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The Story of Light Entertainment

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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Series on the history of light entertainment, narrated by Stephen Fry.

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Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

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The Story of Light Entertainment: Series 1 - 60 Minute Versions

Stephen Fry

Elaine Shepherd

Anna Gien

The Story of Light Entertainment: Series 1 - 60 Minute Versions: Episode 7: Chat Shows

Episode 7

Episode 7: Chat Shows

Series 1 - 60 Minute Versions

Chat Shows

BBC Two - The Story of Light Entertainment, Series 1 - 60 Minute Versions, Chat Shows

Stephen Fry narrates a look at how the chat show has become a television staple.

Stephen Fry narrates a series tracing the roots of light entertainment. This edition explores how the chat show has provided some of the most controversial TV ever made.

The chat show is one of light entertainment's most successful and most enduring formats. This programme takes in everything from tearful celebs and transatlantic flights to fake guests and drunken brawls, from the Gestapo-like questioning on Face to Face to Jerry Springer's 'prostitutes v pimps', showing just how the chat show format has entertained and influenced the emotional make-up of the British public. 

It explores how the chat show often gives rise to some of the most controversial and stimulating TV ever and traces the evolution of the format from Steve Allen and Johnny Carson to Graham Norton and Paul O'Grady. Plus, there is a look at the explosion of 'confessional' TV and how, after the cynical celebrity plugging of the 80s, producers were forced to look to the revolutionary changes afoot in the US in a bid to save the format.  

The programme also shows how the chat show has evolved, why the public now look for something a little bit extra from their celebrity interviews, how the comedy chat shows like Mrs Merton became every bit as successful as the genre that provided their comedy, and asks what the next evolution of the chat show will bring.

Featuring interviews with Michael Parkinson, Terry Wogan, David Frost, Sally Jessie Raphael, Clive James, Clive Anderson, Joan Rivers and Graham Norton.

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

Series on the history of light entertainment, narrated by Stephen Fry. Revised repeats.

Series on the history of light entertainment, narrated by Stephen Fry. Episodes in this series have previously been broadcast in a different form

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The Story of Light Entertainment

Series 1 - 60 Minute Versions

Episode 7: Chat Shows

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