It'll Be Alright on the Night

It'll be Alright on the Night is a British television bloopers programme screened on ITV and produced by ITV Studios. It was one of the first series created with the specific purpose of showing behind the scenes bloopers from film and TV.[1]

It'll be Alright on the Night
Presented by	Denis Norden (1977–2006) Griff Rhys Jones (2008–2016)
Narrated by	David Walliams (2018–present)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	45
Production
Production locations	The London Studios (1977–2016)
Running time	45–60 minutes (including adverts)
Production companies	LWT (1977–2004) Granada (2004–2006) ITV Productions (2008) ITV Studios (2011–present)
Release
Original network	ITV, STV, UTV
Picture format	4:3 (1977–2001) 16:9 (2001–present)
Original release	18 September 1977 – present
Chronology
Related shows	Auntie's Bloomers Outtake TV TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes TV's Naughtiest Blunders

The programme was originally presented by Denis Norden from 1977 until 2006. Griff Rhys Jones took over as presenter from 2008 until 2016. Two new episodes were broadcast in 2018 narrated by David Walliams. Norden died on 19 September 2018, aged 96.[2]

A six-part series, also narrated by Walliams began in September 2020.[3]

Format

The programme is usually one hour in length and aired in ITV's Saturday evening entertainment slot. However, some of the first few episodes up to and including It'll be Alright on the Night 6 which aired in 1990, originally went out on a Sunday evening. Two episodes also debuted on a Friday: It'll be Alright on the Night 3 and It'll be Alright on Christmas Night on Christmas Day 1981 and 1987 respectively. The programme's success led to the competing BBC One series Auntie's Bloomers presented by Terry Wogan, which focused on bloopers from some of the BBC archives.

The programme followed a simple format. Norden, traditionally holding his trademark clipboard in his hand, appeared on an otherwise empty stage and delivered a humorous piece to camera, followed by a selection of outtakes taken from various sources. Popular sources for clips include numerous British and American sitcoms, news reports and foreign broadcasts which may or may not include explanatory subtitles.

The programme returned in September 2008 with Griff Rhys Jones who presented 11 episodes of It'll be Alright on the Night. The last episode featuring Rhys Jones was broadcast on 4 June 2016. After a two-year break, the programme returned in summer 2018 with brand new episodes featuring David Walliams as narrator, which is opposed to a presenter in the studio, which meant that for the first time since the programme began, studio presentation was no longer included.

Episodes

The audience figures (where given) are those for the initial transmission of an episode. It was not unheard of, especially in the early years of the series, for episodes to achieve higher ratings on repeat showings. For instance, It'll be Alright on the Night 2 (first shown on 28 October 1979) was watched by 16 million[4] viewers for a repeat showing in February 1983, while It'll be Alright on the Night 4 (first shown on 11 March 1984) was watched by 18.5 million viewers[5] on its initial repeat in January 1985. A further repeat of The Second Worst of Alright on the Night (first shown on 24 November 1985) achieved the programme's highest ratings of 19.92 million in February 1992.

