Bloopers. Cock-ups. Radio fails. Call them what you will, with so much live radio things can, and do, go wrong. In this short series of posts I'll be recalling the times when broadcasters really wished thay could take that again.
For many years the principle archivist of radio gaffs was Jonathan Hewat (pictured above). He collated compilations initially for BBC Radio Bristol and then on Radio 2 (Can I Take That Again?)and Radio 4 (Bloopers) as well as a series of tapes and CDs for the British Wireless for the Blind.
I'll be posting editions of Can I Take That Again? in the coming weeks but in the meantime he's a one-off programme from 1991 titled New Year's Resolutions for Broadcasters. Heard on Radio 2 on 30 December 1991 it features some well-known examples of the genre including the infamous 'leg over' incident.
Whilst reading about or researching a certain generation of broadcasters - I'm thinking of the likes Brian Matthew, David Jacobs, John Dunn, Keith Skues, David Hamilton and Peter Donaldson - there's one common aspect to their career: that they first gained their experience on the airwaves of British Forces radio.
I was reminded of this last year whilst holidaying in Malta. The island had been home to BFBS radio until 1979 so I set about discovering more of the station's history.
The studios of BFBS Malta were in part of the barracks at St Francis Ravelin in Floriana, a kilometre or so outside the walled capital of Valletta. When the British forces vacated Malta in 1979 the building was handed over to the Government and was now the base for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Finding the building should have been straightforward but I lost my way and popped into a local newsagent for directions where I discovered the Maltese refer to it as "meepa" rather than M.E.P.A.
I'd already arranged to have a quick look around the complex and take some photos after getting the OK from Peter Gingell, the Communications and PR Manager, rather than risk being stopped at the gate by security or, worse, arrested by the Maltese Police. There's no obvious evidence of the building's former use but the colonnaded arcades are immediately recognisable from some of the old photographs I've seen online.
Malta's tiny size (if Sicily is the football to Italy's boot, then Malta is a golf ball) belies its strategic and political significance. Part of the British Empire since 1814 it played an important role during the Second World War and endured continual bombardment for which the island was awarded the George Cross.
In the aftermath of the war, in 1947, plans were made to shift the base of the Forces Broadcasting Service for the Middle East to the island. The studios would be based at St Francis Ravelin but the short-wave transmitter site had been acquired by the Royal Artillery. Ultimately the idea foundered due to lack of resources. There were plans for two continuity studios, a control room and a recording channel but the delivery of the short-wave equipment to Zonker Point delayed full transmissions until 1950. But by March 1951 the station was forced to close when the decision was made to shift operations to Fayid in Egypt.
A radio service returned to Malta, albeit briefly, in 1953 at the insistence of Lord Louis Mountbatten, then Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. He decided that the fleet should have its own VHF radio service. The MFBS broadcast from a studio in Lascaris Ditch (the site of the war rooms that are now open to the public and are well worth a visit) with records borrowed from FBS Tripoli and Transcription Service discs from the BBC.
I can't exactly establish when the MFBS closed, possibly it was 1955 when Mountbatten moved on, but the Forces Broadcasting Service returned to Malta in 1959, though again it was beset with funding problems. In 1963 the BFBS Director noted that the Maltese service had "inadequate staff and obsolete technical facilities." Further funding was agreed but it was not until 1967 when equipment was returned from Nairobi and Tripoli that the studios and transmitter got an upgrade.
Malta gained independence in 1964 but British forces remained in place. The importance of a properly equipped station with professional broadcasters, rather than relying on volunteers, was seen as crucial especially in times of an "internal security situation", as they euphemistically called any local unrest. New staff were in place and a stereo VHF service was eventually in operation on 2 June 1970 when the London-based Family Favourites presenter Michael Aspel (below with Ted King and Kay Donnelly) formally opened the new studios.
The British presence in Malta, and with it the BFBS station, seemed to be coming to an end when Dom Mintoff's Labour Government was elected in June 1971 and he called for all British troops to leave by January, later moved to March, of the following year. In 1972 BFBS managed to broadcast an edition of Family Favourites from HMS Bulwark, moored in the Grand Harbour for the evacuation. However, at the eleventh hour Mintoff struck a deal with the UK and NATO allowing the service to stay; BFBS Malta re-opened for business that June.
In January 1978 the station refreshed its sound with longer programme sequences and round the clock broadcasting (the so called Format 77). That same year RichardAstbury, who would become a very familiar name to BFBS listeners around the world, arrived in Malta. He was briefed that British Forces would indeed be pulling out as soon as practicable. The political situation was becoming more and more tense and that summer Astbury was asked to drop any news about Malta from the news bulletins. At the time the station relied on the 'rip and read' teleprinter service of the BBC's General News Service during the day and carried a relay of the World Service overnight.
The situation came to a head in July 1978 when a news story came through about Dom Mintoff's daughter having been arrested in London for throwing horse manure from the Public Gallery in the House of Commons. Richard Astbury checked whether the World Service had carried it, which it had, so he included it in a bulletin. That evening he was summoned to report to the British High Commissioner who told him that the Foreign Office had ordered that BFBS should cease broadcasting from midnight. Escorted back to the studios he did indeed close it down. For the next three months nothing but a test tone was broadcast.
