Radio Lives - Teddy Johnson

Who presented the first British chart show on the radio? Before you all shout out Alan Freeman or David Jacobs, I'm talking about the late 1940s and a certain DJ on Radio Luxembourg.

Teddy Johnson is perhaps best remembered - for those with long enough memories - as the one half of the husband and wife singing duo ' Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson'. At the height of their fame in the 1950s they made regular appearances on TV and radio and, in 1959, represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest with that annoyingly catchy little ditty, Sing Little Birdie.

By the time Teddy made his first UK broadcast in 1944, singing with Jack Payne and his Orchestra, he'd already been performing for ten years as a drummer and vocalist with assorted dance bands. After the war he decided to go freelance and chance his arm as a singer/comedian. On the recommendation of a friend it was suggested he contact Frank Lee, at the time Head of the English Service of Radio Luxembourg at their London offices in Davis Street. Teddy was told to report to the IBC studios for a voice test and that same afternoon received a phone call asking if he'd like to take a trip over to the Grand Duchy and have a try-out. He was on-air the following weekend, playing mostly Geraldo records alongside station boss Geoffrey Everitt. He was immediately given a full-time job - starting on 20 May 1948 - broadcasting each night of the week, apart from Friday, and on Sunday afternoons with Everitt.

The scarcity of announcers at the post-war station (aside from the pre-recorded programmes shipped over from London) meant that Teddy was forced to appear under more than one name; an approach also adopted by Pete Murray (one wonders if listeners were really fooled by this) at a time when the station's schedule was packed with 15 or 30 minute shows. So his first programmes might be something like Topical Half Hour introduced by Teddy Johnson followed by the famous Luxembourg gong and then back on Music for Everyone with E. Victor Johnson and later Irish Half Hour with Edward V Johnson.   

Around late 1948 or early 1949, no-one is exactly sure when, Geoffrey Everitt came up with the idea of a weekly Sunday night programme playing music based on the sales of sheet music. The rundown was in reverse order, from twenty to one. As it was likely that the same song could've been recorded by more than one artist they had alternative versions to play. These early shows established a format that exists to this day, one picked up by the BBC, as Pick of the Pops in 1955.

Teddy's stay at Luxembourg was brief, he left the station in 1950 as he was itching to get back to singing, releasing records such as Beloved Be Faithful and Tennessee Waltz. As a performer he regularly appeared on BBC radio in the early 50s on shows such as Stanley Black's Black Magic singing alongside Pearl Carr - they met for the first time whilst recording this show and married in 1955 - and Diana Coupland (long before her Bless This House days).   

He was back DJ-ing in 1951 on Housewives' Choice. The whole show had to be scripted and Teddy worked on it to ensure that it maintained the conversational style he'd adopted in the Grand Duchy. However, part-way through the  week was out he was summoned into a meeting in which his script was excised of "everything in them which was me." After his Saturday show he was told that they hadn't liked what he'd done. It was eleven years before he was back in Broadcasting House.

Despite the lack of faith from Anna Instone, the head of the Gramophone Department, Teddy continued to broadcast as a band singer for both the Home Service and Light Programme on Sweet Music, Melody from the Stars, Variety Bandbox, Showtime, Variety Matinee and Worker's Playtime. 

Teddy & Pearl billed as guest stars on Winifred Atwell's
ITV show on 19 May 1956 

The diary was also filling up with TV appearances; Teddy's first programme for the BBC was in 1953 - again singing with Pearl - and they were both regulars on Crackerjack (1957-60), The Ted Ray Show (1958-59). Over on the new commercial channel Teddy and Pearl appeared with the ivory-tinkling Winifred Atwell (1956) and later on The Arthur Haynes Show (1960) whilst Teddy was the host of ATV's  Music Shop (1958-60).

That Eurovision hit Sing Little Birdie came in March 1959 after an exuberant performance at the contest in Cannes secured them a second place. They were also in the running the following year when they took part in the heats but in the event it was Teddy's brother Bryan who represented the UK with Looking High, High, High - it also came second.

Let's Face the Music - a Light Programme series
promoted by this Radio Times article 28 October 1965

Even though Teddy was no longer on the staff at Radio Luxembourg he continued to record programmes for the station: Tune Into Teddy, The Winifred Atwell Show and Meet Mr and Mrs Music in the mid-50s and appearing with Pearl in the 60s on The Postal Bingo Show. Meanwhile by 1962 he was back in favour with the BBC with another stint on Housewives' Choice, regular guest appearances (with Pearl) on Benny Hill Time and Harry Worth as well as their own star vehicle Let's Face the Music.  Teddy also had acting roles in a number of  series penned by the Scottish thriller writer Edward Boyd. Steve Gardner Investigates, the story of a singer turned private eye was heard only by listeners to the Scottish Home Service in the 1950s but later series were broadcast  nationwide on the Home Service and then Radio 4: The Candle of Darkness (1967), Enough Fingers to Make a Hand (1968) and The Wolf Far Hence (1971). The Candle of Darkness is being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra this week.

By the early 1970s Teddy was a regular in The Ken Dodd Show and, for eighteen months from October 1972, became the afternoon DJ on BBC Radio 2. Even when that stint finished in March 1974 he presented plenty of other programmes for the station: The Song Stylists (1973-4) and The Vocal Touch (1974), both written by former record producer Ken Barnes, The All-Time Hit Parade (1975-6) with singers Rosemary Squires and Nick Curtis and introducing the big bad sounds of Syd Lawrence and his Orchestra (1976). He was back spinning the discs and reading the dedications on a Saturday mid-morning show between October and December 1977.

Pictured in the Radio Times for Teddy Johnson's 78 Show
15 April 1988

During the 1980s and early 1990s Teddy's radio appearances were mainly deputising for holidaying DJs: David Jacobs, Ken Bruce, Desmond Carrington and Alan Dell, though there were two music nostalgia series, The Music Goes Round and Round at 78rpm (1987) and Teddy Johnson's 78 Show (1988). Teddy's broadcasting voice was warm and relaxed as evidenced by this clip from Radio 2's Sunday afternoon show Sounds Easy from 1992.

Even when Teddy's recording career dried up in the early 1960s, his light crooning style was out of fashion, both he and Pearl continued performing in variety, panto and musicals until well into the 1980s. Teddy was last heard on the radio in 2011 as a guest of Desmond Carrington in his series Icons of the 50s. Here are extracts of those interviews.

In 2016 David Lloyd spoke to Teddy (and Pearl) - audio posted here on Audioboom.

Teddy and Pearl lived out their latter years at Brinsworth House, the retirement home run by the Royal Variety Charity. Teddy's death was announced this week.

Teddy Johnson 1920-2018

Radio Lives - Paul Hollingdale

The recording of his voice will be played again this September. "This is Radio 2, the Light Programme". It was a moment in radio history of which he was justly proud. He was to make something of a career out of launching radio stations - later came Radio 210, Blue Danube Radio and Vienna International Radio. The voice is that of Paul Hollingdale whose death, at the age of 83, was announced this week.

Paul was born in Brighton in 1938. I can find nothing about his early upbringing or education other than the fact that as a lad he appeared as an extra in the 1947 film release of, aptly enough, Brighton Rock.

His National Service was in the RAF and he was eventually posted to RAF Wahn in Germany, fairly close to the headquarters of the British Forces Network in Cologne. He was keen to get into radio and after helping out in the gramophone library was offered the chance to produce a Latin American dance programme. Soon after he was in front of the microphone as one of the BFN's team of announcers looking after the early morning show Musical Clock. His passion was the cinema, perhaps spurred by that early dalliance with filming in Brighton, and he used to broadcast film programmes whilst with the BFN. It was in 1959 that he made his first appearance on the BBC as the host of the German leg of Two-Way Family Favourites.

Back in the UK in 1960 Paul was looking for work when he met up with Canadian DJ Doug Stanley, who'd also appeared on BFN Cologne. Stanley had set up the grandly named Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company Ltd - "your friendly host of the Dutch coast" - an English speaking pirate radio station based on Radio Veronica's ship the MV Borkum Rift. Paul, who by now has also found work in the London studios of  Radio Luxembourg on the Phillips sponsored The Six O'Clock Record Show, joined CNBC from autumn 1960 and stayed there to the summer of 1961.        

