Eamonn Andrews - an extract from the first British edition of This Is Your Life

[@ysgol3]

Eamonn's reaction was probably the best in the entire history of the show !

[@MARKETMAN6789]

I used to watch this regularly i never knew he had been the subject ,i would loved to have seen the full show ,but thankyou very much for putting this on

[@waynefoulkes2017]

this is amazing just thanks for sharing i love this program

[@garrywood8836]

Just seen the sad story of Freddie mills what a courageous and genuine STAR. An inspiration to many. Glad we have some meaty footage of some of his great fights.

[@archstanton8421]

This is a great clip. Good to know that it still survives. I see some others didn't, which is a great shame!

[@CameronInglis1999]

Nice to see a clip of the very first This is Your Life from 1955 featuring Eamonn Andrews which would host the show from it's second episode.

[@andreavassell5990]

I remember this show with good memories of my childhood...

[@CashelOConnolly]

I love it when the presenter says to Boris Karloff “ I know you love being a great American “ Karloff looking bewildered thinking“ I was born in Camberwell,London” 😂

[@TheConorsmithusa]

Freddie Mills wow interesting. I saw a documentary on him a few months ago. Interesting life and death

[@bigredbook24]

Actually, Eamonn was always to be the presenter of the British version of TIYL. He was made the subject of the first edition after the original choice - footballer Stanley Matthews - was revealed by a newspaper! Eamonn was under the impression that the boxer Freddie Mills was to be the replacement subject!

[@oakleysierney1918]

This is the first of this entertaining looking series that I've heard of, British or American and it leaves me with two questions if anyone would be kind enough to answer. Were the subjects compensated financially? Because I would think a large interview and tv special would be something they would normally get well paid for. I'm just guessing but I'd think that to do a good job of showing their life they would need to be in touch with the subjects friends/family/acquaintances. So bearing that in mind is it really believed that the subjects were completely in the dark before hand? Perhaps this seems like a jaded modern day perspective where we don't believe much of what we see anymore but I don't know, it seems like it is something that would be hard to pull off to me.

[@paulmoneill]

Apparently they used to use codewords in the production office to describe the subject to try to stop the real name from leaking out. Also when they answered the phone they made sure not to say what office they were speaking from in case the subject saw the phone number their partner or spouse was ringing up and tried calling it themselves which on one occasion led them to cancel an edition because the person in question had found out the secret when they phoned the number and was told they were through to the office for This Is Your Life. Family members and acquaintances were sworn to secrecy as if they were going to a surprise birthday party as the subject would give a better reaction if they didn't know beforehand about the surprise. On 2 or 3 occasions the person refused to do the show but were eventually convinced to change their mind apart from one who stormed off and refused altogether. As far as I know the subjects weren't paid as it was generally seen as a great honour to be chosen for the show especially as for most subjects it was a one off occasion but I might be incorrect on that one. Here's a link to a site connected to the programme. www.bigredbook.info/series_index.html

[@oakleysierney1918]

@@paulmoneill Lol, I didn't expect such a well constructed response, thanks. Some very interesting points. I'm still going to stick to my guns here and think that apart from the examples you mentioned there was probably at least once where the beans were spilled, after all it takes only one person of everyone they talk to to spill the beans, and then the subject still pretended to be surprised by it. But thanks again for the very interesting tidbits.

[@oakleysierney1918]

oh , and that's hilarious about it being given away when by a subject phoning and being greeted by the expression "Thanks for calling the offices of This is Your Life". hahahah

[@uke1964]

nice 1

[@truerosie]

Smoking in a studio audience! This WAS the olden days.....

[@carpdiem88]

haha! Smoking in the theatre!

[@stephenguppy7882]

Eamonn didn't seem to happy, to be fair.

[@antster1983]

"...oh, blimey."

[@MrBobthebird]

Smoking in the studio,??. lol