Eventually, by October, the ban was lifted and BFBS Malta continued for its final six months. In March 1979 the British had withdrawn and again it fell to Richard Astbury to do the honours: "Queues of locals turned up at the front door with flowers and gifts to say thank you and farewell. Having made the closing announcement we threw a cocktail party for friends of the station and it was almost over. The following afternoon I met representatives from the Malta government and handed over the keys. BFBS Malta closed for good."
With thanks to Peter Gingell of MEPA, Juergen (JP) Boernig at Radio International and Alan Grace author of The Link with Home - Sixty Years of Forces Radio (BFBS 2003)
There's a whole generation that knows all the words to Three Wheels on My Wagon, My Brother and A Windmill in Old Amsterdam. We have Junior Choice, and Ed Stewart to thank (blame) for that.
Edward Stewart Mainwaring was born in Devon in 1941 though the family moved to London soon after. Young Edward enjoyed listening to the wireless, especially the comedy shows and the adventures of Dick Barton - Special Agent. "I was preparing myself for a life in radio already by crawling behind the wireless and pretending to be an announcer".
At school he was fanatical about sport, to the detriment of other studies. In adult life Ed was a keen golfer, played football for the Showbiz XI and, of course, the Radio 1 team, as well as cricket for the Lord's Taverners and the Variety Club. He took up the double bass, apparently just because the school orchestra didn't have anyone playing the instrument.
Ed had early ambitions to work for the BBC and managed to obtain an audition with the Overseas Service at Bush House in 1961. They said he didn't have enough experience and advised him to go abroad to get some. That advice took him to Hong Kong, initially to join a band out there. Since leaving school he'd been working for Keith Prowse Records and playing in a skiffle group so the opportunity to play abroad seemed to satisfy both needs.
In the event the music gigs fell through but he managed to blag his way into Radio Hong Kong by spinning the story that he'd actually worked for the BBC. Ed was employed as an interviewer and sports reporter and eventually an announcer. However his voice wasn't deemed suitable for announcing: "too up and down, old boy" he was told, so he moved across to Rediffusion's Blue Network. Here he was soon presenting music shows, interviewing, announcing and newsreading on both radio and TV. From Rediffusion he moved to one of the most popular music stations in Hong Kong simply called Commercial Radio.
Feeling homesick Ed left Hong Kong in 1965, his passage back to the UK was funded by Lufthansa in return for recording six promotional programmes for the airline. Back in Blighty he joined the Central Office of Information in their programme making department. Realising there may be opportunities on the new offshore pirate stations Ed called in at Radio Caroline's offices; they had no vacancies but sent him on to Radio London round at Curzon Street. His Hong Kong experience standing him in good stead he joined the station in July 1965.
At Radio London he acquired his nickname of 'Stewpot' when fellow DJ Dave Cash who, on witnessing Ed's ability to roll his stomach muscles, exclaimed "When you do that, it looks like a stewpot". He created the fictional Myrtle - "Hello Myrtle" becoming his catchphrase until superseded by the falsetto "Morning" and a shouted "Crackerjack" - and with Keith Shues cooked up the famous April Fool 'Radio East Anglia' stunt.
Ed stayed with Radio London until the bitter end, joining Paul Kaye for the final hour on 14 August 1967. The forced closure did, however, see him fulfil his ambition to join the BBC when he passed his audition with producer Angela Bond and became part of that famous Radio 1 launch team.
Here are some clips of Ed from his Radio London days.
Ed's first appearance on the new pop network was on the second day of broadcasting in the old Easy Beatslot, now retitled Happening Sunday. Unfortunately it only happened for a few weeks, he was shifted to one side to make way for Kenny Everett. He continued to be one of the hosts of What's New (appearing on the show until 1969) but got a regular programme when he replaced Leslie Crowther on Junior Choice in February 1968. It was Derek Chinnery who'd put his name forward. "My wife heard him reading some requests recently and she thinks he has the style we're looking for - more of an older brother than a schoolmaster".
So started a 12-year stint as the children's favourite on a show that, in the early 1970s enjoyed an audience of nearly 8 million. In truth Junior Choice didn't just play those novelty songs but featured the pop tunes of the day. Many of those classics had previously been much requested on the old Children's Favourites. But those elements of the show together with the Morningtown Ride theme and the cheeky "allo darling" have remained part of Ed's broadcasting heritage in the more recent annual revivals on Radio 2 some four decades later.
In this Radio 1 montage Ed plays some Junior Choice favourites: The Wombles, White Horses plus a bit of Bowie.
Ed's radio appearances weren't just restricted to Junior Choice. He was regularly on Radio 1 Club between 1969 and 1973, there was Sunday Sport in summers of 1972 to 1975, from September 1973 he was the first presenter of Newsbeat and later with Sue Cook he co-presented Radio 1's first phone-in Personal Call (1979). He'd also regularly deputise for David Hamilton on his afternoon show.
Meanwhile Ed was dipping his toes into television presenting, initially for 'the other side', with Exit - The Way Out Show billed as the "fast-action quiz game for the way-out generation" which, after a 10 week run, was indeed on its way out. For Granada there was a junior version of Opportunity Knocks combined with a knockout quiz, called Anything You Can Do (1969). For the BBC in 1970 Ed got his own show in 9-part series Ed and Zed! His sidekick was Zed the robot, voiced by Anthony Jackson.
