If I close my eyes, a good 40-plus years later, I can still smell the Vosene shampoo from my damp hair - brushed into a rigid side-shed by my maw - as I lay in front of the two-bar electric fire in a fresh pair of jammies, eyes glued to the telly for the big 9.25pm kick-off. Yes, folks, Sunday wasn’t only bath night (whether I needed it or not), it was also my weekly appointment with one of the greatest programmes in TV history… That’s Life!
It’s now 50 years since the long-running BBC consumer and current affairs show first appeared on our screens (it ran from 1973 to 1996, a wee bit longer than my stint on STV’s The Hour) and, as a huge fan, I was gutted to read this week that legendary host Esther Rantzen is battling cancer. I very much doubt you’ll read this, Esther, but all the very best to you, darling.
Forget the boyish good looks at the top of the page, dear reader, I can easily recall the days of just three TV channels and Esther was a HUGE star. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the brilliant 80s sketch show Not The Nine O’Clock News paid her the ultimate tribute with a hilarious parody of That’s Life. (Find it on YouTube and I promise you’ll be rolling about).
