TW3 - That Was The Week That Was

That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, was a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963.

Devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin, the programme was fronted by David Frost and cast members included improvising cartoonist Timothy Birdsall, political commentator Bernard Levin, and actors Lance Percival, who sidelined in topical calypsos, many improvised in response to suggestions from the audience, Kenneth Cope, Roy Kinnear, Willie Rushton (then known as 'William'), Al Mancini, Robert Lang, David Kernan and Millicent Martin. The last two were also singers and the programme opened with a song – eponymously entitled That Was The Week That Was – sung by Martin to Ron Grainer's theme tune and enumerating topics that had been in the past week's news. Off-screen script-writers included John Albery, John Betjeman, John Bird, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Peter Cook, Roald Dahl, Richard Ingrams, Gerald Kaufman, Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Bill Oddie, Dennis Potter, Eric Sykes, Kenneth Tynan, Keith Waterhouse and others.

The programme was groundbreaking in its lampooning of the establishment. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was initially supportive of the programme, chastising the then Postmaster General Reginald Bevins (nominally in charge of broadcasting) for threatening to "do something about it". During the Profumo affair, however, he became one of the programme's chief targets for derision. After two successful seasons in 1962 and 1963, the programme did not return in 1964, as this was a General Election year and the BBC decided it would be unduly influential.

At the end of each episode, Frost would usually sign off with: "That was the week, that was." At the end of the final programme he announced: "That was That Was The Week That Was...that was."

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News & Politics

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[hopethisworks1212]

Dont forget to check out Lance Percivals car crash and the young man he killed

[PublicEnquiry]

@hopethisworks1212 - please tell us more - I didn't know about that - will Wikipedia it

[blackmichael75]

Goes out of sync toward the end. Very vexing.

[eriks74342]

Do you have any more episodes of this show to post? It's an amazing document of the time. (And you can certainly see why it made the network nervous!)

[ludvan67]

Thanks. Have audio recording of this exact show, recorded live, have not been able to hear it for ages as my Tape recorder doesn't work.

I think this could be the only full version the BBC still has.

You could not do this today. The "N" word is band. The Jews would accuse David Frost of anti-Semitism, the Muslims would issue a Fatwa against him (maybe not such a bad thing) ,but the politicians are still the same rubbish. The BBC should clean it up quality lousy, it's a piece of TV history.

[priapus56]

The Black and White Minstrel show!!! Bloody hell! No-one has the guts on T.V. today to address any political matters with such bite! And there are enough issues that need tackling with such force..Palestine for a start.