Lifestyle / Light Entertainment: commentary

A commentary on the top 20 in this genre

This was the most problematic of the six genres. Though fondly remembered, these programmes did not necessarily fit together easily as a genre, but equally they did not belong in any of the other categories.

There are few ground-breaking, massively influential social documents in this section, yet anyone who has ever rushed home to watch their favourite group on Top of the Pops, tried a recipe from the Two Fat Ladies, or sat down with a couple of friends and a bottle of wine to enjoy Blind Date will surely recognise it was right to have a voting system which made it possible to include these series in our 'TV favourites' poll - and for 13 of them to find a place in the top 100.

Christopher Dunkley has rightly pointed out that some of those polled were unhappy at being asked to choose between Tiswas and Tumbledown. But many people cast their discretionary votes in the Lifestyle/Light Entertainment category - no doubt devotees of gardening, cookery, music and chat, or perhaps just of an age when watching Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game was a regular part of the family's Saturday night, in the way that Who Wants To Be a Millionaire has become family viewing today. Certainly all the top 20 programmes are ratings winners, and many have been innovators of their kind.

Not only did we want the bfi TV 100 to embrace popular programmes alongside those critically acclaimed, but we also wanted to show that the programmes in this genre are an important record of the ordinary, everyday viewing of millions of people, and serve as increasingly important weapons in the ratings battle. Those that remain in the memory are surely worth celebrating and preserving as they add to our and future generations' understanding of how we live.

The list also reflects something of how members of the TV industry and the nation like to spend their spare time, sometimes by being challenged mentally, but perhaps more often just by relaxing in front of the box with some music or chat.

The appearance of Parkinson as a clear leader at the top of this top 20 was no surprise. But he also made number 8 in the overall 100, showing that when it comes to talk shows we all recognise a master at work. No other series came close to Parky's. He attracted 60% more votes than the second placed programme in this genre. Among the contenders for king of the talk show was the late Russell Harty, still much missed from our screens, but Parkinson has the benefits of a contemporary audience and a terrific archive of classic interviews with some of the greatest stars of Hollywood's golden age, sportsmen like Muhammed Ali and beloved entertainers such as Morecambe and Wise.

Modern day chat is also represented by So Graham Norton at number 17, a wildly entertaining show hosted by an endearingly camp Irish comedian, which tells us as much about the wackiness and irreverence of modern life as it does about the guest on the programme. In a sense it's more about the audience, a vital part of each show, than the week's guests. Clever use of the internet - in which obscure fan sites related to the celebrities on the show, or strange fetishes or interests, are uncovered and contacted by Norton - brings the talk show right up to date. Aimed at a Friday night audience on Channel 4, the programme is also risqué and provocative, but in a saucy British seaside postcard manner, thanks to Norton's cheeky approach. It is not intended to be a match for Parkinson and the two co-exist quite happily.

The clear second place in the chart belongs to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the quiz which makes money, rather than the satisfaction of winning, the goal. An obvious successor to Mastermind, it knows the value of creating tension for the TV audience, but has added a more entertaining slant for today's viewers with the inclusion of 'phone a friend' and audience help, as well as host Chris Tarrant milking it for all it's worth by increasing the pressure on the contestants. The huge amount of prize money on offer led some critics to think a millionaire winner would be artificially created in order to grab headlines, but this has not proved to be the case, and cynical attempts to outdo Millionaire by giving away £1 million in other radio and TV competitions has done nothing to dampen the programme's appeal.

Another surprising aspect of this top 20 is the appearance of three quiz series in the top 5. We also appear to like our quiz shows to be serious and cerebral. How else can you explain University Challenge and Mastermind at numbers 4 and 5, both of them old war horses dating from the 1960s and 1970s.

The most popular category of programme in this top 20, judged by the number of programmes, is music, which has eight entries, covering all types of music and all the decades. It's perhaps not surprising to find The Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops (still a staple of teenage life) retaining their popularity, but who would have thought there would be so many secret Eurovision Song Contest fans out there? Whilst regarded as a great celebration of music in the rest of Europe and beyond, it is more celebrated here as part of the cult of naffness, and may even be intolerable without the ironic commentary of that consummate broadcaster, Terry Wogan.

Music is a very personal thing, and allegiance to programmes is most probably down to age as much as anything else, which makes the number 8 position of Ready, Steady, Go! all the more impressive. That a 34 year-old series should still be so highly regarded is perhaps a testament to the explosion of British music that began in 1963, but also owes something to the fact that television took seriously something that was often considered trivial and ephemeral. We are fortunate to have a record of some of the most important acts in British music history, and we should also consider the role TV has played in this history.

