Late Night Line-Up was a pioneering British television discussion programme broadcast on BBC2 between 1964 and 1972.
From its launch in April 1964, BBC2 began each evening's transmission with a programme called Line-Up, a ten-minute collection of reviews and previews of the channel's output, presented initially by Denis Tuohy. Although intended to draw attention to the considerable variety of original programming on BBC2, Line-Up was perceived as little more than a self-promotion exercise by the newspapers and the viewing public alike. Later in the same year, it was decided that Line-Up be replaced by something of a similar intention but with a more intellectual edge. Instead of a guided tour of BBC2's output, the new programme would be an open and candid discussion among invited guests, transmitted live after the 9.00 p.m. watershed. The new programme was named Late Night Line-Up and took over from Line-Up in September 1964.
The original theme tune was "Blue Boy" by Gerry Mulligan, replaced in the 1970s with a version of "Jordu" by the Dave Hancock Six.
Denis Tuohy carried over his presenter's role from Line-Up but the new programme also brought Joan Bakewell to prominence as a broadcaster. An innovative feature of Late Night Line-Up was that it was deliberately scheduled as the last programme of the evening before closedown. This meant that the discussion need not be constrained by time; topics could be explored as far as the participants were willing to talk about them. (Another open-ended discussion programme, After Dark, began on Channel 4 fifteen years after Late Night Line-Up had ceased production.)
Participating in the discussion were TV personalities, subject experts and members of the public with relevant experience. For example, a real-life single mother might be invited to discuss a drama themed around single parenthood. Some panelists were deliberately chosen to talk about something outside their usual sphere of expertise. In one edition, the playwright Harold Pinter held his own on the subject of cricket, even when his fellow panelists were a distinguished cricketer and a cricket journalist.
Late Night Line-Up eventually went well beyond its initial remit of examining BBC2's output and came to incorporate interviews, live music and poetry performances and discussions of other TV channels (which meant ITV to all intents and purposes) and even current affairs issues. However, television criticism was always seen as the main focus, a fact which did not exactly endear the programme to the BBC's senior executives. Indeed, presenter Denis Tuohy quotes the then Head of Light Entertainment, Tom Sloan, as saying: "We now employ two kinds of broadcaster: those who make programmes and those who knock them.... Don't ask me why we do it."
On 26 May 2008 Late Night Line-Up returned for a special one-off edition as part of BBC Parliament's Permissive Night. Presented by Joan Bakewell, it featured discussion of the themes and programmes shown over the course of the evening and examined the liberalising legislation passed by Parliament in the late 1960s. Archive programmes shown included editions of Man Alive, Panorama, Twenty-Four Hours and Late Night Line-Up.
