Editing That Was the Week That Was

{{Short description|British satirical television programme (1962–1963)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox television
| image                = That Was the Week That Was opening title.jpg
| alt_name             = TW3
| genre                = Satire
| creator              = {{Plainlist|
*[[Ned Sherrin]]
*Jack Duncan
}}
| presenter            = [[David Frost]]
| theme_music_composer = [[Ron Grainer]]
| country              = United Kingdom
| language             = English
| num_series           = 2
| num_episodes         = 37
| producer             = [[Ned Sherrin]]
| runtime              = 50 minutes
| company              = BBC
| channel              = [[BBC One|BBC TV]]
| first_aired          = {{Start date|1962|11|24|df=yes}}
| last_aired           = {{End date|1963|12|28|df=yes}}
| related              = ''[[Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life]]'' (1964–1965)
}}
'''''That Was the Week That Was''''', informally '''''TWTWTW''''' or '''''TW3''''', is a satirical television comedy programme that aired on [[BBC Television]] in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced, and directed by [[Ned Sherrin]] and Jack (aka John) Duncan, and presented by [[David Frost]].

The programme is considered a significant element of the [[satire boom]] in the UK in the early 1960s, as it broke ground in comedy by lampooning political figures. TW3 was broadcast from Saturday, 24 November 1962 to late December 1963. An American version under the same title aired on [[NBC]] from 1964 to 1965, also featuring Frost.

==Cast and writers==
Cast members included cartoonist [[Timothy Birdsall]], political commentator [[Bernard Levin]], and actors [[Lance Percival]], who sang topical calypsos, many improvised to suggestions from the audience, [[Kenneth Cope]], [[Roy Kinnear]], [[Willie Rushton]], [[Al Mancini]], [[Robert Lang (actor)|Robert Lang]], [[David Kernan]] and [[Millicent Martin]]. The last two were also singers and the programme opened with a song&nbsp;– "That Was The Week That Was"&nbsp;– sung by Martin to [[Ron Grainer]]'s [[theme tune]] and enumerating topics in the news. [[Frankie Howerd]] also guested in one episode with stand-up comedy.

Script-writers included [[John Albery]], [[John Antrobus]], [[John Betjeman]], [[John Bird (actor)|John Bird]], [[Graham Chapman]], [[John Cleese]], [[Peter Cook]], [[Roald Dahl]], [[Robin Grove-White]], [[Richard Ingrams]], Lyndon Irving, [[Gerald Kaufman]], [[Frank Muir]], [[David Nobbs]], [[Denis Norden]], [[Bill Oddie]], [[Dennis Potter]], [[Eric Sykes]], [[Kenneth Tynan]], and [[Keith Waterhouse]].{{sfn|McCann|2006|page=156}}

==Programme==
[[File:RT1963.jpg|thumb|1963 ''[[Radio Times]]'' cover promotes the return of the programme for a second series.]]
The programme opened with a song ("That was the week that was, It's over, let it go ...") sung by [[Millicent Martin]], backed by the resident [[Dave Lee (jazz musician)|Dave Lee]] house band, including guitarist [[Cedric West]]. The opening song featured new lyrics each week referring to the news of the week just gone. [[Lance Percival]] sang a topical calypso each week. Satirical targets, such as Prime Minister [[Harold Macmillan]] and [[Home Secretary]] [[Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor|Henry Brooke]] were lampooned in sketches, debates and monologues. Some other targets included the [[British Monarchy|monarchy]], the [[British Empire]], [[nuclear deterrence]], advertising, [[public relations]] and propaganda, capital punishment,{{sfn|Hegarty|2016|page=55}} sexual and social hypocrisy, the [[class system]], and the [[BBC]] itself.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}} Well-remembered sketches include the 12 January 1963 "consumers' guide to religion", which discussed relative merits of faiths in the manner of a ''[[Which?]]'' magazine report and led to the [[Church of England]] being described a 'best buy'.<ref name="Briggs1995">{{cite book|last=Briggs|first=Asa|title=The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Competition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0pRGjVGtUvwC&pg=PA361|year=1995|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-215964-9|page=361}}</ref>

