64-578: Victor Lewis-Smith (12 May 1957 – 10 December 2022) was a British film, television and radio producer, a television and restaurant critic, a satirist and newspaper columnist. He was executive producer of the ITV1 Annual National Food & Drink Awards. He was an alumnus of the University of York and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster in November 2008. Lewis-Smith
128-513: A "serious error in judgement" that went against the values of the station. Baker expressed disagreement with the BBC's decision to fire him, receiving support from several media figures. In November 2019 Baker launched a twice-weekly podcast entitled The Treehouse co-hosted by Louise Pepper. The format is a continuation of previous non-football radio shows being based upon humorous stories from listeners, often relating to pop culture. From August 2020,
192-502: A BBC Saturday night chat show , called Danny Baker After All which borrowed its style from Late Night with David Letterman , but his style and guests ( Rick Wakeman of prog rock band Yes was a regular) did not attract the mainstream audience the slot demanded. Film critic Mark Kermode 's band The Railtown Bottlers were the show's house band. Later he fronted television adverts for Daz washing powder and Mars bar confectionery. Baker parodied his Daz ads by appearing as himself on
256-407: A Sunday lunchtime show with Danny Kelly, Baker & Kelly Upfront . On leaving Radio 1, Baker returned to Radio London to present a three-hour Sunday show from 10 am to 1 pm. Baker and Kelly Upfront also returned, now at Saturday lunchtime, while Baker also took on a new show, The Baker Line , a Wednesday evening version of the 606 phone-in show. While Baker and Kelly Upfront
320-418: A cassette Nuisance Calls (ARTV, 1996). In the 1980s Lewis-Smith took over from Julie Burchill in writing weekly columns for Time Out magazine. He also wrote weekly columns during the same period for the short-lived Sunday Correspondent and The Mail on Sunday (where he often substituted for Burchill), as well as Esquire magazine. He has also written as food critic for The Independent , and
384-466: A fake PhD, having obtained the qualification from the non-accredited LaSalle University in the United States, whose principal had since been imprisoned for making misleading claims about the status of degrees he handed out to candidates. He later accepted damages of £25,000. On 12 December 2022, it was announced by Lewis-Smith's public-relations agency that the author had died after a short illness, at
448-505: A fall in listeners at Radio 1 but despite his tendering his resignation on at least two occasions, management added extensions to his contract. From October 1995, his Saturday show went out from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. He left the station in September 1996. His co-hosts during this period included BBC continuity announcer Danny Kelly . While continuing with his Saturday morning show on Radio 1, in 1996 Baker joined BBC Radio 5 Live to present
512-457: A handful of shows alongside Danny Kelly until he left the station in 2000. In September 2001, Baker joined BBC London 94.9 presenting a Saturday morning show from 8 to 11 am. Just six months later, in March 2002, and with a new co-presenting team which included Amy Lamé , Mark O'Donnell and David Kuo , he took over the breakfast show from 6 to 9 am, with a new theme tune in the form of
576-585: A limited period that summer, Baker hosted six shows during Euro 2008 . He made a long-term return to 606 in September 2008, hosting a Tuesday night show for the duration of the 2008–09 football season. He also had a short stint with Zoe Ball on Radio 2 on Saturday mornings after Jonathan Ross had been suspended for three months by the BBC . At the end of the 2008–09 season, Baker's 606 Tuesday night show that he co-hosted with Issy Clarke shifted to an expanded Saturday morning slot, starting in September 2009 on 5 Live. The show returned in September 2010 after
640-547: A new recording of the Candyman theme tune. On Saturday 15 December 2007 Baker posted an open letter on both the ADBS and Baker and Kelly sites, saying that "there will be no more All Day Breakfast Show s nor Baker & Kelly's. There has now been an irreversible and utter breakdown between the on-air team and the company who have, with varying degrees of success, provided it to you online." Wippit responded on 17 December 2007 saying that
704-500: A series of 44 television programmes called 21st-Century Bach - The Complete Organ Works . The series started on BBC Two in June 2003 and ran for six years. The series has since aired on Sky Arts . John Scott Whiteley was the organist. From 2010, Lewis-Smith was the executive producer of In Confidence , a series of one-to-one interviews, featuring leading figures from the arts. Presented by Laurie Taylor , this production for Sky Arts
