Live & Kicking
| Live & Kicking | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Starring | Andi Peters (1993–96) Emma Forbes (1993–96) John Barrowman (1993–95) Trevor and Simon (1993–97) Don Austen (1994–1999) John Eccleston (1994–1999) Jamie Theakston (1996–99) Zoë Ball (1996–99) Steve Wilson (1999–2000) Emma Ledden (1999–2000) Ortis Deley (2000–01) Katy Hill (2000–01) Sarah Cawood (2000–01) Trey Farley (2000–01) Heather Suttie (2001) Peter Simon (2001) |
| Narrated by | Mitch Johnson |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 264 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 3hrs 15mins |
| Production company(s) | CBBC |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Picture format |
4:3 (1993–2000) 16:9 (2000–01) |
| Original release | 2 October 1993 – 15 September 2001 |
Live & Kicking is a BBC Saturday morning children's magazine programme, running from 1993 to 2001. The fourth in a succession of Saturday morning shows, it was the replacement for Going Live!, and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, comedy, competitions and the showing of cartoons. Once Live & Kicking had become established in series two, it reached its height in popularity during series four, when it was presented by Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston; their final episode won a BAFTA award. After this the series ratings dropped with the launch of SMTV Live on ITV and was eventually came to an end in 2001.
Live & Kicking was conceived as a replacement for Going Live!, a successful Saturday morning programme that had been running for six years. It was first broadcast on 2 October 1993 at 9 am on BBC1. The original hosts were Andi Peters, Emma Forbes who had presented a cookery segment in Going Live!, and John Barrowman. For the second series, John was relegated to host the showbiz Electric Circus segment, leaving Andi and Emma to become the main hosts. He left after one series of Electric Circus to concentrate on acting. Comedy duo Trevor and Simon and Peter Simon, in the Run the Risk segment, were also regulars who had featured on Going Live!.
While the first series was not as popular as its predecessor, the second series was more successful. It was broadcast during the winter months, from September to April, with Fully Booked replacing it during the summer. New episodes of the Rugrats were shown. The series went out opposite ITV's What's Up Doc? but during its third series issues were raised by the ITC, and a number of people left including Don Austen and John Eccleston (Bro and Bro's puppeteers) who defected to Live & Kicking to star as a couple of leprechaun brothers Sage & Onion.
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