In late 1961 Paul was back on dry land working freelance both for the BBC on shows Teenagers' Turn, Playtime and Things are Swingin' as well as appearing on Radio Luxembourg as one of the announcers out in the Grand Duchy on shows such as The Big 'O' Show sponsored by Oriole Records.    

At this point I'll let Paul take up the story: "I had been working for Radio Luxembourg since the early sixties, either as a London based DJ presenting sponsored shows, or living as a resident on the Grand Duchy.  I was in fact there for two and a half years.  At Easter in April 1964 I travelled to Amsterdam with another DJ, a friend called Don Wardell, as we had heard that Radio Caroline was being launched that weekend. Because the signal would be inaudible, we decided on Holland because it was near the coast. We heard the first broadcast with Simon Dee and I told Don, that in my opinion, this launch would change the whole history of UK Radio. During the Summer we heard the impact that Caroline was having, and I made a decision to leave 208 and return to London in September of that year.  I heard that the BBC were looking for contract announcers and I applied and got a job".

Having joined the Presentation team, working for Andrew Timothy, he would do the usual rounds of news bulletins, continuity announcements, concert introductions and gramophone record shows like Morning Music, Delaney's Delight, Mack is Back, Swing Into Summer, Stay Late and the first editions of Nord-Ring.

Here's Paul again: "One of my first hurdles was to handle the death of Churchill which I announced with all the protocol that went with that on that Sunday morning in January 1965. Andrew Timothy told me that I would have to be de-luxembourgised  and I was directed to listen to various announcers like Colin Doran, Frank Phillips and Tim Gudgin.

Because of my versatility, during the next couple of years I was put to work presenting an eclectic mix of series like Music in the Peter York Manner and Mack is Back, a big band show with the then very popular Ken MacIntosh and his Orchestra broadcast from the Playhouse Theatre down by the Thames embankment. There were others like occasional programmes on the then Home Service with such groups as the Novelairs directed by Edward Rubach.  I was also involved in Nord-Ring, where I presented various light music concerts travelling around Europe which were aired on the Light Programme. In between all of that, I was a newsreader on Radio Newsreel and did occasional shows for the World Service.

I then began working with (producer) Doreen Davies on the show Swing Into Summer - a three hour afternoon segment. In fact I was used at every opportunity and from 1964 to the start of Radio 2 in 67 - I probably presented more shows than anyone else.  The reason for this was that many of the older brigade of announcers like Frank Phillips, Alvar Liddell, John Snagge, John Webster etc. couldn't quite believe that changes were in the air and so they didn't want to involve themselves and weren't in tune with the trends in pop music at that time. Apart from that they were all coming into the final furlong of their careers at the Beeb.

By 1965  the long running Morning Music sequence, which was un-announced except for time checks, news and weather, was in need of a change and Breakfast Special came in being. So some of the 'Light' announcers such John Roberts, Peter Latham, John Dunn and myself were given the show to  present on a turnabout basis.  It was then they decided to introduce a limited amount of 'needletime' into the shows -  one disc every fifteen minutes. And there were inserts of vocals from  groups like The Settlers, The Peter King Chorale, Lois Lane etc".

In September 1967 came that famous opening announcement, Controller Robin Scott having chosen Paul for the task. If the usual Saturday morning pattern had been followed that would have fallen to Bruce Wyndham.

Paul continued to appear on Radio 2's Breakfast Special, presenting his final show on Friday 2 January 1970. Remarkably an off-air recording exists of that show. "Hello and good morning everyone. This is yours truly Paul Hollingdale here for the very last time..."

No reason was given for Paul's departure but in 2012 he candidly told me what had occurred backstage and I hope that he wouldn't mind me repeating the story: "I have never mentioned this before but my departure was very curious.  The then Controller of the Network, Douglas Muggeridge, didn't particularly like me on the air, despite the fact that I was very popular with the listeners.  One day I was called to his office to say that I would be coming off Breakfast Special and that was it.  As there was no explanation - I told him that I wouldn't mind returning to announcer duties - but he was emphatic he wanted me out of the building. I had no confrontation with the man.  I hardly knew him as he was tucked away in his office most of the time together with all the other 'suits.'  My departure created a lot of problems at the time as there was no-where else to go.  I have to tell you that I felt a lot of anguish at the time of my leaving, as I had given every hour of my life to the station, even taking up residence In Hallam Street adjacent to Broadcasting House".

In the event Paul headed back to his home town of Brighton, for a while working freelance on BBC Radio Brighton and also meeting up with local singer Johnny Wakelin whom he ended up managing for a few years.

Regular radio work beckoned again when Radio 210 opened in Reading in early 1976, again Paul was the first voice on-air, or strictly speaking the first DJ, if you count Arthur Lowe's appearance as Captain Mainwaring. Paul recalled that "210 started very middle of the road. That didn't last long and a few months later we were playing Top 40 stuff."

In 1979 Paul helped found and launched the English-speaking service from ORF, the Austrian state broadcaster, Blue Danube Radio. Initially he would split his time between Vienna and the UK but eventually his beloved Vienna would become his home for many years. During the 1980s and 90s he was also heard on Chiltern Radio (audio here), presented film programmes and reviews on LBC, Radio Luxembourg and Sky TV and was part of the launch line-up for Country 1035.

Blue Danube Radio closed in 2000 but Paul continued to work for ORF and other companies such as Inflight Productions. In September 2007 he made a one-off return to the BBC for Radio 2's 40th anniversary to recall his role in the start of the network. (audio here) In October 2012 he launched his final radio project, an English-speaking news and music station, Vienna International Radio. Here's Paul on VIR on 14 November 2013.

In recent months Paul gave an extensive interview about the Light Programme and Radio 2 for inclusion in a couple of documentaries produced by Made in Manchester that are to air on Radio 2 this autumn. Ever the radio professional, whilst in his hospital bed he continued to record reports for Vienna International Radio. He died of cancer on the morning of 5 July.

Paul Trevor Anthony Hollingdale 1934-2017

I never met Paul but from 2012 onwards we had an email correspondence about his radio career and he was always more than willing to help me with my research for the blog. On occasions I was able to provide him with copies of some of his old shows and he was grateful for being reunited with his earlier self. He once told me that "I always enjoy your gems from the past. I think most people in radio in the UK think I have retired to Eastbourne and residing in the Home for the Bewildered DJs.  How wrong they are". I was saddened to hear of his death and I hope that this tribute goes some way to providing a more complete picture of the career of  a broadcaster whose role in radio history is assured.  

Radio Lives - Desmond Carrington

Few radio shows feature both Al Bowlly and ZZ Top on their playlist, but Desmond Carrington's The Music Goes Round was such a show, a Radio 2 Friday night fixture for twelve years. Prior to that Desmond had hosted the Sunday lunchtime All Time Greats from 1981 to 2004 with a music selection, chosen by listeners, that could be equally diverse, even though it did tend to veer towards easy listening and the nostalgic. That 36 year run of weekly music shows finally came to a dignified and poignant end in October 2016 when ill-health forced Desmond to finally hung up his headphones.

Desmond Herbert Carrington was born and raised in Bromley where he attended the County Grammar School. Perhaps sensing that his future was in the arts his first job was as an office boy at Macmillan's the publishers for 18/- a week. But his calling was acting and his first professional role was as a Cockney schoolboy in Goodbye Mr Chips at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. He then secured regular repertory work with the Penge Court Players.       

In the early years of the Second World War Desmond joined the army, serving in the Royal West Kent Regiment, initially posted to Northern Ireland before serving out in India and Burma. Here he got his first opportunity to broadcast by opening up Rangoon Radio after the Japanese army had left. By 1946 he was serving as a commissioned officer out of Colombo in Ceylon and managed to wangle a job at the new forces station Radio SEAC (South Eastern Asia Command). Based in a palm grove some 15 miles outside Colombo the  coverage was immense, taking in India, East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Indo-Chine, Japan, the Pacific and the west coast of the States. On the team with Carrington were David Jacobs - they would remain firm friends thereafter - McDonald Hobley, Charles Chilton and Alexander Moyes.

On demob Desmond knocked on the door of the BBC but they sent him away telling him that he was not of "sufficient promise" for them to offer him a job. However he would eventually secure a post as part of the BBC Drama Repertory company where he worked across a range of schools broadcasts and drama productions such as Children's Hour, Paul Temple and Mrs Dales Diary.    