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#1732884728771768-581: A similar format to Baker's radio show on BBC London, where the listeners and presenters share humorous anecdotes, interspersed with obscure recordings. Originally launched in March 2007, the All Day Breakfast Show was rebranded in September that year as the All Day Breakfast Show in Colour , and a weekly download fee of £2 was applied to the podcast. The full-length podcast was made available solely through Wippit and edited highlights were made available as
832-400: A teaser through iTunes. The podcast went into hiatus after one week, numerous downloaders from Wippit being unable to access the material due to restrictions on available bandwidth. No official announcement was made for the cause of the hiatus, or whether the podcast would return. However, after several weeks of silence, the All Day Breakfast Show officially announced its return to the air on
896-402: A television show presented by Baker, following bottom-division East London Sunday League football teams, was released on DVD through Revelation Films on 24 May 2010. In 2009, he released a book co-written with Danny Kelly entitled Classic Football Debates Settled Once and for All, Vol. 1 . Despite the title, the book itself makes clear that a sequel is not planned, though some extra material
960-416: A writing partnership with long-time collaborator Paul Sparks, also a former music student at York, and producing sketches combining music, special effects and toilet humour . During this time he won nine awards at the 1988 Independent Radio Advertising Awards (including the gold) for his Midland Bank student campaign. In 1989 he made his first programme for BBC Radio 1 , with producer John Walters , under
1024-549: Is often the work of several individuals collectively, as in magazines and television. Hence the following list. Danny Baker Danny Baker (born 22 June 1957) is an English comedy writer , journalist , radio DJ and screenwriter . Throughout his career he has largely presented for London's regional radio and television. Baker was born in Deptford to a working-class family and raised in Bermondsey . From 1977 he wrote for
1088-408: The 1998 World Cup squad, Baker went on Have I Got News for You to defend his friend and criticise the omission. He also appeared on The Terry and Gaby Show from 2003 to 2004 (where he burnt his hand trying to perform a trick with a microwave and a piece of soap) and has appeared on BBC Two quiz show QI , becoming the show's first ever winner. Baker worked again with Charles Shaar Murray on
1152-458: The Anthony Newley song The Candy Man . Although not drawing a large listenership, Baker won " Sony Radio DJ of the year " for the show. However, the day after winning the award, he announced his intention to leave the show at the end of the month. The last show was on Friday 27 May 2005. On Monday 17 October 2005, after a sabbatical at home, Baker rejoined BBC London 94.9, where he took over
1216-763: The Ramones documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones , providing an audio commentary. More recent TV projects include The Sitcom Showdown which began on UKTV Gold in April 2006, a 2014 show featuring archived television footage for BBC4 named Brushing Up On... and a music discussion show for BBC4 named Danny Baker's Rockin' Decades . He also did Comic Relief Does The Apprentice in 2007 for Comic Relief . He also performed in The Rocky Horror Show , as
1280-515: The West End of London . The youngest of three children, he has an older sister, Sharon, and had an older brother, Michael, who died aged 29 when Danny was 24. In 1977, Baker started writing for the punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue which was founded by his old schoolfriend Mark Perry which in turn led to an offer from the New Musical Express , then edited by Nick Logan . Baker began working as
1344-421: The punk zine Sniffin' Glue , and from there was hired by the New Musical Express , where he worked as a writer, reviewer, and interviewer. Moving into television in 1980, he began presenting London Weekend Television 's Twentieth Century Box and reporting for The Six O'Clock Show . In 1989 he began radio presenting for BBC Radio London and in 1990 joined the newly established BBC Radio 5 . In 1997 he
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#17328847287711408-523: The 19 October 2007. No announcement on the main website was given, but in a five-minute mini-show downloadable initially only to paid subscribers, Baker and Leonard announced the return of the show. They confirmed that from "next week" they would be broadcasting three times a week. They also suggested (possibly only partially in jest) that due to BBC cuts announced the previous day, that they may be planning to end their official BBC London show and move to being an "internet only" show. The mini show also introduced
