Ready Steady Go! captured the mood of the Swinging 60s when it was launched as a live ITV pop show on Friday evenings in 1963 with the catchphrase “The weekend starts here!”. The show’s title came from Daphne Shadwell, one of its studio directors and a pioneering programme-maker in those early days of commercial television. “Most TV directors counted down ‘ten, nine, eight etc’,” she said. “I was different. I used to end the countdown with, ‘Ready, steady, go!’”
The chaotic format mixed live acts with interviews, and featured teenagers dancing on the disco set and cameras in shot. Its launch presenter, Keith Fordyce, was later joined by the miniskirt-wearing Cathy McGowan, whose youthfulness and fashion sense embodied the excitement and energy of the era.
