Tuesday 27 December 2016

572 Whose Baby ?



First  viewed  :  Autumn  1982

This  isn't  the sort  of  thing  you'd  want  to  admit  to  watching   but  at  least  once,  we  chose  it  in  preference  to  Tomorrow's  World  as  a  prelude  to  Top  of  the  Pops.

The  show  was  in  its  fourth  season  though  they  were  widely  spaced  given  that  the  show  was  entirely  dependent  on  the  celebrity  birthrate. The  first  two  were  in  1973  with  David  Nixon  as  host  and  the  third  was in  1977  with  Roy  Castle.  This  fourth  one  had  smarmy, unfunny  Leslie  Crowther  in  the  chair  . The  format  was  very  simple, a  panel  of  guests  had  to  guess  the  famous  parent  ( shown  to  the  audience ) of  a  baby  within  a  certain  amount  of  time  by  putting  questions  to  the  host . The  celebrity  would  then  reveal  themselves.

By  this  season  the  producers  had  given  themselves  more  room  for  manoeuvre  by  having  grown-up  offspring  coming  in  and  answering  the  questions  for  themselves  though  that  made  it  much  easier  for  the  panel  and  doubtless  their  identity  was  often  twigged  straight  away  (  or  even  known  beforehand )  by  a  panellist  who  then  eked  out  the  time  with  pointless  questions.

The  one  I  remember  featured  the  daughter  of  comic  actor  Arthur  English  who'd  made  some  tabloid  headlines  the  year  before  by  fathering  her  at  61  with  his  second  wife  who  was  36  years  younger.  The  couple  split  four  years  later  and  English  died  in  1995  when  the  girl, Clare- Louise,  was  14.  Despite  being  partially  deaf,  she  is  now  a  working  actress.  

Whose  Baby ?  changed  hosts  the  following  year  with  Bernie  Winters  taking  over  until  the  show's  demise  in  1988.

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