On Saturday
28 July 1945 the BBC closed the Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme (AEF) and,
at least for domestic listeners, the General Forces Programme (GFP). The
following day Sunday 29 July, as the BBC week at that time began on a Sunday,
regional broadcasting returned to the Home Service and a new station came on
air, the BBC Light Programme.
The Light
Programme was carried on 1500m (200 kHz) long wave from Droitwich (with some
filling-in on 261m MW), the first time long wave transmitters had been used for
domestic broadcasts since before the war. Immediately before the Light came on
air 1500m had been used by the European Service.
A number of
GFP entertainment shows were carried over to the Light: from Variety Bandbox and Music While You Work to Grand
Hotel and ITMA. By the following
year programmes such as Family Favourites,
Housewives Choice and Woman’s Hour had been commissioned,
programmes which helped to define the Light and give it some of radio’s largest
audiences
It would be
lovely to bring you some of the highlights of that first day of broadcasting on
the Light but sadly the BBC kept just 50 seconds. That recording features the
voice of Chief Assistant Tom Chalmers (he’d become the Controller of the
network three years later) followed by the start of a news bulletin read by
Alvar Lidell. In Tom’s opening announcement there was the word ‘entertainment’
right from the off:
Good morning
everyone, this is the BBC Light Programme on wavelengths of 1500 and 261
metres. It’s the first time we’ve said those words, BBC Light Programme, which
we hope are going to mean for you now, and in the days to come, all that is
best in radio entertainment from nine o’clock in the morning till midnight.
By way of
contrast the BBC did retain the last programmes transmitted on the AEF
including the hour long Farewell AEF
and the final moments with the news read by Guy Belmont, prayers from the Rev V
Russell and announcer Margaret Hubble. A minute or so of Marjorie Anderson
closing the General Forces Programme has also survived. In case you’re
wondering, over on the Home Service the only surviving archive is that of
Regional Director Melville Dinwiddie welcoming listeners to the Scottish Home
Service.
This year
marks the 80th anniversary of the launch of the Light in 1945, a
network that would broadcast for the next 22 years until its demise in
September 1967 and the arrival of Radios 1 and 2. The BBC are not marking the
anniversary, though Boom Radio are when David Hamilton recalls listening to the
Light and appearing on it in a programme airing at 9pm on Tuesday 29 July.
However, in 2017 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of BBC
Radio 2 did tell The Story of the Light
in a two-part programme presented by Paul O’Grady.
The first
episode of The Story of the Light was
broadcast on 18 September 2017. You’ll hear reminiscences from (in order of
appearance) Nicholas Parsons, Petula Clark, Denis Norden, Esther Rantzen, Tony
Blackburn, Ken Bruce, Pete Murray, June Whitfield, Paul Hollingdale, Barry
Cryer, Owen Money, Johnny Beerling,
Angela Rippon, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson and Judith Chalmers.
In this
first show a number of contributors refer the BBC‘s ‘forces programme’. The
term seems to be used interchangeably for two distinct services. The history
gets a bit complicated here so this is my attempt to summarise it.
There was
the Allied Expeditionary Service, an Anglo-American station (half British and
Canadian and half American in content) aimed at troops in north-west Europe
that ran from 7 June 1944 to 28 July 1945 (see my June 2014 post Oranges and Lemons). This service had
been inspired by the American Forces Network which had started on 4 July 1943
and used several low-power transmitters to provide entertainment for US troops
based in the UK. The AFN featured mainly American programmes, many of them
shipped in from the States, as well as relaying some BBC programmes. The BBC
would start to re-broadcast the AFN on its shortwave transmitters.
The other
more home-grown service was the General Forces Programme. This had started on
Sunday 27 February 1944 and was an amalgam of what had been the Forces
Programme plus programmes from the General Overseas Service (what would eventually
become the World Service).The Forces
Programme itself had started on Sunday 7 January 1940 initially offering some
evening alternatives to the Home Service but broadcasting all day later that
year.The General Forces Programme didn’t
end when the Light Programme launched and continued on short-wave for members
of the forces overseas. It shared programmes and resources with the General
Overseas Service as well as taking some programmes from the Home and Light. The
title General Forces Programme was dropped after 31 December 1946.
The second
episode of The Story of the Light was
broadcast on 25 September 2017. Adding their memories are Ken Bruce, Esther
Rantzen, David Hamilton, Russell Davies, Pete Murray, Angela Rippon, Paul Hollingdale,
Judith Chalmers, Johnnie Walker, Barry Cryer, Tony Blackburn, Petula Clark,
Brian Reynolds, Gerald Jackson, Brian Matthew and Johnny Beerling.
The Story of the Light was produced by Derek Webster and
Ashley Byrne and was a Made in Manchester Production for BBC Radio 2.
The passage
of time does, of course, mean that some memories can get a little muddled. In
case you’re taking notes In Town Tonight
was never on the Light Programme but on the Home Service.
For more on
the Light Programme head back to my blog posts On the Light published in July and August 2015 plus more recent
posts Back in Time on the Light and
this year on the subject of The Robinson Family, Go Man Go, Mrs Dale’s Diary
and Make Way for Music.
Announcer
and presenter Roger Moffat, on duty for the last programme on the Light, read
the news bulletin at 2am on Saturday 30 September 1967 to close down the
station for final time. “There we end broadcasting in the Light Programme, not
just for today but, as it seems, forever.”
One of the mainstays of the BBC Light Programme were the
shows featuring the in-house orchestras, whether it was the Concert Orchestra
on Friday Night is Music Night or the
Midland Light Orchestra with a medley of Morning
Music. But by far one of the most popular, even making the transition to
television, was Make Way for Music.
Featuring the talented musicians of the Northern Dance Orchestra, the conductor
Alyn Ainsworth, singer Sheila Buxton and, most of all, the announcer Roger
Moffat, became household names in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This is the
story of that show.
When Make Way for
Music premiered on the Light Programme in 1955 the music was provided by
the BBC Northern Variety Orchestra. After the string section was disbanded in
1956 it became the Northern Dance Orchestra, a title it retained until 1974.
The Northern Variety Orchestra had been formed in 1951 and started broadcasting
from April that year. It had been brought together under the direction of
composer, arranger and conductor Ray Martin. As Ray was London-based, he was
also working for EMI at the time, he handed over the baton to Vilem Tausky,
with Alyn Ainsworth (pictured below) as his deputy.When
Tausky was appointed associate conductor of the Northern Orchestra in October
1952 his place as principal conductor of the NVO went to Ainsworth.
There was, in fact, another short-lived Northern Variety
Orchestra formed in 1948 with conductor Toni Script (always billed simply as
‘Toni’) who’d been music al director of Blackpool’s North Pier Orchestra. It
was wound up in the spring of 1949.
