Live & Kicking

[5] The original hosts were Andi Peters, Emma Forbes who had presented a cookery segment in Going Live!,[6] and John Barrowman.

[17] The following October, the programme was completely revamped, with a line-up of four: Ortis Deley, Katy Hill, Trey Farley and Sarah Cawood.

[19] In an unprecedented move, in March 2001 the BBC extended the series over the summer, like SMTV was broadcast, but announced it would end in the autumn.

[3] It featured music performances, "hot seat" questions for celebrity guests, phone-ins, games, comedy sketches, competitions, and television programmes and cartoons.

[2] As well as the main presenters, there were regulars such as comedy duo Trevor and Simon, and later Ben, Gez and Rich from The Cheese Shop and SuperGirly.

[5] A segment in the first few series that was an adaptation of Going Live's Double Dare was Run the Risk, a game in which teams of children completed various obstacle courses and challenges.

It was replaced by human announcer Mitch Johnson, who, as well as providing commentary and links for each item, would interact with both the audience and the presenters too.

They were designed and built by Darryl Worbey Studios and played by Don Austen and John Eccleston, who had previously been the puppeteers of the wolves 'Bro & Bro' on ITV's What's Up Doc?

[2] In May 2000, two months before Wilson and Ledden officially resigned from Live & Kicking, the show was brought back for a one-off special during the summer break.

Points were earned through passing various tasks, and were lost if contestants entered the "Temptation Hut", which contained various modern electrical appliances.

[28] Live & Kicking began on 2 October 1993 and saw the introduction of presenters Andi Peters, Emma Forbes and John Barrowman.

[36] In September 1998[37] Live & Kicking began with the leprechaun Mr Onion being temporarily written out of the show after supposedly being swept down the plughole in the bath.

[38] To compensate for Eccleston's absence, a new leprechaun puppet was added called 'Shamrock' (voiced by Rebecca Nagan of Rosie and Jim fame).

[39] On 3 October 1998, future Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe also appeared in the audience during The Hot Seat item where he proceeded to ask The Chuckle Brothers a question.

[40][41][36] The final edition before the programme went on a summer break also saw the departure of Ball and Theakston as hosts and featured them both in The Hot Seat being interviewed by Michael Parkinson about their time on the show.

[39] A new comedy duo called Supergirly were also introduced from January 2000 to fill the gap left by 'Ben, Gez and Rich' who had quit the show the previous series.

Mr Blobby, The Leprechauns, Supergirly, Renoir and Mitch had also been removed from the show and unlike previous series, there were now four presenters instead of two: Katy Hill, Ortis Deley, Trey Farley and Sarah Cawood.

[3] From 21 April 2001, Live & Kicking began broadcasting from BBC Scotland in Glasgow and saw Farley, Cawood and Deley joined by Heather Suttie who replaced Hill.

The final edition ended with a montage of the series' best moments over a live performance of the Steps song "It's The Way You Make Me Feel".

Additionally, SMTV Live which broadcast opposite on ITV was slowly becoming more popular, and gaining the audience the BBC was losing.

[16] Wilson later said that they were dropped just as they were starting to form a relationship, and that Ant & Dec, presenters of SMTV Live, had the edge over them as they had known each other much longer.

Live and Kicking 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-Spring/Summer loop with Dick and Dom in da Bungalow.

[8] Live & Kicking was featured in the BBC's It Started with Swap Shop programme in 2006, in which Noel Edmonds interviewed the first pair of presenters, Andi Peters and Emma Forbes, about their time on the show.

In an attempt to disguise the set's former use, all traces of L&K branding were removed and replaced with Children In Need logos and throughout the course of the evening, the old gunge tank, beanbag seating area and performance stage were reused one more time.