The programme was not party political but did not treat all issues with what the producers considered to be a false level of impartiality and balance; one example of this is the issue of racism and "the evils of [[Apartheid in South Africa|apartheid]]",{{sfn|Hegarty|2016|page=55}} following the view of BBC Director-General Sir [[Hugh Greene]] that the BBC should not be bound by its charter to be impartial on issues of racism, which Greene and the producers of ''TW3'' viewed as "quite simply wrong".<ref name="StrinatiWagg2004">{{cite book|last1=Strinati|first1=Dominic|last2=Wagg|first2=Stephen|title=Come on Down?: Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain|url={{Google books|T0lPwK1Q4koC|plainurl=y}}|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-92368-7|page=267}}</ref> Following the 1963 murder of 35-year-old white postal worker [[William Lewis Moore]] in Alabama, who was on a protest march against segregation in the [[American South]], ''TW3''{{'s}} Millicent Martin dressed as [[Uncle Sam]] sang a parody of "I Wanna Go Back to Mississippi" ("... where the Mississippi mud/kinda mingles with the blood/of the [[nigger]]s who are hanging from the branches of the tree ...") accompanied by [[Minstrel show|minstrel]] singers in [[blackface]] ("... we hate all the [[List of ethnic slurs#D|darkies]] and the [[Catholics]] and the Jews / Where we welcome any man / Who is white and strong and belongs to the [[Ku Klux Klan]]"), thus parodying ''[[The Black and White Minstrel Show]]'', which was then being shown on the [[BBC]] despite accusations of racism over its use of blackface.<ref name="StrinatiWagg2004" />{{sfn|Hegarty|2016|page=65}}

On Saturday, 20 October 1962 the award of Nobel prizes to [[John Kendrew]] and [[Max Perutz]], and to [[Francis Crick]], [[James Watson|James D. Watson]], and [[Maurice Wilkins]] was satirised in a short sketch with the prizes referred to as the Alfred Nobel Peace Pools; in this sketch Watson was called "Little J. D. Watson" and "Who'd have thought he'd ever get the Nobel Prize? Makes you think, doesn't it". The germ of the joke was that Watson was only 25 when he helped discover the structure of DNA; much younger than the others.

''TW3'' was broadcast on Saturday night and attracted an audience of 12 million. It often under- or overran as cast and crew worked through material as they saw fit. At the beginning of the second season in the autumn of 1963, in an attempt to assert control over the programme, the BBC scheduled repeats of ''[[The Third Man (TV series)|The Third Man]]'' television series after the end of ''TW3''. Frost suggested a means of sabotaging this tactic to Sherrin, and he agreed. For three weeks, at the end of each episode Frost read out a brief summary of the plot of the episode of ''The Third Man'' that was due to follow the show, spoiling its twists, until the repeats were abandoned following the direct intervention of Greene.<!-- Not knighted until 1964. --><ref>Humphrey Carpenter ''That Was Satire That Was'', London: Victor Gollancz, 2000, pp. 270–71</ref>

Frost often ended a satirical attack with the remark "But seriously, he's doing a grand job".<ref>Stuart Jeffries, "This'll kill you", ''The Guardian'', 16 January 1999, p. B5.</ref> At the end of each episode, Frost usually signed 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."

===Kennedy tribute===
''TW3'' produced a shortened 20-minute programme with no satire for the edition on Saturday, 23 November 1963, the day after the [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination of President John F. Kennedy]]. It featured a contribution from Dame [[Sybil Thorndike]] and Millicent Martin performing the tribute song "[[In the Summer of His Years (song)|In the Summer of His Years]]" by [[Herbert Kretzmer]]. This was screened on [[NBC]] the following day, and the soundtrack was released by [[Decca Records]]. A clip featuring [[Roy Kinnear]] was shown in the [[David L. Wolper]] documentary film ''[[Four Days in November]]'' and on the History Channel 2009 documentary ''JFK: 3 Shots that Changed America''. BBC presenter [[Richard Dimbleby]] broadcast the [[State funeral of John F. Kennedy|president's funeral]] from Washington, and he said that the programme was a good expression of the sorrow felt in Britain.<ref>{{cite news|title=A British Program Honoring Kennedy Shown Over NBC|date=25 November 1963|newspaper=The New York Times|page=10|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/11/25/archives/a-british-program-honoring-kennedy-shown-over-nbc.html}}</ref>