Rowan Ayers, producer
Michael Fentiman, producer
Joan Bakewell
Denis Tuohy
John Stone
Michael Dean
Nicholas Tresilian
Sheridan Morley
Tony Bilbow
Philip Jenkinson
Noel Picarda
Terry Hughes, director
Steve Turner, director
David Heeley, director
Colin Strong, director
Tom Corcoran, director
Michael Appleton, producer
Richard Drewett, producer
As with many shows of its time, a lot of Late Night Line-Up no longer exists. This was due to not only tapes being wiped, but as the programme often went out live they simply were not recorded by the BBC in the first place. Luckily, some records do survive containing many dates and details of these shows. [1]
Interview With Miss Foyle - Foyle's Bookstore / Interview With Mr *Tompkins – Bookseller/ Screaming Lord Sutch Interview 27/8/64
History Of The Radio Times 23/9/64
Ralph Richardson Interview 3/2/65
Ted Ray 9/3/65
Robert Morley On Exercise 18/3/65
Peter Sellers Interview 19/3/65 on YouTube
Duke Ellington 26/3/65
BBC2 Opening Night Delay/BBC2 Critics/ Rick Jones 20/4/65
Ken Dodd / Allan Smethurst And Cluff's Dog 14/5/65
Debussy / Marianne Faithfull / Writers World – Rowena Bingham / Oxford Union Debate – "This House Would Not Fight For Crown And Country" / David Jacobs' Daughter – Carol / Alan David and Peter Cook 22/5/65
Z-Cars – Troy Kennedy Martin Interview 26/5/65
Spies 26/6/65
Bing Crosby 6/7/65
Michael Crawford On Late Night TV 31/7/65
Late Night Line-Up - In the Republic of Ireland 04/08/65
Robin Day Interview 8/8/65
Virginia and Bob Manry 27/8/65
Kristin Brihn / Donovan 8/9/65
The Pistol Preview 10/9/65
Lydia Sokolova Interview 13/9/65
Willy Brandt Preview 15/9/65
Douglas Bader 17/9/65
William Taynton Talks About John Logie Baird 2/10/65
Tony Hancock Interview 5/10/65
A To Z-Cars 08/10/65
Hal Roach Interview / Julie Felix / Peter Ustinov 16/10/65
TV Review / Alan Bennett – Vicar Sketch / Tommy Makem and The Clancy Brothers 22/10/65
Arthur Askey 29/10/65
Line-Up Review 5/11/65
Maurice Denham / Kenneth Horne and Richard Murdoch 14/11/65
Juliette Greco Interview 20/11/65
Peter Ustinov Interview 22/11/65
Diahann Carroll 26/11/65
George Orwell's 1984 – TV Adaptations 27/11/65 - interviews by Michael Dean with Rudolph Cartier, Nigel Kneale, Peter Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell, Christopher Morahan, David Buck and Jane Merrow
Dr Jacob Bronowski 2/12/65
A Child's Christmas In Wales 24/12/65
Line Up Rugby / Yugoslav TV Film / Shirley Abicair 1/1/66
The Sea And Shipping 5/1/66
Line-Up Review – Comedy – What The Papers Say 7/1/66
War Films/ Bryan Forbes 11/1/66
Ivor Cutler / Clifford Davis Conjuring Tricks/TV Critics 13/1/66
Line -Up Review 14/1/66
Line Up Rugby/ Not Only But Also 15/1/66
Joseph Losey / Whole Scene Going 19/1/66
Plunder – A Portrait Of Gilbert Harding 23/01/66
Laurence Harvey 5/2/66
Softly, Softly / Richard Rodney Bennett 9/2/66
Ivor Mairants / Margaret Rutherford Interview / The Idiot 12/2/66
Burl Ives Interview 13/2/66
Sammy Gray Song / Arnold Ridley / Robert Harbin Trick/ Edmund Blunder 14/2/66
Line-Up Review 25/02/66
The Puffer 4/3/66
Barbra Streisand 17/3/66 on Youtube
