embarrassed and distressed to find themselves tricked – there is no other word – into a parade of their private lives before the cameras. It is remarkable that, in the five years the programme has been running, no victim has simply declined to go through with it. After Mr Blanchflower's stand perhaps some of them will – and in public, if they are not given the chance to decline in private.

The Guardian 1 May 1961

Blanchflower again says "No"

For the second time, Danny Blanchflower has declined to be the subject of the BBC's This Is Your Life television programme. The BBC broke its traditional secrecy by informing a prospective subject before the programme went on the air; but, a BBC spokesman said last night, the Irish and Tottenham Hotspur captain "courteously declined our offer."

The Times 1 May 1961

MR BLANCHFLOWER REFUSES AGAIN

For the second time Mr Danny Blanchflower, the footballer, has refused to be the subject of the BBCs This Is Your Life television programme.

The BBC broke its usual secrecy by informing a prospective subject before the programme went on air. But Mr Blanchflower was adamant, as he was three months ago when he discovered that he was the subject minutes before the programme was due to begin and refused to go on.