==Reception==
Prime Minister [[Harold Macmillan]] was initially supportive of the programme, chastising Postmaster General [[Reginald Bevins]] for threatening to "do something about it".<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2516511.stm | work=BBC News | title=BBC marks TW3 anniversary | date=26 November 2002}}</ref> However, the BBC received many complaints from organisations and establishment figures. [[Lord Aldington]], vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, wrote to BBC director-general [[Hugh Greene]] that Frost had a hatred of the prime minister which "he finds impossible to control". The programme also attracted complaints from the [[Boy Scout Association]] about an item questioning the sexuality of its founder [[Lord Baden-Powell]], and from the government of Cyprus which claimed that a joke about their ruler [[Archbishop Makarios]] was a "gross violation of internationally accepted ethics".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1554790/Tories-helped-take-TW3-off-the-air.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Chris | last=Hastings | title=Tories helped take TW3 off the air | date=17 June 2007}}</ref>

Historians have identified ''TW3'' as breaking ground in comedy and broadcasting. Graham McCann said that it challenged the "convention that television should not acknowledge that it is television; the show made no attempt to hide its cameras, allowed the microphone boom to intrude, and often revealed other nuts and bolts of studio technology."{{sfn|McCann|2006|pages=313–314}} This was unusual in the 1960s and gave the programme a modern feel.<ref name="ImageDissectors">{{cite web|url=http://www.imagedissectors.com/article/77 |title=TV Trends: Conspicuous Cameras |publisher=Image Dissectors |date=8 June 2010 |access-date=1 September 2013}}</ref> ''TW3'' also flouted conventions by adopting "a relaxed attitude to its running time", and "it seemed to last just as long as it wanted".{{sfn|McCann|2006|pages=313–314}}

The programme was taken off the air at short notice in December 1963  with the explanation that "1964 is a General Election year".

==Legacy==
''TW3'' was broadcast live, but it was normally recorded for legal reasons; only the pilot episode was not recorded.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tvbrain.info/tv-archive?showname=That+was+the+Week+that+Was&type=lostshow|title=That Was the Week that Was|work=lostshows|access-date=13 January 2020}}</ref> A compilation of material was shown on [[BBC Four]] to celebrate the 40th anniversary. The series placed 29th in the [[100 Greatest British Television Programmes]] in 2000.

==Alternative versions==
=== US versions ===
An American version was on NBC from 10 November 1963 to May 1965.<ref>{{cite news |title=Originator Here to Assist 'T.W. 3' / David Frost Will Appear on New Satirical Revue|work=The New York Times |page=49|author=Gardner, Paul|author-link=Paul Gardner (journalist)|date=3 January 1964|access-date=19 November 2018| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/01/03/118649788.html?pageNumber=49}}</ref> The pilot featured [[Henry Fonda]] and [[Henry Morgan (comedian)|Henry Morgan]], with [[Mike Nichols]] and [[Elaine May]] as guests, and supporting performers including [[Gene Hackman]]. The recurring cast included Frost, Morgan, [[Buck Henry]], [[Tom Bosley]],<ref name="youtube/NBC/TWTWTW">
*{{cite web |author1=NBC |title=That Was The Week That Was - June 12, 1964 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtVRJ2qdYw4 |website=youtube |date=12 June 2014 |access-date=12 June 2023 |language=en}}
*{{cite web |author1=NBC |title=That Was The Week That Was - June 19, 1964 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pprBfg6OSRM |website=youtube |date=19 June 2014 |access-date=12 June 2023 |language=en}}
</ref> and [[Alan Alda]],<ref name="youtube/NBC/TWTWTW"/> with [[Nancy Ames]] singing an opening news-satire-song<ref name="youtube/NBC/TWTWTW"/> and Stanley Grover and Ames performing solos and duets. Regularly contributing writers included [[Gloria Steinem]], [[William F. Brown (writer)|William F. Brown]], [[Tom Lehrer]], and [[Calvin Trillin]].<ref>Carlton, Jim</ref><ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/01/20/97160719.html?pageNumber=87 "Morse for 'T.W. 3'"]. ''The New York Times'', January 20, 1964, p. 87. Retrieved 27 October 2018.</ref> [[Norman Paris]] was the musical director.<ref>Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earl F. (2009). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC&pg=PA1372&dq=%22norman+Paris%22+%22that+was+the+week+that+was%22 The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present]''. New York: Ballantine Books. p.&nbsp;1372. {{ISBN|978-0-345-49773-4}}.</ref> The announcer was [[Jerry Damon]]. A running gag was a mock feud with [[Jack Paar]], whose own program followed ''TW3'' on the NBC Friday schedule; Paar repeatedly referred to ''TW3'' as "Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour".