Alyn Ainsworth’s first taste of show business was in the
late 1930s as a boy soprano (‘the boy with the wonder voice’) with the Herman
Darewski and his Band. Post-war he was an arranger for the Oscar Rabin Band
(see my blog post Go Man Go) and
Geraldo and led the big band The Falcons. His first radio broadcast was with
The Falcons in the North Home Service in June 1950. By the following year he
was conducting the Northern Variety Orchestra on programmes such as Melody Highway and the popular Blackpool Night (on the Light) and the
variety show The Spice of Life (Home
Service). He also conducted for BBC TV’s
The Good Old Days and Top Town, both produced by Barney Colehan,
and Morecambe and Wise’s first radio series You’re
Only Young Once.
In 1954 Ainsworth started to work with announcer Roger
Moffat and singer Les Howard on the Light Programme early evening entertainment
The Night is Young, the forerunner to
Make Way for Music. His arrangements
for the NVO and NDO were described as “impressive, often spectacular and always
original”. (The Stage) He resigned
from the NDO in 1960 due to ill health (chronic neuritis) but later that year
signed up with Granada TV as musical director on Spot the Tune. This was the start of a long association with TV
shows, as musical director for BBC Light Entertainment in the 60s and at LWT in
the 80s. He was the regular conductor of the BBC Radio Orchestra between 1974
and 1978.
A billing from 26 March 1960
Make Way for Music
first appears on the Light on Friday 13 May 1955 with Roger Moffat making the
announcements and with singers Les Howard and Barbara Law, both regular singers
with the NDO. Les and would continue to appear with the Orchestra into the
early 1970s. The show aired on Friday teatimes, usually 5 o’clock, until
December 1957 when it moved to Friday lunchtimes. The shows were recorded in the
BBC studios at the Playhouse Theatre in Hulme, Manchester.
The singer most associated with Make Way for Music was Manchester-born Sheila Buxton. She’d already
broadcast for BBC radio on Worker’s
Playtime, Midday Music Hall and
with Jimmy Clitheroe in Call Boy, as
well as dozens of TV appearances for both the BBC and ITV before joining the
show in January 1957. In 1958 she signed to Bob Monkhouse and Denis Goddwin’s
agency and shortly after with the Top Rank record label.
But what set aside Make
Way for Music from the other BBC music shows were the humorous
announcements and banter with musicians and singers from staff announcer Roger
Moffat, “spelt with one T – I’m fussy about that”. As he told the press in 1959
“I have a warped sense of humour. I enjoy sticking my neck out. I find it fun”.
He opened each show with the announcement “Wherever you are, whoever you are,
make way for music.”
Roger Moffat illustration by Jan Parker for the Sunday Mirror 5 March 1973
Moffat had joined the BBC’s announcing team in Manchester in
July 1951(after a spell at Radio Luxembourg) doing the usual mix of continuity
announcing, news reading and programme introductions. He first worked with Alyn
Ainsworth and the NVO on the aforementioned The
Night is Young and continued to appear with Alyn and the NDO on shows such
as This is You Saturday Date, Melody Matinee, Star Train and Saturday Night
on the Light. In the 50s and 60s Roger made hundreds of appearances
introducingprogrammes on both the Light
and Home Service too numerous to list but they included Laughter Incorprated, another forgotten Morecambe and Wise show, Music-Hall, Music on the Menu, Northern editions of Worker’s Playtime, Music
on the Move, Stay Late and Midday Spin. He made the introductions
on dozens of episodes of The Clitheroe
Kid. In 1960 Roger appeared in the first TV series for Pinky and Perky
called Pop Parade with Roger playing
the announcer at Station P.O.P. who is constantly interrupted by the porcine
puppets.
By the mid-60s Roger was now London-based covering the usual
mix of continuity work, reading bulletins and taking turns hosting regular
music shows like Music Through Midnight
and Double Spin. He was on duty for
the last night of the Light Programme and made the closing announcement in the
early hours of Saturday 30 September 1967. He continued to work for Radio 1 and
Radio 2 on Night Ride, The Joe Loss Show and Things are Swingin’. But the ad-libs and
on-air buffoonery all came to an end in July 1971 when he was given the sack
after some joking with colleague Keith Skues about the shipping forecast.
Apparently jokes about Gale Force 28½ were beyond the pale. He spent the
next two years on the dole before Keith Skues, now Programme Director at ILR
station Radio Hallam, offered him a job on the breakfast show. He quit Hallam
in December 1981 but worked briefly for BBC Radio Sheffield two years later. A notoriously heavy drinker, he died in impecunious circumstances in 1986.
Radio Times billing for the first TV broadcast of Make Way for Music 14 January 1959
I’ve leapt ahead of
the story of Make Way for Music. Such
was its popularity on the radio that in October 1958 a television pilot was
filmed which was given the green-light for a series by light entertainment
executive Eric Maschwitz. The first TV version aired on the BBC on 14 January
1959 in an initial run of four fortnightly shows. That run kept getting
extended and it was broadcast through to December, with a further short series
following in the summer of 1960, clocking up 26 programmes in total.
Ahead of the first show the Manchester Evening News set the scene for the TV version which
‘aims to show the orchestra in its working clothes-the players grouped as they
would be for a radio show in a shirt-sleeves-and-sweaters atmosphere. Cameras
will move round picking up unexpected expressions and odd angles. The
music-crisp, clean and often witty-speaks volumes for the group’s cheerful
teamwork. And it fits the mood of the feature which gives the show its special
flavour – the unscripted, off-beat and often insulting comments of announcer
Roger Moffat in between the numbers’.
Sheila Buxton featured in Picturegoer 5 April 1958
The TV version featuring the vocal talents of Sheila Buxton
plus Roberto Cardinali. Tenor Cardinali (who also performed under the name
Vincent Roberto) had first appeared in the North Region’s Time to Celebrate programme in January 1959 and flew over from
Zurich, where he was in cabaret, for the recordings. The producer was Barney
Colehan.
Following the first TV broadcast of Make Way for Music 800 letters poured in and there were thousands
later. Moffat told the press: “I don’t earn any more money. I’ve reached the
salary limit for my job as a BBC announcer.” He got offers from ITV and also
American TV companies. “These were short-term contracts and if I did not come
up to their expectations I should find myself out of a job eventually. But the
main reason is that I don’t want to break away from the NDO. I have worked with
them for years, and I know them and their families as friends. My life is bound
up with them. I don’t like working from a script. Usually I have no idea what I
am going to say until the show starts,”
Check out Richard Cawson’s 1960 documentary This is the BBC on YouTube and you’ll
spot Alyn Ainsworth and the NDO starting at 26 minutes in with their rendition
of On Ilkley Moor bar t'at accompanying
shots of Judith Chalmers, David Coleman and others in the BBC restaurant. Roger
Moffat appears about two minutes later.
The final radio edition of the original run of Make Way for Music aired on the Light on
29 April 1960. It did, however, return for eight shows in 1970/71 on Radio 2,
each one recorded at a different venue in the north of England.The NDO was now conducted by Bernard Herrmann
and the guest singers included Sheila Buxton and Les Howard. The shows were
introduced by Stuart Hall, Gay Byrne and, back for four of them, by Roger
Moffat.
