Take care, Esther..That's Life! was one of best shows I've ever Vosene

IF I close my eyes, a good 40-plus years later I can still smell the Vosene shampoo from my damp hair – brushed into a rigid side-shed by my maw – as I lay in front of the two-bar electric fire in a fresh pair of jammies, eyes glued to the telly for the big 9.25pm kick-off. 

Yes, folks, Sunday wasn’t only bath night (whether I needed it or not), it was also my weekly appointment with one of the greatest programmes in TV history … That’s Life!

It ’s now 50 years since the long-running BBC consumer and current affairs show first appeared on our screens (it ran from 1973 to 1996, a wee bit longer than my stint on STV’s

The Hour). As a huge fan, I was gutted to read thi s w e ek that legendary host Esther Rantzen is battling cancer.

I very much doubt you’ll read this, Esther, but all the very best to you, darling.

Forget the boyish good looks at the top of the page, dear reader, I can easily recall the days of just three TV channels and Esther was a HUGE star.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the brilliant 80s sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News paid her the ultimate tribute with a hilarious parody of That’s Life! (Find it on YouTube and I promise you’ll be rolling about.)

After a Sunday night desert of dreariness – Highway with Harry Secombe, Last of the Summer Wine and all that depressing guff – Esther and the gang offered a wee oasis of TV gold to take my mind off the dreaded return to