Of 50 episodes, only a few survive in video form, yet audio episodes survive on [[acetate disc]].<ref name="youtube/NBC/TWTWTW"/> The first-season black-and-white episodes were preserved on [[kinescope]] film; the surviving colour episodes of the second and final season were recorded in the then-standard two-inch colour [[quadruplex videotape]] format. The [[Paley Center]] has copies of some seven episodes, including the hour-long pilot. Also, scripts of all shows survive, both in the NBC Collection at the [[Library of Congress]] and in the papers of executive producer [[Leland Hayward]] at the New York Public Library.  Amateur audio recordings of all or nearly all episodes also survive,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/991119.stories.html |title=Lost and Found Sound: The Stories |publisher=NPR |access-date=31 May 2014|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20000818090523/https://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/991119.stories.html|archive-date=August 18, 2000}}</ref> and an hour-long recording, ''That Was That Was The Week That Was,'' a compilation of bits from various shows, was issued on LP and, in 1992, reissued on CD. After the series' cancellation, Lehrer, who did not appear on the show, recorded a collection of his songs used on the show on ''[[That Was The Year That Was]]'', released by [[Reprise Records]] in September 1965.

ABC aired a ''That Was The Week That Was'' special on 21 April 1985, hosted by David Frost and [[Anne Bancroft]] and featuring future ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' cast members [[Jan Hooks]] and [[A. Whitney Brown]] and puppetry from ''[[Spitting Image]]''.<ref name="hubcity">{{cite web|url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=that+was+the+week+that+was&p=1&item=T:05198|title=That Was The Week That Was (TV)|access-date=5 November 2015}}</ref>

=== Other international versions ===
{{more citations needed|section|date=November 2018}}<!--only one citation in section-->
A Canadian show, ''[[This Hour Has Seven Days]]'', aired from 1964 to 1966 on [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]. Although partially inspired by ''That Was The Week That Was'', the Canadian show mixed satirical aspects with more serious journalism. It proved controversial and was cancelled after two seasons amid allegations of political interference. ''[[This Hour Has 22 Minutes]]'', created by [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]] comic [[Mary Walsh (actress)|Mary Walsh]], has been running since 1992 although the two are not related.

An Australian show, ''[[The Mavis Bramston Show]]'', aired from 1964 to 1968 on the [[Seven Network]]. It grew out of the recent local theatrical tradition of topical satirical revue—most notably the popular revues staged at Sydney's [[Phillip Street Theatre]] in the 1950s and 1960s—but it was also strongly influenced by the British satire boom and especially ''TW3'' and ''[[Not Only... But Also]]''.

The New Zealand show ''[[A Week Of It]]'' ran from 1977 to 1979, hosted by Ken Ellis, and featuring comedians [[David McPhail]], [[Peter Rowley]] and Chris McVeigh and comedian/musicians [[Jon Gadsby]] and [[Annie Whittle]]. The series lampooned news and politics and featured songs, usually by McPhail and Gadsby, who continued with their own show, ''McPhail and Gadsby'' in similar vein.

A Dutch version, ''Zo is het toevallig ook nog 's een keer'' (''It Just So Happens Once Again''), aired from November 1963 to 1966. It became controversial after the fourth edition, which included a parody of the [[Lord's Prayer]] ("Give us this day our daily television"). Angry viewers directed their protests especially against the most popular cast member: [[Mies Bouwman]]. After receiving several threats to her life she decided to quit the show. The show was praised as well: in 1966 it received the Gouden Televizier-ring, a prestigious audience award—though it turned out afterward that the election was rigged.<ref name="toevallig">{{cite web|url=http://www.geschiedenis24.nl/andere-tijden/afleveringen/2001-2002/Zo-is-het-toevallig-ook-nog-s-een-keer.html|title='Zo is het toevallig ook nog 's een keer'|last=Nijland|first=Yfke|publisher=Geschiedenis 24|language=nl|access-date=22 August 2013}}</ref>

An Indian version titled ''The Week That Wasn't'' was launched and hosted by [[Cyrus Broacha]].