Little exists of Make
Way for Music in the BBC’s archives but some shows were issued by the
Transcription Services for overseas stations, though this means they were cut
down by about 15 minutes to under 28 minutes duration. It’s one of these
shorter versions that was repeated as part of The Golden Days of Radio on Radio 2 in May 1994. Appearing are Sheila
Buxton, vocal group The Zodiacs, organist Jimmy Leach and violinist Norman
George, who’d led the NDO from the start and would retain this position until
1971 when he joined the Northern Concert Orchestra. This edition is undated
other than it was first broadcast in 1960.
The NDO continued to broadcast for the next 14 years
featuring in their own programmes such as The
N.D.O. Melody Show, contributing to Breakfast
Special, Music Through Midnight, Night Ride, Late Night Extra and Top
Tunes, as well as providing the music for Ken Dodd and Roy Castle’s comedy
shows. In 1974 it was renamed the BBC Northern Radio Orchestra but was
disbanded six years later as part of a number of BBC cuts. There’ll be more
about the NDO and the NRO in a future post.
For twenty one year millions of radio listeners were
enthralled by the revelations, both mundane and sensational, contained within
the pages of Mrs Dale’s Diary. The
daily serial revolving around the family and friends of Mary Dale and her
doctor husband Jim was one of the BBC Light Programme’s best remembered
programmes.
Mrs Dale’s Diary
wasn’t the first soap opera on the Light, that honour fell to The Robinson Family (later The Robinsons), the peacetime version
of the Front Line Family (see my
April 2025 blog post On the Front Line with the Robinsons). Head of Drama Val
Gielgud was keen to replace the Robinsons and “start up a completely new family
with a different set of actors and scriptwriters, and if possible a rather less
tepid approach.” Mind you he was never happy with the result, labelling it “dramatically
inept and sociologically corrupting”. The listeners, however, loved it with over
six million (1) tuning it at its peak. It was also a favourite in the Royal
household, with Princess Margaret claiming to be a fan and the Queen Mother
listening in as “it was the only way to hear what goes on in a middle class family”.
The programme became a byword for cosy middle class domesticity and Mrs Dale
imploring that she was always “worried about Jim” was a national catchphrase
When the serial started the plot outlines, main characters
and scripts were provided by Ted Willis (under the pseudonym John Bishop) and
Jonquil Antony. “It was the BBC’s own idea”, said Antony, “they just handed us
a piece of paper saying they wanted a doctor, his wife, son and
daughter-in-law. We went on from there.”
Virginia Lodge illustrated in the Radio Times 3 January 1958
The first episode aired on the Light Programme on Monday 5
January 1948. The Radio Times painted
a picture of what listener’s could expect:
Meet the Dales ...the new radio family (Dr Dale, his wife
Mary, their son Bob, and their daughter Gwen) makes its debut at four o’clock
on Monday and thereafter its adventures will be broadcast at the same time each
day from Mondays to Fridays inclusive under the title Mrs Dale’s Diary.
The Dales live in a cosy house in Kenton, Middlesex, where
Dr Dale has been a GP for the last twenty-five years. Bob Dale is twenty-two
and just demobilised from the Army; his sister Gwen is three years younger and
works in an office in London. Others in the family whom listeners will hear
from time to time are Mrs Dale’s sister Sally (a completely contrasting
character to Mrs Dale and always a welcome visitor), Katherine Mackintosh, the
doctor’s Scots dispenser, Mrs Freeman, Mrs Dale’s mother, who lives nearby, and
Mrs Morgan, the domestic ‘help’.
Cleland Finn tells us that for the assistance of the script
writers, Jonquil Antony and John Bishop (both of whom had a hand in The Robinsons), the Dale family have
been ‘documented’ in great detail – even down to Mrs Dale’s waist measurement!
Heading the cast as Mary Dale was Ellis Powell and as Jim
Dale, Douglas Burbridge. Both had appeared in The Robinsons, Ellis as Mrs Williams and Douglas as the narrator. Courtney
Hope was Mary’s mother Rosemary Freeman who Jim always referred to “mother in
law”. Billy Thatcher was Bob and Virginia Hewett the first Gwen. As the Dales were
obviously well off they also employed a daily
help, Mrs Morgan played by Grace Allardyce, and there was also Monument the
gardener played by Charles Lamb. Needless to say over the 21 year run the
actors came and went and some characters were played by a number of people.
Within four years Billy Thatcher had been succeeded by Hugh Latimer, Derek Hart
and then Leslie Heritage. In quick succession Gwen was played by Joan Newell
and then Beryl Calder, who, in 1951 got married just a month before her
character did. Dorothy Lane appeared in the most episodes, originally as one of
Dr Dale’s patients from episode seven and then cast as Mrs Freeman when
Courtney Hope left after a year or so. She stayed with the serial right through
to the last one in 1969.
Even the main character of Dr Dale was played by three
actors with James Dale taking over from Douglas Burbridge, who left due to ill
health, in June 1954 and finally Charles Simon from 1963. Famously Ellis Powell
was replaced as Mrs Dale by Jessie Matthews. More on that anon. (2)
Ellis Powell
The premise of the programme was that Mary Dale was reading
excerpts from her diary, acting as a narrator for the listener and thereby
introducing the next scene or set of scenes. In this episode, number 162 from 23 August 1948, which is the oldest surviving episode, the Dales are sorting out their house in Kenton ready to
make the move to a house called Virginia Lodge in the fictional suburb of
Parkwood Hill but Mrs Dale is being overzealous with clearing out.
Very few editions of the programme are in the BBC Sound
Archives with numbers in just single figures for Mrs Dale’s Diary and similarly for The Dales, which includes the last full week’s episodes. One that
was retained was this episode, number 2548, from January 1958 in which Mrs Dale
looks back at past events, in this case what happened in 1954 and 1955. There
were similar episodes for other years across the week but for whatever reason
this recording was kept.
Another one that was retained is this oddity, episode 3272,
which I uploaded in 2021 and dated as 1 November 1960. Given that Mary Dale
refers to the election of JFK as President which happened the following week, I
can only assume that the BBC’s date refers to when it was recorded. I also
assume they recorded an alternative opening should Nixon have won. Anyway, in
this episode Aunt Hestor visits from Canada. Listen out for some decidedly
dodgy accents!
