A seasonal television tribute to Wilton's Music Hall, a popular London venue situated just off Cable Street in Wapping, by the River Thames. The hall had been built behind a public house, the Prince of Denmark, by the owner of that establishment, John Wilton, and it was open for business from 1857 to 1887, during which time many of the period's top acts performed there.

In this TV production, a top-rank billing of current comedians and entertainers impersonated those stars of yesteryear to re-create the flavour of an 1860 night at Wilton's. Special permission was obtained to reopen the venue for this one night only, and part of the programme's budget was spent in partially restoring the hall to its former glories. Having survived the ravages of the Second World War and dereliction, Wilton's has continued to be looked after, and, to the pleasure of many, remains intact at the time of writing (1997).

Appropriately, the programme was introduced by Billy Russell, who achieved fame in the 1920s with his character Old Bill, a blustering, wheezy First World War veteran he had based on Bruce Bairnsfather's walrus-moustached cartoon character seen in Punch at the time. After enjoying success in his later years as a character actor, Russell died in 1971.