Through the Keyhole

Original series

Through the Keyhole originally started as a segment on TV-am, first being broadcast on its launch day on 1 February 1983. The idea was created by Kevin Simpson and David Frost as a chance to look around some of the most influential homes with Loyd Grossman at the helm as the tour presenter. Grossman was mistakenly given the job after someone confused him with a journalist. It became a regular feature of TV-am throughout 1983.

In 1987, Frost transferred the concept to Yorkshire Television and produced a full half-hour programme for ITV where a celebrity panel tries to guess whose house is being looked at. It ran in primetime on Friday nights for eight years on ITV and was rarely out of the top ten entertainment programmes on TV. The executive producers were Kevin Sim and Chantal Rickards. From 1996, it was produced by Frost's own production company, Paradine Productions at Yorkshire Television. That same year, the show also moved to Sky 1 for one series. It was then moved to BBC1 Daytime in 1997 until 2004. The final three BBC series were aired on BBC Two from 2006 to 2008, when it was finally axed by the BBC. However, a special aired in March 2011 for Red Nose Day 2011, as part of the marathon panel show 24 Hour Panel People.

Revival

The programme returned in 2013 on its original broadcast channel ITV with Leigh Francis as Keith Lemon taking up the role of presenter and house detective. The new series was filmed at Pinewood Studios. Dave Berry is a regular panellist. He appeared in all episodes of the first series and has also made numerous appearances in following series. Celebrity guests on the show are a closely guarded secret until transmission. The first episode of the revived series aired on the day that former host Sir David Frost died, although the news did not break until the following morning.

Before his death in August 2013, Frost gave his backing to ITV's remake saying "I am delighted that the Keyhole format is now entering its fourth decade on TV. I know the pilot show went down very well with the studio audience and I wish Keith and his team the very best of luck for the series."

Format

At the start of each episode, Frost introduces a panel of three celebrities, with the catchphrase "And what a panel they are ..." and some gently humorous or mocking descriptions. He then hands over to the location presenter who gives the panellists a guided tour of the property, noting particular items, though, there is typically a large amount of misdirection involved as the items pointed out by the presenter are not necessarily the most pertinent clues to the person's identity. Items not specifically mentioned may provide much more useful clues. Once completed, Frost reveals the identity of the guest to the audience, and the panel are given turns at guessing their identity. The audience participate with varying degrees of clapping according to the accuracy of the panellists' guesswork.

The panellists are either successful at identifying the guest or Frost has to reveal their identity, after which they are interviewed and given a key-shaped trophy as a memento. Starting during Loyd Grossman's reign as location presenter, the geographic spread of the properties was extended with one of the properties on each show being located in the US and one in Europe. When Stefanie Powers took over her role in 2007, she was based in the US and conducted the US property tours, whilst UK based Lisa Snowdon conducted the European property tours.

In 2015 the Dutch SBS6 channel released the Dutch version, called "Met de deur in huis", hosted by Kees Tol. In this show the Dutch comedian Tineke Schouten visits the houses of Dutch celebraties. The panel (Maik de Boer, Patty Brard en Ruben van der Meer) have to guess who's house she is in. In 2016 there is a second season aired on SBS6.

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4

A fourth series began airing on 7 January 2017, with a Christmas episode airing two weeks previously, on 24 December. Eight episodes were recorded at Pinewood Studios in July 2016.