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On June 14th, 2015, members of the That's Life! team gathered to celebrate the show's host, Dame Esther Rantzen's 75th birthday.

The magazine-style show was light hearted but tackled serious issues and was a regular feature in the weekend schedules from May 1973 until June 1994. Here some of the team share their fond memories of working on the show. 

Stephen Stewart, Director That’s Life!

Esther has an amazing contacts list, always knowing the best person to call if you want a problem sorted, and that could be anyone from the person who delivers the best sandwiches in Shepherd’s Bush to the British Secretary of State. She knows them all, and they know her.

I directed over 50 episodes of That’s Life! and loved every minute of it; the show and the team.

But when I first took over the studio, fresh in from working in 成人论坛 Northern Ireland, there was an inconsistency with the allocation of our floor managers. The studio days were often quite “hairy”, and we normally recorded as-live but occasionally even transmitted live, sometimes discussions about legal issues knocked our rehearsals off track, so the floor manager issue was beginning to cause problems. I mentioned this to Esther one day who immediately advised me to, “Put a call into a chap called Paul Fox, say I said to call him and I’m sure he’ll sort it”.

So I called the switchboard, got an extension number and within minutes was talking to Paul, who I assumed was something to do with the studio bookings office. He seemed very nice, listened to my issue and advised that he probably wasn’t the best to sort it out but said to call another person; Norman somebody. I had noticed Paul chuckle slightly when he heard the problem, but he was very friendly, very helpful, and said to give Esther his best wishes. I called Norman informing him that Paul had given me his name. The problem went away immediately and we never had a floor manager allocation problem again.

I discovered quite some time later that at the time, Paul Fox was Managing Director 成人论坛 television.

The lesson Esther taught me without even knowing she had done it was, if you want something fixed properly and quickly, go straight to the organ grinder. It has held me in good stead ever since.

Sue Agland (Barr) - Assistant Producer That's Life!

My husband, Peter Agland, and I, met whilst working together on That's Life! Peter and Esther were the only people to have worked on every episode of the programme and had previously worked together on Braden's Week.

Our wedding on 1st October, 1990 was the first wedding of two "Lifers" as Esther likes to call us and they gave us a lovely pre-wedding surprise party. The wedding was documented in , the 成人论坛's in-house magazine after the event.

Elaine Hackett, Director That’s Life!

I remember Esther being very generous with her screen time. So much so that she insisted I screen test for the role as an on-screen reporter. As a director I was used to being on the other side of the camera and thought the ‘on camera’ stuff seemed a breeze. Little did I know.

Despite the camera boys and girls being my mates and me knowing their all too familiar faces, in my many screen tests every time the red light went on, I froze, jabbered, went puce and acted like someone/something else! It didn’t matter how much cajoling, waves and smiles of encouragement came from behind the camera - I just couldn’t do it. The red light went on and I fell to pieces.

So apart from teaching me that my role was behind the camera, it also meant that I have a continued and long lasting respect for the all too ‘simple’ art of presenting.

Ron Neil, Editor That’s Life!

My first week as the new Editor of That's Life!.......

Me: "Esther you can't possibly put that tomato on 成人论坛 1 on a Sunday night..... there are 14 million people watching"

Esther: "Why on Earth not?"

Me: "You know perfectly well why not... that tomato has grown a penis... it's a very rude tomato ."

Esther: "No Ronald it's just a confused tomato."

Me: "What do you mean it's a confused tomato?"

Esther: "It's just a tomato that wants to become a cucumber."

Tomato duly appears. My annual appraisal that year says that under my stewardship the programme had become distinctly more vulgar. Such was the lot of an editor in the serious world of cerebral television current affairs.

Adrian Mills, Presenter That’s Life!

At my audition in 1985 Esther asked why my hair was so short compared to my photo. I explained that I was playing a policeman in a Channel 4 comedy. Then taking my life in my hands I told her what my direction had been whilst on set, during the shooting of an arrest scene: the director was concerned we were being a little too soft, and suggested that we “give her a good kicking, pretend it's Esther Rantzen." Thankfully for me she saw the funny side and I got the job!