1472-528: The East London Sunday Football League . The series was later released on DVD. Baker began writing for television programmes in 1992 after being asked to prepare a piece for one of the first archive clip shows: TV Hell , which was a collection of the worst TV programmes ever. Since then he has presented television shows such as Win, Lose or Draw , Pets Win Prizes and TV Heroes , which
1536-508: The Sky Documentaries Channel aired "Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie", presented by David Letterman. Lewis-Smith's documentary, The Undiscovered Peter Cook , was the first in a series transmitted on BBC Four in November 2016. In December 2018, Lewis-Smith made three more documentaries in the style of The Undiscovered Peter Cook for Sky Arts, this time concerning Peter Sellers , Kenneth Williams and Tony Hancock . Lewis-Smith
1600-517: The Sunday morning programme, Snooze Button for BBC Radio York . Following this he became a producer at BBC Radio 4 , working on Start the Week and Midweek : during his stint on the latter programme he recruited cockney comedian Arthur Mullard as a stand-in host for regular presenter Libby Purves . In 1986 he became a regular contributor to Radio 4's Colour Supplement and Loose Ends , developing
1664-530: The age of 65, in Bruges , Belgium, on 10 December 2022. Collection of audio work: https://m.youtube.com/@associated-rediffusionprod4628/featured Satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism . They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. In alphabetical order (many birth dates not known): In modern culture, much satire
1728-526: The first series of Baker's TV show. Baker joined BBC Radio 1 in October 1993, taking over the weekend mid-morning show from 10 am to 1 pm from Dave Lee Travis who had resigned on air following the sackings instigated by Matthew Bannister and Trevor Dann during the early 1990s. However, due to poor ratings, from November 1994 he was heard on Saturdays only from 10 am to 12 noon. Simon Mayo took over Sunday mornings. Baker's style led to
1792-560: The guests' latest or most famous work, and shows would be interspersed with relatively obscure rock tracks from bands such as Yes , Todd Rundgren , Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart . The programme was axed in November 2012 as part of a programme of cuts at the station. Although due to continue its run until the end of the year, Baker announced on air on the day of the announcement that that day's show would be his last, branding his BBC London employers as "pinheaded weasels" for
1856-402: The intimate details of life in and around the game". In attempting to lampoon privilege and the news cycle I went to a file of goofy pictures and saw the chimp dressed as a Lord and thought, 'That's the one!' Had I kept searching I might have chosen General Tom Thumb or even a baby in a crown. But I didn't. God knows I wish [I] had... Minutes later I was alerted by followers that this royal baby
1920-399: The late 1990s he made guest appearances on comedy shows including Have I Got News for You , Shooting Stars and Room 101 . During this period he appeared in the press as a result of nights out with friends Chris Evans and England footballer Paul Gascoigne . Gascoigne was under media scrutiny for drinking and socialising while preparing for tournaments. After Gascoigne was left out of
1984-488: The likes of Spandau Ballet and Depeche Mode . Baker's first mainstream break was as roving reporter - presenter on the Michael Aspel LWT regional magazine The Six O'Clock Show alongside former Mastermind winner and former London black cab driver Fred Housego . Paul Ross (brother of Jonathan Ross whom Baker had as his best man ) was his researcher. During his stint on The Six O'Clock Show , Baker
Victor Lewis-Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue
2048-598: The name "Damien Filth". During his time as a student he was arrested, convicted and fined £20 for causing a public disturbance after climbing up scaffolding at York Minster in the middle of the night and reciting the adhan , the Muslim call to prayer, from a ledge, having previously played " I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside " on the cathedral's organ. When asked in the magistrates' court hearing if he had anything to say, he replied: "All my leftwing friends told me they were beaten up by
2112-596: The narrator, at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley and the New Wimbledon Theatre . Baker was announced as part of BT Sport 's football coverage in 2013, hosting a Friday evening show with Danny Kelly . In 2016, Chris Evans hired Baker to work as a writer on the 2016 series of Top Gear . In November 2016, he entered as a latecomer in reality television show, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here . Baker
