Live & Kicking is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for Going Live! and borrowed many of that show's features, such as phone-ins, comedy skits, games, competitions, and the airing of cartoons. Becoming fully established in its second series, Live & Kicking subsequently reached its height in popularity during series four, when it was presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston; their final episode won a Children's BAFTA. It was first broadcast on 2 October 1993 at 9 am on BBC1. The original hosts were Andi Peters, Emma Forbes who had presented a cookery segment in Going Live!, and John Barrowman. For the second series, Barrowman was relegated to hosting the showbiz Electric Circus segment, leaving Peters and Forbes to become the main hosts. He left after one series of Electric Circus to concentrate on acting. Comedy duo Trevor and Simon and Peter Simon, in the Run the Risk segment, were also regulars who had featured on Going Live!.
New episodes of Rugrats were shown. The series went out opposite ITV's What's Up Doc? but during its third series issues were raised by the ITC, and a number of people left including Don Austen and John Eccleston (Bro and Bro's puppeteers) who defected to Live & Kicking to star as leprechaun brothers Sage and Onion.
Andi Peters decided to leave the programme in 1996, after being offered an executive role at LWT, where he also presented Saturday mid-morning music programme The Noise. Emma Forbes initially planned to continue, but during the programme's summer break she also decided to leave, after finding out she was pregnant. Around this time Mr. Blobby, played by Barry Killerby, also appeared on the series. and Theakston followed. The final episode hosted by Ball and Theakston later won the show a children's BAFTA award for Best Entertainment show in November 1999.
The show returned in Autumn 1999 with new presenters Emma Ledden and Steve Wilson,. They lasted for one series only, because ratings dropped to 1.6 million during their tenure. At the same time rival SMTV Live on competitor channel ITV was relaunched to feature more comedic elements and its innuendo and features began to gain popularity. The following October, the programme was completely revamped, with a line-up of four: Ortis Deley, Katy Hill, Trey Farley and Sarah Cawood.
Ratings continued to plummet, because of the continuing success of SMTV Live. In an unprecedented move, in March 2001 the BBC extended the series over the summer, like SMTV was broadcast, but announced it would end in the autumn. Hill was replaced by Heather Suttie as the show was moved to BBC Scotland on 21 April until 15 September 2001 when the final show aired. It was replaced by The Saturday Show, which continued to be broadcast all year round.
Format
Live & Kicking was a weekly magazine show broadcast every Saturday morning, from late September or early October to April and in Series 8, it was broadcast from October to September. It was aimed at young people. They performed comedy sketches throughout the morning, and often interacted with the people in the studio.
As well as the television show, Live and Kicking launched a music CD, composed of the best music that artists had sung live on the programme. A CD-ROM computer game called Live and Kicking: Showmaker was also released, where the user could combine elements of the show to create their own television production on a small scale. A monthly magazine was also produced, though sales of the magazine dropped significantly towards the end of Live & Kickings production, reflecting its loss of viewers.
For series five and six, there was a short version of the show that aired on Friday afternoons called L&K Friday, but this was cancelled after two series. The regular Saturday presenters Jamie Theakston and Zoe Ball presented the first series, and Steve Wilson and Liz Fraser presented the second series. A 90-minute version of the show also aired on BBC Choice and was entitled L&K Replay.
Overview
Live & Kicking began on 2 October 1993 and saw the introduction of presenters Andi Peters, Emma Forbes and John Barrowman. Trev and Simon also joined them and provided the comedy for the show; both had also been on the former show Going Live! with Forbes.
The computer game for the 1995 series was called Snuffle the Truffles and involved viewers guiding a pig character around a pigpen eating truffles, whilst Trev and Simon invited two guests to review videos in the Video Galleon. The last show before the programme went on a summer break in 1996 saw Peters and Forbes leave the show. The programme returned in September 1996 with the introduction of new presenters Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston, and an array of new features.
Its return in 1997 saw the replacement of the white set with a new one that maintained the same shape and layout, but was curvier and larger. This coincided with the show moving into the larger Studio 6. This series also saw the introduction of Ben Ward, Richard Webb and Gerard Foster (known as Ben, Gez and Rich) of The Cheese Shop who took over the comedy from 'Trev and Simon'. The computer game for this series became Grabbit Rabbit which involved guiding 'Warren the Rabbit' down a course collecting carrots whilst dodging obstacles such as fences and bushes. Ball later said in an interview that Blake Harrison of The Inbetweeners had told her that he had once been a player on Grabbit Rabbit when he was younger.
