The Alan Titchmarsh Show
The Alan Titchmarsh Show is a British daytime chat show presented by Alan Titchmarsh. It was first broadcast on BBC1 on 6 January 1997 until 11 May 2007 and ITV on 3 September 2007, and aired on weekday afternoons. The show's main focus is the "Best of British" theme with many of the shows' segments focusing on fashion, health, nature, cookery and animals.
| The Alan Titchmarsh Show | |
|---|---|
 The show's final titlecard used from 2013–14 | |
| Genre | Entertainment |
| Directed by | Dino Charalambous |
| Presented by | Alan Titchmarsh |
| No. of series | 15 |
| No. of episodes | 790 (including special episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Annie Sweetbaum Matt Young |
| Producer | Phil McCullough |
| Production locations | The London Studios (2011–14) Television Centre (2007–10) Gas Street Studios (1997-2007) |
| Running time | 60 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company | Spun Gold TV |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 (1997-2007) ITV (2007-14) |
| Picture format | 576i (16:9 SDTV) |
| Original release | 6 January 1997 – 14 November 2014 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | This Morning (1988—) The Michael Ball Show (2010) The Paul O'Grady Show (2004–09, 2013–2015) Fern (2011) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
On 18 March 2014, Titchmarsh announced that he was leaving the show. The last episode aired on 14 November 2014.[1]
Format
The programme made its debut on ITV in 2007.[2] It focused on the theme of "The Best of British" focusing on food, entertainment and celebrities in a mid-afternoon slot. The focus of the show later shifted towards gossip, entertainment and a light-hearted discussion of sex tips. The latter was dropped after viewer complaints and a shift to a late afternoon 5 pm slot in 2010. The show usually opened with a review of gossip and current affairs stories of the day with regular guests including Gloria Hunniford, Carole Malone, Penny Smith, Nick Ferrari, Janet Street Porter, Jane McDonald and Emma Forbes offering their opinions. The programme resumed the studio debate format at half-past the hour with a "heated" discussion on the main "hot topic" of the day. The programme also included regular cookery slots with Nadia Sawalha or Claire Richards with Titchmarsh adopting a comical, "hands-on" role as a hopeless cookery assistant. In Shrager's cookery demonstrations, the pair alternated between bickering and flirting with visual "humour" and numerous double entendres from the host. A wine-tasting panel often featured along with items on flower-arranging, pets and gardening, the latter involving Titchmarsh answering viewer's horticultural questions assisted by studio guests. The show usually concluded with Titchmarsh interviewing a major celebrity or public figure and also contained regular musical items with live studio performances. The show was coloured with Titchmarsh's dry, slightly camp style and Yorkshire wit and was often peppered with risque puns of a mildly sexual nature.
In March 2011, the show returned to its traditional daytime TV mid-afternoon slot for its eighth series between 3-4pm after a spell in the "primetime" 5pm slot for a 10-week run. The programme celebrated its 400th edition on 9 March 2011. The show returned to ITV daytime on 5 September 2011, with a return to its original opening 'starry' titles and theme music. The latest series stars David Domoney as one of the expert gardeners.
The show was produced at The London Studios by Spun Gold TV.[3] It is aired Monday to Friday with some editions broadcast live and other editions pre-recorded. Previous series were broadcast from BBC Television Centre.
2013 Revamp
The 2013 series, which began on Monday 21 January 2013, saw several changes to the show. Firstly the show's logo was replaced by a much more up-to-date and modern one. The former theme tune stayed the same but with a slower, fresher take on it. Several minor changes were made to the studio set. Many stars became regulars on the show, such as Coleen Nolan, Myleene Klass and Lisa Riley. Riley became a full regular on Monday's with up to date gadgets and ways to keep fit.
