This Is Your Life: William Rushton

William RUSHTON (1937-1996)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - William Rushton, actor, cartoonist, comedian and satirist, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - with the help of a group of celebrities from the Lord's Taverners, including cricketer Colin Milburn - outside the Orange Tree pub in Richmond upon Thames while celebrating the 21st anniversary of the London Standard's Pub of the Year Award, for which he had been a judge since it began.

Willie, who was born in Chelsea, was educated at Shrewsbury School, where he was part of a group that produced the school magazine. After completing his National Service and briefly working in a solicitor's office, he reunited with his school friends, who took advantage of the boom in satire in the early 1960s and created the news magazine Private Eye, with Willie contributing illustrations and comic strips.

In 1961, he appeared in Spike Milligan's play The Bed Sitting Room and, the following year, was part of the team that established the ground-breaking BBC television satirical comedy programme That Was The Week That Was. He made hundreds of cabaret, radio, and television appearances and wrote and illustrated over a dozen books.

"My god, it's an Irish kiss-o-gram!"

programme details...

Edition No: 729
Subject No: 723
Broadcast date: Wed 1 Apr 1987
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Sun 15 Mar 1987
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 27
Edition: 25
Code name: Beard

on the guest list...

Barry Norman
Nicholas Parsons
Chris Tarrant
Fred Trueman
Fenella Fielding
Dorgan - wife
Toby - son
Richard Ingrams
Christopher Booker
Bev Chivers
John Wells
Spike Milligan
Ned Sherrin
Kenneth Cope
David Kernan
Lance Percival
Roy Kinnear
Graeme Garden
Barry Cryer
John Junkin
Sam - stepson
Matthew - stepson
Pembran - daughter-in-law
Stella - granddaughter
Julius - grandson
Lord Stafford
Gareth Davies
JPR Williams
Henry Kelly
Richard Farquar
Bill Tidy
Russell Osman
Denis Upton
John Conteh
Auberon Waugh
David Frost

production team...

Researcher: Claire Jenkinson
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Directors: Terry Yarwood, Michael D Kent
Associate Producer: Brian Klein
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

It's a Funny Old Life

it's all about the comedy

Screenshots of William Rushton This Is Your Life

Chris Tarrant recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, It's Not A Proper Job...

Colin Milburn, the brilliant England and Northampton batsman, is probably the only person ever to appear on the opening credits of This Is Your Life and never actually appear on the show itself. The subject of the show was the late brilliant Willie Rushton. Myself, Colin Milburn, Michael Parkinson, Nicholas Parsons, and a load of other Lord's Taverners were taken up to the front of a pub, on the open top of a horse-drawn carriage, to take the focus away from the then presenter Eamonn Andrews who was hiding in amongst us all with a blanket over his head and clutching the red book. It was a bitter cold afternoon and there were a couple of very handy little hip flasks being handed around while we waited for the unsuspecting Willie to turn up. Milburn gave the hip flasks a spanking, but, having come down on the train from Newcastle, had had a few bevies to help him through the long journey. By now, Mr Milburn, like Jeffrey Bernard, was distinctly unwell. It didn't help matters that 'the hit' on Rushton was going to be done in a pub. They cued the cameras and we bounced along happily behind the horses with Milburn still draining the last dregs of brandy from the flask, and Eamonn sprang out on an unsuspecting Willie Rushton.

Willie told us all later that he had absolutely no idea that he was going to be the subject of the programme, but he was the most calm and unfazed person I've ever seen appear on the show. When Eamonn popped out from behind the bar, shouting, "This is your life," Willie just said, "Oh, there you are, you funny little leprechaun. I've been waiting for you for years."

Colin Milburn then bought an enormous round of drinks and proceeded to fall fast asleep in the corner of the bar. We all piled into a taxi, dragging Big Col with us. He woke up just in time to drink a large glass of hospitality wine before sitting as best he could on the seat in the studio. Colin was a very big guy and the seat was extremely uncomfortable and liable to eject him at any second. By now Colin was feeling no pain, and was chatting loudly to everybody. Eventually, after several calls of "Quiet" from the floor manager, so that they could start the show, the amiable Colin was asked if he wouldn't mind leaving. It was all perfectly polite and hassle-free, but off he had to go... slurring the words, "I'm terribly sorry, but I don't feel too good." He was quietly put into a car, helped back on to the train and was back in Newcastle before the pubs shut. Willie Rushton wrote him a very nice thank you letter for coming along to pay tribute, and I don't think Colin ever realised that he never actually quite made it to the show itself. Willie Rushton was one of the wittiest and most wonderfully irreverent men I ever knew.

Series 27 subjects