In parallel to his acting career Desmond pursued his other great passion of cinema by carving out something of a specialism as an adapter of film screenplays for radio broadcast. He'd presented some film programmes on Radio SEAC and back in Britain he'd come up with the idea of recording the soundtrack from the film projector using a sound mirror and a tape recorder. With the agreement of the film companies he then used the edited highlights from the recording to form a radio programme. He took the idea to both Radio Luxembourg where the scenes would be linked together by Wilfrid Thomas in a series titled Movie Magazine. Later Desmond himself would present a number of shows for the station that included film soundtracks as well as interviews and film scores in programmes such as Hollywood Calling and the sponsored Alka-Seltzer Movie Parade. He continued to appear on Luxembourg into the mid-50s.

Meanwhile back at the BBC that same idea of film adaptations were featured in a number of programmes including Picture Parade (1948) and Sunday Cinema (1949-50). Desmond returned to cinema related work at the BBC when he and Spencer Hale (both pictured below) compiled and presented the Stargazing segment -basically star interviews with accompanying film clips - and then the quiz segment Sounds Familiar of the long-running film magazine Merry- Go-Round (Light Programme 1956-60)

Embed from Getty Images

Desmond's big break finally came in 1958 when he got a telephone call from a colleague who was now producing Emergency Ward Ten asking if he'd like to play the part of the son of a patient. Desmond leapt at the chance to do some live television over three months. His performance was deemed a success and he was invited back to play the part of a doctor - the part of Dr Chris Anderson. He remained in the show until 1964 appearing in over 200 episodes.

Of his time on Emergency Ward 10 Desmond would later recall the problems of having to memorise "some appallingly difficult and long medical terms, Then  I had the bright idea of writing them on the inside of the sink as we were always scrubbing up for the operations on the shows. During rehearsal, it worked fine, as there was no running water in the sinks. When it came to the live transmission I watched in horror as my medical terms were washed away as I started to scrub up. There was nothing for it but to improvise".

Ironically it was Desmond's TV fame that led to his future career as a disc jockey. In 1962 he was invited to compere Housewives' Choice for a fortnight whilst he was still appearing as Dr Anderson and, as the Radio Times billing adds, also appearing on stage in Doctor in the House at Streatham Hill Theatre. He got repeat bookings on Housewives' Choice for the remainder of its run between 1963 and 1967. In 1963 he was playing music from stage and screen on the Light Programme's Twelve O'Clock Spin. For the second half of 1964 it was more songs from the musicals in Record Showtime with the Radio Times billing helpfully informing us that he was appearing in Wanted on Voyage at the Grand Theatre, Leeds - by now he'd just left Emergency Ward 10. The following year it was a back to the world of film in Music from the Movies, a series scripted by Movie-Go-Round's Peter Haigh and produced by announcer Robin Boyle (a second series, produced by Tony Luke followed in 1966). And, in case you were wondering, Des was now in Face to Face at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.     

Throughout 1966 Desmond could be heard every weekend hosting Open House with "records of assorted speeds, sizes, and styles to suit people with assorted tastes". In 1967 he was back with more Music from the Movies, this time working with the future radio comedy producer Richard Willcox. There seemed to be no room for Desmond on Radio 2 when it replaced the Light in September 1967 but in 1968 he was back adapting film soundtracks with Spencer Hale for Radio 4's Disney Time that included Mary Poppins, Dumbo and Bambi. Finally, from December 1968, and running until September 1972, Desmond had a daily show on Radio 2 playing the latest releases in Album Time. Aside from three appearances in charge of After Seven in 1973 there was radio silence for the next eight years.  

Desmond was invited back into the Radio 2 fold in early 1981 to introduce a series of shows featuring The Magic of Stanley Black (other programmes would also feature Mantovani, Ronnie Aldrich and Robert Farnon, John Gregory, Geoff Love and John Fox). He owed his return to producer Paul Walters who, Paul reminded him on their first meeting, had swung the boom on some of those old Emergency Ward 10 broadcasts at the ATV's Highbury studios.

The success of the Magic of... shows led to an invitation to present the Sunday morning All Time Greats. Desmond expected it to run for a month or so but after the first recording producer Jack Dabbs told him, "well that's your pension, Desmond". He was right, it ran for 23 years!

In October 2011 Desmond gave listeners to The Music Goes Round and Round an opportunity to hear again the first edition of All Time Greats. Although the BBC hadn't kept a copy, Desmond had.

Initially just an hour in duration, All Time Greats was extended to 90 minutes and then two, and for a while three, hours and settled into what was more or less the old Family Favourites slot. It was a record request show too so anything went, but as Desmond told the Radio Times in October 1985, the music choice was often vintage:

"It's the listeners' programme, not mine. They choose the records". He gets about 500 suggestions a week requesting favourites pieces and reckons some 6,000 records have been chosen by Radio 2 listeners over the past four years. "Some people misquote the title as Old-Time Greats but it's certainly not that. We can play records right up to the present day, though I admit that most requests are for music from the 50s backwards. Most requested record? Without a doubt Glen Miller's Moonlight Serenade. Bunny Berigan's I can't get started is a close second.

Still acting in the late 80s as evidenced by
this Radio Times article  17 January 1987

In August 2004 network controller Lesley Douglas decided to have a re-shuffle and the Sunday lunchtime All Time Greats came to an end. In this broadcast from 8 August 2004 Des tells his listeners that the decision was not his, "and I should like to make that clear".

In 1995 Dave Alyott and Desmond formed Foldback Media to
produce the shows for the BBC

The follow-up series, The Music Goes Round, now on a Tuesday evening, was the same eclectic mix condensed into an hour with each show adopting a theme for all or part of that hour. Come April 2010 Desmond moved to Friday nights where he remained until last year. For many years he'd been broadcasting from his home studio but by now the show's opening was always the memorable "Evening all from home in Perthshire, Scotland". Home being near Dunning where he lived with producer and long-time partner Dave Aylott and, often curled up at Des's feet during the show, cat Golden Paws Sam.

In 2013 Desmond spoke to Tim Blackmore about his radio career in a Radio Talk podcast for the Radio Academy.

In May 2016 Desmond celebrated his 90th birthday with this special edition of The Music Goes Round.

Golden Paws Sam taking it easy

What listeners didn't know. and for a while neither did Radio 2 management, was that Desmond's health was failing as he was battling with cancer and Alzheimer's disease. In December 2015 he'd suffered a second heart failure but was back at the microphone a few days later. However in October 2016 he announced that after 70 years on the air he was reluctantly having to "hang up my headphones" and say "enough is enough". Here is that final show from 28 October.

Yesterday, on the day Radio 2 had already scheduled a tribute to Desmond, it was announced that he'd died. The voice of a true radio all time great silenced.

Desmond Carrington 1926-2017 Bye just now

Radio Lives - Jimmy Young

From The Man from Laramie and "What's the recipe today, Jim?" to the Grand Inquisitor of the Great and the Good and the consumer's champion. Jimmy Young's sixty year career moved from 50s crooner to one of the UK's best-known broadcasters. Surprisingly JY was offered a prime mid-morning slot amongst all the bright young things and homecoming former pirates when Radio 1 was launched in 1967. Soon becoming the housewives favourite,  his show was a jolly mix of records and chat but is perhaps best remembered for those daily recipes, "Let's Hear about Home Cooking" jingle and the voice of Raymondo.  All those elements transferred to Radio 2 in 1973 but the show gradually morphed into a mix of current affairs and consumer advice interspersed with music.  How did all this happen? Well first it's back to the beginning. "'Orft we jolly well go..."

Leslie Ronald Young was born on 21 September 1921 in Cinderford in Gloucestershire's Forest of Dean where his father, an ex-miner, and his uncle ran a successful bakers and confectioners business.  He never lost that Gloucestershire accent. He later admitted: "It's a nice soft burr that sounds warm and friendly. It's easy on the ear, and I have no doubt it's been an enormous asset for me in my broadcasting career".

"Our Jim" - for some reason his family never called him Leslie - was mad about music and he dreamed of a musical career. Both parents sang in choirs and his mother also taught piano and organ.  However, Jim's ambitions had to be put on hold as he was helping his father mixing the dough and driving the delivery van. When war was declared in 1939 he joined the RAF, though he was never pilot material. Eventually he saw service in India and Pakistan and managed to get his first taste of showbusiness taking part in the concert parties - presumably something not too dissimilar from It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

After the war Jimmy married his first wife Wendy Wilkinson - though the marriage was short-lived - and was employed firstly managing his brother-in-law's hairdressing salon and then as a civil servant at the Ministry of Education.  Still pursuing his musical ambitions, in 1948 he passed a BBC audition though the verdict was tempered with "it now remains to be seen whether you can be used in broadcasts". He wasn't, at least not for another year.