In those early years the storylines ranged from Bob joining
the TAs, Gwen’s on/off marriage and Mrs Freeman’s car accident to Monument
mistaking weed killer for fertiliser and killing off the strawberries, Angeline
the goat munching its way through the neighbours flowers and veg plot and a
roll of wallpaper being stolen. When the
serial decided to get ‘with it’ in the Sixties the storylines hotted up and
listeners hear more about medical matters (from mumps to smear tests and cerebral
palsy), adultery, a train crash, death by careless driving and ,
controversially for the time in 1967, Sally’s husband Richard suddenly coming
out as gay. Actors were encouraged to drop the frightfully clipped accents and
open up their vowels
Ted Willis left after the first block of scripts had been
delivered and the bulk of the writing fell to Jonquil Antony (who continued to
work on the programme until 1963) and three other women who were recruited:
Melissa Wood, Lesley Wilson and Joan Carr Jones. This team produced all the
scripts for the first five years but in 1953 the BBC was already proposing that
the serial be “more topical, up-to-date and outward looking”. The lead time
between script completion and recording was cut in half, a new producer, Antony
Kearey, was appointed and, when Lesley Wilson went on maternity leave, actor
and playwright Basil Dawson was drafted in. He’d previously written for Dick Barton-Special Agent and he told
the press at the time: “The BBC tell me
that they want the man’s angle on Mrs
Dale’s Diary and I’m going to model the men on real life people.”
When Dawson left two years later Robert Turley joined the
writing team. In 1954-55 Hazel Adair was also writing scripts, she’d go on to
create the TV soaps Compact and Crossroads. Some now well-known names
submitted test scripts to the production team. In 1953 Doris Lessing had a go
but it was rejected as “a bit strong for domestic drama”. In 1964 producer
Keith Williams was trying to promote new writers and Tom Stoppard wrote five
scripts, these were also rejected but Jill Hyem’s showed promise and she joined
the team. Both Jill and another Dales writer Alan Downer would create the
programme’s successor Waggoner’s Walk.
Radio Times billing for Mrs Dale Looks Back 6 January 1958
Whilst there was plenty of drama in Mary Dale’s diary, in
the early Sixties there was even greater drama behind the scenes at
Broadcasting House. In February 1962 it was reported that Mrs Dale and her husband
were moving out of the middle class suburb of Parkwood Hill to the fictional bustling
industrial town of Exton some 35 miles north of London in “an attempt to knock
the snobbery out of the Dales.” The move came about because Dr Dale had secured
employment at a group practice and would also attend an industrial health
clinic. Initially Mary was not enamoured of Exton: “Oh Jim, what a place. I can
smell the soot in the air. We could never live in a place like this-it’s grey
and dirty”. (3)
On 26 February 1962 Mrs
Dale’s Diary became The Dales. The
Radio Times explained the changes:
Listeners will notice that this week’s Mrs Dales Diary becomes The
Dales. It is now fourteen years since Mrs Dale first began a diary to keep
listeners up to date with the affairs of the family and neighbourhood.
On consideration it has been decided that a change in the
manner of narrating the story as it develops will give the writers greater
flexibility in introducing listeners to fresh aspects of the Dales’ life.
Already many regular listeners who write to the BBC about this famous radio
family refer to them as ‘The Dales’.
So, in future, instead of the ‘diary’ opening an announcer
will introduce each episode; and the change will be marked by a new signature
tune.
That new signature tune was written by Johnny Dankworth and
played by his Septet. It replaced the harp glissando played by Marie Goossens
that had been in use from the start, Dankworth’s jazz-like composition included
a nod to the original at the end. The new theme was not universally liked and
the BBC dropped it in July and instead used part of Dance in the Twilight by Eric Coates played by the BBC Concert
Orchestra conducted by Vilem Tausky. I don’t have a copy of that recording so
in the sequence below I’ve used a much later version played by the Concert
Orchestra under the direction of John Wilson. From January 1964 a new specially
written theme from Ron Grainer was introduced played by an ‘ad hoc combination’
and used for the remainder of the run.
There was more drama to come in February 1963 with the shock
news that both Ellis Powell and James Dale had been dropped from the programme.
Before his days as a television dramatist Dennis Potter wrote for the Daily Herald and on 20 February 1963 he
had this to say:
Britain’s best known privet hedge could not shield The Dales from the wind of change that
is blowing through the BBC. That’s why Mrs Dale (real name Ellis Powel, aged
56) and Dr Dale (actor James Dale, 77 next week) were unceremoniously sacked
from the famous radio serial yesterday. They were summoned to the office of the
BBC’s head of sound drama, Mr Val Gielgud...and they left with six months
tax-free pay and no job.
Mrs Mary Dale was told: “Sorry, but we are making
re-adjustments to the programme.” She had played the part since the serial
began 15 years ago. Dr Jim Dale was told: “Sorry, but you are too old for the
part.” He had been in it for nine years.
In the serial the Dales have just flown off to America. (4)
While they are away listeners will have a chance to forget what they sound
like.
Why did the BBC put the Dales on a plane, and then drop them
overboard? It is not like the old BBC. But there are new ideas being put about
at Broadcasting House by young men in tight trousers and brown suede shows.
These young men felt increasingly uncomfortable about Mrs Dale. They thought it
was like having Queen Victoria to tea. They did not like her cosy, middle-class
pleasantries with harmlessly banal tittle-tattle.
As a first step Mrs
Dale’s Diary was renamed The Dales
and turned into a superior kind of Archers.
The programme was given a modish Johnny Dankworth theme tune –dropped after
outraged protests from thousands of listeners-and forced to move from the
gentile environs of suburban Parkwood Hill to Exton, an industrial town north
of London.
The sackings were not the only change announced yesterday. A
new producer has been appointed – 39 years-old script writer and actor Peter
Bryant, who was Jack Groves in the Groves
Family TV serial. One of The Dales’
principal script writers, Robert Turley, has left and will be replaced by
Barbara Clegg.
What happens now to the Dales – or rather the ex-Dales? Said
Mr Dale: “It is dreadful to be hoofed out like this after working for the BBC
for 27 years and playing Dr Dale for nine.” Miss Powell, whose marriage ended
in divorce last June, said: “Perhaps TV will give me a chance. I never tried TV
because it could have destroyed the listener’s image of me.”
Daily Mirror reports on the sacking of Ellis Powell and James Dale 20 February 1963
So who would be the new Dr and Mrs Dale? Apparently at least
a hundred actors were auditioned and an approach had also been made to Elspeth
March (previously married to Stewart Granger) but she demurred. On 7 March 1963
the BBC announced that Mrs Dale would be played by Jessie Matthews and Dr Dale
by Charles Simon. Charles Simon was a regular radio actor and had been a member
of the BBC Drama Repertory Company. (6) Bagging Jessie Matthews was quite a
coup as she was a well-known name having been a theatre and film star in the
1930s and 40s and had something of a colourful personal life. Her most famous
role was in the musical Ever Green,
the film version of which gave her the song with which she’s most associated, Over My Shoulder. The BBC had to pay
extra to get Matthews, whilst Ellis Powell was on £30 a week Jessie was enticed
into the studio for £65.
When Matthews got the role producer Peter Bryant said that
“there won’t be any changes – only in the way Jessie Matthews plays her role.
Her personality is quite different to that of the previous Mrs Dale.” The first
appearance of the new couple was on March 18 1963. In the first half-hour after
the episode the duty office took just five calls from listeners- three against
and two for the new Mrs Dale. Four of them said she sounded too young.
