Wednesday at Eight

1 9 7 6 – 1 9 7 8 (UK)
19 x 60 minute episodes

Liverpudlian comedian, former assistant headmaster and four-time Opportunity Knocks winner Tom O’Connor hosted this variety series from Thames Television.

Singers, groups, comedians and ventriloquists entertained each week while two contestants competed in Name That Tune – a musical quiz with £1,000 prize money. Alan Braden and his Orchestra also appeared each week with vocal backing from the Mike Sammes Singers (1976) and The Ladybirds (1977 and 1978).

Lionel Blair (1976) and Nigel Lythgoe (1977) did the choreography.

Guests included Andy Williams, Petula Clark, Cilla Black, Tony Christie, Mary Hopkin, Max Bygraves, Charles Aznavour, The Nolan Sisters, The Three Degrees, Frankie Howerd, David Nixon, Peters and Lee, Dennis Waterman, John Inman, Frankie Vaughan, The New Seekers, Brotherhood of Man, The Barron Knights, The Black Abbotts, Sacha Distel, Mike and Bernie Winters, Little and Large, Jim Davidson, Mike Reid, Ted Rogers, and Roger De Courcey and Nookie Bear.

Scripts for the first series were by Eddie Braben and Pat Finan. Dick Hills joined Finan to write the 1977 series. Dick Vosburgh and Frank Hughes helped with the writing for the final series in 1978.

The 15-minute Name That Tune segment continued in Night Out at the London Casino (1977) and London Night Out (1978-81), which O’Connor also hosted. It eventually became a show in its own right, with O’Connor presenting the first series (1983-84).

Tom O’Connor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2007 and, six years later, with bowel cancer. He died of pneumonia in July 2021, aged 81.

Host
Tom O’Connor

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