1949 proved more eventful. First Jimmy received a phone call from pianist Bill Williams asking him to stand in for him, leading to regular gigs at the Nordic Club. Secondly, performing at the nightclub he was spotted by BBC producer George Inns - later of The Black and White Minstrel Show fame - who recommended him to the Variety Department. Jimmy's first radio broadcast was on 9 August singing with the Ronnie Pleydell Orchestra. Further broadcasts  followed in Stars of Tomorrow and Look Who's Here and with Ray Martin and his Orchestra. He returned with Ronnie Pleydell in 1950 in Moonlight Reverie.  It was whilst appearing with Ray Martin that Jimmy met female vocalist Sally Douglas; she would become his second wife in a marriage lasting just six years. He met his third wife, Alicia Padstow, in the early 70s when she was working as a secretary at Broadcasting House. Together for many years they eventually married in 1996. 

On the recording front Jimmy was signed to Alan Freeman's Polygon label (that's the record producer not 'Fluff') alongside Ray Martin and Petula Clark. He cut his first disc Too Young - it was almost as if it'd been written for him. In the era of multiple recordings of the same song his performance was up against Nat King Cole and Steve Conway but there were no record charts in 1951 to show who was on top, though the sheet music hit number one.

Back at the BBC Jimmy continued to appear in the early 50s as the guest singer on many radio shows on both the Light Programme and Home Service. The list is long but includes Variety Bandbox, Variety Matinee, Workers' Playtime, The Memory Lingers On, A Midday Date, Enchanted Rhythm, Treble Chance, The Song Shop, The Show Band Show and Take It Easy. He also a DJ on Flat Spin (1953), appeared on BBC TV in How Do You View? and Off the Record and got main billing on the Light Programme's The Jimmy Young Show (1954).

Away from the radio Jimmy was continuing to appear in cabaret and on theatre tours and eventually left Polygon and signed with Decca. In 1955 he hit pay dirt with two records that made it to the top of the Hit Parade: Unchained Melody and The Man from Laramie. This time his version of Unchained Melody was definitely the best-selling; the version by Al Hibbler reached number 2 and Les Baxter's peaked at number 10.  Al Martino's rendition of The Man from Laramie made it to number 19. The NME's top-selling artists of 1955 listed Ruby Murray at number one with our Jim coming in second.

Those hit records led to Jimmy's first booking on Housewives' Choice in October 1955 - aside from established broadcasters this was a contract often offered to popular singers and actors who could cut it behind the microphone. 

In the second half of the 1950s Jimmy's radio appearances were less frequent but now he was at least getting top billing in The Song's the Thing and The Night is Young which enjoyed a short TV series and then a longer Light Programme run. 

Jimmy always credits his big break into radio as a presenter rather than mainly host and singer to a June 1960 re-booking on Housewive's Choice. "Before I'd even finished the first week my phone began to ring with offers of work".

Within a couple of months Jimmy was appearing on EMI sponsored show for Radio Luxembourg. He continued to work for the station until early 1968, programmes included The Night is Young (there's that title again), The Jimmy Young Hour, Record Romance and Like Young. Many of those EMI shows were produced by Harry Walters and then Ken Evans, both of whom would later produce The JY Prog on Radio 2.

Meanwhile Jimmy was very busy at the BBC with a ton of radio work including Time for Old Time (1960-61), Twelve O'Clock Spin (1960-63), Records Around Five (1961), Stringalong (1961), Younger than Springtime (1961-62), Teenager's Turn (1961), and, appearing with the Johnny Pearson Orchestra on Once in a While (1962-63) and In a Sentimental Mood (1963). On BBC TV he popped up on Juke Box Jury and in 1963 hosted the new talent show The 625 Show (it went out at 6.25 pm on Tuesday evenings). Over on ITV Jimmy appeared on Spin-a-Disc feature that was part of ABC's Saturday night music show Thank Your Lucky Stars (1961-64). 

Here's an extract from JY's Light Programme work introducing music from Johnny Pearson and singing the occasional song on In a Sentimental Mood. (With thanks to Peter Preston) 

Starting in December 1963 and running through to April 1964 was Jimmy's first unscripted radio work on Saturday Special. This Saturday afternoon mix of music, features (including Barry Bucknall's DIY tips) and live sports coverage was described by the Radio Times thus: "His job is to line up offbeat facts and fancies of the weekend from our regional correspondents, keep his ears glued to the line between us and BBC Sportsroom and cue the music of the Northern variety Orchestra and vocal stars on record".

Jimmy's next major radio project was Through Till Two (1964-65). This was a late night show occupying the four  hours either side of midnight, the first couple of hours in the company of Jimmy and the second with Steve Race. When Steve suffered a heart attack Jimmy looked after the full programme. Through Till Two was an interactive record request show. Unbelievably they had up to sixty operators answering calls who then typed up listeners' requests onto slips of paper that were passed through to the producer Geoffrey Hayden. Once he'd selected the next track from the requests someone would run into the nearby record library and pull out the disc for playing into the show.  Jimmy recalls that TTT was "an enormous success. In fact we achieved the highest-ever listening figures for a late-night radio programme."  

For the remainder of the Light Programme's life Jimmy was also presenting a 10 a.m. music show once a week (1965-67) introducing various musical acts and singing the odd song himself. In 1966 he joined the roster of DJs on Midday Spin (1966-67).

There's that famous 1967 photo of the Radio 1 DJs sitting on the steps of the steps of All Soul's Church. And who's the oldest of that swinging groovy group? Well apart from controller Robin Scott it's our Jim. On the launch schedule he was offered a plum mid-morning role each weekday in which he "plays discs, greets guests, sings songs, phones people."  Scott secured Jimmy for the slot as he wanted a safe pair of hands that would bring in an audience. Going out between 10 a.m. and noon, with the first hour simulcast on Radio 2, it was, by 1969, bringing in an audience of 5.75 million, outstripping all other weekday programmes including Tony Blackburn's breakfast show on 4.45 million.

The best remembered feature of those early Radio 1 years is the daily  recipe, the idea of JY's formidable producer and show editor Doreen Davies. The recipes were sent in by listeners and any selected had to meet the criteria that they used readily available ingredients and were easy to prepare. Doreen would road test the broadcast recipes at home, presumably trying them out on her husband, fellow producer Derek Mills.  In time the feature was introduced by the speeded up voice of producer Ray Harvey, as a character known as Raymondo, asking "What's the recipe today, Jim?" It also spawned four Jimmy Young cookbooks. Added to the mix Jimmy would occasionally burst into song himself and the show was interspersed with his bizarre panoply of verbal mannerisms: "TTT - through 'til twelve", "Orft we jolly well go", "MMMMFs - many millions of mid-morning friends" and, of course, his sign-off "BFN - bye for now". (And not TTFN as widely quoted online last week). 

Here's a taste of how those Radio 1 shows sounded.   

In July 1973 The JY Prog was moved from Radio 1 over to Radio 2, where it stayed for the next 29 years. The Town Talk theme and daily recipe slot transferred too - it was eventually dropped in 1981 - but the show's sound soon started to go off in a slightly different direction. In the early days the team would pick up on consumer issues - those that would directly affect his audience - and his first interview in 1973 was with Geoffrey Howe, the Minister for Trade and Consumer Affairs.

Back in his  Radio 1 days Jimmy had already shown that current affairs and music could mix in a series of shows broadcast from around Europe in the run-up to Britain's entry into the EEC. But increasingly Jim was interviewing politicians and experts on his Radio 2 show - sometimes much to the annoyance of his news and current affairs colleagues. Over time he developed an interviewing technique designed to put the interviewee at ease - he always used first names for instance - but always calmly and persistently asking the kind of questions that his listeners would wish to ask. There was no attempt to be clever or engage in point scoring, he always listened and responded to the answer. This was the period he moved away from the role of DJ to that of presenter and interviewer. Here are some show highlights with clips from a number of mainly political interviews.   