Jessie Matthews
In her 1974 autobiography
titled, naturally enough, Over My
Shoulder, Jessie Matthews makes no
secret of her past nervous breakdowns and its seems that it was her depression that precipitated the ending of The Dales. Undergoing shock treatment
meant that in recordings her lines were underlined in red and Keith Williams,
then Head of Serials, had to point to them when it was her time to speak. She
was unable to recognise her fellow cast members and she was “too ill to go on
at all”.
The axing of The Dales,
now broadcast on the Light’s successor Radio 2, was announced in January 1969
with Controller Robin Scott saying “We realise it will mean taking away a slice
of life to some people who have followed the serial over 21 years. But we hope
listeners will grow to appreciate the new serial just as much”. He added “All things
must come to an end and we felt the programme had gone on long enough.”
Meanwhile, the scriptwriters were presaging the end of the programme with Dr
Dale announcing that he was to give up medicine and retire. In the final weeks
only one character was killed off, OJ the odd job man had a heart attack. A
total of twenty-three characters appeared in the final instalment.
The Dales cast in 1969
On the programme’s demise Jessie Matthews was quoted as
saying; “I had a great admiration for Mrs Dale. I could understand why she had
such a big following on radio. Now I shall have more time to look around for
other work. But it will take time to sink in.” Later, in her autobiography no
reason is given for the end of the serial and she reflected : ‘When The Dales
came to its untimely end in 1969 I did not feel unduly downcast. I had been
playing Mary Dale for six years, but I had guarded against becoming stale by
fitting in other jobs both on television and on the stage. Yet it was sad to
say goodbye to the company, we felt rather like a family breaking up.’
As for Charles Simon, he said “It has been a very delightful
and lucrative job. We have been assured by the BBC that they will offer us
plenty of other work”. Leslie Heritage, who played Bob Dale since 1959 said:
“As an actor I found the role gave me a great deal of financial security. It
did not mean Jaguar cars, but it does mean that when the show ends I won’t
starve.”
Original scriptwriter Jonquil Antony, who worked on the
drama for 15 years, was of the opinion that “it was about time the programme
came off. Some people will be very upset, but they will accept the decision. I
can remember when the predecessor to Mrs Dale, The Robinsons, was taken off. There was uproar. But it all died
down.”
Jessie Matthews, Charles Simon and Dorothy Lane
The axing of The Dales
was mentioned in Parliament on 18 April 1969 as part of the discussion on the
British Broadcasting Corporation Bill. Liberal MP Peter Bessell had this to
say:
I received a vast number of letters from all over the
country supporting my protest, and, although I had anticipated, or at least
hoped for, support, I had not dreamt that it would be as widespread, or that The Dales gave so much comfort to the
sick and elderly, or that there were so many hundreds, if not thousands, of
people in homes and hospitals for whom Mrs. Dale and her family have become a
major part of daily life.
But the protests were to no avail and the last episode,
number 5,431, aired on Friday 25 April 1969. The final line went to Mrs Dale as
she says “One thing that’s
never going to change. I shall always worry about you Jim” The following Monday
a new kid was on the block with the start of Waggoner’s Walk.
In 2012 Penelope Keith, herself an avid listener to the
serial, spoke to a number of people who’d worked on Mrs Dale’s Diary and The
Dales in a programme titled I’m
Rather Worried About Jim.
In this programme we hear from radio critic Gillian Reynolds
and then Keith Williams who produced The
Dales and went on to be head of serials. Producer/directors interviewed are
Betty Davies (who’d worked on the programme in the 1950s and 60s) and Jane
Morgan who have some lovely gossip about Dorothy Lane who played Mrs Freeman, plus
Martin Jenkins and Andrew Sachs who recalls his time directing Jessie Matthews.
(7) Actors featured are Shirley Dixon (at least the 5th Jenny Dale),
Aline Waites (the 4th Gwen Dale), Peter Baldwin (Corrie’s Derek
Wilton) who was a member of the BBC Drama Rep, Elizabeth Proud (Rosie, who
famously burnt Mrs Dale’s diary), Gordon Griffin (grandson Billy Owen), Jean
Trent (Lois Jackson) and Jim McManus (garage owner Pat Hill). (8). Studio
manager Enyd Williams, later a radio drama director, remembers having to create
the effect of Mrs Freeman’s cat Captain throwing up. Series writer Jill Hyem
recalls the script conferences. (9) I’m
Rather Worried About Jim was produced by Angela Hind and was first
broadcast on Monday 16 January 2012.
(1) The 1966 BBC
Handbook states that 3.0m heard the afternoon edition and 3.5m the morning
repeat
(2) In fact other actors sometimes had to step in to play Dr
or Mrs Dale if even for a week or two. Norman Claridge stood in as Jim Dale in
1959. The part of Mary Dale was also taken by Thea Wells in 1948, Noel Dyson in
1963 and Ruth Dunning in 1966 and 1967
(3) The Dales never did settle in the new town and later moved to a rambling old house in Wells Street in the old town area of Exton
(4) The Dales really seemed to enjoy holidays beyond the
reach of most Light Programme listeners. My perusal of programme synopses shows
they also visited Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Malta and ‘Arabia’
(5) Apparently, like her fictional counterpart Ellis Powell
kept a diary and it was serialised in The
People after her death
(6) By the mid-60s the BBC Drama Repertory Company employed
40 full-time members plus an additional four for English by Radio, six for schools productions, nine for The Archers and four for The Dales. Whilst some members, such as
Mary Wimbush, Peter Tuddenham, Timothy West and Diana Olsson had named parts in
Radio Times cast lists, the billings
often included the wording ‘Other parts played by members of the BBC Drama
Repertory Company’
(7) Others who produced The
Dales and went to make their name elsewhere include Wyn Knowles (editor of Woman’s Hour 1971-83), Patrick Dromgoole
(TV producer and director) and John Tydeman (renowned radio director and head
of radio drama 1986-94)
(8) Some actors who appeared in the serial but are better
known for other roles include Hattie Jacques who played Mrs Leathers in 1959,
Jack Howarth, Albert Tatlock in Coronation
Street, played Mr Maggs for over a decade, Clifford Rose, Kessler in Secret Army, played Cliff Barbour,
15-year old Nigel Havers was one of the many actors to play Billy Owen and Bill
Treacher, Arthur Fowler in EastEnders
played Sydney Pratt. There was also a brief appearance in 1958 for Nicholas
Parsons filling in as Bob Dale and for many episodes in the mid-60s Derek Nimmo
was Jago Peters, one of Gwen’s boyfriends.
(9) Other script writers for The Dales included Ray Rigby who went on to write the award-winning
screenplay for The Hill, former Dixon of Dock Green writer Rex Edwards
and actor Jeffrey Segal who you may recall as Arthur Perkins in TV’s Rentaghost
This is the second in a short series of posts marking the
launch of the BBC Light Programme 80 years ago.