In 2004, ABC News revived the iconic TW3 theme song as a closing segment on its weekly magazine program, [[Primetime Live]]. Several two-minute episodes aired, but never caught on with the audience.

==Parodies==
[[Cleveland]], Ohio, local personality [[Ghoulardi]] (played by Ernie Anderson), [[horror host|host]] of [[WJW (TV)|WJW]]-TV's ''Shock Theater'' in the 1960s, ran clips of local celebrities and politicians and satirised them in a ''Shock Theater'' segment entitled ''That Was Weak Wasn't It?''<ref name=watsonbook>{{cite book
 |last       = Watson
 |first      = Elena M.
 |title      = Television Horror Movie Hosts: 68 Vampires, Mad Scientists and Other Denizens of the Late Night Airwaves Examined and Interviewed
 |publisher  = McFarland & Company
 |year       = 2000
 |location   = Jefferson, North Carolina
 |url       = http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-0940-2
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928011709/http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-0940-2
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-date = 28 September 2007
 |isbn       = 978-0786409402
 |access-date = 31 May 2014
}}</ref>

Beginning in 2006, 1812 Productions, an all comedy theatre company in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, has annually performed a stage show called ''This Is the Week That Is''. The variety show style play is written by its small cast with a script that changes nightly over several weeks of performances, and includes improvised comedy, musical parodies, and a versatile cast of performers. The show focuses on politics and news from the preceding year, often taking on local Philadelphia stories as well. In 2019, a documentary, ''In the Field; Conceiving Satire: The Making of This Is The Week That Is'', about the creation of the long-running show was commissioned by the [[American Theatre Wing]] and nominated for a [[Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards|Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award]] for Arts Program/Special.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.1812productions.org/this-is-the-week-that-is-american-theatre-wing|title=American Theatre Wing & This Is The Week That Is|website=1812 Productions|language=en-US|access-date=13 December 2019}}</ref>

==Further reading==
*''That Was the Week that Was'', David Frost and Ned Sherrin, editors. London: [[W. H. Allen & Co.|W. H. Allen]], 1963. Description from the title page verso: "This is a miscellany of material from a new television programme called "That Was The Week That Was".

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book | last = McCann | first = Graham | title = Spike & Co. | year = 2006 | publisher = Hodder & Stoughton | location = London | isbn = 0-340-89809-7 }}
*{{cite book|last=Hegarty|first=Neil|title=Frost – That Was the Life That Was: The Authorised Biography|url={{Google books|telFDAAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}}|year=2016|publisher=Ebury Publishing|isbn=978-0-7535-5672-6 }}

==External links==
*{{BBC Online|id=comedy/twtwtw/|title=That Was The Week That Was}}
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20080531201751/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/20860 That Was the Week That Was]'' at the [[British Film Institute]]
*{{Screenonline TV title|id=583651|title=That Was the Week That Was}}
*''[http://www.museum.tv/eotv/thatwasthe.htm That Was the Week That Was]'' at the [[Museum of Broadcast Communications]]
*{{IMDb title|id=0131188|title=That Was the Week That Was}} (UK version)
*{{IMDb title|id=0057789|title=That Was the Week That Was}} (US version)

{{Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album 1960s}}

[[Category:BBC television sketch shows]]
[[Category:1960s British television sketch shows]]
[[Category:1960s British satirical television series]]
[[Category:British news parodies]]
[[Category:Television series about television]]
[[Category:American television series based on British television series]]
[[Category:Peabody Award–winning television programs]]
[[Category:Grammy Award winners]]
[[Category:1962 British television series debuts]]
[[Category:1963 British television series endings]]
[[Category:Black-and-white British television shows]]
[[Category:British English-language television shows]]