Hearts of Gold | |
---|---|
Created by | Esther Rantzen[2] |
Directed by | Robin Bextor Malcolm Smith Phil Chilvers (1990 Christmas special)[2] |
Presented by | Esther Rantzen Michael Groth (1988–1991)[3] Carol Smillie (1995–1996) Mike Smith (1992–1993) |
Theme music composer | Lynsey de Paul |
Production | |
Producers | Jane Elsdon-Dew (1990 Christmas special)[2] Nick Vaughan-Barratt[4] Bryher Scudamore Richard Woolfe |
Original release | |
Network | BBC1 |
Release | 29 October 1988[1] – 1 May 1996[5] |
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
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 Independent's 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]
in a fit of exasperation on Saturday night, I turned on the television ... In the first of a new series called Hearts of Gold...