The Late Show (BBC TV Series)

The Late Show (BBC TV Series)

The Late Show (1989–1995) is a British television arts magazine programme that was broadcast on BBC Two weeknights at 11.15pm—directly after Newsnight—often referred to as the "graveyard slot" in terms of television scheduling.

The series was commissioned by BBC Two Controller Alan Yentob, who had a background in serious arts documentaries, but the production team — led by Michael Jackson — were mostly from youth programming backgrounds including Network 7. The series combined a number of format elements from earlier BBC arts magazine programmes such as Monitor and Late Night Line-Up. With the cancellation of The Old Grey Whistle Test the series became one of the few spaces on BBC television for live music performances.

The series originally featured a round-table discussion hosted by Clive James on Friday nights. However this format was dropped after the second season.

The show pulled in heavyweight popular music acts live or pre-recorded, including Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Public Enemy, Joni Mitchell, The Stone Roses, Dick Dale, and Jeff Buckley. At the time, The Late Show came under the now defunct Music and Arts Department at the BBC, which also produced the long-form Omnibus and Arena programmes.

The forty and sometimes fifty-minute programmes were presented mostly live from a bare black set in Lime Grove Studio D until 14 June 1991 - when it then transferred to BBC Television Centre in White City, west London. The regular format was for a single presenter to provide links for a number of filmed features and hold an interview or panel discussion in the studio. In some editions there would be a live music act that would perform a set during the programme. Some editions were given over to in-depth coverage of a single topic, for example a whole programme on National Poetry Day.

Some weeks would be given over to one subject across the week, such as Italy week, Berlin week and, in 1995, Ireland week. Some outside broadcasts were made at the time by The Late Show team including the Booker Prize and the Mercury Music Prize. Most items were shot on videotape. Amongst the directors who worked on the series are Paul Tickell, David Upshal, Sheree Folkson, Mark Cooper, David Evans, Anand Tucker, Mary Harron and Sharon Maguire. Later in the series' run a regular panel discussion — Late Review — was introduced looking at new films, books and plays and other arts and cultural events. Regular contributors to this included Tony Parsons, Tom Paulin and Allison Pearson, and it was chaired by The Guardian journalist Mark Lawson.

In 1991 Jackson left the series to become Head of Music and Arts at the BBC; he later became Controller of BBC Two in 1993. From 1992 The Late Show was joined by the follow-on weekly music slot Later with Jools Holland that also drew away the programme's appeal to popular music acts. As Controller of BBC One, Alan Yentob began to revamp that channel's arts coverage which also competed editorially with The Late Show.

The series was cancelled, by Jackson, in 1995, though weekly review programme remains to this day in a similar format. It is now a stand alone programme called The Review Show, produced by the team that makes Newsnight. Later with Jools Holland is also still running. Former Editor Roly Keating is now the BBC's Director of Archive. Janice Hadlow is now the controller of BBC Two.