Hearts of Gold explained

Creator:Esther Rantzen
Director:Robin Bextor
Malcolm Smith
Phil Chilvers (1990 Christmas special)[1]
Presenter:Esther Rantzen
Michael Groth (1988–1991)[2]
Carol Smillie (1995–1996)
Mike Smith (1992–1993)
Theme Music Composer:Lynsey de Paul
Producer:Jane Elsdon-Dew (1990 Christmas special)
Nick Vaughan-Barratt[3]
Bryher Scudamore
Richard Woolfe
Channel:BBC1
First Aired:[4]
Last Aired:[5]

Hearts of Gold was a BBC television programme devised and presented by Esther Rantzen, with Michael Groth and Carol Smillie as co-presenters. Running for six years in the 1980s and 1990s, the programme commended members of the public for their good deeds.[6] [7]

Rantzen devised the show in 1988.[8] The premise of the show was to commend those who had done good deeds to others. They would usually be tricked into appearing on the show using a practical joke, a device which some critics (such as The Independents Geraldine Bedell) compared to Beadle's About.[9] Journalist Bedell explains that participants "are inviegled into the studio under false pretences and presented with gold hearts on blue ribbons while they wonder where to put themselves. (There is also a sub-Beadle segment in which Esther and chums dress up as folk in distress and wait for passers-by to come to their aid)."[9] For some of its life, the show was filmed at The Fountain Studios in Wembley.[10]

Transmission details

Theme song

The 1988 theme song was written by Lynsey de Paul[11] [12] and released as a single by Gold on the CBS record label in 1988.[13] The B-side of the single was the song "Sacks of Gold", also a De Paul composition.

Notes and References

  1. Sunday 23 December . Radio Times. 267 . 3497 . BBC Magazines . 76 . 22 December 1990 – 4 January 1991 . 9770956187995-->.
  2. Book: Jones, Ian . Morning Glory: A History of British Breakfast Television . Kelly . 2004 . 190305320X . 151.
  3. Book: Dyja, Eddie . British Film Institute . 1998 . BFI film and television handbook . registration . 373 . 0851706371.
  4. News: The deadly peril of the big gusher . CRAIG . BROWN . The Times . 31 October 1988 . in a fit of exasperation on Saturday night, I turned on the television ... In the first of a new series called Hearts of Gold....
  5. Book: The international who's who, 1997-98. 1997 . 61 . 1240 . Europa Publications . 1857430220.
  6. News: Rantzen's years in the limelight. BBC News . 16 June 2006.
  7. Book: Karen Ross . Deniz Derman . Mapping the margins: identity, politics, and the media . 2003 . Hampton Press . 1572734213.
  8. Book: Wynter Bee, Peter . People of the Day 2 . 97 . People of the Day Limited . 0954811011.
  9. News: Geraldine . Bedell . Geraldine Bedell . The end of life as we know it; After 21 years, That's Life! is coming off the air. It made Esther Rantzen into the people's champion. It also made her a powerful woman within the BBC, where her image is not so sunny. Esther knows the people, but do the people know her? . 29 August 1993 . The Independent.
  10. Web site: Fountain: A Brief History . Fountain Studios . 15 July 2012.
  11. News: Richard . Webber . WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... Lynsey de Paul . 21 April 2012 . The Express . SATURDAY MAGAZINE; FEATURES; p. 19.
  12. Web site: Esther Rantzen on being a widow and learning truth about Jimmy Savile. 29 October 2018. Belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
  13. Web site: Gold (30) - Hearts of Gold. Discogs. 29 October 2018.

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