Skinner to host TV documentary

Frank Skinner is to host a TV documentary about the origins of light entertainment

Thank You For Being A Lovely Audience will cover the subject from the formation of the music halls of the 1840s up to the TV sparkles of the 1960s.

Skinner – who has perviously fronted a documentary about George Formby, will co-host the new BBC Four programme with arts broadcaster Suzy Klein.

The BBC says the pair will reveal how the origins of today’s TV light entertainment can be traced back to the heyday of live popular entertainment.

They add: ‘Exploring the greatest characters in showbiz and putting their acts to the test, Frank and Suzy reveal how an entertainment tradition that began with the founding of the first musical halls in the middle of the 19th century survived the impact of two world wars, the coming of new media such as cinema and radio, and the spread of various foreign influences to leave a permanent mark on British society. And it proves that we are - at heart - a nation that loves to be entertained and to have a "jolly good old laugh”.

BBC Four has also commissioned a Storyville documentary on a similar theme. The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals merges archive material with contemporary music from Icelandic band Sigur Rós.

The BBC say that the circuses, freak shows, variety performances, musical and seaside entertainment ’is an astonishing lost world, both seedy and spectacular’.

Published: 27 Aug 2015