Ed was able to cement his position as a children's entertainer when, in 1971, he was featured in the junior TV Times spin-off Look-Inwith Stewpot's Look-out and later Stewpot's Newsdesk, the latter column appearing each week until well into 1980. And, of course, there was Crackerjack, with Ed stepping into Michael Aspel's shoes from 1974.
This Radio 4 programme from the Trumpton Riots series examines the Crackerjack phenomenon and was heard on 26 December 1997.
In December 1979 Ed left both Junior Choice and Crackerjack: "My days as strictly a children's presenter were over. We all have to grow up some time!" Now playing requests for the grown-ups over on Radio 2 The Ed Stewart Request Show kicked off in January 1980, his first daily show after 13 years with the BBC.
Here are some clips from those early 80s afternoon shows. Note the use of the theme, dropped in 1981 I think, Don't Run Away by the Pierre Lavin Pop Band, a show from Ascot reminding us that Radio 2 was still the sports channel and finally, from July 1980, Ed continues to man the microphone for Much More Music when David Symonds is stuck in traffic .
This aircheck dates from 2 June 1981 by which time the programme was re-titled The Ed Stewart Show and had acquired the FamilyFavourites feature from Pete Murray's Sunday Show. With Ed is Ian Thompson of Radio New Zealand.
This programme from 10 March 1982 comes from the Ideal Homes Exhibition. No Family Favourites this time but there is a feature called Continental Call.
In January 1984 Radio 2 Controller Bryant Marriott was minded to not renew Ed's contract. "Request programmes are old fashioned and out-of-date and we must move on", he was told.
Now unemployed, Ed leapt at the chance to work for Radio Mercury in Crawley when they launched in October 1984. Joining a team that included Pat Sharp, Peter Young and Tony Myatt (with whom he'd worked back in Hong Kong) Ed landed the weekday mid-morning show. As the biggest name at the station Ed was chosen to launch proceedings on Saturday 24 October, however, having prior golfing commitments in Spain, he had to record that opening show.
In 1990 Ed and Mercury parted company when, yet again, his contract was terminated. Adamant that he wouldn't make another sideways move he had to wait until the following year before he got the chance to re-join Radio 2. At first it was just the occasional show, but in the summer there was a short run on Saturday afternoons and in October and November he took over the mid-morning show from Judith Chalmers. By then he'd already been promised a daily afternoon show starting the following January.
This is part of the second hour of Ed's return to Radio 2 with a late-night show on 30 March 1991 featuring famous duets.
From 31 August 1993 part of an afternoon programme starting with a handover from Debbie Greenwood and featuring the Accumulator Quiz. With music from Count Basie, Bobby Darin and Perry Como it's hard to imagine this was indeed 1993. I should apologise for the fact that the recording ends on a cliffhanger, that was the problem with recording on C90 cassettes.
At a time when BBC radio seemed to enjoy generous budgets for OBs Ed's show took him to the Falkland Islands, Paris and technically challenging broadcasts from Ben Nevis and Snowden. More prosaically I saw Ed broadcast live from the Corner Cafe in Scarborough, though at the time of writing I've yet to track down the photo I took.
By July 1999 it was time to move on again. Controller Jim Moir was lining up Steve Wright for weekday afternoons so Ed was offered a two-hour Sunday afternoon show, live from Birmingham. That slot had just been occupied by Pam Ayres and before that Charlie Chester's Sunday Soapbox, so you can tell the age of listener they were expecting to appeal to. As a carrot Ed was also offered Wogan's breakfast show holiday cover, which he did during 1999.
Those Sundays shows ended in April 2006 when Johnnie Walker, who'd given up Drivetime was offered an weekend show. This is Ed's final programme in full. As ever he is the consummate professional to the end; he acknowledges his time on Radio London and Radio 1 and signs of with Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
Of course you can't keep a good broadcaster down. He popped up English-speaking Spanish radio stations Spectrum FM and Coast FM. In December 2006 Ed was heard on internet station Big L deputising for David Hamilton, some things never change!
When Radio 2 celebrated its 40th anniversary on 30 September 2007 it decided to resurrect some old programmes, either inviting broadcasters back to the station or running some archive recordings. At 10.00 am Stewpot was back with a one-off Junior Choice, this time assuredly nostalgic and just playing all the old favourites. Such was the listener response that he was invited to do it all again for a Christmas Day special. Thereafter, Junior Choice became a Christmas Day fixture each year until his last broadcast just three weeks ago. It was the perfect accompaniment to peeling the spuds and steaming the pud. This is a recording of that 2007 special.
A week or so after Ed's last show he suffered a serious stroke and was taken to hospital in Bournemouth. Last Saturday he passed away.