In September 1998 Live & Kicking began with the leprechaun Mr Onion being temporarily written out of the show after supposedly being swept down the plughole in the bath. This was done intentionally as puppeteer John Eccleston was in Australia filming for Farscape and would not be available. To compensate for Eccleston's absence, a new leprechaun puppet was added called 'Shamrock' (voiced by Rebecca Nagan of Rosie and Jim fame). On 3 October 1998, future Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe appeared in the audience during The Hot Seat item where he proceeded to ask The Chuckle Brothers a question. This episode later went on to win a Children's BAFTA in November 1999.
Live & Kicking returned in September 1999 and saw the introduction of new presenters Steve Wilson and Emma Ledden. New features were added however unlike previous series, many of them failed to last and were continuously replaced. It also saw leprechaun Mr Onion return, however Shamrock remained meaning the show now had three leprechaun puppets.
October 2000 saw a number of major changes to the show. The set was entirely revamped with a new layout, new titles were added along with a new arrangement of the theme tune. Mr Blobby, The Leprechauns, Supergirly, Renoir and Mitch had also been removed from the show and unlike previous series, there were now four presenters instead of two: Katy Hill, Ortis Deley, Trey Farley and Sarah Cawood. The programme also saw the introduction of gunge based games. A new game was also introduced on the roof of BBC Television Centre called Sacrifice Your Family (known as Sacrifice Your Friends, from January 2001) which Cawood hosted that put two families against each other in various games. The last show on 15 September 2001 saw many of the old features and presenters return, including leprechauns Mr Sage and Mr Onion, who acknowledged in the final few minutes of the show that they were the longest serving presenters of the show. The final edition ended with a montage of the series' best moments over a live performance of the Steps song "It's The Way You Make Me Feel".
Demise and replacement
The Ball and Theakston era was considered to be when Live & Kicking was at its peak in popularity. When Live & Kicking returned on 7 October 2000, it was completely revamped, with brand new titles and a line-up of four presenters.
Production
For the first four series, Live & Kicking broadcast from TC 7 at BBC Television Centre however as of Series 5, it moved next door into TC 6 where it gained a larger set due to it being a larger studio. On 14 April 2001, the final show from TC 6 at BBC Television Centre was broadcast before the show moved to 'Studio A' in BBC Scotland the following week, which at the time, was based on Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow. It then remained there until the end of its run.
Studio A at Queen Margaret Drive has since been demolished following the BBC's move to new studios at Pacific Quay in 2007. Property developer David Wilson Homes are currently building new homes called The Botanics on the site of the old Live & Kicking studio.
Studios TC 6 and TC 7 at BBC Television Centre also suffered a similar fate in 2015 when they too were demolished in the restructure of the building. As such, none of the studios used by Live & Kicking exist anymore.
After Live & Kicking
On Friday 16 November 2001, two months after the show had finished, parts of the old Live & Kicking set from Series 8 were resurrected and reused as part of BBC Scotland's regional studio set for BBC Children in Need. In an attempt to disguise the set's former use, all traces of L&K branding were removed and replaced with Children In Need logos and throughout the course of the evening, the old gunge tank, beanbag seating area and performance stage were reused one more time.
In 2004, former presenters Katy Hill and Trey Farley, who had presented the show together in Series 8, went on to marry each other at a register office in Surrey before flying to Tuscany to seal their marriage. They later had two children together: a daughter, Kaya Sky, born in 2006, and a son, Akira, born in 2007.
In 2009, Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston who had presented the programme together between 1996 and 1999, were reunited to present a new game show for Channel 5 called Britain's Best Brain which ran from 28 October to 16 December 2009.
Transmissions
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Series !! Start date !! End date !! Episodes
|-
| 1 || 2 October 1993 || 29
|-
| 2 || 24 September 1994 || 15 April 1995 || 30
|-
| 3 || 23 September 1995 || 13 April 1996 || 31
|-
| 5 || 27 September 1997 || 30
|-
| 6 || 26 September 1998 || 30
|-
| 7 || 25 September 1999 || 30
|-
| 8 || 7 October 2000