Live Aid was a significant moment in broadcasting where the event was of far greater significance than the participants or the music, a one-off concert. On the other hand, the classic 1960s series Juke Box Jury has twice been resurrected, only to find itself floundering, a good, simple idea that has proved to be very much of its time. Having a panel of three people, often pop stars, listen to current pop releases, then comment on them and vote them a hit or a miss was deceptively simple, especially as it meant there was no need for any live music performance. Sadly, there are only a handful of examples in the archives, a great loss to popular history.

In the 1980s, live music on TV was dominated by The Tube. It made TOTP look safe, boring and predictable and captured some classic performances by now legendary groups. There is nothing with the same energy and irreverence today. It was perhaps more astonishing to find Later With Jools Holland at number 10, but it possibly says much about the dearth of serious live music on television at the moment that there was no other modern contender. Later... provides a respectful platform for a variety of live music in much the same way that The Old Grey Whistle Test did for 14 years throughout the 1970s and half of the 1980s.

The appearance of Blind Date and Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game in the top 20 attests to the importance of fun and family in the Saturday night schedules. Both series rely heavily on the presenter. In the case of the Generation Game, although it survived the loss of Forsyth, it was his energy which helped to make his years as host the vintage ones and Generation Game the epitome of the family's Saturday night viewing in the 1970s. It also gave him an enduring catchphrase, "Nice to see you, to see you nice".

Blind Date helped to cement Cilla Black's place as the First Lady of ITV, and until the recent proliferation of the docusoap and of course Big Brother, was enough to satisfy our voyeuristic tendencies as viewers waited to get the lowdown on how contestants' dates had gone.

Optomen's cookery series for BBC2, Two Fat Ladies, just missed inclusion in the overall 100 programmes, and is the only cookery programme in the top 20. Considering that the British appear to be a nation of cookery programme-watchers yet microwave meal-eaters, it is rather surprising that this most unlikely duo proved the winners in the battle of the TV chefs, especially when it is Delia Smith who empties supermarket shelves. Perhaps Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright appealed to the more genuine 'foodies' in the audience, or maybe it was their essential English eccentricity and classic British cooking. Their no-nonsense approach, with absolutely no concessions made to cholesterol, won them many fans, not least among those consulted for this poll.

It is good to see that one of television's longest-running series, This is Your Life, has made it into the list. At 45 years old, the series has only ever had two presenters, and continues to fascinate viewers. That big red book, with its undemanding biographies of current celebrities, will no doubt continue to feature on our screens well into this new century.

A less predictable inclusion in the top 20 was Michael Moore's TV Nation. Yet as a slice of eccentric and socially aware programme making, it has yet to be equalled, even by Moore himself.

The appearance of The Big Breakfast as the third Channel 4 programme in this list shows the importance of that channel as an alternative to the BBC and ITV. While The Tube gave us a fresh way of presenting music, and So Graham Norton has taken late-night chat to new extremes, The Big Breakfast provided a colourful contrast to BBC's Breakfast News and the cosy sofas of TV-AM's Good Morning Britain. Initially hosted by Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin, it was a laid back and irreverent kick in the teeth to the early morning schedules and became a huge hit with schoolchildren. Its fortunes have since waxed and waned according to the presenters, but its importance as a mould-breaking breakfast show is undisputed.

The final place in the top 20 is taken by that most gentle and English of panel games, Call My Bluff, a war of words and wit in which a trio of celebrities is given a word for which they must propose three definitions to the opposite team, which then has to decide on the correct meaning. A simple premise, it enables all the team members to wax eloquent and confuse and bamboozle to their heart's content. Expertly compered, first by Robert Robinson and presently by Bob Holness, it is an old-fashioned delight.

Those, then, are the TV industry's 20 favourite Lifestyle and Light Entertainment programmes. Many are huge ratings winners, some are award winners, some are long-running, others very new, but they all occupy a place in the schedules and they have all earned a ranking in this poll. In many cases they have not been taken seriously in the past, particularly the pop programmes, but the fact that they are all fondly remembered, and were sometimes a vital part of viewing while growing up gives them a special resonance. They did not have brief runs and make a huge impact, they were always there and became part of the television landscape, their familiarity breeding contentment rather than contempt.

To denigrate such programmes and question their worth is to misunderstand the impact that television has on people's lives, how it fits into their lives, and how the viewers use it. It is good to have a list which reflects the whole spectrum of British programming, the cherished alongside the classic.

Pam Rostron