In a business where notoriously egos can clash Stewpot remained great chums with many of his former colleagues. He regularly attended reunions, indeed he'd been part of the Pirate Radio Essex broadcasts a few years back, and he numbered David Hamilton and Pete Murray as close friends. Ed had gained something of a reputation for never getting his wallet out - as Diddy David once quipped 'what's the difference between Stewpot and a coconut, you can get a drink out of a coconut' - but he was always generous with his time and worked for many charities including the Grand Order of Water Rats of which he had long been a member. This year he'd planned to continue his Stewpot's Music Quiz Tour and this coming weekend he had been due to appear at the Radio Reunion event in London. That event will now include tributes to both Ed and to David Bowie.
Radio 2 is planning to broadcast a programme in tribute to Ed sometime next month. In the meantime I'll leave it to Paul Gambaccini to sum up Ed's impact on British radio and with a tune that will bring back a pang of nostalgia to all those who tuned into Radio 1 on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the 1970s.
Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart
1941-2016
Bye-eee!
Some Key Dates:
Radio London 5 July 1965 to 14 August 1967
Anything You Can Do ... 30 April to 30 July 1969 (subsequent series presented by Chris Kelly)
Junior Choice 24 February 1968 to 30 December 1979
Ed and Zed! 24 October to 19 December 1970
Crackerjack 3 January 1975 to 21 December 1979
Ed Stewart's Request Show 21 January 1980, Re-titled The Ed Stewart Show from 11 May 1981 when Family Favourites became a feature on the programme. Final show 20 January 1984.
Ed Stewart weekday afternoon show: 6 January 1992 to 2 July 1999
Ed Stewart Sunday afternoon show: 4 July 1999 to 16 April 2006 With thanks to Noel Tyrrel
So what would be your Mastermindspecialist subject? Me? I'd choose 'BBC radio comedy'. As that's a bit broad perhaps concentrating on the 1950s to the 80s. Or maybe I'd just narrow it down to The Burkiss Way or perhaps Radio Active.
In the current series of Mastermindon BBC2, which seems to have been going on for an age, two contestants have zoned in on two particular comedy series of more recent vintage. From 4 September 2015 here's Rachael Neiman facing questions on John Finnemore's superb Cabin Pressure. Rachael is no stranger to TV quizzes, having appeared on University Challenge, Only Connect and in two earlier series of Mastermind with specialist rounds on Belle and Sebastian and John Peel's Festive 50.
On 11 September 2015 Margaret Brown, a Mastermind virgin, took Old Harry's Game as her specialist round.
At least one contestant has chosen BBC radio comedy as their subject, and that was back in 1987, when finalist John Crippin faced questions from Magnus Magnusson. Here's the audio for that round.
As for those passes, well unfortunately the audio cuts off before Magnus gets chance to provide the answers. The gobbledygook speaker was, of course, 'Professor' Stanley Unwin. The hand-picked half-wits on Ignorance is Bliss were Harold Berens, Gladys Hay and Michael Moore (I had to look that one up). The sig tune of Suzette Tarri also defeated me but its Red Sails in the Sunset. The other impersonator who teamed up with David Evans has me totally foxed, answers on a postcard please.
All of a sudden Bernie Clifton, that's the one with the ostrich not the chap with the emu, is back in the news. In the current series of The Voice he turned up singing The Impossible Dream. The title turned out to be prescient. No chairs turned. But he has released it as a single anyway. Then earlier this week he was the guest of Martin Kelner on BBC Radio Leeds.
Local radio listeners in South Yorkshire will know that Bernie Clifton hasn't totally disappeared from public consciousness as he's presented a weekly show, Live-ish, on BBC Radio Sheffield for the last two years.
Clifton was at the height of his TV fame in the late 1970s and 1980s when he first rode Oswald the Ostrich on Crackerjack appearing alongside Peter Glaze and Ed Stewart, and then popping up on numerous variety shows. On national radio he was a regular panellist on the comedy game show You've Got to Be Joking and between 1982 and 1986 starred in three series for Radio 2, Bernie Clifton's Comedy Shop.
The only recording I have of Bernie Clifton's Comedy Shop is that broadcast on 9 February 1984 (series 2 episode 3). Unfortunately it's on a cheap tape so the quality is a bit iffy but as Radio 4 Extra is unlikely to give it a second outing I thought I'd put it online. With Bernie are Pat Mooney, Tony Peers and Caroline Turner. The show was produced by Mike Craig.
Postscript: I see that Radio 7/4 Extra have repeated an edition of Bernie's show as part of Open Mike: Mike Craig's Radio Memoirs. Does anyone have a copy please?
There's little I can add to the flood of tributes, anecdotes and memories about the broadcasting legend Sir Terry Wogan, whose death was announced this morning.
I'll review Terry's radio career and upload more audio later in the week. In the meantime I thought I'd share - in full, but with edits for the music - his final Radio 2 breakfast show from December 2009. A mixture of laughter and tears its demonstrates how to bow out with professionalism and affection.
Last Sunday was a dark day for broadcasting and for those who ever had the joy of listening to Terry Wogan on the breakfast show. In the radio hall of fame Terry will be sitting at the top table.
This week we've heard and read plenty about the man himself but in this post I'll be dipping in and out of Terry's radio career, as well as adding the occasional nod as to what he was up to on the telly. No analysis, just lots of programme clips and the words of Sir Terry himself.
