L!ve Tv

Launched in 1995, L!ve TV was a television channel unlike any other. For four years it was the home to topless darts, handy hunks, trampolining dwarfs, and the weather in Norwegian.

Its newsreaders delivered the breaking stories while, over their shoulder, a giant rabbit – aka the “news bunny” – emoted in the background. Bunny gave the thumbs up for good stories, and rubbed his eyes in distress for the sad ones.

The station was a bold experiment in tabloid television. It combined the populist chutzpah of the former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, with the dayglow zeitgeist of TV executive Janet Street Porter, the woman who infamously brought “yoof” TV to the BBC.

It broadcast from the freshly constructed shell of London’s Canary Wharf. Programmes were made for a fraction of the cost of anything else on television at the time, and L!ve TV helped launch the career of some of the biggest stars in the industry today.

Joining Kirsty Wark are producer Ruth Wrigley; Kelvin MacKenzie, Mirror TV’s former Managing Director who came up with many of LIVE’s most famous shows; Rhodri Williams, LIVE’s original breakfast show presenter; Simon London, presenter and the original producer of Topless Darts; former investment banker Richard Horwood who worked closely with David Montgomery to devise the Mirror’s television strategy; and from Namsos in Norway, Anne Marie Foss, now a TV executive, who was L!ve TV’s weather presenter.

Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Emily Williams
Additional Research: Howard Shannon
Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4