Late Night Line-Up
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Late Night Line-Up was a pioneering discussion programme that aired on the UK's BBC2 channel between 1964 and 1972.
Background
From its launch in April 1964, BBC2 began each evening's transmission with a programme called Line-Up, a ten-minute collection of reviews and previews of the channel's output, presented initially by Denis Tuohy. Although intended to draw attention to the considerable variety of original programming on BBC2, Line-Up was perceived as little more than a self-promotion exercise by the newspapers and the viewing public alike. Later in the same year, it was decided that Line-Up be replaced by something of a similar intention but with a more intellectual edge. Instead of a guided tour of BBC2's output, the new programme would be an open and candid discussion among invited guests, transmitted live after the 9.00pm watershed. The new programme was named Late Night Line-Up and took over from Line-Up in September 1964.Content
Denis Tuohy carried over his presenter's role from Line-Up but the new programme also brought Joan Bakewell to prominence as a broadcaster. An innovative feature of Late Night Line-Up was that it was deliberately scheduled as the last programme of the evening before closedown. This meant that the discussion need not be constrained by time; topics could be explored as far as the participants' were willing to talk about them. (A similar open-ended discussion programme, After Dark was aired by Channel 4 about 12 years after Late Night Line-Up had ceased production.)Participating in the discussion were TV personalities, subject experts and members of the public with relevant experience. For example, a real-life single mother might be invited to discuss a drama themed around single parenthood. Some panelists were deliberately chosen to talk about something outside their usual sphere of expertise. In one edition, the playwright Harold Pinter held his own on the subject of cricket, even when his fellow panelists were a distinguished cricketer and a cricket journalist.
Late Night Line-Up eventually went well beyond its initial remit of examining BBC2's output and came to incorporate interviews, live music and poetry performances and discussions of other TV channels (which meant ITV to all intents and purposes) and even current affairs issues. However, television criticism was always seen as the main focus, a fact which did not endear exactly endear the programme to the BBC's senior executives. Indeed, presenter Denis Tuohy quotes the then Head of Light Entertainment, Tom Sloan, as saying "We now employ two kinds of broadcaster: those who make programmes and those who knock them... Don't ask me why we do it."
Crew of Late Night Line-Up
- Rowan Ayers, producer
- Joan Bakewell
- Denis Tuohy
- John Stone
- Michael Dean
- Nicholas Tresilian
- Sheridan Morley
- Tony Bilbow
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