He's a journalist, of course, not some nobody TV presenter, and Richard's career started in the usual fashion - the local press, before starting off on local telly, first at Border, then Yorkshire, before landing at Granada, where he stayed for some 20 years or so. On his arrival at Quay Street he first met his colleague Judy Finnigan - assigned to welcome the new arrival into the company, her first words to him were, famously, "Hello, I'm your mummy". Reportage on imperial-phase Granada Reports followed, and Rich would often sit alongside Tony "Your fucking red lights are not working, guys" Wilson or Bob "There go me notes" Greaves, filling us in on the rest of the day's stories. After marrying Judy, they were very much the first couple of North West television (after John Mundy and Roy Barraclough, of course), yet hadn't yet made the grade nationally, no matter how many episodes of CONNECTIONS Richard presented (which was rubbish anyway, because his reign saw adults as contestants, which was just wrong). But then in October 1988, Granada won the contract to replace SANTA BARBARA with a live ninety-minute magaizne show from the Albert Dock. Slowly but surely, Richard and His Wife Judy Finnigan ("Hi!") became the accompaniment of choice for the bored housewife and skiving student, and they dominated the schedules for thirteen years.

Richard didn't just want to be seen as part of a double act, though, and he was presenter-for-hire for a number of Granada shows - the dull daytime quiz RUNWAY (which was often screened an hour before THIS MORNING, and Rich irritatingly signed off with 'See you later') and CLUEDO, where he took over from Chris Tarrant who hated it. He also did the pilot for YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED, which means that Beadle was in fact the second worst choice as presenter. However Richard and Judy seemed less than sure-footed in the evening, with 1992 Sunday night miscellaney THE RICHARD AND JUDY SHOW flopping, and the 1996 chat show TONIGHT WITH RICHARD MADELEY AND JUDY FINNIGAN (snappy title, guys) received a ripple of attention when OJ Simpson was interviewed for five seconds, but that was it. Apart from when the Super Furry Animals were on it, of course. In 2001, though, they left ITV, and went off to Channel Four where they're now perched at five o'clock every day. And Richard is still the most embarrassing person on television ever.

Cliff started off as a schoolteacher before, like many in the early days of the medium, he just drifted into television, firstly as a writer and producer on embryonic children's programmes. However he shot to fame with his helming of TONIGHT, tracing the Suez era through topical reports and whimsical sketches. Famously the show was only invented to fill the gap between six o'clock and seven o'clock when previously TV companies had to close down by law. Nevertheless it became hugely popular and is more or less responsible for current affairs telly as we know it today - THE GREAT WAR was produced by the Tonight team. The Beeb's reward for all this in 1965 was to drop it, and move virtually all the team to late at night, where the programme became 24 HOURS. Cliff was also the man for the big occasion, replacing the late Richard Dimbleby for the election night specials in 1966 (where he regaled the nation with the story of a tweeting bird outside his hotel window) and 1970 (which had the most demented set in the world, with huge triple-tier desks). He was also the first host of HOLIDAY, back in 1969, where he sat in the studio in front of researchers typing away behind him, like Grandstand. In the 70s he scaled down his telly work to concentrate on his other business interests, but he'd often show up on SONGS OF PRAISE, and into the 90s he was still on telly as the host of charity round-up LIFELINE and Daytime UK's nostalgia fest HAPPY MEMORIES, which was a BBC Newcastle production, fact fans. Now in semi-retirement, he's certainly a TV legend, although his legacy has been rather sullied given he was responsible for Guy Michelmore.

Lord Boob of Monklouse, TV Cream's favourite person on telly ever, made his debut almost at the same time as the medium itself, becoming the first comedian to be offered an exclusive contract by the BBC. He first appeared as part of a double act with Denis "Much happiness" Goodwin, fronting the live sketch show FAST AND LOOSE. The first episode took them ages to write, and they were so knackered at the end, Bob pretended to faint so they'd get some time off. The slick, fresh-faced Bob then wrote and appeared in virtually every programme on television, and fortunately he had about a million jokes to fall back on. He split with Goodwin in 1965, and after a not-very-good sitcom, THE BIG NOISE, he started to front quiz shows, the first being the spectacularly-titled DO YOU TRUST YOUR WIFE? A seminal moment, though, came in 1967 when he took over from the inept Jackie Rae as host of THE GOLDEN SHOT. This show was all over the place, the most complex and sprawling game show of all time, and only Bob had the skills to actually make it in any way watchable. An episode from his tenure screened on Challenge? showed what he had to put up with - delivering a newsflash about the power workers' strike, acting as Clive Dunn's straightman, updating us to the progress of their kidney dialysis appeal, chatting to Jackie Lee... oh, and the game was in there somewhere.