Vikki Carr / The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - Interview With Robert Vaughn And David McCallum 21/3/66
Poetry / Sir Compton Mackenzie / Vintage Films 22/3/66
John Faulkner Song / Great Metropolis Review / Peter O'Donnell Interview/ Mary Martin Interview 9/4/66
Johnny and Fanny Cradock / James Robertson Justice / Tsai Chin Song 17/4/66
N. F. Simpson 28/4/66
Menuhin School - Yehudi Menuhin 1/5/66
André Previn Interview 4/5/66
N. F. Simpson Interview / Jimmy Edwards's Moustache / Breakfast TV / Donald Campbell Interview / Tonia Bern Interview 7/5/66
Sammy Davis Jr. Interview 14/5/66
Rolf Harris / Stanley Holloway / Jacques Loussier 23/5/66
Leopold Stokowski 21/6/66
Gay Hamilton / Leo McKern / Ivor Cutler 9/7/66
Cambria - Cargo Under Sail 12/7/66
Barbra Streisand 18/7/66
War Against Crime Discussion / Boris Karloff Films / Clive Turner Predictions 2/8/66
Alfred Hitchcock Interview 3/8/66
Future And Effect Of Television – Discussion 4/8/66
From Madrid 5/8/66
Hans And Lotte Hass 7/9/66
Ken Russell At Work 23/9/66
America Since The Bomb 7/10/66
Tommy Trinder 11/10/66
Plunder 15/10/66
Coco the Clown 17/10/66
D.W. Griffith / Cambridge University Jazz Ensemble 27/10/66
Documentary Discussion 28/10/66
Ex-RSM Ronald Brittain Interview 30/10/66
Professor John Kenneth Galbraith 14/11/66
Royal Variety Performance 20/11/66
Discussion 21/11/66
Alan Bennett Interview / Georg Solti Interview 23/11/66
Dave Brubeck 1/12/66
Chay Blyth And John Ridgway on rowing the Atlantic / Marine Biology Discussion 2/12/66
Nancy Mitford on Louis XIV 5/12/66
U Thant on Human Rights Day 10/12/66
Propaganda Discussion / Billy Budd Opera Review 11/12/66
Francis Chichester / Henry Livings Interview 12/12/66
The Magic Roundabout / Philip Jenkinson Film Clips 13/12/66
Erik Durschmied Cameraman 14/12/66
Jack And The Beanstalk 22/12/66
Dick Gregory 2/1/67
The Forsyte Saga 7/1/67
Eurovision Song Contest Discussion 21/1/67
John Hawkesworth on The Croxley Master
Alan Melville Interview / Desert Island Discs 27/1/67
Discussion On building industry / Gladys Aylward 1/2/67
David Frost 4/2/67
David Merrick, Broadway Producer 7/2/67
Douglas Byng 13/2/67
Gwyneth Jones 15/2/67
Duke Ellington 19/2/67
Pick Of The Month 03/03/67
The Pickwick Papers Extract / Robin Scott / Denis Touhy 9/3/67
Dame Edith Evans 20/3/67
George Browne, Trinidadian singer, sang "On the Road to Rainbow City" / Pierre Salinger / Children's Literature And Negroes 3/4/67
Little Angel Theatre 10/4/67
Westerns Discussion / Buddy Rich / Los Zafiros Group 20/4/67
Eric Porter / Shakespeare's Sonnets 22/4/67
The Golden Rose of Montreux 1967 28/04/67
Phil Silvers Interview 1/5/67
James Cameron 4/5/67
Jimi Hendrix Experience / Psychedelic Happening – Discussion/ Pierre Schoendoerffer 17/5/67
Plunder - One Man And His Band (Harry Roy) 19/05/67
Julian Slade 21/5/67
Soldiers Of The Widow 27/5/67
Sir Gerald Cock Interview 1/6/67
Gladys Cooper 11/6/67
Homosexuality Discussion 14/6/67
Manitas de Plata 15/6/67
John Earle & Boat 'Helen'/ Arthur Negus 22/6/67
1000th Edition – Peter Cook And Dudley Moore / Terry Jones / Robert Morley / Nyree Dawn Porter / Ned Sherrin / David Attenborough / Marion Montgomery 30/6/67
A.P. Herbert Interview 3/7/67