2176-535: The newly launched BBC Radio 5 , presenting Sportscall , a phone-in sports quiz broadcast every Saturday lunchtime. From October 1991 to October 1992 he presented 606 and, from February 1992 until October 1993, he presented Morning Edition every weekday morning. The show blended Baker's love of unusual trivia with "grown-up" music. This was where Baker first teamed up with Danny Kelly and Allis Moss. Mark Kermode added weekly film reviews, and would later appear with his band "The Railtown Bottlers" every week on
2240-493: The office receptionist, but was soon contributing regular articles and reviews before progressing to interviews. He often refers to these times during his radio shows , regularly citing examples of the ridiculous behaviour exhibited by his rock star interviewees. In the later 1990s, Baker wrote a weekly sports column for The Times and was briefly a columnist for early issues of film magazine Empire . Baker started his TV career in 1980 at London Weekend Television (LWT), as
2304-415: The podcast moved to a paid-only subscription model on Patreon . Baker has presented a number of popular football videos and DVDs including Own Goals and Gaffs (1992), Right Hammerings , Whose Season Was It Anyway? (both 1993), Own Goals and Gaffs 2 , Best Short Corners (both 1994), Fabulous World Of Freak Football (1995) and The Glorious Return Of Own Goals And Gaffs (2009). The Game (1990),
2368-445: The police when they were in custody. But nothing of the sort happened to me. What am I to tell them when we next meet?". Lewis-Smith owned a film, television and radio production company called Associated Rediffusion Productions Limited, having in 1990 acquired the rights to the name and logo of the original company, Associated-Rediffusion . Lewis-Smith contributed to a number of productions for British television: On 1 January 2021,
2432-462: The pompous and the powerful in the very best traditions of satire. His favourite target is the media, his pranks intended to expose their smugness, their laziness and their gullibility." One of his best known prank calls would feature on the intro of Towers Of Dub on The Orb album U.F.Orb . He released two recordings of his comedy, a CD Tested on Humans for Irritancy ( Virgin Records , 1991) and
2496-488: The presenter of Twentieth Century Box – a series of regional documentaries on elements of youth culture in London, produced by Janet Street-Porter . One edition in the first series documented the burgeoning new wave of British heavy metal ( NWOBHM ) scene, including an early TV appearance of Iron Maiden performing at The Marquee Club and interviews with " air guitarists ". Other editions also featured early appearances from
2560-489: The pseudonym Steve Nage, parodying the Simon Bates -style mid-Atlantic nasal delivery of Radio 1 disc jockeys of the time. Lewis-Smith's company made two series of the comedy show Victor Lewis-Smith for BBC Radio 1, for which he won a Best Comedy Radio Programme award in the 1990 British Comedy Awards. A compilation of his spoof calls peaked at No.1 on the iTunes comedy chart on 27 July 2006. They attracted some controversy at
2624-545: The show's cancellation was due to "a breakdown in contract negotiations between our company and Danny Baker", alleging that Baker "did not wish to meet his agreed obligations regarding exclusivity", and Wippit rejected the terms proposed by his agent. Wippit offered Baker 100% of the programme's revenues and declared no further interest in the podcast, but this offer was rejected by Baker's agent. Having announced on his BBC London radio show on 21 May 2008 that he would be returning to present Radio 5 Live's 606 football phone-in for
Victor Lewis-Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue
2688-486: The sitcom Me, You and Him . During this period, Baker began presenting on BBC Radio 5 's 606 football-related phone-in programme as well as the job of presenting Match of the Eighties , a six-part BBC series of football during the 1980/81 and 1985/86 seasons. Baker was a writer on Chris Evans' TFI Friday show, as well as contributing material for presenters such as Angus Deayton and Jonathan Ross . During
2752-783: The summer break with Lynsey Hipgrave replacing Clarke as co-host. The Saturday morning show gained critical acclaim, winning the Gold Sony Radio Award in the Speech Radio Personality of the Year award for 2011, 2012 and 2014, and the Gold Award for the Entertainment Show of the Year in 2013. Between November 2018 and March 2020 Baker co-hosted 35 episodes of a podcast titled Lineker & Baker: Behind Closed Doors with Gary Lineker and described as "a regular show full of
