Thank Your Lucky Stars

Production
Variety show
Presented by	Keith Fordyce Brian Matthew Jim Dale
Judges	Janice Nicholls, Jimmy Savile, Pete Murray, Alan Dell, Sam Costa, Barry Alldis, Kent Walton, Jimmy Young and Don Moss
Country of origin	UK
Language(s)	English
Producer(s)	Phillip Jones
Production company(s)	ABC Television
Distributor	ITV
Broadcast
Original run	1961 – 1966

Description

Thank Your Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Television, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. Many of the top bands performed on it, and for millions of British teenagers it was essential viewing. As well as featuring British artists, American guests were frequent visitors. It would appear from the surviving footage that the bands mimed their latest 45. Occasionally a band was allowed to do two numbers (possibly the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides of the latest single), and if you were pop royalty like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones you could do four numbers. Audience participation was a strong feature of Thank Your Lucky Stars, and the Spin-a-Disc section, where a guest DJ and three teenagers reviewed three singles, is a very well remembered feature of the show. Generally American singles were reviewed. It was on this section that Janice Nicholls appeared. She was a former office clerk from the English Midlands who became famous for the catchphrase "Oi`ll give it foive" which she said with a strong Black Country accent. After she was dropped from the show she trained as a chiropodist and ran a practice in Hednesford in Staffordshire. Billy Butler was another reviewer and dozens of teenagers had their fifteen minutes of fame on the show. The Beatles second national television performance was on the programme, the first being on Tuesday Rendezvous on December 4, 1962. The TYLS Merseyside specials are very fondly remembered and gained huge audiences. It appears that the first theme song was by Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers and later on "Lunar Walk" by Johnny Hawksworth was used. The show bowed out on 25th June 1966, after two thousand artists had appeared on it. One of the main reasons was the power of the Musicians` Union in the 1960s and being a largely mimed show, TYLS was a prime target. External links http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/tyls.htm Thank Your Lucky Stars on Nostalgia Central Thank Your Lucky Stars (1961) at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thank_Your_Lucky_Stars_(TV_series)" Categories: ITV television programmes | British music television programmes | Pop music television series | 1960s British television series | 1961 in British television | 1961 television series debuts | 1966 television series endings | British variety television programmes Views Article Discussion Edit this page History Personal tools Try Beta Log in / create account if (window.isMSIE55) fixalpha(); Navigation Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Search Interaction About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact Wikipedia Donate to Wikipedia Help Toolbox What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Printable version Permanent linkCite this page

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