The Forsyte Saga 04/07/67
Freddie Frinton / Mel Calman Cartoon On Sickness 10/7/67
Gibson Square 1/8/67
Battersea Park 10/8/67
Alistair Cooke 14/8/67
Electronics And TV / Rolling Stones / Discussion On Canadian Film Industry 24/8/67
Empty Quarter Clip/ Colin Davis Interview 25/8/67
Queen Mary II, Clyde steamer 26/9/67
Dick Van Dyke 4/10/67
Fred Friendly 26/10/67
Barry Humphries / Franco Zeffirelli / Mable Hillery 27/10/67
Philip Jenkinson Film Requests/ Edmund Leach 29/10/67
Disc Jockeys 21/11/67
L. Marshland Gander Interview on Lord Reith / Like Father - 1/ Benjamin Britten / Like Father – 2 - Billy Cotton Snr and Bill Cotton Jnr 22/11/67
Visual Effects – Jack Kine 25/11/67 (included on the DVD release of the Doctor Who serial The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Mcgonagall poetry / Marion Montgomery / Magic Roundabout /Philip Oakes On Petula Clark / Westerns In TV / East End Slums Discussion/ Michael Miles 3/12/67
Yoko Ono Press Release / Malcolm Muggeridge And Kitty Muggeridge / Alirio Diaz - Guitarist 4/12/67
Julie Felix Song / Dear Octopus Play / Black Dwarf Newspaper 7/12/67
Arthur Askey 14/12/67
Maurice Chevalier 31/12/67
Tyrone Guthrie 15/1/68
Vera Lynn 21/1/68
V.S. Pritchett 26/1/68
Lady Asquith And Lady Stocks In Women's Suffrage 1/2/68
Seán O'Casey 6/2/68
Sir Arnold Lunn 11/2/68
Dame Edith Evans 17/2/68
Dame Marie Rambert 21/2/68
Royal Court / Cue magazine 29/2/68
Carlo Maria Giulini 3/3/68
Lotte Reiniger / girls from Hammersmith County School give their views on public schools 9/3/68
Graham Collier and Jazz 15/3/68
Peter Brook Interview 19/3/68
Kathleen Beehan Interview / Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales 20/3/68
George Bernard Shaw 22/3/68
Tim Buckley / Cicely Courtneidge And Jack Hulbert / Kingsley Martin Interview 1/4/68
Oliver Knussen / Cockneyland 8/4/68
Günter Grass Interview 11/4/68
Derek Jones 12/4/68
Bert Haanstra 16/4/68
Brighton Postcards 26/4/68
Xenia Field Interview 1/5/68
Cecil Beaton Interview 09/05/68
Colour Me Pop - Katch 22 17/5/1968 Transmitted 18/5/1968
Alan Whicker 19/5/68
Skye 24/5/68
Robert Duncan Interview 27/5/68
Alfred Wallis 29/5/68
Bloomsbury Group 30/5/68
Andy Williams 31/5/68
Marcel Duchamp Interview 5/6/68 - his only television interview
Alger Hiss 10/6/68
Stephen Arlen On Sadler's Wells 17/6/68
Colour Me Pop - Small Faces 21/06/68
Robert Bly 24/6/68
Václav Havel 26/6/68
Bessie Love 29/6/68
Paris Students - Posters 1/7/68
Arthur Kopit 4/7/68
Bob Hope 13/7/68
Fun Fair 18/7/68
Robert Wise 20/7/68
Diaghilev 22/7/68
Lynne Reid Banks 25/7/68
Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition 1/8/68
Photography 3/8/68
Rod Steiger 10/8/68
Simone Signoret 12/8/68
Peter Terson 19/8/68
Peter Lawford 24/8/68
Sissinghurst Castle 26/8/68
Michael Macliammoir / Canterbury Tales – Musical 2/9/68
Gary Player 9/9/68
Elsie Randolph 11/9/68
Colour Me Pop – The Moody Blues 14/09/68
Boris Karloff 21/9/68
Genevieve Page 26/9/68
Alfred Hitchcock 27/9/68
Sandy Dennis 4/10/68
Quintin Hogg 7/10/68
Buddy Rich 9/10/68
Colour Me Pop - Honeybus – Clodagh Rodgers 12/10/68
Out In Arizona Where The Bad Men Are – The Making Of "The High Chaparral" 22/10/68