Go Man Go was another of those BBC Light
Programme lunchtime music shows that proliferated during the 1950s and 1960s. Recorded
before a frenzied young audience they offered the latest hits as interpreted by
an orchestra, resident singers and weekly guests. In the words of the programme
billing it was a ‘lunchtime session of rock, cha-cha, jazz and the top of the
pops’. In this case the music was provided by the Oscar Rabin Band under the
direction of David Ede, who also introduced the majority of the shows. Go Man Go ran for 256 shows between
December 1958 and March 1964. The programme’s origins lie with the
self-effacing band leader Oscar Rabin, whose own broadcasting career goes back
to the 1920s.
Oscar Rabinowitz
was born in Riga in 1899 and his family moved to London when he was aged just four.
The story goes that on his way to school in the East End he regularly met and
guided a blind fiddler who, in return, gave him violin lessons By the time he
was 15 he’d become a professional musician, playing the violin and later the
bass saxophone, and studying at the Guildhall School of Music. After the war, in 1919, he formed his first
band called the Syncomaniacs Jazz Five changing their name a year or two later to
the Romany Five. Rabin met guitarist and banjo player Harry Davis in Liverpool
in 1924 and they joined forces, starting at the Palace Hotel in Southend.
Adding more members to the combo they became the Romany Band and enjoyed a long
residency at Hull’s Palais de Danse from July 1926 to October 1927. They made
their first broadcasts from the venue on the city’s BBC relay station 6KH in
February and June 1927. Their next radio appearance was on 2LO in 1929.
From 1929
the band was touring the dance halls on the Astoria circuit and regularly
appearing at the Astoria on Charing Cross Road. The Romany Band was billed as ‘led
by’ or ‘under the direction of’ Oscar Rabin but he generally sat behind his
bass sax. It was Harry Davis (pictured above left with Oscar Rabin right) who acted as the front man and vocalist with Rabin
saying “I’d rather leave that kind of job to someone who can do it well”. In
the words of one later press review “Oscar Rabin is a dance band leader who has
no desire to stand in front of his band making vague gestures and seems quite
content to produce grunting sounds from his bass saxophone”. (1)
During the
30s the Romany Dance Band, as it was now known, continued to tour, had a long residency
at the Hammersmith Palais, cut a few records and, from 1935, make increasingly
regular BBC radio broadcasts and even some appearances on Radio Normandy in a
show sponsored by the House of Seager. It was claimed that the band was run on
an entirely co-operative basis. Profits and losses were shared equally by
members and there was a £2,000 band fund from which was paid full wages for
sickness or vacant dates.
By 1938 the
Romany Dance Band was one of the main bands heard on the wireless, alongside
those led by Joe Loss, Ambrose and Henry Hall. On 22 October that year they
also appeared on BBC television in the first ever broadcast from a dance hall,
with cameras being present at Hammersmith’s Palais de Danse. They made a couple
more pre-war TV appearances and in the 1950s provided the music for Come Dancing.
With the
outbreak of World War II Oscar Rabin continued to appear in Hammersmith and
make at least weekly, sometimes even daily, broadcasts. After some personnel
changes, in the summer of 1940 they dropped the ‘Romany’ reference from the
band’s name.
The Oscar Rabin Band appeared at Portsmouth's Savoy Ballroom in September 1949
Throughout
the 1940s and 1950s Oscar Rabin and his Band made hundreds of broadcasts,
including Music While You Work.
Meanwhile, by 1950 David Ede had joined the band as a clarinet and saxophone
player and also appeared on the bill with his own vocal quartet when the band
toured. In 1951 Harry Davis left for the States to live with his daughter and
son-in-law (2). David Ede took over duties as the band’s compere of what was
then billed as “Britain’s foremost broadcasting band”.
It was in
September and October 1957 on the Light Programme that Oscar Rabin and his Band
started weekly lunchtime shows billed as Break
for Music. The singers employed were Scottish-born Patti Forbes, Mel Gaynor
(described, when he joined the band, as the “new Anglo-Indian pop-chorus
specialist) and singer-songwriter Johnny Worth, real name John Worsley who also
worked professionally as Les Vandyke. They were back on Tuesday lunchtimes from
31 December 1957 in a programme now called Dancing
Time – it would run until September 1958. (3). Joining Mel and Johnny on
vocals was Lorie Mann (real name Barbara Burke) who along with David Ede meant
they were cheesily referred to as ‘Three Men and a Mann’. Making the
introductions was staff announcer Bruce Wyndham.
But during
that run of Dancing Times there was
bad news. Hours after his show on 17 June 1958 Oscar Rabin he was admitted to
Putney Hospital suffering from exhaustion, He suffered two heart attacks and
died on the Friday. The band continued under Ede’s direction.
Radio Times billing for the show 14 July 1961
By 1958 the
Rabin Band had a long residency at the Wimbledon Palais de Danse and, at the
end of the year, on 29 December, they were back on-air for the start of the
five and a bit year run of Go Man Go.
With Lorie Mann and Mel Gaynor were Ray Pilgrim (also going by the name Bobbie
Stevens), Colin Day and vocal group The Hound Dogs. (4)
Production
duties changed from John Hooper to Terry Henebery (5) in September 1959 and
“the show with the most” now also included ‘The Grooving Guitar of Don
Sanford’. The band’s pianist and arranger Arthur Greenslade (later Shirley
Bassey’s music director) also started to be featured with his own ‘Arthur
Greenslade and the Gee Men’.
Celebrating the first anniversary of Go Man Go. L-R Terry Henbery, David Ede, Lorie Mann & studio manager Frederick Harris (Alamy)
Changes in
musical tastes necessitated a change in approach for the programme. From April
1962 David Ede was no longer doing the chat between tunes, that role was now
taken by jazz guitarist Dis Disley. As well as regular guests from the jazz
world there are increasingly more artists from the pop charts such as Craig
Douglas, The Brook Brothers, Joe Brown, Ronnie Carroll and Susan Maughan. In
later shows the guests ranged from The Rolling Stones, The Swinging Blue Jeans
and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas to Roger Whittaker, Kenny Lynch and, a rare
US performer, Gene Vincent.
For the 200th
show in January 1963 Alan Freeman made the introductions, followed by Tony
Withers and Don Moss. Don George, later at Radio 1, became the show’s third and
final producer from October 1963.
At least two
editions of Go Man Go survive in the
BBC archives, one from 28 December 1959 and another from 1961 that was repeated
in 1995. This off-air recording also dates from 1961. My original information was
that the show was from 28 November 1960, but checking some of the release dates
of the songs covered and the helpful mention of a weekend football result it’s
the broadcast from 13 February 1961. (6)
In this
recording, which is not quite complete as its short by about six or seven
minutes (a number of announcements have been clipped and the 1.30pm news
bulletin that interrupts the programme isn’t included), the band are joined by
singers Barbara Kay (she’d provide the vocal on Johnny Reggae in 1971), Colin Day and Ray Pilgrim plus Don Sanford
on guitar and sax player 'Rockin' Rex Morris (he’d played with Lord
Rockingham’s XI). This is yet another home recording made by the late Eric
Bartington and kindly donated to me by Gerad de Roo.
