Photo by production designer Lynda Kettle, no reproduction without permission
(Thanks to Steve Weddle and Julia Versluis for the information here about A Date With Fate. The BBC1 Daytime series was transmitted in May and June 1998, at 9 or 10am).
“A Date With Fate is possibly the world’s only Astrology based Game Show, starring Jonathon Cainer and future [now former] Tory Minister, Esther McVey. Contestants used to get a consolation Date With Fate plate.
Jonathan Cainer, sadly passed away not that long ago. He was massively rich as a result of his astrology telephone lines, and at the time of recording was by his own admission searching for a new wife. One particular member of the production team was in his sights, but the planets obviously weren’t suitably aligned.”
Steve Weddle
“A Date With Fate was so funny. I remember we lost power in the studio. Jonathan Cainer was standing next to me while I was doing autocue and said something along the lines of, “well you know why we lost power? It was due to Saturn being in conjunction with Jupiter” – all I could think was it would have been helpful for him to have told us all before it happened but I just smiled and waited for the power to come back on!”
Julia Versluis
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