Kicking off on RTE
Terry's broadcasting career started at Radio Eireann in Dublin in 1961, at first part-time whilst he held his job with the Royal Bank of Ireland, and then in the permanent position as continuity announcer. Terry didn't exactly have a high opinion of Irish radio: "it was hopeless, with its mixture of classical, quasi-religious and 'diddly-eye' music," but he'd got his foot in the door.
Terry learnt his craft at RTE, "microphone technique, intonation, emphasis, phrasing and delivery". He credits Head of Presentation Denis Meehan, his deputy Brigid Kilfeather and announcer Liam Devally, all of them becoming "Irish broadcasting legends".
24 April 1965. Terry marries model Helen Joyce - 'the present Mrs Wogan'
Typically of announcers at that time, on both RTE and the BBC, you were expected to be a jack of all trades, reading the news and the market reports, presenting record shows, introducing concerts and the like. One of the most popular radio shows was Hospital Requests and Terry took to it like a duck to water. "I realised that ad-libbing off cards and letters in between records was something I could do with ease." His other radio show was the punningly-titled Terry Awhile - a midday show that was a mixture of music and phone calls made by Terry on written request from listeners - which he continued to present whilst working part-time for the BBC. He also worked for Telefis Eireann, taking over from Gay Byrne as the host of Jackpot, a variation on Criss-Cross Quiz.
In this short sequence Terry commentates on President Kennedy's visit to Dublin in June 1963, there's the soundtrack from an edition of the TV documentary series Discovery and a clip from Hospital Requests in 1966 - his broadcasting style already in evidence, warm in tone and very laid back.
Bright, Exciting Radio 1
The sudden dropping of Jackpot by RTE prompted Terry to seek auditions with BBC TV and ITV, but he drew a blank. Instead he set his sights on the BBC Light Programme. Growing up this was, along with the American Forces Network, his station of choice. "It became my window on the world, my magic carpet to another place. It influenced my thoughts, my speech, my attitudes, my sense of humour. Everyone else of my contemporaries seemed to be listening to Irish Radio, but I struggled towards puberty with the help of Workers' Playtime, Mrs Dale's Diary, Dick Barton: Special Agent, Much Binding in the Marsh and then Take It From Here, Educating Archie, The Goons and Hancock's Half-Hour."
The new team of Late Night Extra presenters when Radio 1 launches in September 1967
So, in 1966, Terry posted off a tape of his radio work to Mark White at the BBC - a tape he'd failed to rewind. On the strength of what he heard Mark offered Terry a weekly slot for 11 weeks on Midday Spin, a 45-minute show with the records played in London and Terry talking down the line from RTE. The BBC then offered him a one-off Christmas show and a turn on Housewives' Choice. Sending off another tape, of Terry Awhile, to Mark White secured him a place in the new Radio 1 line-up, as one of the presenters of Late Night Extra.This meant flying across from Dublin to London every week. Later, once he'd secured more regular work with the Corporation, he was still commuting the other way to record sponsored radio shows for RTE.
Terry sits in for Jimmy Young in 1969. The programme is billed as 'coming from our own studios' presumably to let listeners know he won't be sitting in Dublin.
In July 1969 Terry was given the chance of a try-out on a daily show, sitting in for Jimmy Young. The bosses were suitably impressed and from September he finally got his own afternoon show, taking over the slot from Dave Cash. Those shows, for the most part simulcast on Radio 2, ran until March 1972. Their greatest contribution to the public consciousness was Fight the Flab, with Terry acting as a kind of Eileen Fowler. "It was the making of me and my afternoon radio show." By 1971 BBC Enterprises were selling Fight the Flab exercise booklets for 20p.
Two's Company
This is the era of Wogan's Winner, Hello Chunky, TWITS, the poisoned dwarf, the dance of the BBC virgins and directoire knickers.
With Breakfast Special coming to an end in March 1972 the morning replacements were The Early Show, with various continuity announcers presenting and Terry Wogan's new breakfast show. "The aim is to offer a reasonable musical alternative to Tony Blackburn - who's the best Top 30 DJ in the country. I'll play the kind of thing I'd like to listen to in the morning - Frank Sinatra, Brook Benton and Andy Williams." Later he would go on to define his relationship with listeners as "one of mutual recrimination. I do the talking, but I try to establish a dialogue by getting them to write in."
Radio Times April 1972 as Terry moves to Breakfast, and stays for 13 years
One feature he inherited from Breakfast Specialwas the Racing Bulletin, masterminded by Tony Fairburn of the Racing Information Bureau. The daily tip eventually became Wogan's Winner which enjoyed mixed success. "You couldn't tip rubbish", listeners would exclaim.
In this sequence you'll hear Terry talking about his experience of having Eamonn Andrews loom up on him with his Big Red Book. There are also those chats with Jimmy Young, ostensibly JY coming in to plug his programme but which became a must-listen feature in themselves. Some of the recordings come from Two's Best, hence the voice of Colin Berry pops up.
Pop Score. terry with his chum Pete Murray
Other radio work at this time included a weekly chat show Wogan's World. Running for three series (1974-75) it was recorded at Pebble Mill under the guidance of producer Jock Gallagher. There was also the long-running Radio 2 quiz about popular music Pop Score(1972-92) which Terry appeared on for the first five years. Over on Radio 4 was the slightly more erudite The Year in Question (1973-81) with Terry being a resident panellist alongside Lady Isobel Barnett for the first four series and then with Ann Meo when it returned in 1980 and 81.