Episode	Episode name	Original airdate	Presenter/Narrator	Viewers (millions)	Ref.
1	It'll be Alright on the Night	18 September 1977	Denis Norden	16.45	[6]
2	It'll be Alright on the Night 2	28 October 1979		N/A
3	The Worst of Alright on the Night	21 September 1980		N/A
4	It'll be Alright on the Night 3	25 December 1981		N/A
5	It'll be Alright on the Night 4	11 March 1984		16.90	[7]
6	It'll be Alright Late at Night	11 July 1985		N/A
7	The Second Worst of Alright on the Night	24 November 1985		14.55
8	It'll be Alright on Christmas Night[lower-alpha 1]	25 December 1987		17.95	[8]
9	10 Years of It'll be Alright on the Night	25 December 1988		N/A
10	It'll be Alright on the Night 6	1 December 1990		17.92	[9]
11	It'll be Alright on the Night 7	2 January 1993		15.03	[10]
12	The Utterly Worst of Alright on the Night	10 April 1994		N/A
13	The Kids from Alright on the Night	26 November 1994		N/A
14	It'll be Alright on the Night 8	10 December 1994		N/A
15	Alright on the Night's Cockup Trip	12 October 1996		13.00	[11]
16	It'll be Alright on the Night 10	15 November 1997		N/A
17	21 Years of Alright on the Night	24 January 1998		N/A
18	It'll be Alright on the Night 11	2 October 1999		10.12	[12]
19	It'll be Alright on the Night 12	27 January 2001		9.17
20	It'll be Alright on Election Night	7 June 2001		6.77
21	It'll be Alright on the Night 13	17 August 2001		6.61
22	It'll be Alright on the Night 15: Silver Jubilee Special[lower-alpha 2]	14 September 2002		8.11
23	More Kids from Alright on the Night	28 September 2002		5.61
24	Alright on the Night's All-Star Special	31 August 2003		9.63
25	It'll be Alright on the Night 16	6 September 2003		5.53
26	It'll be Alright on the Night 18	2 October 2004		6.89
27	It'll be Alright on the Night 19	24 December 2004		5.84
28	Alright on the Night's 50 Years of ITV	17 September 2005		6.28
29	It'll be Alright on the Night 20	18 March 2006		5.32
30	It'll be Alright on the Night 2008: Part 1	20 September 2008	Griff Rhys Jones	4.30
31	It'll be Alright on the Night 2008: Part 2	25 December 2008		3.99
32	It'll be Alright on the Night 2011: Part 1	28 December 2011		4.95
33	It'll be Alright on the Night 2011: Part 2	31 December 2011		3.73
34	All New It'll be Alright on the Night 2012	28 December 2012		3.91
35	All New It'll be Alright on the Night 2014: Part 1	5 January 2014		3.86
36	It'll be Alright on the Night's Best of the Worst	12 January 2014		3.64
37	All New It'll be Alright on the Night 2014: Part 2	19 May 2014		3.11
38	All New It'll be Alright on the Night 2014: Part 3	28 December 2014		3.43
39	It'll be Alright on the Night 2015	30 December 2015		3.80
40	All New It'll be Alright on the Night 2016	4 June 2016		2.76
41	David Walliams Presents – Return of Alright on the Night	22 August 2018[lower-alpha 3]	David Walliams	2.81
42	David Walliams Presents – Revenge of Alright on the Night	29 August 2018[lower-alpha 4]		2.61
43	It'll be Alright on the Night 2020: Part 1	11 September 2020		2.62
44	It'll be Alright on the Night 2020: Part 2	5 December 2020		2.80
45	It'll be Alright on the Night 2020: Part 3	12 December 2020		2.94
46	It'll be Alright on the Night at Christmas	19 December 2020		3.02	[13]

Broadcasting

Although a staple of ITV's light entertainment programming for over 40 years, few editions of It'll be Alright on the Night have been produced, with rarely more than one new episode a year being screened. Episodes presented by Denis Norden have normally included a number in their title screens to aid identification with the audience, while from 2008 to 2016, episodes presented by Griff Rhys Jones and from 2018 onwards, episodes narrated by David Walliams were no longer able to do so. Towards the end of the Denis Norden era, episodes up to and including It'll be Alright on the Night 20 were prefixed with "All New" to avoid viewer confusion with repeat screenings of earlier episodes.

During its run, several special episodes were also made, including anniversary specials, a late night edition for Channel 4 with more mature adult content and a one-off political special to mark the 2001 general election.

The majority of the episodes were filmed at The London Studios, but in the programme's later years, the Granada studios in Manchester were also used, as well as the now-closed (and demolished) Meridian studios at Northam, Southampton. A few editions were also filmed on-location; these included Alright on the Night's Cockup Trip which was presented from the Great Cockup fell in the Lake District, 21 Years of Alright on the Night was presented on a yacht supposedly in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle (which, in reality, was in the south of France) and It'll be Alright on the Night 11, which was presented from an empty Haymarket Theatre, London.

During its run, the series has had three main producers: Paul Smith (1977–1984), Paul Lewis (1984–2002) and Simon Withington (2003–2006). Sean Miller, James Sunderland and Stephanie Dennis also produced some episodes. Grant Philpott was the series producer (2011, 2012 and 2018) and Simon Withington, who previously served as a producer from 2003 to 2006 has been the executive producer from 2014 to 2016. In 2020, Chris Thornton became the series producer.

