By no means should That’s Life! have ever worked as a television programme. For more than 20 years it functioned as an absurd grab bag of features that at times seemed specifically designed to induce tonal whiplash in its viewers. To demonstrate this point, That’s Life! was the show that introduced the nation to Prince, a talking dog who could say the word“sausages”, but it was also the show that put pressure on the government to introduce mandatory seatbelt use for children.
This was the show that invented a new animal as an April fool’s joke, only for coachloads of tourists to arrive at London Zoo to try to spot it. It was also the show that embarked on a vigorous three-month investigation into allegations of widespread sexual abuse by teachers at a boys’ boarding school, resulting in the school’s closure less than two weeks after the feature aired. All of which makes That’s Life! sound like The One Show on human growth hormones.
Yet the show was one of the most popular of its time, regularly pulling in close to 20 million viewers. Key to its success was its producer and presenter, Esther Rantzen. Starting her career as a BBC Radio trainee sound effects assistant, Rantzen rose up the ranks as a researcher on shows such as Ned Sherrin’s BBC-3 before being given her first shot at presenting on Braden’s Week, a magazine show that came to sticky end when its host, Bernard Braden, was fired for advertising margarine on ITV.
Nevertheless, that was all the grounding Rantzen needed to start a show of her own. Along with producer John Lloyd, Rantzen devised That’s Life!, a series that would encompass every issue and indignity known to man. Fronted by Rantzen, with an ever-changing swirl of co-presenters around her, That’s Life would take on everything from dubious advertising to the over-proliferation of crisp flavours.
There would be vox pops about the share of domestic tasks undertaken by men and genuinely nightmarish features where people would pose as waxworks then burst into song in a bid to inspire more singing in Britain. And Rantzen was the perfect host. This was down to her ability to maintain a sense of ease between all these tonal extremes.
It paid off in spades, since when That’s Life! got serious, it got extremely serious. In 1984 it used a story about Ben Hardwick, a two-year-old boy who needed a liver transplant, to push for more widespread organ donation. And it worked – MPs noted in parliament in 1988 that it had directly led to a boom in the number of transplants.
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