Whicker's World
Alan Whicker's long-running documentary series, originally a segment on Tonight.
Whicker's World was a British television documentary series presented by journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker. It began as a segment on the BBC's Tonight programme on 21 March 1959 and later became a standalone series, airing on the BBC and ITV at different periods until 18 December 1994. The series was known for its focus on interesting or unusual people around the world rather than on travel itself. Whicker described himself as a "journalist who travels" rather than a travel journalist. At age 37 when the segment first aired, he developed a distinctive appearance and style: an old-fashioned, stiff-upper-lip Englishman with a neat moustache, blazer, or in tropical climates a Doug Hayward gabardine suit, always "politely interested and innocently perplexed."
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Documentary
- Presenter
- Alan Whicker
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Company
- BBC; Yorkshire Television
- Channel
- BBC1 (1959–1965, 1984–1992)
- BBC2 (1965–1968)
- ITV (1968–1983, 1992–1994)
- First aired
- 21 March 1959
- Last aired
- 18 December 1994
Facts from the source article.
Series history
Alan Whicker had worked as a journalist and broadcaster, including as a foreign correspondent during the Korean War, before joining the Tonight programme at its launch in 1957. His regular segment, Whicker's World, began on 21 March 1959. Though presented as a travel documentary, it concentrated on interesting or unusual people in various parts of the world, seen from a UK perspective before affordable air travel became common. Whicker described himself as a "journalist who travels" rather than a travel journalist. At age 37 when the segment first aired, he developed a distinctive appearance and style: an old-fashioned, stiff-upper-lip Englishman with a neat moustache, blazer, or in tropical climates a Doug Hayward gabardine suit, always "politely interested and innocently perplexed." This persona was both his genuine manner and a deliberate technique to put interviewees at ease, even extending to a policy of asking questions only in English. Whicker explained that a friendly, smiling approach made it difficult for hostile subjects to react violently, and that not speaking their language avoided placing him in a subordinate position. Several episodes of Tonight were given over entirely to Whicker's World, including reports on William Randolph Hearst, Hotel Concord, J. Paul Getty, and Sweden, among others.
Home media
A significant number of early Whicker's World episodes are probably gone for good. This includes both the short segments that aired on the BBC's Tonight programme between 1959 and 1965, and the first run of the standalone series from 1965 to 1968, all of which were made before the BBC started a formal archiving policy in the 1970s. The BBC Archives team has posted some surviving clips from the early Tonight years on social media, among them the very first episode, which featured Whicker reporting from Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong. Two complete episodes from 1967—"The Love Generation: I'm Here to Tell You – It's Happening All Over!" and "Conflict in Kentucky: My People Are More Important Than a Few Horses Running..."—are available on BBC iPlayer, along with a special 1963 edition of Tonight where Whicker interviewed Jean Paul Getty. Another full episode from 1968, "A Handful of Horrors: I Don't Like My Monsters to Have Oedipus Complexes," appears as a bonus feature on the 2020 Blu-ray of the Doctor Who story "The Power of the Daleks." The only BBC Whicker series to get an official release on streaming or physical media is Journey Of A Lifetime from 2009. For the ITV episodes, Network released them on DVD, including a seven-disc "Best Of" set and, starting in May 2016, chronological DVD collections of each ITV series. These sets also include one-off specials; for instance, Whicker's interview with Papa Doc is on the Whicker's New World DVD because it originally aired during that series. Network went into administration in June 2023, by which point only the first six ITV series—ending with Whicker's Orient from 1972—had been released.
Cultural impact
By the late 1960s, Whicker's on-screen persona—his trademark moustache, glasses, blazer, and distinctive voice—had become iconic in the UK. An Alan Whicker Appreciation Society, founded in the 1970s, reportedly had more than 20,000 members at its height; members dressed and spoke like Whicker in a style called "Whickeric" and played cricket using the word "Whicker" instead of "wicket." The series was spoofed by Benny Hill in a sketch called "Knickers World" and parodied by Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1972 with a sketch set on "Whicker Island" inhabited by Alan Whicker clones. In the 1980s, Whicker appeared in Barclaycard commercials based on Whicker's World. The British funk group The Evasions released a novelty song "Wikka Wrap" in 1981 featuring an impersonation of Whicker, which reached the UK Top 20; the song was later sampled in Coolio's 1996 track "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)." Graham de Wilde, who wrote that song, also composed the theme tune for the 1980s BBC episodes of Whicker's World.
Legacy
Alan Whicker's work on Whicker's World shaped travel journalism into a documentary style, and his knack for getting people to speak candidly on camera left a mark on later broadcasters such as Michael Palin and Michael Parkinson. His approach of playing a seemingly naive character while filming, paired with a flat, dry voiceover added later in the edit, has been noted as an inspiration for documentarians like Louis Theroux. The Whickers, a foundation and yearly prize that backs the creation of high-quality documentaries, was set up in 2015 using funds from Whicker's will. Managed by his partner Valerie Kleeman and run by filmmaker Jane Ray, it gives £100,000 annually to a first-time director with the best proposal for a personal documentary film or TV piece, plus separate grants and recognition for audio documentaries.
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