Denis Norden's Laughter File

The series also inspired the spin-off programme Denis Norden's Laughter File, which began airing on 22 September 1991 and ran until 13 May 2006. Although it largely followed the same format as its sister programme, while It'll be Alright on the Night focused solely on bloopers/outtakes, Laughter File also screened clips that included pranks and practical jokes. As with It'll be Alright on the Night, later episodes included the words "All New" in their titles to avoid viewer confusion with repeat screenings of earlier episodes.

The theme music used for Denis Norden's Laughter File throughout the whole of its run was a library piece, called "Dress to Kill" by Errol Reid. The programme's producers were Paul Lewis (1991–2002) and Simon Withington (2002–2006).

Episodes

Episode	Episode name	Original airdate	Viewers (millions)	Ref.
1	Denis Norden's 1st Laughter File	22 September 1991	17.39	[14]
2	Denis Norden's 2nd Laughter File	4 October 1997	N/A
3	Denis Norden's 3rd Laughter File	5 December 1998	10.00	[12]
4	Denis Norden's 4th Laughter File	16 October 1999	8.46
5	Denis Norden's 5th Laughter File	30 September 2000	8.02
6	Denis Norden's 6th Laughter File	15 October 2001	7.21
7	Denis Norden's 7th Laughter File	30 March 2002	5.67
8	Denis Norden's 8th Laughter File	9 November 2002	6.62
9	Denis Norden's 9th Laughter File	4 October 2003	5.53
10	Denis Norden's Christmas Laughter File Special	27 December 2003	8.10
11	Denis Norden's All New 11th Laughter File	26 December 2004	5.73
12	Denis Norden's All New 12th Laughter File	12 February 2005	5.54
13	Denis Norden's All New 13th Laughter File	13 May 2006	3.88

Notes

1. Retitled and re-edited as It'll be Alright on the Night 5 for subsequent repeats.
2. Retitled and re-edited as 25 Years of Alright on the Night for subsequent repeats.
3. Scheduled to be aired on 2 July 2018, but was moved five days later due to the England v Colombia World Cup game going into extra time. The 7 July 2018 date was moved again to 22 August 2018 due to the Russia v Croatia World Cup game going into extra time.
4. Scheduled to be aired on 3 July 2018, but was moved seven days later due to the England v Colombia World Cup game going into extra time. The 10 July 2018 date was moved again to 29 August 2018 due to the Russia v Croatia World Cup game going into extra time.

References

1. "What time is Return of Alright on the Night with David Walliams on TV?". RadioTimes. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
2. Houghton, Rianne (28 June 2018). "David Walliams to host new It'll be Alright on the Night". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
3. Darvill, Josh (1 September 2020). "It'll be Alright on the Night start date as David Walliams hosts new series". TellyMix.
4. "1983 – Top 10 programmes". Archived from the original on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
5. "1985 – Top 10 programmes". Archived from the original on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
6. "Jictar Ratings". The Stage. 29 September 1977. p. 20. Retrieved 22 December 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
7. "Ratings". The Stage. 22 March 1984. p. 18. Retrieved 22 December 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
8. Young, Graham (8 January 1988). "Hilda beats Dirty Den". Sandwell Evening Mail. p. 10. Retrieved 22 December 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
9. "1990 – Top 10 programmes". BARB. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
10. "Mr Bean jumps over his rivals". Aberdeen Evening Express. 13 January 1993. p. 10. Retrieved 22 December 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
11. "Ratings Watch". The Stage. 31 October 1996. p. 24. Retrieved 22 December 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
12. "Weekly top 30 programmes on TV sets (July 1998 – Sept 2018)". BARB. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
13. "Top programmes report - Dec 14-20". thinkbox.tv. 28 December 2020. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
14. "1991 – Top 10 programmes". BARB. Retrieved 22 December 2020.

External links

• BBC Cult TV
• It'll be Alright on the Night at IMDb.
• It'll be Alright on the Night on Twitter .