Tom Hayden 28/10/68
Jules Feiffer 31/10/68
Ramón Novarro Interview 1/11/68
Stuart Hood 5/11/68
Gloria Swanson Interview 7/11/68
Leif Erickson Interview/ First World War Posters 11/11/68
Lester Pearson 14/11/68
Eric Portman Interview 15/11/68
Vivien Merchant Interview 19/11/68
Cameron Mitchell Interview 25/11/68
John Colicos and Kenneth Tynan on the Soldiers play 26/11/68
Benny Goodman Interview 4/12/68
Roland Topor Interview 5/12/68
The Young Visiters – Interview With Daisy Ashford 19/12/68
The Film World Past And Present - Brigitte Bardot Interview / Benny Goodman 20/12/68
Colour Me Pop - Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band 21/12/68
TV In The USA 22/12/68
Colour Me Pop - The Move 04/01/69
Aaron Copland 10/1/69
Barbra Streisand15/1/69
Film Night – Rosemary's Baby 19/01/69
George Plimpton 23/1/69
Don Partridge and The Buskers 29/1/69
Harold Pinter 3/2/69
J. P. Donleavy Interview 5/2/69
Georges Simenon Interview 9/2/69
The Forsyte Saga / Alan Randall / Philip Oakes On Tony Hancock 10/2/69
Sir Kenneth Clark 28/2/69
Sewell Stokes Interview On Isadora Duncan 4/3/69
Michael Balcon 11/3/69
John Hutton 18/3/68
Film Night - Vincent Price Interview/ 23/3/69
Film Night - Ice Station Zebra / Peter Finch 30/3/69
Adrian Conan Doyle Interview 8/4/69
Alvar Lidell 11/4/69
Richard Hamilton Interview 14/4/69
In Celebration At The Royal Court 22/4/69
Jack Valenti 1/5/69
Sir Compton Mackenzie 9/5/69
Hubert Humphrey 15/5/69
The Rector Of Stiffkey 20/5/69
Film Night - Dimitri Tiomkin 25/05/69
Dorset Horses 26/5/69
Viveca Lindfors 30/5/69
Sir Robert Mayer 4/6/69
The Promise 15/6/69
Film Night – The Illustrated Man 22/06/69
Alwin Nikolais 27/6/69
Film Night – The Great Pismo 29/06/69
Ronald Searle 2/7/69
Francis Hastings 3/7/69
Colour Me Pop - Trapeze 05/07/69
C.U.R.E. - Drugs 8/7/69
Film Night – Moon Zero Two 13/07/69
Film Night - Mervin Leroy 10/8/69
Frank Cousins 21/8/69
George Gershwin 22/8/69
Film Night – The White Game / Run of the Arrow 24/08/69
Jimmy Edwards Interview 29/8/69
I Am English I Was German But Above All I Was There 02/09/69
Lillian Gish 03/09/69
Tito Gobbi 4/9/69
Bhaktivedanta Swami and Krishna devotees 16/9/69
Ringo Starr 10/12/69
When We Get To Calella It's Going To Be Great! 15/09/70
Beethoven Trio 22/09/70
Playgrounds 25/9/70
Nixon in Ireland 9/10/70
William Kunstler Interview 12/10/70
The Gang Show 19/10/70
Bessie Braddock 20/10/70
The Man Who Almost Won The National 29/10/70
Bessie Braddock Obit 13/11/70
Laurence Olivier Interview 16/11/70
Jeanne Moreau Talks About Orson Welles 19/11/70
Gypsies 25/11/70
John Breslin On Homosexuality 4/12/70
Lenny Bruce Stand Up Routine 18/12/70
Colin Welland 21/12/70
Monty Python's Flying Circus 22/12/70 [2]
Richard Huggett 23/12/70
Laughter In Despair – Loot 30/12/70
One Man's Week - Russell Braddon 13/02/71
Guinness Factory Workers Give Opinion About The Quality And Content Of TV Programmes 19/2/71
One Man's Week - John Peel 20/02/71
Galia von Meck 24/2/71
Underground Soviet Magazines / The Music Lovers / Tambimuttu 26/2/71
One Man's Week - Godfrey Winn 27/02/71
One Man's Week - Gwyn Thomas 06/03/71
Harold Lloyd Interview / BBC Bias / James Brown Interview 12/3/71
Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage - The Reek 17/03/71
One Man's Week - P. J. Kavanagh 27/03/71
One Man's Week - Lord Chalfont 03/04/71
Anthony Hopkins Interview 6/4/71
One Man's Week - Richard Ingrams 10/04/71
Jimmy Wheeler 12/04/71
One Man's Week - Humphrey Lyttelton 17/04/71
The Future Of Television - Debate 20/4/71
Television - An Assessment 21/04/71
Television - The Future - Cannes Exhibition 23/04/71
One Man's Week - J. B. Priestley 24/04/71
Hitler - A Fateful Friendship 30/04/71
One Man's Week - Barry Took 01/05/71
One Man's Week - Michael Foot 08/05/71
One Man's Week - Maurice Levinson 15/05/71
One Man's Week - Kenny Everett 29/05/71
Fred Ball 31/5/71
One Man's Week - John Aspinall 12/06/71
One Woman's Week - Cleo Laine 19/06/71
Colonel Otto Skorzeny Interview 26/7/71
We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us 27/07/71
Discussion On Oswald Mosley 28/7/71
Museum Discussion 17/8/71
The People Plague 18/7/71
Daniel Ellsberg 02/09/71
Scottish Television 3/9/71
Lotte Lehmann 16/9/71
Professor Paul Ehrlich 24/9/71
Dennis Potter interviewed about Traitor 14/10/71
Ecology 20/10/71
A 4th TV Channel – Discussion 22/10/71
Martin Gilbert 25/10/71
Fishing 5/11/71
Civilia 22/11/71
Dance Bands 13/12/71
Dutch Television 14/1/72
Up Sunday 16/01/72
James Moffatt Interview 21/1/72
Up Sunday 23/01/72
Discussion On Edward Albee 7/2/72
International Guitar Competition 23/2/72
Malcolm Macdonald 15/03/72
Up Sunday - Animation 26/03/72
Women's Edition of Punch – Discussion 27/3/72
Up Sunday – Events Of The Week 09/04/72
The Comedians with Charlie Williams, Bernard Manning, Ken Goodwin and John Hamp – Discussion 12/4/72
Everybody Likes Little Bit Xtr 14/04/72
Ecology - The Club Of Rome 17/04/72
Hetty King 19/4/72
Welcome Little Kangaroo - Eight Years of BBC2 21/04/72
Up Sunday 23/04/72
Steven Scheuer Interview 5/5/72
Up Sunday – Events Of The Week 07/05/72
Sculpture 8/5/72
James Joyce 11/5/72
Harold Evans Interview 17/5/72
Working men's clubs 24/5/72
Up Sunday 04/06/72
Ecology - So Far So Good 12/06/72
World Ecology Conference 16/06/72
An Element In This Country Which I Need 12/07/72
General Vo Nguyen Giap Interview 28/7/72
Lady Betjeman 01/08/72
All Our Own Work 02/08/72
Little Richard Interview / Francis Fuchs Interview 4/8/72
Cable Vision 9/8/72
Claud Cockburn Interview 15/8/72
Robert Maxwell Interview 22/08/72
Bill Tidy Interview - The Fosdyke Saga 11/9/72
A Profile of Johnny Speight 15/09/72
Pornography, Sex And Freedom 29/09/72
John Houston 9/10/72
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene - Granada Lecture 18/10/72
Vietnam Veterans 19/10/72
Cecil Lewis 6/11/72
Wole Soyinka Interview 20/11/72
World Speed Trials 23/11/72
Black September 7/12/72
Press Photography 13/12/72
Last Edition (of original run) – BBC2 Discussion With Michael Dean, Tony Bilbow, Sheridan Morley And David Attenborough 14/12/72
Revived for a week to celebrate BBC TV's 50th Anniversary, with Michael Dean, Tony Bilbow, Joan Bakewell and Sheridan Morley.
Permissive Night 26/05/08 - BBC Parliament discussion of 1960s liberalising legislation with Margaret Drabble, Peter Hitchens, Michael Howard MP and Lord Robert Winston.