It's Ann and Terry plus Susannah Simons and Fred Housego who face some gentle probing from Richard Stilgoe in this edition from September 1981.
During the 1970s and 1980s Radio 2 was the sports network and Terry was drafted in to host coverage of the major games: the Olympics in 1976 and 1984, plus the 1992 games for Radio 5, and the 1978 and 1982 Commonwealth Games.
Hear the close of the 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games with Gerald Williams and the 'demented pianist'. Then the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics from an OB truck in a parking lot. This provided a mix of sport and Hollywood glamour as Terry chats to commentators Raymond Brookes-Ward and Ian Darke and interviews Shelley Long about "this Cheers".
In December 1984 Terry bade goodbye, "the last fandango", to his breakfast show listeners - "the abdication of Terry Wogan, giving up the throne and the crown of England for the woman he loves ... Victoria Principal" according to Ray Moore. He was clearing space in his life for the thrice-weekly primetime chat show that was due to launch on BBC1 in February. This is how that show played out (with music edits). You'll perceive that his listeners were a poetic lot.
Meanwhile on the Telly
Most of Terry's TV appearances were on the Beeb but his first chat show was actually for 'the other side'. Lunchtime with Wogan, broadcast from ATV's Elstree studios, ran for 44 weekly editions in 1972 and 1973. The TV Times editorial read: "Irish disc jockey Terry Wogan chats up studio guests and audience. Between talk, resident personalities Penny Lane and Carl Wayne sing. 'The show will be casual and relaxed,' says producer/director Mike Lloyd. 'This is a young team, but the programme is intended to suit all ages. Wogan will involve the studio audience as much as possible so that it will be they who make the show. It will all be ad-lib fun.'”
No episodes were kept but a tape of ITV's Christmas 1972 All Star Comedy Carnivalhas survived featuring the man himself.
On BBC TV Terry's first regular gigs were as compere on Come Dancing. "At the end of it all, the public was still firmly convinced that it was introduced by Peter West, the show's original presenter. I made all the impact of a blancmange, but it was fun." There were also the various Miss UK/Miss World contests and the like usually co-presented with either Michael Aspel or David Vine.
The first ever edition of Blankety Blank 18 January 1979
Blankety Blank came about when BBC bosses were looking for a new TV vehicle for Terry. Producer Alan Boyd - not to be confused with Terry's radio producer Alan 'Barrowlands' Boyd - adapted a US daytime show called The Match Game, a format that came complete with the long wand microphone that Terry would waft around, and Kenny Everett would bend out of shape. "For me, it was the tackiness of the prizes that gave the show is distinctive flavour, that turned it into a tongue-in-cheek send-up of a game-show." Plus it gave us one of Ronnie Hazelhurst's finest compositions.
Having presented chat shows for ATV and Radio 4, Terry got his first chance to do the same on BBC1 with a short series of Tuesday night shows in 1982. Three further longer series followed in 1983 and 1984, this time in Parky's old timeslot on Saturday night. Bill Cotton then approached Terry to sound him out for a primetime show three-nights-a-week as part of a BBC1 revamp. He took the risk and told his Radio 2 bosses that he was packing in the breakfast show.
This is a radio-themed edition of Wogan from 1987 marking Radio 1's 20th anniversary. It's packed with loads of familiar faces/voices.
Other TV work has included Auntie's Bloomers, Points of View, Do the Right Thing, Wogan's Web, The Terry and Gaby Show for Five, and Wogan's Perfect Recall for Channel 4. But, of course, the two big television juggernauts that Terry was most associated with are Eurovision and Children in Need.
Terry had done straight forward commentaries for the Eurovision Song Contest, first on the Radio in 1971 and between 1974 and 1977 and then on BBC TV in 1973 and 1978. But between 1980 and 2008 he was Eurovision, as far as UK viewers were concerned. Increasingly scoffing at the bizarre acts and partisan voting.
Last year Terry chewed the Eurovision fat with Ken Bruce in a special Tracks of My Years programme on the Radio 2 Eurovision pop-up station. (This programme has been edited).
Children in Need had been running annual appeals since the 1920s. Terry made the TV and radio appeals in 1978 and 1979 and the following year helped launch the first of the annual telethons. The first show raised £1m, the last one that Terry worked on in 2014 topped £32m on the night. "If you're going to talk about high points, then that's got to be my highest. Over the years we've raised £480 million for children's charities, and that makes me very proud indeed. So you see - I did turn out good for something in the end!"
Wogan's Back at Breakfast
This is the era of the TOGS, Janet and John, Dr Wally, Barrowlands, Boggy's shed, snorkers and Chuffer Dandridge and the white fiver.
Wogan was cancelled by BBC1 in July 1992. "My regret is I didn’t stop the talk show a year earlier. But ‘No, no’, they said, ‘we need to carry on because it’s 150 hours of broadcasting on the television and we need you to go on. In the meantime they were building a village in Spain for the show Eldorado.”
