Concept and creative process
Michael Parkinson presents an antiques panel game, with expert Eric Knowles and team captains Tony Slattery and Mariella Frostrup. The title sequence was all about the logo, as every show since the programme launched in 1965 had begun with a mechanical bird singing in an ornamental cage, competing against the theme tune (a movement from Ottorino Respighi's The Birds). This is a more modern, designed concept, with a real bird in an antique cage, casting beautiful shadows and mixing through to a more graphic version of the cage, projected on the studio floor behind a 3D logotype. The show officially ended regular broadcasts in 1977, but was revived periodically under different presenters, such as Michael Parkinson, Anne Robinson and Michael Aspel.