Certainly she got her own back by sending me filming with every pet known to man including, on one occasion, pretending to be Elvis at the HMV auditions to replace “Nipper” the small dog sat by the gramophone. As soon as I started singing the dogs went berserk and attacked me resulting in a rushed visit to the 成人论坛 doctor for an emergency tetanus jab.

Also never believe Esther when she tells you what you are doing is fantastic as I did when volunteering to read the autocue in a Spanish accent for an overseas company’s spokesperson who were conning the British public. As I veered into Japanese Esther can be seen howling with laughter at my pathetic attempts in what became that week’s most requested item on 'Points of View' . To think three years at drama school?!

Great broadcaster, great laughs, some of the best memories I have are of working at the 成人论坛.

Richard Woolfe, Producer That’s Life!

I can still remember growing up as a youngster in Brighton and discovering That's Life! It was always on past my bedtime but I was fascinated by TV and got a black and white portable in my bedroom. It didn't have a proper aerial and the picture quality was shocking. But I used to watch That's Life! every Sunday when I should have been sleeping - I got used to having the sound on low level as I listened out for my parents who would check up on us (and to make sure I wasn't watching TV!).

When I was 16 I got myself a ticket to see the show being taped an hour before transmission. I can still vividly remember taking my seat in the 2nd row of the circle at the . I loved every minute of it and vowed to myself that I wanted to be part of the show one day.

I got my chance after starting at 成人论坛 Radio Sussex when I landed my dream job as a researcher. I'm proud to be part of TV history - the series and it's achievements are a matter of public record. We exposed paedophile teachers and changed the law to protect children in so many important ways, we campaigned for the introduction of safe playground surfaces, we changed public opinion about cycle helmets and we warned the public about loan sharks. And of course there was Bai Li Tea the bogus slimming drink that gave us dozens of items.

We worked very hard - for the 6 months the series was on air we worked 7 days a week - the team became your family. Everyone pulled together to make a difference for the audience - and they loved it. It taught me so much that I continue to use today - and not a week goes by where I don't tell a That's Life! anecdote.

I still cannot believe that the boy from Brighton went on to produce one of the best shows in the world. Friendships that were forged on my very first day in E206, remain even stronger today. And how do you know if people worked on That's Life!? Put two of them together and within 1 minute you will hear shrieks of laughter. Happy happy days

Michal Porecki – Film Director That’s Life! on Doc Cox

I had the massive pleasure of working with Doc Cox for seven years and directing all of his comedy and music films, as well as his appearances on the Great Britain Singing strand.

He was an exceptionally funny man, on, and off camera. Whenever I directed Doc, all I can remember is laughing all day long with tears streaming down my face and my sides literally aching.

We turned Torquay into the south of France for a film about overseas foods with odd names. We hired the wonderful Cleo Rocos to be Doc's 'TV wife' in a film about neighbours filling up road skips. At a big department store he was made up as Mrs Slocombe from but his best lines weren't broadcastable!

At Kew Gardens, Doc was an 8 foot high talking cactus leaping out and singing with people. At Esther's 75th birthday, Doc reminded me that filming in a working hothouse in a thick foam costume was hell as he kept having to wring the sweat out of his costume. The clip of Doc singing the first bar of Gershwin's Summertime and chasing a terrified passer-by has been shown globally hundreds of times.

Michal Porecki on Stuart McDonald

Stuart is a man of great charm and humour and not prone to outbursts. One of my favourite Stuart recollections is the Sunday when Esther was late for the dress rehearsal. A researcher stood in and read Autocue for the first half of the show. I was watching from the 成人论坛 TV Theatre balcony (us film directors were always in the circle as we wanted to hear whether the studio audience laughed at the jokes in our films!) as Esther attempted to quietly and gingerly creep onto the set.

As she slinked in like a naughty cat, Stuart spotted her from the gallery and - breaking normal polite protocol - bellowed the following words using the studio's many loudspeakers: "Bring on the Rantzen creature!!!!". She was never late again.

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