Who sat on the first TV sofa?

Sofa so good

Phillip Schofield has said that his career on the TV sofa is over. Who first sat on one? 

– BBC Breakfast, first broadcast on 17 January 1983, famously featured a red leather sofa which presenter Frank Bough told his audience was the ideal way to present a news programme. But the history of the TV sofa goes back a lot further. The Tonight Show, first broadcast on NBC in 1954, featured one from 1964 onwards – a surviving clip from that year shows presenter Johnny Carson standing in front of a blue cloth-upholstered sofa.

Death and taxes

How much does inheritance tax raise, and how many people pay it?

– In 2021/22 the tax raised £6.1bn. This is double what it raised a decade earlier. The analysis for how many people paid is a little behind, with the most recent figures available for 2019/20. In that financial year, 3.76% of deaths resulted in a tax burden.