Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
"Well, This Is Your Life has become so much part of my life, I wouldn't know what to do without it..."
This Is Your Life presenter 1955-1964 / 1969-1987
"To us, he will always be a legend"
To mark the occasion of his centenary year, Michael Ford celebrates the professional and personal life of Eamonn Andrews in a new feature which includes rare interviews with his three children, Emma, Fergal and Niamh.
The Legend That Was Eamonn Andrews
Remembering This Is Your Life - a compilation of memorable moments
This Is Your Life was a television institution.
One of the most popular programmes on British television, covering five decades of broadcasting and producing over eleven hundred editions.
The programme's premise was simple – an unexpected surprise for an unsuspecting subject as the host opened the Big Red Book to reveal a life story told through a reunion of family and friends. Part biography and part celebration, each edition aimed to entertain in a warm hearted and positive way.
At the peak of its popularity, in the 1970s and 80s, audiences of up to, and sometimes more than,
20 million viewers regularly tuned in every Wednesday at 7pm in anticipation of whose name
would be embossed on that week's Big Red Book...
Open this Big Red Book to discover a record of every edition broadcast in Britain between 1955 and 2003, and learn about the series, the subjects and the secrets, as we turn back the pages of one of the best loved television treasures of all time... and celebrate the show and the lives it honoured.
"...the book is the amulet...
that is what makes the show work. I could be wearing a barrel –
it's the red book they see –
and they go crazy..."
This Is Your Life presenter 1988-2003
An extract from TV's Biggest Blockbusters, first broadcast on ITV in July 2012, featuring This Is Your Life at the number two position
"Big Red Book website is a living archive - a unique and illuminating document, which combines a mass of historical data with a fund of fond memories of our much loved programme.
A well researched, and conscientiously collated, This Is Your Life, This Is Your Life."
This Is Your Life producer 1974-1982 / series producer 1997-2003
Producer Jack Crawshaw recalls This Is Your Life in a clip from Channel 5's Top of the Box, originally broadcast in June 2018, which highlights a year in the show's history - 1978
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| SERIES | SUBJECTS | FEATURES | ARTICLES | INTERVIEWS | ||||||
| a year by year account of the show's history and subjects | an A to Z of the 1104 subjects from Abbot to Zarb | exclusive features on all aspects of the show's history | a growing collection of published articles | an expanding online archive of exclusive interviews | ||||||
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| The Night of 1000 Lives | Venues and Sets | New Lease of Life | ||||
| a celebration of a thousand editions | the studio look and locations | the programme's relaunch | ||||
