When Super One TV started transmitting in 1994, veteran broadcaster Norman Hamilton returned on the TV airwaves after a gap of more than five years. He had not appeared on our screens since his famous Sibtijiet Flimkien on the then Xandir Malta which was stopped in 1988.

The board of what was then Rainbow Productions gave Norman the task to come up with a new family-oriented talk show… but with a number of good talk shows already on the air, what could he come up with that would succeed in attracting good viewership? Instead of going for something bombastic, he opted for the exact opposite. What could be simpler than four guests from different walks of life sitting on a sofa, sharing their experiences together and with the viewers?

The concept was an immediate hit, and still is to this very day. Each year (except in 1999-2000, when Bla Agenda took a short break to allow for the experimental revival of Sibtijiet Flimkien), Super One TV’s management has kept asking the Bla Agenda team to go on with their show. Eventually the programme settled in its Saturday night slot, and has year in, year out been declared by successive broadcasting audience surveys as the most watched Saturday night show on all local TV stations.

So, probably Malta’s oldest TV show goes back on air on Saturday 1 October, at the new time of 8.15pm. And, by general request, it will start having a repetition on Sundays at 2.30pm.

Bla Agenda will once again feature co-presenter Sandro Mangion who will be taking the viewers’ comments and questions via telephone, SMS and email during the live show. There will also be Joe Mifsud’s weekly commentary, X’Laqatni. Furthermore, given the very positive feedback the team has received with regard to the programmes it has shown from abroad in the past few years, the Bla Agenda team has decided to include similar programmes in the forthcoming series as well.

There will be several prizes to be won by viewers, including two Air Malta tickets every month and a Mediterranean cruise on MSC Crociere’s flagship MSC Opera. These prizes are being offered in collaboration with Hamilton Travel.

The programme’s production team comprises of Norman Hamilton, Sandro Mangion, Pierre Cachia, Diane Difesa, Antoine Spiteri and Marie Darmanin-Muscat.