Cannon and Ball were scheduled to appear in this ill-fated Bruce Forsyth show on ITV in 1978. However very little of their material was ever shown. As the show ran into trouble their sketches were repeatedly cut, so they only appeared in a single episode.
Their appearance saw Tommy attempting to sing The Platters’ ‘My Prayer’ while Bobby conducted the orchestra.
Who Killed Saturday Night TV
The following article and pictures were taken from ‘Who Killed Saturday Night TV‘, which featured the duo.
Voiceover: Cannon and Ball were ITVs big hope to finally break the BBCs Saturday night monopoly. But after losing Opportunity Knocks, they had a struggle to even get on air. First they were used a Bruce’s stooges in the ill-fated Big Night. But these sketches didn’t even make it to air. The suits in charge thought that the answer to Big Nights problems was even more Bruce. And Tommy and Bobby remained on the cutting room floor.
Tommy: Really, it was disappointing for us, but yet in another way it helped our career, because we were never shown. Each week, something come up and we were dropped, and we were dropped, and we were dropped, on everything that we did. And we got more publicity out of that as people began to catch on that Cannon and Ball kept being dropped. And suddenly it was Michael Grade who actually saw a clip, and he turned round and said you’ve got your own show.