Cover star in March 1983 

It wasn't just politics of course. There were a regular panel of experts that Jimmy would invite into the studio to answer listeners' queries or problems. On medical matters were doctors Mike Smith, Bill Dolman, Gillian Rice and Mark Porter. Fielding legal issues were 'Legal Beagle' Bill Thomas and 'Legal Eagle' Andrew Phillips. Every Thursday Tony D'Angeli, editor of The Grocer, would talk about the latest food prices and tackle questions on the availability of products, food safety or whatever. Over the years others experts included gardener Daphne Ledward 'Daffers', on antiques Eric Knowles and vet Bruce Fogle. Between 1974 and 2001 Jimmy would also present Radio 2's General Election coverage and from 1981 on Budget days there would be afternoon specials with economic expert Dominic Harrod usually on hand. 

Interaction with 'the listener ' became increasingly important but they were never put on-air, there were no phone-ins. This stance at least helped things zip along. Jimmy explained:  "My producer would rush into my studio and hurl handfuls of paper at me, I would then select the most interesting, entertaining and controversial and read them out. By making the final one the most outrageous I ensured a further deluge. Comment fuelled further comment and kept the programme rattling along. "

  

In October 1981 Jimmy spoke to the Radio Times about his show: "Why interviews work so well is, he thinks, because he can shift away from his subject if the talk bogs down, to play music, then return to a relaxed aspect of conversation".  And on the subject of radio: "It's terribly important. So many people just cannot communicate and for them I've managed to open an area that was closed; the current affairs people were just a little bit elitist, saying in effect 'This is not for you; don't bother your head about it'. "

For many Radio 2 listeners one of the daily highlights was when Jimmy popped into Terry Wogan's studio to plug his show and participate in a bit of verbal thrust and parry. Tel wrote this in Banjaxed: "Sometimes, of a morning, I feel a surge of pity as the nurse wheels the grand old broadcaster into my studio in his bath-chair, and after wetting his dry, cracked lips with a sponge, we get a few weak, rambling sentences from him. Often the cry goes up 'Nurse! The screens!' But it's usually too late. Hard to believe that this shattered husk was once the Singing Baker's Boy, The Man from Laramie, the one who was Too Young, the Donny Osmond of his day".  

I've posted these clips of Tel and Jimbo before, they date from 1978 and 1980.

In an era of seemingly generous BBC budgets the programme would occasionally undertake OBs from around the UK and around the globe. The first major expedition was to Moscow in 1977 - the JY Progski - the first live BBC broadcast from beyond the Iron Curtain. Other overseas broadcasts come from around Europe, Egypt, Israel, the States, Japan, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Zimbabwe.

In the 1980s the JY Prog came from Glasgow, Tokyo, Hong King
and Australia 

The only time I ever saw JY was when I was on holiday in Devon in the summer of 1978 where, for no particular reason, he presented the show from the quarter deck of a replica of The Golden Hind in Brixham harbour. My two abiding memories are how small Jimmy was and how impeccably dressed he was. Here's the start and end of the show together with a number of clips from the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Promoting Jim's World in March 1974

At this point it's worth mentioning some of Jimmy's TV work in this period. For BBC1 in 1972 he took consumer advice to the streets in Jimmy Young Asks. He told the Radio Times: "The thing is I get on well with people. I always have. If I go among ordinary people they'll ask talk to me. I find that anywhere."  Over on ITV in 1973 he was a regular panellist alongside Richard Coleman on the Thames produced panel game Whose Baby?  The following year he was the host of the lunchtime series from Southern TV Jim's World. Initially a light entertainment programme it broadened out to include current affairs as well. There was more advice on offer on BBC1 in 1979 in a guide to everyday maths called It Figures. When Thames ran its first Telethon in October 1980 Jimmy was one of the hosts. Between 1984 and 1986 Jimmy also recorded a number of topical discussion programmes at Yorkshire Television (recorded on Friday evening after Jim had signed off from his radio show and caught the train up to Leeds) for broadcast late on Sunday evening under the unimaginative title The Jimmy Young Programme. The 1985 and 1986 series were networked by ITV

The JY Prog remained a fixture on Radio 2 throughout the 1980s and 1990s in a late morning and then lunchtime slots.  Jimmy's eventual  departure from the BBC was a messy affair that played itself in public over about three years. Stories that JY was to leave Radio 2 had first appeared in the press in late 1998, although at the time he claimed that he'd continue until he dropped. It was suggested that Controller Jim Moir had approached Nicky Campbell, a fact Nicky later confirmed. Jimmy's contract was up for renewal in 2002 anyway. To complicate matters during that final year he was very poorly following complications from an earlier hip replacement operation and Brian Hayes was deputising for him. After about five months off-air Jimmy returned on 9 December to enjoy a fortnight's swansong.

JY signs off. The Times 21 December 2002

When the final JY Prog aired on Friday 20 December 2002 Jimmy was not a happy bunny. As you'll hear in this full recording (with thanks to Noel Tyrrel) he's a little scratchy during his pre-show chat with Ken Bruce.  In signing off he tells his listeners: "I don't want to leave you that's true to say, but nonetheless that's what's been decreed." At the end it's into the news with a final "And for the very last time I fear, bye for now."

Jimmy's replacement was Jeremy Vine, who'd done the occasional cover on the programme during 2001 and 2002. Radio 2 offered Jimmy a weekend show with the same mix of music and current affairs but, understandably, he turned it down. There was a theatre tour of An Audience with Jimmy Young and a regular column in the Sunday Express but he didn't return to radio apart from a some guest appearances. At Christmas 2003 he appeared on Ned Sherrin's Loose Ends and in 2011 he was finally welcomed back to Radio 2 to chat with Ken Bruce about his life and career on Sir Jimmy Young at 90. Here's that programme as heard on 20 September 2011.

In 2012 Jimmy was back on the second series of Desmond Carrington's Icon of the 50s. His contributions were spread over the four programmes but here I've stitched them together.

Jimmy's last radio appearance was earlier this year when he offered a few brief words in tribute to his old radio sparring partner Terry Wogan. Last Monday it was announced that Jimmy had died "peacefully at home". He was 95. 

Fulsome tributes were paid reflecting Jimmy's major contribution to British broadcasting and in particular recalling the unique way he skilfully blended music, current affairs and expert advice for the best part of three decades. On Tuesday lunchtime the first hour of Jeremy Vine's show was devoted to memories of Jimmy with contributions from Jim Moir, Dr Mike Smith, Andrew Phillips, Gordon Brown, Frank Field, John Gummer and Gillian Reynolds. 

Sir Jimmy Young 1921-2016 Bye for now!  

Radio Lives – David Jacobs

In my late teens you may have found me browsing the record racks of Sydney Scarborough in Hull not just for the latest pop offerings, but flicking through the Frank Sinatra back catalogue. The reason for my loitering in the Easy Listening section? It was down to the musical education I received every Saturday morning from David Jacobs and my introduction to the world of the American songbook and the voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Vic Damone, Keely Smith, Tony Bennett and co.

Yes, I did follow the latest trends in pop music, and develop a love for jazz and big band – with thanks to Alan Dell, Benny Green and Humphrey Lyttelton - but over the years it was the tunes that David called “our kind of music” that stayed with me. So it was a very sad moment in August when he presented his last show, illness now robbing his voice of the tone and fluency that had set him apart from many other broadcasters.  

Reading the obituaries for David you might think that his career was bookended by Juke Box Jury and The David Jacobs Collection. In researching this post I’ve been amazed by the sheer volume and variety of shows that David has been involved with, both radio and TV. As far as I can tell from 1948 to 2013 there wasn’t a single year he wasn’t on the radio and from the late 1950s and through sixties he remained a constant on the nation’s TV screens. Sadly, of course, little remains of his radio and TV work from the early years as most shows were live – only two editions of Juke Box Jury survive for instance. I can’t, of course, include every programme that David worked on – guest appearances on Hello Cheeky or the infamous Fred Emney Picks a Pop and so on - but I trust that this post includes all the significant ones in what was a remarkable career.

David was born in Streatham Hill, South London on 19 May 1926. He had a good ear for voices and at an early age would entertain his family with impressions of film stars, radio performers and local characters such as the milkman. The performing bug led to local talent shows and amateur dramatics. Early jobs included working at a pawnbrokers, a gents outfitters, a warehouse and a tobacco company. He joined the Home Guard as an officer cadet before plumping for the Navy in the summer of 1944.

