This Is Your Life: Bernard Braden

Bernard BRADEN (1916-1993)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Bernard Braden, actor and broadcaster, was surprised by Michael Aspel outside London's Aldwych Theatre, while on his way to a meeting at the Waldorf Hotel.

Having worked as an actor, writer and producer on radio with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in his native Canada, Bernard moved to London with his wife Barbara Kelly and young family in 1949, where he soon landed his own BBC radio show Breakfast With Braden. Renowned for its satire, the show was renamed Bedtime With Braden in 1950, and a year later the Bradens joined forces for a new television show, An Evening At Home With Bernard Braden And Barbara Kelly.

Bernard was keen to try groundbreaking new programme ideas, and went on to launch On The Braden Beat for ITV, one of the earliest consumer watchdog programmes, which won him a BAFTA award in 1964. The same format was used again when he returned to the BBC in 1968 with Braden's Week. He also worked in films and on stage throughout this period, and later ran a successful agency for after-dinner speakers.

"Thank you very much!"

programme details...

Edition No: 797
Subject No: 784
Broadcast date: Wed 16 Jan 1991
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 28 Nov 1990
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 31
Edition: 13
Code name: Beat

on the guest list...

Barbara Kelly - wife
Alfred Marks
Spike Milligan
Denis Norden
Frank Muir
Pearl Carr
Benny Lee
Nat Temple
Ronald Fletcher
Miriam Karlin
Kelly - daughter
Chris - son
Anthony Valentine
Betsy Blair
Kim - daughter
Matthew - grandson
Jemima - granddaughter
William Shatner
Norman Jewison
Gerald Harper

production team...

Researchers: Elizabeth Ross, Tom Wettengel
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Directors: Brian Klein, Terry Yarwood
Associate Producer: John Graham
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

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celebrating the hosts

Family Life

keeping it in the family

A Life Remembered

tributes to the original presenter

Behind the Scenes

the programme's best kept secrets

Life Is What They Make It...

New producer Malcolm Morris reveals more behind-the-scenes secrets

How To Deceive Your Husband

TV Times takes a light-hearted look at keeping a secret

The secret life of Eamonn Andrews

Weekend Magazine feature on the show's popularity

When a life hangs in the balance

TV Times reveals more behind-the-scenes stories

Secret names that have special meaning

TV Times reveals more secrets from television's most secretive show

Kelly Braden, daughter of Barbara Kelly and Bernard Braden, recalls her parents and their editions of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in March 2012

Screenshots of Bernard Braden This Is Your Life

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

Fifteen years before 28 November 1990, we had thought of presenting the Life of Bernard Braden, but the plot was 'blown' by one of his grandchildren.

But Bernie had no idea what was happening when Michael Aspel sprang outside the Aldwych Theatre in the West End where, forty years before, Bernard Braden had co-starred with Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Laurence Olivier.

Back in those days Bernard and his wife Barbara Kelly, newly arrived from Canada, were hailed as entertainment's 'golden couple'.

In Vancouver he had left school at sixteen to work at the local radio station as engineer, announcer and singer.

Bedtime With Braden established Bernard and Barbara, and from those halcyon radio days came writers Frank Muir and Denis Norden, Pearl Carr, Benny Lee, Nat Temple and announcer Ronald Fletcher.

And an international Canadian film director, penniless when he arrived in London with only a letter of introduction to Bernard and Barbara, greeted them from the location, in Connecticut, of his latest film - Norman Jewison.

Series 31 subjects