Unfortunately Bob was "sacked" in the early 70s, after a "bribery" "scandal", and so buggered off to Thames for a series of hour-long comedy specials. The first few were good, but one was so shite it was cut to half an hour and flung out in the middle of the night. More quizzes and specials followed, and, of course, CELEBRITY SQUARES. However the next seminal moment came in 1980 when he was the first presenter of FAMILY FORTUNES, with pocket watch and "Name it!" catchphrase. After four series, though, he legged it to the Beeb, where he was given two series. THE BOB MONKHOUSE SHOW was a comedy chat show that seemed to run forever opposite Panorama on BBC2, where Bob was joined by top-notch comedians (and The Unknown Comic) and would feed them the lines for their routines, while BOB'S FULL HOUSE was simply the most perfect quiz show of all time. Indeed, at times it felt like one big exercise for Bob to show off - though they never showed it live, as Bob wanted, he often didn't bother writing any jokes on his cue cards, so he could make it up as he went along, and in later episodes he didn't even have any notes. The 80s also saw BobKnocks, which if nothing else was responsible for launching the phone vote which is now an essential aspect of every programme on television.

In 1990 Bob went back to ITV to front the faintly dreary $64,000 QUESTION ("In the third question of six"), the revived CELEBRITY SQUARES and BOB'S YOUR UNCLE, which was a bloody awful format, but Bob fronted it in his uber-professional manner ("Well, the Parks will get their perks..."). He also got his own AUDIENCE WITH.., and this, coupled with an appearance on HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU, reminded us of what a great comedian he was. Hence there was a welcome return to the Beeb for the stand-up show BOB MONKHOUSE ON THE SPOT, of which the best bit was of course the end routine where he'd get from one random word to the other. Unfortunately, GAG TAG was shite, no matter whether he was team captain or presenter, and MONKHOUSE'S MEMORY MASTERS was the most viewer-unfriendly quiz of all time. He was the very best presenter of the lottery, mind ("John Willan, exactly what will be happening?") and is officially better than Paul Daniels on WIPEOUT, thanks to the bit at the end when he and the contestant animatedly discuss the question card. Oh, and the way he gives away the answers before they were revealed ("Well, it was certainly a Beatles song, I don't know if it was also by The Rolling Stones...").

Sadly at the end of 2003, Bob passed away, succumbing to cancer which he'd been battling for some years.

Owner of another genius catchphrase - "Hullo" - Johnny made his first appearance on the wireless back in the forties while he was running a farm in Wiltshire, and soon got his own show from Bristol called, bafflingly, PASS THE SALT. Inevitably he graduated to the embryonic television service, spending many years as THE HOT CHESTNUT MAN, telling stories to children while standing in front of a faux-gas stove. But of course what we're most interested in is 1962 when he started fronting ANIMAL MAGIC, combining overdubbed anthropormorphism from Bristol Zoo and animals in the studio which would crawl all over Johnny. Originally he wore a smart suit to present the programme, before swapping it in later years for a car coat. Johnny made sure that he always carefully denoted who supplied each animal - "This parakeet has been brought into studio today by Douglas, from Birdland in Bourton-on-the-Water".

In later years the anthropormorphism was cut down slightly and Johnny was accompanied in the studio by Terry "Nutkins" Nutkins. There seemed to be a little tension between the two - given that Terry was never referred to by his first name, and he would always be the one getting covered in shit or dressing up in a silly costume - but clearly this wasn't the case because Johnny left him his house when he died. Animal Magic ended in 1983, with the official BBC line being that Johnny had declined to continue for "personal reasons", although most papers reported that the Beeb reckoned his show was old hat and he was getting on a bit. True, he wasn't the most professional of presenters (he'd often get distracted by noises off camera) but at that point the average age of a BBC childrens' presenter seemed to be about fifty anyway. For his part, Johnny said he wasn't that bothered but didn't like the way everyone on telly now had to be an expert, rather than just an enthusiastic amateur.

Johnny kept on working in his later years, narrating a new version of TALES OF THE RIVERBANK some thirty years after he'd done the original. He died in 1999, shortly after beginning filming on a new show for ITV, and was buried during a ceremony conducted by Nutkins himself, with Keith Chegwin in attendance.