His Navy service was all shore-based with training at HMS Royal Arthur in Skegness (at Butlins holiday camp), moving to HMS Ganges in Ipswich and then HMS Valkyrie (a row of boarding houses) on the Isle of Man.

A chance meeting with a young girl called Kay Emerson, who turned out to be a junior programme engineer on the BBC show Navy Mixture, led to David’s first radio appearance. The producer Charles Maxwell was not exactly overwhelmed by his range of impressions but nonetheless asked him to work it up into an act which, in the event, turned out to be imitations of Howard Marshall, Stuart Hibberd, Vic Oliver, Jack Benny and Rochester, Winston Churchill and –“in a crescendo of frenzied quacking” – Donald Duck. Sadly no recording of the show survives.

Coming off stage he was introduced to naval lieutenant-commander Kim Peacock (later to play Paul Temple) who told him that a career as an impersonator might be limited but had he thought of becoming an announcer in the services broadcasting unit. Within a couple of weeks he found himself at ORBS, the Overseas Recorded Broadcasting Service, in Drury Lane. There he met Jon Pertwee – they would become life-long pals – George Melachrino, George Mitchell, Sidney Torch and Eric Robinson, names that would become familiar in post-war broadcasting. David’s first announcing duties were for Services Music Hall.  

In May 1946 David was posted to a new station being set up in Ceylon, Radio SEAC (South Eastern Asia Command). It had immense coverage and could be heard in India, East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Indo-China, Japan and even the west coast of the States.

David was the station’s senior announcer but had no experience of live broadcasting. His instruction came from Captain McDonald Hobley - later one of the BBC’s team of in-vision announcers – and he was finally let loose with his first live announcement: “This is Radio-Seac, Ceylon, broadcasting on 6.075 megacycles per second in the 49 metre band.”

Also at Radio-SEAC were Desmond Carrington, who like David would have, and continues to have, a long radio career, future BBC radio producer Charles Chilton and Alexander Moyes, who would join the BBC’s Overseas Service announcing team. David continued to have links with Radio Ceylon, as SEAC became after hostilities ended, until the mid-50s, providing batches of scripts for a weekly record feature.

Posted home in January 1947 - a somewhat enforced return following an unfortunate dalliance with a married woman - David had been due to return to the Army Broadcasting Service when he was invited to join the BBC’s Overseas Service who were short of announcers. Working alongside Jack de Manio, Jean Metcalfe and Mary Malcolm the strait-laced corporation didn’t seem to be the place for someone who, by his own admission, was an uncontrollable giggler. In his autobiography David recalls how his job was cut short following a Home News bulletin:

At that moment one of the sub-editors came over with what was evidently an urgent piece of lately-arrived news. He slipped it into my hand and I glanced down at it. It was simply a photograph of a remarkably unclad young woman. And it was so unexpected and incongruous that I began to laugh. And having once begun to laugh, I couldn’t stop. I managed to take a deep breath and stay straight-faced long enough to get out ‘That is the end of the news’. It had finished five minutes too soon.

After just nine months on the staff David went freelance, and his career flourished. Poetry producer John Arlott asked him to narrate Book of Verse, sharing the duties with John Whitty. Book of Verse was a weekly programme that went out on the Eastern Service, and later also on the Light Programme. Meanwhile he was also busy on English by Radio and Radio Newsreel.

By the late 40s/early 50s David had established himself as both an actor and a disc jockey. For the independent producer Harry Alan Towers there was the marathon 150 episode serial The Scarlet Pimpernel, playing Lord Tony Dewhurst to Marius Goring’s Sir Percy Blakeney. This series was syndicated in North America and on Radio Luxembourg. For the BBC, written and produced by his old Radio SEAC colleague Charles Chilton, was Journey into Space (1953-58). Famously Jacobs played all the roles not taken by the four principal characters: a total of twenty-five. He recalled that on at least one occasion “I found myself having a conversation with myself.”

As ‘DJ the DJ’ he joined the roster of presenters on Housewives’ Choice, getting his first booking for the fortnight beginning 25 January 1949. He left nothing to chance and after a week wrote himself lots of letters from various imaginary people telling him how good he was. He needn’t have bothered: “the BBC, scrupulously refraining from poking its nose into other people’s business, politely forwarded all the letters to me – unopened”. Nonetheless he continued to present the show at intervals until 1966.  

Meanwhile David was also doing commercial voiceovers and recording shows in London for transmission on Radio Luxembourg, most running at just 30 minutes each. Some of his 1950s shows were sponsored by Bournvita and during the 60s he fronted some EMI-sponsored shows produced by Ken Evans, who would later produce his Radio 2 shows in the 1980s. (Ken died just last month). Shows on 208 included Roxy Time, Woodbine Quiz Time, Lucky Couple (an early version of Mr and Mrs), Record Roulette, Pops Past Midnight, David Jacobs’ Startime, David Jacobs Plays the Pops and, not unnaturally, The David Jacobs Show. He worked on and off for Radio Luxembourg until 1968, when such recorded shows were faded out.   

The Amazing Adventures of Commander Highprice (1947 BBC TV)

A programme starring Jon Pertwee and David’s first TV appearance.
Little Women (1950-51 BBC TV)
Playing the part of Laurie
Jazz Club (1940s Light Programme)
Both the BBC’s biography of David and Gillian Reynolds writing in the Daily Telegraph list Jazz Club. I can’t be certain when he presented the programme as it tended to have a different compere each week. 
Puffney Post Office (1950 Light Programme)
Comedy series with Jon Pertwee and Eric Barker
She Shall Have Music (1954 Home Service)
Providing the announcements for this show featuring Gracie Cole and her All Girl Orchestra
Purely for Pleasure (1954 Home Service)
On the Brighter Side (1950s Home Service)
David’s first show with producer Derek Chinnery
Grande Gingold (1955 Home Service)
A series starring Hermione Gingold
Paradise Street (1954 Light Programme)
Comedy with Max Bygraves, Peter Sellers and Hattie Jacques
Saturday Show (1954-55 Home Service)
Featuring Cyril Stapleton and the BBC Show Band, Alfred Marks and Rikki Fulton. Produced by Johnnie Stewart, later of Top of the Pops.
The Man About Town (1955 Home Service)
Star vehicle for Jack Buchanan with Vanessa Lee, Pat Coombs and Hubert Gregg
Curiouser and Curiouser (1956 Home Service)
Reading humorous verse along with Peter Sellers
My Patricia (1956 Home Service)
Radio show with Pat Kirkwood and Hubert Gregg. When Hubert died in 2004 it was David that presented the tribute version of Thanks for the Memory.
Movietone News (1955-56)
David had previously voiced newsreels for the BBC and had stood in for Leslie Mitchell at Movietone. When Leslie joined ITV full-time in 1955 he suggested David for the job.
Dateline London (1950s BBC)
Programmes for the North American Service of the BBC in which David interviewed big name US stars visiting the UK.
Top Town Tournament (1959-60 BBC TV)
A Barney Colehan produced show in which towns round the UK competed in a talent contest to find the best variety acts, a kind of early It’s a Knockout and Britain’s Got Talent hybrid. The series ran from 1954 to 1960 but David Jacobs is only credited in later series.

Here's David with a Movietone News report in December 1955. You can listen (and see) more on the British Movietone website.

An honorary mention must go to the one-off (and deservedly so) 1955 BBC show Music, Music, Music in which the panel had to identify tunes tapped out with a pencil, played backwards, speeded up or other disguised. At Jacobs recalls, “it might have kept a couple of schoolboys amused for part of a wet afternoon but it had no general appeal at all.”

Focus on Hocus (1955 ITV)

David presented this short-lived series featuring the magic tricks of David Berglas
The Vera Lynn Show (1956 ITV)
Make Up Your Mind! (1956-8 Granada TV)
“Competitors with an eye for value have a chance to show their skill by saying which is worth more-an object or a certain sum of money. There are prizes for viewers as well as for studio challengers”
Tell the Truth (1957-58 ATV)
With regular panel John Skeaping, Jacqueline Curtis, Roberta Leigh and Bill Owen.

Although we think of David as mainly a BBC man he became one of the early star names on the fledgling commercial television channels in the late 1950s. He got this break thanks to an offer to compere Focus on Hocus from producer Tig Roe who’d worked with David on the Scarlet Pimpernel radio series. 

