Ready Steady Go!

Ready Steady Go
Presenter Cathy McGowan and producer Elkan Allan.
Starring	Keith Fordyce and Cathy McGowan
Production
Producer(s)	Francis Hitching Vicki Wickham Elkan Allan
Production company(s)	Associated Rediffusion, (weekday franchisee of the ITV network in London at the time)
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	9 August 1963 – 23 December 1966

Ready Steady Go! (or RSG!) was a British rock/pop music television programme every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light entertainment programme different from the low-brow style of light entertainment transmitted by ATV. The programme was produced without scenery or costumes and with a minimum of choreography and make-up. Allan recruited a fellow journalist, Francis Hitching, as producer. Hitching became a major figure in light entertainment in the 1960s. Robert Fleming was the first director, followed by the documentary director Rollo Gamble, then Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Daphne Shadwell and Peter Croft.

The programme was produced by Associated-Rediffusion, the weekday ITV contractor for London, called Rediffusion-London after 1964. The live show was eventually networked nationally.

The show gained its highest ratings on 20 March 1964 when it featured the Beatles being interviewed and performing "It Won't Be Long", "You Can't Do That" and "Can't Buy Me Love" - the last a hit at the time.

RSG! USA! was a Dick Clark production in 1964. A trademark infringement suit ended the show after six episodes.

In the 1980s Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five acquired the rights to the 1960s UK music show and bought the rights to the surviving recordings.

The show went out early on Friday evenings with the line "The weekend starts here!", and was introduced by the Surfaris' "Wipe Out", later by Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1", then Manfred Mann's "Hubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble", then the Stones, lastly, with "Goin Home"). It was more youth-orientated and informal than its BBC rival (from 1964), Top of the Pops. It was notable for featuring the audience as dancers and for the interaction of artists and audience. Artists appeared on different mini-stages, sometimes on studio gantries and stairs, or on the main floor for solo artists, closely surrounded by the audience. The producers chose the audience in London clubs, picking out the best or the most fashionably dressed dancers. This ensured a hip audience in tune with the artists.