Surprise Surprise (British TV series)

Format

Surprise Surprise was filmed in front of a studio audience. Its premise involved surprising members of the public with the fulfilment of long-held wishes, setting up tricks to fool members of the public, making prank calls to people, and reuniting guests with long-lost loved ones. Original host Cilla Black was initially assisted by Christopher Biggins, but more famously for eight series by Bob Carolgees, famous for his glove puppetry act Spit the Dog (who previously appeared in the first series with a puppet ferret), with Gordon Burns and Tessa Sanderson as roving reporters. Other featured acts were "Cilla-grams," where Black would perform a song in a musical sketch relevant to the surprise a person was receiving (for example, a soldier was celebrating his 21st birthday, so the featuring song Black sang was "Celebration" by Kool & The Gang).

The concept of the first series had been to film surprising and often unusual moments similar to those previously seen on Game for a Laugh. This included a phone game that used viewers numbers and answering questions to try and form a winning line. Others included dancing and sporting events, and there were surprise reunions between family members. The popularity of this element of the show led executive producer Alan Boyd to change the format slightly so that all items in subsequent series involved surprises, rather than just being surprising. Although including many pre-filmed inserts, the first series and some early episodes of the second series were televised live in their entirety, but thereafter all episodes were pre-recorded.

From 1984 to 1988, the show was broadcast on Sunday evenings. From 1989 to 1992, the show moved to Fridays, before returning to the Sunday evening timeslot from 1993 to 1996. The final series of the original run in 1997 was broadcast on Friday evenings. Between 1998 and 2001, a one-off special episode was produced per year which aired on Mother's Day from 1998 until 2000, and then at Christmas for 2001.

Over the years, the show had many special guests, some of whom appeared live, including Neil Diamond. Many variety acts were also featured on the show. The Spice Girls made their live debut on an episode in 1996.

Revival

In March 2012, it was announced that Holly Willoughby would host a revamped one-off episode of Surprise Surprise for ITV, although a full series was later announced. The series had six hour-long episodes, with episode 1 airing on 21 October 2012. A second series followed this in 2013, a third in 2014 and a fourth in 2015.

In the show, Willoughby is joined by various locations reporters, these have included Marvin Humes, Mark Wright, Dave Berry, Peter Andre and Matt Johnson.

In one 2013 episode, Cilla Black made a surprise appearance on the show, singing a bit of the original theme as the show went to commercials (after Willoughby made the comment that producers refused to let her sing the song).

Final episodes

The last series hosted by Holly Willoughby aired on ITV1 between 21 June and 26 July 2015. On 17 June 2016, ITV announced that the show had been cancelled and would not return for 2017. Willoughby called for the show to return for another series, but this did not happen.

A previously unbroadcast episode of the show, hosted by Cilla Black that featured appearances from Irish boyband Westlife and singer Gareth Gates, which was originally produced in 2003 as a one-off special to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, was broadcast on ITV3 on 27 December 2015, four months after Black's death. It wasn't originally broadcast at the time due to Black's departure from ITV earlier that year.

Theme songs

Cilla Black introduced and closed each show by singing a theme song. The theme song from series one to eight was written by Kate Robbins and was often imitated by Black impersonators, beginning "The more the world is changing, the more it stays the same...". The track was included on Black's 1985 album Surprisingly Cilla, and as a single through Towerbell Records. A new song was written from series nine in 1992, until the show's conclusion in 2001, and the 2003 birthday special: "Reaching out, holding hands, reliving memories... Life is full, full of surprises...And the nicest surprise in my life is you!"

Around 2022–23, the song enjoyed a resurgence on the social media app TikTok. It then experienced another resurgence in 2025, when TikToker Dannie D used the song as part of his videos surrounding news of the administration of US president Donald Trump. His signature move, lifting his leg up in time to the sound of the song in response to news of President Trump’s failures, went viral and became widely recognized throughout the platform.

The revived series updated its theme for 2013. This theme uses a remixed instrumental version of the chorus from Black's original song "Surprise, Surprise".

Transmissions

Series

;Original

;Revival

Specials

;Original

;Revival

Awards

International versions

Notes

References

References

1. (15 March 2012). "Willoughby to host 'Surprise Surprise'".
2. (10 October 2012). "'Surprise Surprise' return date confirmed".
3. (17 June 2016). "Holly Willoughby’s Surprise Surprise Axed From ITV".
4. (14 April 2017). "'Surprise! Holly Willoughby wants to bring back Surprise Surprise'".
5. Deans, Jason. (7 May 2003). "ITV rejects Cilla documentary".
6. "Surprise Surprise - previously unaired show: Split from Cilla Black has died".
7. (16 September 2013). "National Television Awards 2014 nominees revealed: Voting opens". Digital Spy.
8. (17 September 2013). "National Television Awards 2014 voting opens: The full longlist". Digital Spy.
9. (2014-01-22). "2014 Vote – The National Television Awards". Nationaltvawards.com.
10. (13 October 2014). "NTAs 2015: Which TV stars are nominated?".
11. (24 January 1999). "Granada, LMNO Eye 'Surprise'".
12. (16 May 2012). "Surprise with Jenny McCarthy (about the show)".