Live & Kicking
- For the Australian series, see Live And Kicking.
Live and Kicking was a BBC Saturday morning variety programme, running from 1993 to 2001.
Features
It was aimed at young people and it included a mix of competitions, comedy, music and cartoons such as the Rugrats, The Wild Thornberries and The Simpsons. From 1993 until 1999, there was a showbiz segment called the Electric Circus and was presented by people such as John Barrowman, Dannii Minogue and Gail Porter.
As well as being a Saturday morning children's show, Live and Kicking launched a music CD, comprising of the best music that artists had sung live on the programme. A spin-off CD-ROM game called Live and Kicking: Make Your Own Show was also created, where the user could combine elements of the show to create their own television production on a small scale.
During series 7 (1999-2000) there was a short version of the show that aired on Friday afternoons called L & K Friday, but this was cancelled after one series.
One of the last features was L & K Castaway, which was similar to the BBC reality show Castaway.
Presenters
| Series | Main | Regulars |
| 1
1993-4 |
John Barrowman | Ratz (voiced by Paul Brophy) |
| 2
1994-5 |
Emma Forbes | Trevor Neal |
| 3
1995-6 |
||
| 4
1996-7 |
Zoe Ball | |
| 5
1997-8 |
||
| 6
1998-9 |
||
| 7
1999-2000 |
Emma Ledden | |
| 8a
Sep 2000
|
Sarah Cawood | |
| 8b
Apr - Sep
|
Sarah Cawood |
The original presenters were John Barrowman, Emma Forbes and Andi Peters. They were joined by comedians Trevor and Simon, who came across from Going Live!. John left the show in 1994 then Emma and Andi continued to present it until 1996. They were followed by Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston, who presented it from 1996 until 1999. The 1999-2000 series was presented by Steve Wilson and Emma Ledden. However, they were dropped after this series and a completely new image for the show was introduced in 2000, along with a new set of presenters: Katy Hill, Trey Farley, Ortis Deley (who had done guest slots during the previous series with Steve Wilson and Emma Ledden and played parts in sketches and competitions) and Sarah Cawood. Later on in the series the production relocated to Scotland as, for the first time, the BBC decided not to stop the show for a summer break. However Katy decided to stay in London and left the series. She was replaced by Heather Suttie, but the BBC decided to axe the series after its Scottish run had come to an end.
Axing after eight series
The reason for the axing was blamed on an increasing loss of viewers to ITV's SMTV Live but another contributing factor was the sheer number of viewers lost during the summer period before the re-launch of the programme with the show FBi (Fully Booked Interactive), which filled in the Saturday slot as a replacement to the BBC Scotland programme Fully Booked [citation needed].
Replacement
The show was replaced by The Saturday Show, fronted by Dani Behr and Joe Mace, which was shown all year round until September 2003 when it began an Autumn/Winter-Spring/Summer loop with Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow.