Surprise Surprise (TV series)


Surprise Surprise is a British light entertainment television programme for ITV that originally ran from 6 May 1984 to 26 December 2001 with Cilla Black as the host. The show returned from 21 October 2012 to 26 July 2015 and was hosted by Holly Willoughby.

Format

The show was hosted by Cilla Black, and filmed in front of a live studio audience. Its premise involved surprising members of the public with long-held wishes, setting up tricks to fool members of the public, making prank calls to people and reuniting guests with long-lost loved ones. Black was assisted for eight series by Bob Carolgees, famous for his glove puppetry act Spit the Dog, while Gordon Burns and Tessa Sanderson were roving reporters. Other featured acts were "Cilla-grams," where Black would perform a song in a musical sketch relevant to the surprise a person was receiving.
The concept of the first series had been to film surprising and often unusual moments similar to those previously seen on Game for a Laugh, but the format was not successful. However, the final item in the last episode of the first series featured a successful surprise reunion, which led executive producer Alan Boyd to change the format slightly so that all items in subsequent series involved surprises, rather than just being surprising. Although including many pre-filmed inserts, the first series and some early episodes of the second series were televised live in their entirety, however, thereafter, all episodes were pre-recorded.
From 1984 to 1988, the show was broadcast on Sunday evenings. From 1989 to 1992, the show moved to Fridays, before returning to the Sunday evening timeslot from 1993 to 1996. The final series of the original run in 1997 was broadcast on Friday evenings.
Over the years, the show had many special guests, some of whom appeared live, including Neil Diamond. Many variety acts were also featured on the show. The Spice Girls made their live debut on an episode in 1996.

Revival

In March 2012, it was announced that Holly Willoughby would host a revamped one-off episode of Surprise Surprise for ITV, although a full series was later announced. The series had six-hour-long episodes, with episode 1 airing on 21 October 2012. A second series followed this in 2013, a third in 2014 and a fourth in 2015.
In the show, Willoughby is joined by various locations reporters, these have included Marvin Humes, Mark Wright, Dave Berry, Peter Andre and Matt Johnson.
In one 2013 episode, Cilla Black made a surprise appearance on the show, singing a bit of the original theme as the show went to commercials.
A previously unbroadcast episode of the show which was hosted by Black and featured appearances from Irish band Westlife and singer Gareth Gates, which was originally produced in 2003 to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, was broadcast on ITV3 on 27 December 2015, four months after Black's death. It wasn't broadcast in 2003 due to Black's departure from ITV that year.

Theme songs

introduced and closed each show by singing a theme song. The theme song from series one to eight was written by Kate Robbins and was often imitated by Black impersonators, beginning "The more the world is changing, the more it stays the same...". The track was included on Black's 1985 album Surprisingly Cilla, and as a single through Towerbell Records. A new song was written from series nine until the show's conclusion in 2001, and the 2003 birthday special: "Reaching out, holding hands, reliving memories... Life is full, full of surprises...And the nicest surprise in my life is you!"
The revived series updated its theme for 2013. This theme uses a remixed instrumental version of the chorus from Black's original song "Surprise, Surprise".

Transmissions

Series

;Original
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
16 May 198410 June 19846
214 October 19842 December 19848
319 January 19869 March 19868
418 January 198715 March 19879
510 January 19886 March 19889
66 January 19893 March 19899
716 February 199020 April 19909
822 February 199126 April 199110
93 April 199229 May 19929
1025 April 19934 July 199310
1110 April 199419 June 199411
1223 April 19952 July 199510
1331 March 19962 June 199610
144 July 19975 September 199710

;Revival
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
121 October 201225 November 20126
215 September 20131 December 201310
322 October 201417 December 20147
421 June 201526 July 20156

Specials

;Original
Original Air dateSpecial
23 December 1984Christmas special
22 December 1985Christmas special
28 December 1986Christmas special
27 December 1987Christmas special
22 June 1997Surprise Surprise...in Australia
22 March 1998Mother's Day special
14 March 1999Mother's Day special
2 April 2000Mother's Day special
26 December 2001Christmas special
27 December 2015Anniversary Special

;Revival
AirdateSpecial
18 December 2013Christmas special
30 March 2014Mother's Day special
21 December 2014Christmas special
26 December 2015Christmas special

Awards

International versions