‘And the trouble is where to begin to spring surprises on you. Perhaps a place you might least like to remember.’ This is Your Life and the BBC’s images of the Holocaust in the twenty years before Holocaust

This article situates the reception of Holocaust, as discussed elsewhere in this volume, within the broader context of BBC television’s images of the Holocaust from 1955 to 1978. It focuses on five episodes of the popular light entertainment series This is Your Life (1955-1964), arguing that the choice of ‘victim’, the identity of their guests, and the content and manner of articulation of their memories reflected a contemporary understanding of the murder of the Jews of Europe that celebrated rescue and survival within a British context