Country of origin United Kingdom Original network ITV | Production company(s) Thames Television | |
Presented by Judith Chalmers
Anthea Turner
Mark Durden Smith Running time 30 minutes
(including adverts) Distributor Pearson Television (1996-2001)
FremantleMedia (2001-2003) | ||
Wish You Were Here...? is a British television show that was first broadcast on 7 January 1974 on ITV. It was a series of 30 minute shows about travel and holidays. The show was broadcast during peak viewing hours and had gained a significant viewing audience in the United Kingdom. It is currently owned by Fremantle Media (then known as "Pearson Television"), who purchased its producers Thames Television in 1996.
Contents
The show was cancelled in 2003 after a reshuffling of the primetime Monday 7pm slot on ITV.
Wish You Were Here...? Now & Then
ITV commissioned a new version of the show for 2008, giving Judith Chalmers' son Mark Durden-Smith the role of main host, along with Sarah Heaney, in which they visit some of Britain's best loved holiday destinations, this is filmed within production studios and not directly on location.
Wish You Were Here...? Now & Then is a 25-part series where Durden-Smith and Heaney revisits destinations, originally visited by Judith and other WYWH? presenters in the original 1974 series, to see how much they have changed.
The programme is produced by Talkback Thames, and began on 14 January 2008 at 4.30pm. The full series was not screened on STV and UTV.
Opening titles
The opening titles in the late 1970s was a number of scenes, one of which was kids jumping on a bouncy castle. By January 1986 the opening sequence had changed since the late 1970s, with the theme tune also changed to the second one. By now, the opening sequence included an animation of a suitcase being closed, put on a plane and jetting off. The opening titles and theme tune were changed again in about 1988. The theme tune used then was called The Carnival and was performed by Gordon Giltrap.