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Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Richard Attenborough, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews during a dinner held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap - in which he had been an original cast member - at the Savoy Hotel, from where the programme was then recorded.

Richard, who was born in Cambridge but grew up in Leicester, graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1942, the same year he made his film debut in Noel Coward's In Which We Serve. Having joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, he was seconded to the newly formed RAF Film Production Unit at Pinewood Studios.

He appeared in films such as Brighton Rock, The Guinea Pig and I'm All Right Jack before establishing a film production company in the late 1950s with director Bryan Forbes, which produced The League of Gentlemen, The Angry Silence and Whistle Down The Wind.

programme details...

• Edition No: 207
• Subject No:208
• Broadcast date: Tue 18 Dec 1962
• Broadcast time: 7.55-8.25pm
• Recorded: Sun 25 Nov 1962 8.45pm
• Venue: Savoy Hotel, London
• Series: 8
• Edition: 12

on the guest list...

• Sheila Sim - wife
• David Attenborough - brother
• John Attenborough - brother
• Mona Pickles
• Allan Russell
• John Mills
• John Harris
• John Boulting
• Yolande Donlan
• Alan Barnes
• Rev Jimmy Butterworth
• boys and girls from Clubland
• Michael - son
• Jane - daughter
Filmed tributes:
• Noël Coward
• Bryan Forbes
• Peter Sellers
not included in broadcast edition:
• Michael Relph
• Bryan Kneale

related appearances...

• David Sheppard - Oct 1960
• Dulcie Gray - Mar 1973
• John Frost - Apr 1977
• John Mills - Oct 1983
• Peter Saunders - Nov 1992
• Sydney Samuelson - Jun 1994
• Michael Craig - Jun 1994
• Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray - Apr 1995
• Donald Woods - Dec 2000
• Saeed Jaffrey - Nov 2001

production team...

• Researcher: Alan Haire
• Writer: Nickola Sterne
• Director: Vere Lorrimer
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

• names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

James Butterworth

John Mills

Richard Attenborough recalls his experience of This Is Your Life

Photographs and screenshots of Richard Attenborough This Is Your Life