It was David Hatch, Managing Director of Radio and a family friend, that was instrumental in bringing Terry back to radio. And so it was on 4 January 1993 that Radio 2 had a morning schedule shake-up: out goes Brain Hayes after just one year and in comes Sarah Kennedy with her Dawn Patrol(though it's still billed as The Early Show) and Our Tel is back with his tail between his legs! He's got a programme title, Wake Up to Wogan and he's giving away alarm clocks (WUTWACs). Apart from being a little rusty with the studio equipment Terry pretty much picks up where he left off, he's even got his old producer Geoff Mullen looking after him.
This is how the first hour or so sounded, again with music edits.
Cover star in August 2008
The show gradually evolves and becomes bigger than ever; it's radio's most listened to breakfast show, even the Queen tunes in. The listeners, and Terry's Old Geezers and Girls in particular, take a more active role, essentially writing Terry's material for him, and in the case of the Janet and John stories, that arrive in the mid 2000s, exactly that. The growth of emails and social media means that listeners can get their insults to Terry even quicker. Producer Paul Walters, Dr Wally, takes over and pays a little more attention to the playlist, bringing new artists to the fore, and is heard on-air muttering away in the background. The newsreaders, rather than just doing straight run through of the travel news, stop for a chat and a whole other life is created around them, they become walk-on characters. The 'underlings' are Alan Dedicoat (Deadley Alancoat of Harrow, the Voice of the Balls) Fran Godfey (renown for locking up any tradesmen that call), John Marsh (organ-playing, shed-owning Boggy Marsh), Charles Nove (the bus driving super-Nove) and later Lynn Bowles (the Travel Totty from Splotty).
Here's an aircheck from 13 June 2005. Terry's knighthood has just been announced. Will that engender congratulations from the TOGs? Not one bit of it. Also in the studio are Fran Godfrey and Paul Walters.
The following year selected chunks of Wake Up to Wogan are available as podcasts. "Look ma, I'm podcasting!" Speaking about the show in 2010 Terry said: "If you were listening ten years ago, and compare it to my last year, the tone and attitude would be the same, but now we take more chances. You have to move with the times. I get away with an awful lot. Nobody's ever pulled me up."
Listeners that caught the end of the programme could enjoy the badinage during the handover to Ken Bruce. Here are a selection (audio courtesy of Noel Tyrrel)
Our Tel with Alan Boyd, Alan, John, Charles & Lynn. No expense is spared on champagne glasses!
In September 2009 Terry tells his loyal audience that he's standing down at the end of the year, handing over the baton to Chris Evans. His sign-off on 18 December is reported across all the media. The music choices alone would have you blubbing but his final goodbye - probably the only time he'd scripted the show - is one of radio's most emotionally charged moments. "Now I'm not going to pretend that this is not a sad day; you can probably hear it in my voice. I'm going to miss the laughter and the fun of our mornings together. I know you're going to welcome Chris Evans with the same generosity of spirit that you've always shown me. So, I'm gonna miss you. Till we're together again, in February. Have a happy Christmas. Thank you. Thank you for being my friend".
This is that final breakfast show:
Sundays Only
No, Maigret isn't making a return to the BBC
Two months later Terry was back! Kicking off on 14 February 2010 was Weekend Wogan, a live two-hour show from the BBC Radio Theatre going out in three-month blocks, giving Terry plenty of time off to do the grouting. "It'll be flexible, the producer coming in with emails as he always did, John Marsh reading the news and doing his wheezy chuckles, Janet and John stories... well I can only say it worked really well in the pilot. But you never know. You take the risk." The studio element didn't really seem to work, the intimacy was lost, and anyway it was all costing too much, so by the following year he was back in the studio at Western House, the show now independently produced by Wise Buddah. The weekend shows always featured live guests: for the first there was Sir Ian McKellen, Jamie Cullen and Norah Jones, for his last Il Divo and Anastacia.
This clip comes from the first show in 2010:
This second clip is from 17 July 2011:
Terry's final show was on 8 November last year. The following week the BBC issues a press release advising that Terry is having to pull out of presenting Children in Need. He is quoted as saying: "So, here we are on the 36th edition of Children in Need, every one of which I've been proud to present since it started in 1980, and for the first time, I won't be there, to cheer you on with word and gesture to another record-breaking year. The show will go on, bigger and better than ever, in the hands of my friends, Grimmy, Fearne, Rochelle and Tess."
Last Sunday morning the world woke to the news that Sir Terry had passed away.
Terry was always modest about his broadcasting success. He'd have been embarrassed by all the plaudits heaped on him this week, but more than a little chuffed. He put it all down to his innate laziness and a whole heap of luck.
"Life turns on an instant, and everything changes on a single throw; if I hadn't answered the ad in the Irish paper for announcers; if I'd been sensible and accepted that I didn't have the qualifications required; if I hadn't lied about a dentist's appointment, or the bank manager had refused to give me time off and I hadn't attended the audition; if RTE hadn't given me the job; if Mark White had thrown my back-to-front tape into the wastepaper basket when I applied to the BBC ... So may lucky breaks - and if only one had failed, a different life. And people think I'm being falsely modest when I put it down to luck!"