Transmissions
| Series | Episodes | Premiere | Finale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40 | 3 September 2007 | 26 October 2007 |
| Christmas Series | 5 | 17 December 2007 | 21 December 2007 |
| 2 | 50 | 14 January 2008 | 21 March 2008 |
| 3 | 50 | 1 September 2008 | 7 November 2008 |
| Christmas Special | 1 | 21 December 2008 | |
| 4 | 64 | 12 January 2009 | 9 April 2009 |
| 5 | 60 | 28 September 2009 | 18 December 2009 |
| 6 | 61 | 11 January 2010 | 5 April 2010 |
| 7 | 60 | 27 September 2010 | 17 December 2010 |
| 8 | 49 | 7 March 2011 | 13 May 2011 |
| 9 | 50 | 5 September 2011 | 11 November 2011 |
| 10 | 50 | 16 January 2012 | 23 March 2012 |
| 11 | 50 | 3 September 2012 | 9 November 2012 |
| 12 | 50 | 21 January 2013 | 29 March 2013 |
| 13 | 50 | 9 September 2013 | 15 November 2013 |
| 14 | 50 | 20 January 2014 | 28 March 2014 |
| 15 | 50 | 8 September 2014 | 14 November 2014 |
STV
STV, serving central and northern Scotland ITV regions, decided not to broadcast series' 3 to 7. STV wished to broadcast their afternoon chat show The Hour instead at 5 pm. STV also believe the show did not rate well and thus has an opt-out, but it became clear the series was partly axed to a dispute with ITV. In 2011, the dispute was resolved[4] and STV began broadcasting the eighth series in March 2011, the same as the other ITV regions. During the period viewers had to use other means to watch the series including ITV Player or watch the show on ITV's London feed, on Sky or Virgin Media.
Controversies
The programme's discussion of "adult" themes, including a former regular item on sex toys presented by Julie Peasgood have sparked a large number of viewer complaints. In 2010, Ofcom, the media regulator, released figures revealing that Titchmarsh's ITV show had the fifth highest number of complaints of any programme for that year.[5]
In 2013, Ofcom ruled that an interview with actress Patsy Kensit breached regulations. Kensit was found to have made "promotional and unduly prominent" references to diet firm Weight Watchers, which she is paid to endorse, and Titchmarsh had failed to challenge her claims or mention that Kensit was a "weight loss ambassador" for the diet company.[6]
Former features
Singing contest
The show returned for a third series at the start of September 2008. It launched a competition to find a soprano to sing alongside Jonathan Ansell in the A Night at the Opera tour.[7] From the thousands of hopefuls who applied, eight ladies were selected to sing in front of a judging panel of David Grant, Ruthie Henshall and Jonathan Shalit. The four successful ladies – Rosie Bell,[8] Rosie Havel,[9] Olivia Safe and Esther Dee[10] – faced a public vote on 15 September 2008 and Olivia Safe and Rosie Bell won through. They both sang with Jonathan Ansell Libiamo ne' lieti calici, the most famous duet from Verdi's La Traviata on 29 September 2008 and Olivia Safe won the public vote to appear in the tour of A Night at the Opera during October and November 2008.
Presenters, experts and guests
Although the show is primarily presented by Alan Titchmarsh, presenters such as Myleene Klass and Claire Richards present segments such as fashion and cookery.
| Tenure | Name | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–2014 | Alan Titchmarsh | Main presenter |
| 2010–12 | Rosemary Shrager | Chef |
| 2010–11 | Ainsley Harriott | Chef |
| 2011–12 | David Domoney | Gardener |
| 2012–13 | Ellie Harrison | Nature Expert |
| 2013–14 | Myleene Klass | Fashion Expert |
| Nadia Sawalha | Chef | |
| Claire Richards | Baker | |
| Lisa Riley | Regular Expert | |
| Dr Dirk Kremer | Doctor | |
| Coleen Nolan | Agony Aunt | |
The Michael Ball Show
From 16 August to 24 September 2010, actor Michael Ball presented his own chat show also produced by Spun Gold TV which followed a very similar format to The Alan Titchmarsh Show during the latter's summer break. It ran for 30 editions over 6 weeks and was aired 3 to 4 pm and recorded at BBC Television Centre.
References
- UK, Huffington Post (18 March 2014). "Alan Calls Time On Chat Show".
- "ITV picks up Titchmarsh talk show". Digital Spy. 5 March 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
- 'Spun Gold TV recent programmes' Archived 7 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine Spun Gold TV Recent Programmes.
- Sweney, Mark (27 April 2011). "STV comes to £18m settlement with ITV". The Guardian. London.
- "Alan Titchmarsh's show in top ten most controversial television shows". The Daily Telegraph. 13 June 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "ITV rapped over 'promotional' Kensit appearance". BBC News. 22 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "A Spectacular Celebration of the World's Favourite Opera Classic". Flying Music. 1 June 2008. Archived from the original on 1 May 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
- "Rosie's a Border diva". News and Star. 2 September 2008. Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
- "Singer Rosie, 22, on brink of fame". Wales Online. 1 September 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
- "Duo go for op stardom". Birmingham Mail. 12 September 2008. Retrieved 13 September 2008.