David was chairman of Make Up Your Mind!, a kind of early The Price is Right with valuations provided by Arthur Maddocks. Tell the Truth was the more successful show, coming as it did from the Goodson-Todman stable, and enjoyed a UK revival in the 1980s. When David left the show the next host was McDonald Hobley (1958), his old Radio SEAC colleague, and then Shaw Taylor (1959-61)   

Juke Box Jury (1959-1967 BBC TV)

The Wednesday Magazine (1959-62 BBC TV)
A daytime show aimed at the housewife – it had previously been billed as Mainly for Women and though having a female production team was fronted by John Whitty.
Top of the Pops (1964-66 BBC1)
David was one of the quartet of hosts of when the show started in January 1964 with Pete Murray, Alan Freeman and Jimmy Savile.

It was Juke Box Jury that made David Jacobs a household name and the show became a Saturday teatime fixture throughout the 1960s. When the show was first muted the idea was that David would be on the panel but he pointed out that he had considerably more experience as a chairman so he ended up in the hot seat. In fact three of four years earlier he’d already suggested to the BBC a similar show under the title Hit or Miss but they demurred. But Hit or Miss stuck in one way or another as it’s the title of John Barry’s theme for the programme.  

 

David puts the early success of Juke Box Jury not down to the opportunity for the TV audience to hear the latest pop records or hear the opinions of the panel but to his mock feud with panellist Pete Murray. This had started on the radio when David was on Saturday night’s Pick of the Pops and plugged Pete’s Sunday night show, Pete’s Party.

The introductory music faded down: I began to introduce the panel; and when I came to Pete Murray I said ‘And now it is my pleasure-or, at least, my duty- to introduce Pete Murray.’ Pete, keeping his face perfectly straight, looked at the camera and said: ’Oh, I’ve nothing against David Jacobs. I think the world needs men like him: in fact, there’s a very good job going for him in the gentlemen’s lavatory in Leicester Square Underground Station.’ I raised my eyebrows and replied: ‘Thanks – mention my name and you’ll get a good seat.’

To my consternation and embarrassment, hundreds of letters began to come in, protesting at Pete’s ‘ill-mannered and completely unprovoked attack’ on me. Thanks to all this undeserved criticism of poor Pete Juke Box Jury was kept on long enough to settle down and become one of television’s most unexpected and apparently unshakeable successes.  

Earlier this year David spoke to Shaun Tilley for Top of the Pops Playback about his time presenting the Pops between 1964 and 1966.

Roundabout (1958-59 Light Programme)

David was the Tuesday host of this new daily show, in what we would now call a drivetime slot. Looking after the other days of the week were Peter King, Alan Dell, Ken Sykora and Richard Murdoch. The programme ran until 1970 though David only appeared for the first couple of years or so.
Pick of the Pops (1956-61 Light Programme)
David succeeded Franklin Engelmann and Alan Dell to become the third host of POTP. Nearly 40 years later he’d take over from Alan Dell again on Sounds Easy.
The DJ Show (1961 Light Programme)
A Monday night show in which he “spins The Top of the Pops”
Late Night Saturday (1963 Light Programme)
Twelve O’Clock Spin (1964 Light Programme)
The DJ Show (1964 Light Programme)
On Sunday afternoons with “news and views of current records”
Follow That Man (1964 Light Programme)
Jacobs plays Rex Anthony, a BBC producer “caught up in a curious and violent train of events”. Each week a different set of writers take up the story. Those producing the scripts were Edward J.Mason, Eddie Maguire, John P. Wynn, Lawrie Wyman, Philip Levine, Ted Willis, Bob Monkhouse & Denis Goodwin, Gale Pedrick and Frank Muir & Denis Norden.
Midday Spin (1965 Light Programme)
Music Through Midnight (1966/67 Light Programme)
Eurovision Song Contest (1960, 1962-66 BBC TV)
David provided the television commentary. His involvement in Eurovision actually goes back to 1957 when he hosted Festival of Popular British Songs, a series of heats to decide that year’s UK entry (All sung by Patricia Bredin). 
Hot Ice (1963 BBC TV)
This series had started in 1961 with Alan Weeks introducing. The competition catered for “ice-skating enthusiasts and for lovers of pop records.” Seven days before each show the competing teams were supplied with records, chosen by a listening panel, to which they had to rehearse a routine.
The Cool Spot (1964 BBC1)
Similar to Hot Ice it was filmed at the Ice Stadium in Nottingham and as well as the skating there was music from the likes of The Yardbirds (in the first programme on 7 July), Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, Shane Fenton and the Fentones and Lulu and the Luvers.
Hot Line (1965 BBC1)
A live Saturday night show in which “viewers have the opportunity to discuss any subject they like with any member of the panel via the Hot Line telephone”.

As a lad David whiled away many an hour at the Streatham Ice Rink. His brother Dudley became a professional skater and his best chum Freddie Tomlins went on to win World and European silver medals in figure skating. Perhaps then, it’s not surprising that David was chosen to host Hot Ice and The Cool Spot, though there’s no evidence that he went on the ice for these shows. However, he did for a December 1955 edition of Television Ice-Time (from a time when television seemed obsessed with shows on ice).  He’d suggested that he should jump a row of barrels during the programme. The BBC insured him for £10,000 which helped to boost publicity for the stunt. “The inevitable happened,” he recalled, “at rehearsals I soared over the barrels like a bird; on the broadcast I clipped the last one and went scudding across the ice like a tipsy penguin. Fortunately the result was only breathlessness and bruises.”   

 

Was Hot Line Britain’s first phone-in? I’m not sure but such broadcasts were rare at the time. Only running for three weeks in May 1965 the Radio Times proclaimed that “David Jacobs presides over a team of personalities who will answer questions on the telephone put to them by members of the public”.  The first programme gave viewers a chance to quiz Peter Ustinov, Randolph Churchill, Italian painter Pietro Annigoni and fashion house director Ginette Spannier. However, this was the mid-60s so the public couldn’t just phone in on the night as “the jamming of the Shepherd’s Bush telephone exchange could interfere with essential services.” Instead they had to write into Television Centre giving their details and the question they wanted to pose. Hot Line wasn’t exactly live; BBC engineers had to introduce a tape delay in case of any choice language from a caller.

David Jacobs' Words and Music (1966 Rediffusion TV)
Series looking at trends in music. Guests included Georgia Brown, Dennis Lotis and Millicent Martin.

The David Jacobs Show (1968 Tyne-Tees)

A Wednesday night show in which David meets ”show business personalities, politicians, and members of the public who have a point of view to put.” Broadcast in some ITV regions April-July 1968.
The Wednesday Show (1968 BBC1)
A live early evening show with guests and music. Each week there was a song from folk singer Deena Webster. Broadcast from July to December.
It’s Sunday Night (1969 LWT)
A late-night chat show for which the executive producer was LWT’s Head of Variety Tito Burns. Tito had been a warrant officer in the RAF and had guested on one of David’s SEAC shows as an accordionist. The programme ran in most ITV regions from June to September 1969.
The David Jacobs Show (1967-68 Radio 1 & Radio 2)
Surprisingly David was a Sunday night fixture on the new pop station when it launched in 1967 although the accent was more on the “tuneful end”, playing LPs and featuring music, in the first show from the BBC Radio Orchestra and the Mike Sammes Singers. He also talked to ‘People of Choice’, the first being Julie Andrews.
Any Questions? and Any Answers? (1967-1984 Radio 2 then Radio 4)  

For someone so closely associated with popular music Jacobs was, perhaps, not the natural choice for the role of chairman on Any Questions? Since the programme’s inception in 1948 Freddie Grisewood had been in charge of proceedings but by the winter of 1967 he was unwell and his doctor had ordered rest for a week or two, in the event he didn’t return to the show apart from a one-off to celebrate his 80th birthday. Five different chairmen were given a try-out, one of whom was David Jacobs. Producer Michael Bowen, writing in 1981, recalled the circumstances that led to his appointment:

The first thought that David might be the next chairman of Any Questions? came from Bobbie my wife. She heard him doing Desert Island Discs in which he revealed his love of horses, and to Bobbie that is always a prime, indeed an essential, attribute to anyone seeking high office. She was very impressed by the whole broadcast and told me about it. I put the idea forward that we should invite David to be one of the chairmen during the interregnum and Robin Scott, for one, was enthusiastic.  

