Val Meets The VIPs

Val Meets The VIPs is a UK TV series broadcast over three seasons from 1973-1974 on BBC1, hosted by Valerie Singleton.

There were eighteen editions, broadcast in three series of six episodes. The format for the programme was that Singleton would interview one celebrity guest, who would also face questioning from the audience of children assembled in the studio, after a short 'fly-on-the-wall' film introduced each guest. Guests came from different areas of public life, including politics, explorers, sports, pop music and entertainment. The best remembered edition of the show (and the only one ever to be repeated on BBC television) featured Margaret Thatcher, then Secretary of State for Education and Science in the British Government. When asked by a child in the audience if she wanted to be Prime Minister, Thatcher responded that she did not have enough experience and (to an earlier question) that there would not be "a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime" (see external links). Two years later, she was elected leader of the British Conservative Party and became Prime Minister in May 1979. All three series were produced by Jill Roach. For the last series only, each edition was billed individually in the Radio Times as "Val Meets Guest Name" (ie Val Meets Susan Hampshire), but the show's titles were always "Val Meets... The VIPS".

A later series, In The Limelight With Lesley, ran on BBC1 in 1980, and followed the same format, but Lesley Judd presented. This latter series was produced by Sarah Hellings, who has since directed many television series. Margaret Thatcher was also a guest on this series and was shown the clip from her appearance on Val Meets... Margaret Thatcher and asked to comment on her earlier remarks.