Sydney Tonight

Sydney Tonight was an Australian television variety series which aired from December 1956 to early 1959 on Sydney station ATN-7. Originally compered by Keith Walshe, it was later hosted by Roy Hampson and re-titled Tonight. The series featured a format including guests, interviews, audience participation, and music. Like In Melbourne Tonight, which came later, it was patterned on groundbreaking U.S. series Tonight Starring Steve Allen. In October 1958, station ATN-7 experimented by using video-tape recordings of Sydney Tonight segments as part of their morning line-up. Reviewing the morning line-up, Nan Musgrove of Australian Women's Weekly criticised the use of the Sydney Tonight segments, saying that "I may be perculiar, but ladies in full warpaint and baretopped evening dresses at 7:30 a.m. wiggling their way through seductive songs are not my favorite breakfast entertainment", though the reviewer had more positive feelings towards the other morning offerings, soap opera Autumn Affair and music series The Toppanos. A kinescope of a 1958 episode of the series is held by the National Film and Sound Archive.