The Kenny Everett Television Show

The Kenny Everett Television Show is a comedy sketch show broadcast on BBC1 from 1981 to 1988. It was presented by its main performer Kenny Everett, who wrote the material with Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron. Later in 1986 they were joined by writing team Andrew Marshall and David Renwick after Cameron's departure the previous year. It was similar in style to Everett's previous programme The Kenny Everett Video Show, broadcast on ITV from 1978 to 1981, but with greater emphasis on comedy sketches than musical numbers. However, each edition would still have at least one music act. A total 47 episodes, including 6 Christmas specials and 2 compilations over 5 series, were produced by the BBC, broadcast between 24 December 1981 and 18 January 1988 inclusive. Background In 1981, Everett was increasingly unhappy with Thames Television over the management and scheduling of The Kenny Everett Video Show. One of his main complaints was that the show was directly scheduled at the same time as Top of the Pops on Thursday evenings, which took a hit on the ratings. Shortly after Series 4 had finished broadcasting, after some failed negotiations Everett decided not to renew his contract with Thames. In October of that year, he returned to the BBC, when he presented a weekly Saturday show on BBC Radio 2. The BBC were looking for a new prime sketch show, to fill the void since the loss of Morecambe and Wise to Thames three years earlier, and saw potential for doing a sketch show series with Everett. For his new BBC show, he brought over two of his writing collaborators who had worked with him on the Video Show, Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron, who had defected with him from Thames. They were joined by producer James Moir whose credits notably included The Generation Game and The Mike Yarwood Show, along with director Bill Wilson who had previously worked with Moir on the first two series of Not the Nine O'Clock News. Moir would ultimately produce only the first show; shortly after its recording, the Director General, Alistair Milne, promoted Moir to Head of Variety, leaving Wilson to take over producing responsibilities. Wilson who was unfamiliar with Everett's work over at Thames wanted to go in a different direction to what had gone before.