2816-524: The time of their first broadcast: in The Sunday Times on 15 April 1990, Paul Donovan opined that Lewis-Smith's hoaxes were "repugnant". However, The Guardian ' s Lucy Mangan described some of the recordings as being "touched with genius". Writing about Lewis-Smith's hoax phone calls in The Times Higher Education , Sally Feldman observed that "He chooses his victims carefully, pricking
2880-454: The time, "We have never done anything in a cynical, fake way." However, a year later, Channel 4 admitted that a scene in another of Ramsay's programmes had been faked, and apologised to viewers. On 28 July 2006, hypnotist Paul McKenna successfully sued the Daily Mirror for libel over articles written by Lewis-Smith from 1997 alleging that McKenna had deliberately misled the public with
2944-626: The tweet. Baker was born in Deptford in south-east London to Fred "Spud" Baker, a dockworker , and Betty, a factory worker. He grew up in Bermondsey and attended Rotherhithe Primary School and then, instead of taking up a grammar school place, went to the nearby West Greenwich Secondary Boys' School, Deptford. After leaving school at 14, he worked in One Stop Records, a small but fashionable record shop in South Molton Street in
3008-470: The way in which they cancelled the programme. On 15 March 2007 until September the same year, Baker hosted the All Day Breakfast Show , a podcast to reach listeners beyond BBC London's FM radio reach. Regulars Amy Lamé , Baylen Leonard and David Kuo all contributed and the first show featured an appearance by comedian and actor Peter Kay . Created by and starring Danny Baker, the show also featured Amy Lamé, Baylen Leonard and David Kuo . It followed
3072-410: The weekday 3 to 5 pm show from Jono Coleman , who had moved to co-present the breakfast show with former actress JoAnne Good . His BBC London 94.9 shows tended to feature off-the-wall phone-ins, toast and discussions with his on-air team, Amy Lamé and Baylen Leonard , often regarding music and entertainment nostalgia of the 1960s and 1970s. His interviews focused on offbeat trivia rather than
3136-594: Was a series of 10-minute homages to some of Baker's entertainment idols including Fanny Cradock , Peter Glaze (from Crackerjack ) and the Top of the Pops audience. The episode on the Top of the Pops audience includes a clip of Baker leaping around to a performance of "Ooh What A Life" by the Gibson Brothers in 1979, captioned as "Danny Baker's first TV appearance". Baker also began
3200-552: Was added from 11:30 am to 1 pm. After moving to the Saturday breakfast slot (8 am to 12 noon), he engineered his own dismissal after a matter of weeks by refusing to centre the show on football, preferring to intersperse chat with his own music selections. After leaving Talk Radio UK , he joined Virgin Radio in early 1999, taking over from Jonathan Ross on Sundays from 10 am to 1 pm. Not long after, Baker
3264-585: Was announced in June 2007 that he would be retiring from his daily television column. Beginning in 1993, he was the compiler of the "Funny Old World" column of bizarre news items in Private Eye , where he replaced Christopher Logue . In 2011, he was living in Cumbria and never visited the magazine's London office. He wrote a weekly page for the Daily Mirror for some years until 2003. From autumn 2004 to April 2005 he
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#17328847287713328-482: Was approached by the BBC and was asked whether he wanted to present a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2 , which at the time was being hosted by Steve Wright . (Wright was being promoted to the station's Weekday Afternoon slot). Baker turned down the offer by saying "the time wasn't right", and the show was given to Jonathan Ross. Baker also deputised on Virgin's Saturday lunchtime football show from 12 noon to 2 pm for
3392-477: Was born in 1957, the son of a neurosurgeon, and grew up in Chadwell Heath , Essex, although according to The Telegraph , he "never knowingly gave an interview discussing his parents, background or childhood." He was married to Virginia Stewart Duff. He worked for Radio Medway before going on to study music at the University of York , where he presented the "bizarre student TV show" Intimate Freshness under
3456-465: Was dismissed from the latter, accused of inciting threatening behaviour toward a football referee. That decade, he also began writing for television. From 2002 to 2012 Baker presented the daily morning radio show on BBC Radio London and in 2007 also presented the channel's all-day podcast , the All Day Breakfast Show . Between 2012 and 2017 he published a three-volume autobiography , which