The tunes
included in the show are:
Three Blind Mice – a jazz version of this nursery
rhyme. Jazz arrangements of the tune had been in existence since the 1930s and
Duke Ellington recorded a version.
Rubber Ball – a hit for both Bobby Vee and Marty
Wilde that year
Autumn Tears – sung by Barbara Kay, a song by
Norman Newell and Cyril Ornadel
Ginchy – a Bert Weedon tune played by Don
Sanford
C’est si bon – the French popular song performed
by Colin Day
Dixieland One-Step – a 1917 jazz standard in the ‘Jazz
Bag’ feature
Will You Love Me Tomorrow – the Goffin-King song that was the
current US number one for The Shirelles
Miss Annabelle Lee – an old twenties tune. Apparently
listeners wrote into the BBC asking for more dance music to be played in the
1920s style (7)
The Story of My Love – a hit at the time, but only in the
US, for Paul Anka
Naomi – played by Arthur Greenslade and
the Gee Men
Are You Lonesome Tonight – Ray Pilgrim’s sings his mum’s
favourite song that was also the Juke Box top play of the time
Stay – a rendition of the doo-wop song that
had just charted for Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs
Many Tears Ago – a current hit for Connie Francis
Walk Right Back – at the time a brand new release by
The Everly Brothers that would top the hit parade at the end of the month
Red Wing – a trad jazz version
First Taste of Love – a new release for Ben E. King
And there
the recording ends without the closing announcement.
Further
off-air recordings of Go Man Go from
21 December 1962 plus some other extracts are on YouTube uploaded by user
HonestArry, who has also written a very informative Wikipedia article. The 2
January 1961 show is also on YouTube from user Bits N Pieces. You can also find
a recording of a 1936 show featuring The Romany Band uploaded by Jonathan
Holmes.
Radio Times billing 2 January 1961
Go Man Go continued on the Light Programme until
its last show on Friday 27 Match 1964, just a day before Radio Caroline sailed
into the airwaves. Similar lunchtime shows continued to be broadcast such as Parade of the Pops (see blog post Back in Time On the Light –Part 1), The Beat
Show and, replacing Go Man Go the
following Friday yet another veteran of the pre-war dance era, The Joe Loss Pop Show.
The Rabin
Band (at this time billed as ‘David Ede and the Rabin Band’) continued to tour
for the next year but tragedy struck the following year. In April 1965 they had
a long-term engagement at the newly opened Blackpool Locarno Ballroom but under
the name of David Ede and his Orchestra. On 25 June it was reported that David
was missing at sea after a 14-foot dinghy capsized in choppy waters off
Blackpool. Also on board was singer Michael Taylor who managed to swim ashore
and raised the alarm; twelve hours later David’s body washed ashore. A month
later the coroner’s verdict recorded “misadventure”. The band continued to
perform at the Locarno under the leadership of trumpeter and deputy bandleader Terry
Reaney, eventually becoming the Terry Reaney Showband and playing at the
Locarno until 1970.
Members of
the Rabin family have show business connections. Of Oscar’s four children two
sons, Ivor and David, were in the music agency business near Cambridge Circus
and both then joined the Mecca Agency after a merger, David as MD and Ivor as
Assistant MD along with Phil Tate. Another son, Bernard, also became an agent
and managed the band following his father’s death, he also managed the
Wimbledon Palais.Bernard’s son Michael
performed as Mike Rabin and the Demons in the late 1960s/early 1970. Meanwhile
David’s daughter Rachel (stagename RAIGN) is a singer, songwriter and producer
who came to fame after appearing on The X
Factor in 2014.
(1) Quoted
in Western Daily Press 11.11.40
(2) Harry’s
daughter Beryl was a singer with the Oscar Rabin Band and she was married to
Peter Potter who would devise and chair the US version of Jukebox Jury
(3) Jerome Kern’s Dancing
Time had been Rabin’s signature tune since 1935
(4) Other singers performing with The Rabin Band, though not
on any radio broadcasts, included Mike Redway and Bernard Manning
(5) Henebery also worked on Saturday Club and produced BBC2’s seminal Jazz 625 series
(6) Monday 13 February 1961 from 1300 to 1345 on the BBC
Light Programme
(7) By coincidence there was a singer called Annabelle Lee
who toured with the Oscar Rabin Band in the 1940s and in the 1950s sang with
the Fraser Hayes Four
This is the first in a short series of posts marking the
launch of the BBC Light Programme 80 years ago.
Questions on
sport are always a part of any general knowledge quiz but radio has, with just
a couple of minor exceptions, pretty much stayed away sports-based quiz shows
for the last 30 years. Meanwhile, on the telly you could watch, at least until
recently, A Question of Sport or A League of their Own, though the BBC
offering had long since strayed from anything approaching a serious quiz and
Sky’s show was likened to A Question of
Sport without sports questions.
From the
1960s through to the 1990s radio regularly posed sports questions in Sporting Chance, Brain of Sport, Games People Play and a pre-tv version of They Thinks It’s All Over. Of more
recent vintage, and those minor exceptions I mentioned above, are a talkSPORT Sports Quiz and even some radio editions
of A Question of Sport, both
broadcast during the Covid pandemic.
In the 1940s
and 50s there were occasional sports quizzes on BBC radio such as the wartime Captain Cuttle’s Sports Quiz during Ack-Ack, Beer-Beer (the magazine for the
Anti-Aircraft, Balloon Barrage and Searchlight Units), youngsters competing in Children’s Hour quizzes or The Younger Generation Under 20 Parade,
this with Rex Alston as question master. The Welsh Home Service put sporting
questions to teams in Sports Forum
(1953-54) and although the Scottish Home Service also broadcast what was billed
as Sport Quiz (1950-52) this turns
out to be a “weekly feature in which experts answer questions on sport put to
them by members of a studio audience”.
Some serious
sports quizzing starts to appear in the autumn of 1957 when Sports Report (Light Programme)
broadcasts an Inter-Regional Quiz; this
pits a team of BBC national sports commentators against regional sports
reporter colleagues. But it was Welsh broadcasting legend and producer Alun
Williams who developed the idea of sports clubs competing in a knockout quiz. Going
out on the Welsh Home Service in late 1957/early 1958 was Top of the League. This saw football supporters clubs talking part
in a Top of the Form fashion, with
the recording made at two venues and the team and a quizmaster at each. Posing
the questions were Alun himself and Ifor Rees. This was followed by another
Welsh Home Service series, again devised by Alun, called Make Your Mark. For the first series in 1958 the slant was towards
the game of rugby with members of rugby clubs answering questions ‘on the laws
of the game, its personalities, their own club and general sport.’ For the second
1959-60 series both rugby and football clubs competed, this time dealing with
‘questions of a general sporting nature’. Joining Alun as question master for Make Your Mark was Cliff Morgan.Cliff also hosted a TV version of the quiz in
1959/60 as part of the weekly Welsh
Sports Parade.
