This Is Your Life: Lynda Bellingham

Lynda BELLINGHAM (1948-2014)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Lynda Bellingham, actress, was surprised by Michael Aspel while filming a scene for the ITV sitcom Second Thoughts at the studios of London Weekend Television.

Lynda trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama and after a period working in repertory theatre in Frinton and Crewe, she made her television debut in 1972 as a nurse in ITV's afternoon soap opera, General Hospital. She worked steadily in television throughout the 1970s in such series as the drama Funny Man, and the comedy sketch show The Pink Medicine Show.

In the 1980s Lynda secured more prominent roles on television, including regular appearances in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, and later in the BBC drama series All Creatures Great and Small. And she was also well known to television viewers as the mother in the long-running Oxo Family series of commercials, which began in 1983.

"Best offer I've had all year!"

programme details...

Edition No: 854
Subject No: 843
Broadcast date: Wed 27 Jan 1993
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Sun 13 Dec 1992
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 33
Edition: 18
Code name: Cube

on the guest list...

Nunzio Peluso - husband
Donald - father
Jean - sister
Barbara - sister
cast members of Second Thoughts
Christopher Biggins
Jack Tinker
Michael - son
Robert - son
Jenny Puddefoot
Nickolas Grace
Chris Beetles
Leo Dolan
Gareth Hunt
Sheila McIntosh
Joanna Dolan
Luke Dolan
Jimmy Jewel
Michael Redfern
Alison Reynolds
Blair MacKichan
Colin McCoy
Joan Kemp-Welch
Peter Moffatt
Christopher Timothy
Peter Davison
Jean Heywood
Litz Pisk
Colin Baker

production team...

Researcher: Elizabeth Ross
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Directors: Brian Klein, Malcolm Morris
Associate Producer: John Graham
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Lynda Bellingham recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in March 2012

Screenshots of Lynda Bellingham This Is Your Life

Lynda Bellingham recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in her autobiography, Lost and Found, reproduced here with kind permission of the author...

During one season of Second Thoughts, in 1993, I was caught by Michael Aspel and the big red book. I had often said to Nunzio if ever they ask you whether I'd like to be on This Is Your Life, to please say yes. He always said he would refuse because: 'I don't want to sit on the television while they introduce all your fucks!' I tried to explain it was not quite like that, but to no avail. Thank God my mum got to hear about it and helped organise the guest list.

It was the last programme ever to be made at Thames Television Studios at Teddington. [Bigredbook.info editor: actually, the team made many more editions from Teddington] I had been to several sessions of This Is Your Life for other people over the years, some when it was still Eamonn Andrews, the original host, and a few with Michael Aspel. What the audience see in terms of surprise guests who appear on the screen is nothing to the party afterwards, where the studio is full of everyone who has ever been in your life. It was fantastic. What a night we had. It didn't finish until 6am.

We didn't start filming until after midnight because they surprised me while I was recording an episode of Second Thoughts. We had been told we had to do a retake and Jimmy was going to come in and start the scene again with the line, 'I just went to the pub to get a bottle of wine.'

I had my back to him on the sofa so I couldn't see him. The director shouted 'Action!' and in came Jimmy. I heard him say: 'I just went to the pub and you would never believe who I met.' I didn't really take in what he was saying because I thought he had gone wrong and was about to have a wobbly. I swung round nervously to see Jimmy standing there with Michael Aspel. The audience in the studio were all applauding and cheering. I thought it was Jimmy's This Is Your Life and I was thinking, 'Oh dear, he won't like this,' because he's a very private man, but then suddenly Michael was talking to me and handing me the big red book. It was so wonderful.

I was driven from the studios at Waterloo to Teddington studios. All the way down in the car, I swigged champagne and mentally ran through everyone I could remember in my life. I didn't want to let the side down and not know who anyone was: it was always so awful on that programme when they introduced someone and it was obvious that the star didn't have a clue who it was! I had to be kept isolated because the producers do not want anyone to spoil the surprise or talk to you about anything. But in my case, they had to let me phone my mum because she was going to be unable to appear as she was very ill with pneumonia. Poor dear Mum, she was so upset – she would have loved so much to have held court! My dad spoke in his usual reserved way and also my sister Jean, who was brilliant and gave a lovely account of the family.

They have a policy with This Is Your Life that you are allowed a couple of guests from overseas. Budget permitting, obviously. When I was waiting in the room to start the show I was thinking of two dear friends I hoped might fly over. Wally Michaels from Canada and Bryn Lloyd from California. No such luck. What Nunzio had done was use the flights available to bring over his mates from Italy for a freebie. As usual it was all about him.

When I came on and sat down next to him in the studio, I could feel the waves of tension emanating from him. This was going to be a nightmare. If anyone came on that I had slept with what was I going to do? I just crossed my fingers and prayed that Mum, Dad and Nik Grace all knew what he was like, and had arranged things accordingly. Michael Aspel told me years after the event that he had never seen a man so like a coiled spring. He said people were phoning in asking why Lynda Bellingham's husband never smiled. I was so nervous and so aware of everything I said. But we got through it OK and I had a fabulous time.

Series 33 subjects