3520-508: Was executive producer of a series of controversial documentaries presented by Keith Allen for Channel 4. This included biographies of Nick Griffin , then leader of the British National Party , Lottery winner Michael Carroll , the TV cook Keith Floyd (who died two hours before the programme was transmitted), and the "child prodigy" Lauren Harries . Lewis-Smith was executive producer of
3584-419: Was filmed having an altercation with a British Rail press officer. This clip is often resurrected for clip shows and can be seen on YouTube. Baker appeared regularly on LWT's regional output during the 1980s and early 1990s – working on such programmes as Six O'Clock Live , Danny Baker's Londoners , and in 1991, The Game – a six-part series which featured coverage of teams involved in the fourth division of
3648-411: Was light-hearted, The Baker Line was darker and emotionally charged. Baker was at his most outspoken, and in early 1997 he was dismissed from Radio 5 Live when station bosses alleged that he had incited threatening behaviour during an angry outburst about a referee. Baker joined Talk Radio UK to present a similar football phone-in with Kelly each Saturday from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. A pre-match show
3712-510: Was of course mixed race and waves of panic and revulsion washed over me... What had I done?... It was a genuine, naive and catastrophic mistake. —Baker's response to the racism incident, 2019 In May 2019, Baker posted an image on Twitter of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee dressed in clothes. He had added the caption: "Royal Baby leaves hospital," referring to the recent birth of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor , son of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex . Baker
3776-509: Was restaurant critic for Harpers & Queen magazine from 1995 to 1998 as well as The Guardian , where he combined comedy writing and food criticism to help create the now commonplace modern genre of amusing food writing. In 1992, Lewis-Smith began a long association with the London Evening Standard , contributing daily television reviews along with other writers, as well as occasional restaurant reviews and travel articles. It
3840-485: Was subject to a backlash on social media, accused of mocking the Duchess of Sussex's African-American heritage with the tweet. Baker deleted the tweet and apologised, stating that he had made a "naive and catastrophic mistake" with his choice of image, but denied racist intent. He stated that the choice of a chimpanzee "dressed as a Lord" had been made "to lampoon privilege". The BBC sacked Baker, maintaining that he had made
3904-439: Was the first person to be voted off in the series. Baker began his radio career on BBC Radio London in 1989, presenting Weekend Breakfast from 6 to 9 am on Saturdays and Sundays. The show was produced by Chris Evans , who became a good friend to Baker. With GLR eventually opting for a more orthodox breakfast show at weekends, Baker moved to the 10 am to 1 pm slot on Sundays. In 1990, Baker joined
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#17328847287713968-713: Was the resident restaurant critic of The Guardian ' s Saturday magazine supplement. His books included Buy-Gones and Inside the Magic Rectangle , a collection of his early Evening Standard TV reviews, and TV Reviews , a collection of his Evening Standard TV reviews since 2000 (published in 2011). In June 2006, the television chef Gordon Ramsay , his production company and his producer accepted an out-of-court settlement of £75,000 from Associated Newspapers , after an article in London's Evening Standard written by Lewis-Smith alleged that Ramsay had faked television scenes and installed an incompetent chef. Ramsay said at
4032-495: Was used as the basis for the 2015 BBC sitcom Cradle to Grave . In 2019, the BBC dismissed Baker after he posted a tweet that featured a vintage photograph of a couple holding hands with a costumed chimpanzee. His accompanying text, "Royal baby leaves hospital," referred to the (at the time) recent announcement of the birth of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor , but was interpreted by many as Baker mocking The Duchess of Sussex's racial heritage. Baker denied any racial motivation for
4096-677: Was well received in a television review by the Daily Telegraph , with the Telegraph noting that "In an age of soapy soundbites, Sky Arts hour-long interview strand is a serious attempt to delve deeper into its subjects." Guests included Peter Maxwell Davies , Lily Allen , Damien Hirst , Tracey Emin , Richard Dawkins , Cleo Laine , Christopher Hitchens , Peter Hitchens , Kathy Burke , Stephen Fry , Andre Previn , Jackie Mason , and Danny Baker . 72 programmes over four series were transmitted. From 1983 to 1985 Lewis-Smith produced and presented
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