Sporting Chance 24 June 1968
On national
radio the first regular sports quiz was the Light Programme show Sporting Chance (1960-74). The original
chairperson was Brian Johnston and it was devised by Michael Tuke-Hastings (who
later would also come up with the Treble
Chance quiz). Initially an inter-town quiz, later series were also
inter-services and from 1963 invited teams played against a resident team made
up of commentators and sports journalists.Setting the questions was cricketer and scorer Roy Webber who, following
his death in 1962, was succeeded in the role by two more Test Match Special statisticians: Arthur Wrigley and, from 1967, Bill Frindall.
The 1964
series of Sporting Chance had the
resident team of Maurice Edelston, Peter West and Alun Williams playing against
a team of four boys representing a school (with the supposition, no doubt, that
no girls would be interested in sport). Rounds included ‘I’ll Always Remember’
in which well-known sports persons recalls a highlight of their career, a ‘Guess
the Year Round’ and a ‘Spot the Mistake’ in which a commentator makes one
deliberate mistake. The questions were in the main confined to ‘Rugger, Soccer,
Cricket, Athletics, Swimming, Boxing and Lawn Tennis’ but apparently, according
to Frindall, horse racing was ‘‘for some unfathomable reason considered
unsuitable”.
Both Sporting Chance, and Brain of Sport that followed, took their
quizzing seriously probably because both were produced by the Sport and OB department.
Michael Tuke-Hastings was, from 1957 to 1972, the producer of Test Match Special which may explain the
reason he approached cricket scorers to set the questions. Other producers of Sporting Chance included Geoff Dobson
and John Fenton who both directed the Sports
Service on Network Three (later Radio 3) and Sport on 2.
A question from the Brain of Sport 1980 quiz book
Sporting Chance was followed by Brain of Sport (1975-89) with heats and a grand final and questions
split between general and specialist rounds. The programmes were recorded at
sports clubs and social clubs around the country. Again devised by Michael
Tuke-Hastings it was chaired by Peter Jones and this time writing the questions
was Chris Rhys. Chris was a rugby player turned freelance journalist who wrote
over 20 books on sport, including some Brain
of Sport quiz books, and also researched ITV’s response to A Question of Sport, Sporting Triangles. After Tuke-Hastings
stepped aside from production duties it fell to Paul Garside, Patricia Ewing,
Richard Maddock, Caroline Elliott, Joanne Watson, Pat Thornton and Gill
Pulsford.
The 13
champions of Brain of Sport are
listed on the UK Game Shows website and there’s a rare recording of a 1984
edition on the Ye Olde Sports Videos channel on YouTube. There were also
occasional Brain of Sport Challenge
specials were, much like the Sporting
Chance days, finalists would take on three sports commentators
Games People Play (Radio 2 1975-78) was a more
light-hearted affair, produced by Richard Willcox of the Light Entertainment
department, It was billed as testing the knowledge of ‘well-known stars of
entertainment and sport’. So, for instance, on the first show it was Mike and
Bernie Winters, Graham Hill and Bob Wilson. Other appearing in the first series
included Eric Morecambe, Bernard Cribbins, David Hamilton, Pete Murray, Chris
Brasher, Henry Cooper, Graham Hill, Fred Trueman and Barry John. Asking the
questions this time was Peter West.
Before its
went over to BBC1 They Think It’s All
Over enjoyed a short life on BBC Radio 5 (1992-4). It was created by comedy
writers Bill Matthews and Simon Bullivant, both of whom had started writing for
Week Ending. Chairing proceedings was
Des Lynam and as team captains were Rory McGrath, who went on to be a regular
on the TV version, and, getting the opportunity to try out his commentator
impressions, Rory Bremner.
From the second series comes this edition that was broadcast on Radio 5 on 21 February 1993, though my recording is of the Radio 4 repeat on 17 July. Des gets the first big laugh of the show with “Meet a man whose rich vocal talents are adored by millions. (short pause) Good evening”. The guest players in this edition are Steve Davis and Roger Black.
Which brings
me to Game, Set and Match and yet
another series with Chris Rhys setting the questions. If this one usually slips
under the sports quiz radar that’s because it aired on the BBC World Service.
Chairing this was World Service sports stalwart Paddy Feeny (so I find myself
writing about Paddy for the second time this year). I’ve little information
about the programme other than it ran for 20 editions over three series in
1993, 1994 and 1995. This recording comes from the third series (I can’t date
it precisely) and facing the questions are hurdler Kriss Akabusi (you’ll
recognise the laugh), hockey player Simon Mason, rower Steve Redgrave and
squash player Peter Nicol. Keeping the score is Louise Friend, extracts are
read by announcer John Stone and the producer is Gillian Grey.
Game, Set and Match
Series 1: 7
episodes August and September 1993
Series 2: 6
episodes August and September 1994
Series 3: 7
episodes in April and May 1995.
Sporting Chance with Brian Johnston, then John
Snagge, John Arlott , Alun Williams, Max Robertson and Peter Jones . BBC Light
Programme (with repeats on the Sports
Service of Network Three) and BBC Radio2 from 16 January 1960 to 16 June
1969 over 10 series. It returned as Quiz
on 2 as part of Sport on 2
November 1973 to January 1974 with Peter Jones as questionmaster. Reverted back
to Sporting Chance November to
December 1974 again with Peter Jones and again during Saturday afternoon’s Sport on 2.
Brain of Sport with Peter Jones. BBC Radio 2
November 1975 to December 1989 over 13 series. The first series was broadcast
as part of Sport on 2.
Games People Play chaired by Peter West. 39 programmes
over four series on BBC Radio 2 between 4 September 1975 and 22 September 1978.
They Think It’s All
Over with
Desmond Lynam and team captains Rory Bremner and Rory McGrath. BBC Radio 5 6
episodes 21 February to 27 March 1992 then 8 episodes 14 February to 4 April
1993 plus two Christmas specials with guests Brian Johnston and John Motson
December 1993/January 1994.
talkSPORT Sports Quiz March to September 2020 with Darren
Bent and Laura Woods or Faye Carruthers or Lynsay Hipgrave
A Question of Sport with Mark Chapman, Matt Dawson and
Phil Tufnell 4 April to 13 June 2020 plus 24 December 2020.
If you have
any recordings of the other quizzes I’ve mentioned that you’d like to donate
I’d love to hear from you. Also if you happen to have any copies of London Calling orBBC Worldwide from the mid-90s please do get in touch.
And the answers to the Brain of Sport 'Who are they?' questions are: Sebastian Coe, Hallamshire Harriers, Alberto Jantuorena (Cuba) and Zurich