That Desert Island Discs appearance had, in fact, been some three years earlier, but it makes a delightful story. David became the permanent chairman from April 1968 and remained with the programme until July 1984. He was masterful at dealing with some occasionally rowdy audiences, notably the 1976 Enoch Powell incident and this interjection in 1980.       

After Seven (1971-73 Radio 2)

David hosted the Tuesday evening edition of this hour-long show. Other nights were, at least initially, covered by Michael Parkinson, Alan Freeman, Ray Moore and Michael Aspel. After Seven ran from 4 October 1971 to June 1973.
Christmas Morning later David Jacobs’ Christmas Crackers (1972-77 Radio 4)
Every Christmas Day morning for six years David provided the links for a miscellany of seasonal comedy clips and music. Writers included Barry Pilton, Pete Spence and David Rider. There were also other holiday shows in a similar vein such as Spring Into Summer (May Bank Holidays 1976-78), Fall Into Summer, The August Jacobs and so on. The Summer Show on August Bank Holiday in 1977 featured sketches written by Alastair Beaton performed by Bernard Cribbins, Sheila Steafel and Royce Mills. From Christmas 1978 the shows were replaced by Christmas Briers with Richard Briers.   
Melodies for You (1974-84 Radio 2)
David was the third presenter of this long-running show playing light classical music.
David Jacobs with Star Sounds (1978-90 Radio 2)
Starting on 11 December 1978 this was a two-hour Saturday morning show featuring the kind of music that would later make The David Jacobs Collection. The Star Sounds title was eventually dropped and the show cut down to an hour when Sounds of the Sixties was introduced.
David Jacobs (1985-91 Radio 2)
Weekday show from 1 to 2 p.m. running from 7 January 1985 to 20 December 1991.

Here’s the man himself coming in for some light-hearted criticism on Radio 4’s Feedback in 1983.

Those Radio 2 weekend shows of the late 70s/early 80s (Star Sounds and Melodies for You) were recalled by former Radio 2 presenter and newsreader Charles Nove, writing shortly after David’s retirement:

When I joined Radio 2, David was presenting two shows every weekend. On a Saturday morning, he’d be offering a mix of Sinatra, Torme, Sammy Davis et al, while the Sunday show would be the classical repertoire. As David put it, in a turn of phrase that may in part be lost on today’s CD and MP3 generation, “I’ll turn myself over and play you music from my other side.” Or, as the late, great Ray Moore would have it: “On Saturday David will play you songs from his front side, and then on Sunday he’ll turn over and show you his……..”. David took this weekly ribbing in good part.

The lunchtime shows that ran between 1985 and 1991 were, in fact, the first time in his career that David had presented a regular daily programme (indeed for five years he was on six days a week!). They came at a time when the network music policy was more melodic and less pop-orientated, ideal for David but sounding a little out of place elsewhere in the schedule.  

In 1972 David was part of the Capital Radio bid for an ILR licence. Programme proposals show that he was penciled in for a Sunday lunchtime show: “The period between ten and two o’clock will be in the hands of David Jacobs and apart from providing an appreciable music content will take advantage of Mr Jacobs’ talent and experience as a programme moderator. One o’clock Sunday lunchtime is traditionally the time for the family to be together and David Jacobs will direct the show towards them in a spirit which includes those listeners who are unable to enjoy the company of their own families.”

David didn’t make it on air at Capital. Instead Sunday lunchtimes would eventually feature that other old smoothie Gerald Harper with his Sunday Affair.

What’s My Line (1973/4 BBC2)

The first revival of the early television hit with David in the chair
Where Are They Now? (1979 BBC1)
A four-part series in August 1979 in which David meets “people who made headlines in the past.” Guests were Ruby Murray, Captain Carlsen, Buster Crabbe, Wing Cmdr Robert Stanford Tuck, Billy Hayes, Humphrey Lestocq, Ethel Whittaker, Reita Faria, Sir Alec Rose and Gerald Campion.
Come Dancing (1984-86 BBC1)
In fact it was a return visit to the show as David had been one of the presenters in the late 50s.
Primetime (1989-92 BBC1)
A daytime magazine show aimed at the “more mature viewer”.

The idea for Primetime arose from a letter that Sue Lawley read out on See for Yourself that argued that while youth had Janet Street-Porter to look after their TV interests, older viewers received scant attention and suggested that David Jacobs present such a programme.

Both David and his Radio 2 producer Anthony Cherry saw this programme and set about creating Primetime, broadcast on Wednesday afternoons on BBC1. On-screen alongside David were  co-producer Miriam O’Callaghan and assistant producer Sheila McClennon. The guest on the very first edition was none other than Vera Lynn, neatly linking back to those 1955 shows on ITV.  

This series of clips are taken from some of David’s Radio 2 shows: Star Sounds from 1980, the start of a 1986 daily show live onboard HMS Ark Royal, Sounds Easy, a Robert Farnon concert, Easy Does It from October 1997 and The David Jacobs Collection from September 2007.

David Jacobs (1992 Melody Radio)

Easy Does It (1993-1998 Radio 2)
Taking over this Saturday night show from Bill Rennells on 2 January 1993 the show featured music on record and sessions from the BBC Big Band. Ended 11 April 1998.
Sounds Easy (1994-96 Radio 2)
David sits in for Alan Dell on this Sunday afternoon show when he is unwell and eventually becomes the permanent host when Alan died in 1995.
The David Jacobs Collection (1996-2013 Radio 2)
There were two separate series of The David Jacobs Collection. The first, from 10 to 11 p.m. on Sunday nights from 6 October 1996 to 12 October 1997, and then the return of the much-loved show from 11 p.m. to midnight starting on 12 April 1998.
Frank Sinatra-Voice of the Century (1998 Radio 2)
Narrating a 13-part series
He’s Playing Our Song-The Music of Marvin Hamlisch (2002 Radio 2)
Narrating a six-part series

Following the end of the daily show in December 1991, David made only occasional appearances on BBC radio in 1992. These included a concert with the BBC Concert Orchestra in May (on the occasion of their 40th anniversary), a 75th birthday concert for the arranger and composer Robert Farnon (David went on to present other concerts featuring Farnon’s music and introduced a tribute programme on his death in 2005) and a Boxing Day special.

There was also a return to commercial radio in June and July when David presented weekend shows on London’s Melody Radio. His show producer at Melody, Gary Whitford recalls how he would “start on air at six in the morning and David would usually arrive by seven. During the first hour – while on air- I would pull David’s music and get a cup of tea and some custard creams ready for his arrival. David used the second studio/come production suite to broadcast from and after I read the news at eight I’d fade up the second studio and David would take over.” Gary told me that “David was a lovely man and a true professional. He was old school, an original pioneer.” But he wasn’t one to suffer fools gladly “and some less respectful people found that out quite quickly.”

Meanwhile back the Beeb, it was back to regular shows from January 1993 with Easy Does It and in 1994 sitting in for an ailing Alan Dell on Sounds Easy. But it was the culmination of all those years in the business and meeting all those star names and performers that came together in The David Jacobs Collection: “Hello there. Stay with me from now until midnight so that we can share that which many call Our Kind of Music. All of which comes from within the David Jacobs collection.” Cue I Love You Samantha by the Pete Moore Orchestra.

In The Collection Closes I posted a David Jacobs Collection show from May 2005.

In the last year it became apparent that David was unwell and he missed a number of shows. In July 2013 it was announced that David would step down citing treatment for liver cancer and Parkinson’s disease. His last collection aired on 4 August, by now he was too ill to make it into the studio and his links were recorded at his home by producer Alan Boyd. Less than a month later David passed away.

Tributes to David’s broadcasting longevity, his consummate professionalism, his charm, his sense of humour and his musical knowledge followed both his retirement and his death. After his last broadcast Janice Long’s post-midnight show was filled with tweets and emails from listeners saying how much they’d miss those Sunday night dates with Mr Jacobs. It was noticeable how many broadcasters paid heartfelt tributes when he died. Here are Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Tony Blackburn, Head of Programmes at Radio 2 Lewis Carney, Alex Lester (talking to John Foster on BBC Tees) and a close to tears Desmond Carrington.    

It had been hoped that David would have been well enough to record a Christmas show for Radio 2. As this didn’t come to pass, by way of a substitute, enjoy this Christmas show that was broadcast on Saturday 23 December 1989 (with thanks to Paul Langford for providing this copy). 

David Jacobs 1926-2013

Thanks to Paul Langford, Gary Whitford, Paul Easton and Charles Nove.