Sir Terry Wogan 1938-2016
Quotes come from Is It Me? (BBC 2000), Mustn't Grumble (Orion 2006), Radio Times issues dated 16 August 2008 and 13 February 2010.
We are told that 80% of new cars have digital radios fitted as standard. In this post I go back to 2000 when the percentage was probably 0.8%.
In the first post in this series I looked at the BBC's Digital Radio Bulletins between August 1999 and January 2000. I pick things up with the fifth edition from March 2000.
By a neat bit of coincidence the installation of in-car DAB is the lead story. Both Fiat and Alfa Romeo offered Grundig DCR200 decoders in the boot with a 5300 head unit, all for £499. BMW used a Pioneer GEX-P900DAB boot box for £500 coupled with head units priced between £180 to £1325. All very pricey.
Meanwhile the BBC was planning an as yet unnamed digital radio drama and comedy service. Ollie Raphael stated that the service had "already catalogued sufficient material for at least 18 months of non-stop broadcasting - and that's without repeats."
Bulletin number 6, issued in July 2000 (and the last one I have in my archive) leads with sports coverage and John Inverdale extolling the virtues of a clear signal and the ability to cover more matches on the pilot Radio 5 Live Sports Plus channel.
An article on page 2 raises the question as to whether internet broadcasting would "do the dirty" on DAB. "The main drawback of internet radio lies in the delivery", says Philip Laven, technical director of the EBU. "Individual streams of data take up valuable space on the server. If there's no space left all you get is an error message."
Radioscape were developing a hybrid digital radio MP3 player/recorder and DAB within GSM mobile phones "within the next 12 months". In another development, predicting some of the principles of the iPlayer, "it will be possible to devote space on a PC which could be 'managed' by the BBC, automatically downloading digital radio material from the multiplex for later listening".
Finally a quick look at digital television. From 1998 comes this promo mainly for BBC Choice linked by Kaye Adams. Noughts and Ones aired on BBC1 on 15 November 1998.
On the eve of the launch of ITV2 this short promotional programme started with a dig at the BBC's approach. ITV2 - A Different View was broadcast on ITV on 6 December 1998.
Radio's equivalent of It'll Be Alright on the Night was Can I Take That Again? but in place of Denis Norden and his clipboard was Jonathan Hewat armed, presumably, with a chinagraph pencil and a razor blade.
Hewat had already been broadcasting on BBC Radio Bristol and gradually accumulating tapes of out-takes and mistakes (hence the large number of local radio shows that feature in the clips) before he took the idea to Radio 2. Six series of Can I Take That Again? ran between 1982 and 1989. After that there were occasional programmes on Radio 4 titled Bloopersand he put together short features for Radio 2's late night shows presented by Ken Bruce (1990) and Chris Stuart (1991).
In 1986, ahead of the fourth series, he spoke to David Gillard of the Radio Times who reported: "Whether it's a fouled-up weather forecast, a fluffed song, a bungled sports commentary or a tongue-twisted news item, Jonathan iis likely to have it in his personal collection of more than 2,000 bloopers from all over the world. This time he's delving back as far as 1935 for classic clangers, as well as including some of his own on-air slip-ups.
"I'm not in the business of putting people down, and I avoid naming them whenever possible. But bloopers have become a very popular new kind of humour and most people take their mistakes in good part. I've only been asked once not to use a clip again and, no, I'm not naming the person."
Whilst continuing to appear on BBC radio Jonathan was a senior lecturer in communications at Bristol University before taking up the post of Head of Radio at the University of the West of England to lecture in Broadcast Journalism. From 1990 he taught at the Ashbridge Management College and went on to run his own media training business 46 Design.
Jonathan died in 2014 aged 75.
I'll be uploading 21 editions of Can I Take That Again? as and when I get the opportunity. But the first series of five is online now under this YouTube playlist.
Series details, and my recordings, are as follows:
Series 1: 5 programmes 6 October to 3 November 1982
All five programmes available.
Series 2: 4 programmes 20 September to 11 October 1983
I have no recordings of this series.
Series 3: 6 programmes 13 December 1983 to 17 January 1984
I recorded five programmes, episode 5 is missing. Sound quality is variable.
Series 4: 6 programmes 8 October to 12 November 1986
First three programmes only.
Series 5: 8 programmes 17 August to 5 October 1988
All 8 programmes recorded.
Series 6: 6 programmes 4 October to 8 November 1989
After an eight year absence Virgin Radio is back in the UK later this month on the Sound Digital DAB multiplex (picture left, due to kick off on 30 March). When the old Virgin 1215 launched in April 1993 it was the first national popular music station to come on air since Radio 1 some 26 years earlier. It promised "the best of album rock and pop from the last 25 years". The opening tracks included INXS, The Cure, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Queen and Simply Red.
Virgin 1215's DJ line-up came from Radio 1, local radio (both BBC and ILR) and the English service of Radio Luxembourg that had closed down the previous December. The joint programme directors were Richard Skinner and John 'Johnny Boy' Revell.
The station promised advertisers an ambitious 3.3 million listeners per week. Skinner accepted that his former employer "Radio 1 is our main competitor and we will primarily be head-to-head with them. We will make a dent in their listenership." Of course for non-FM listeners there was also the option of the long-wave only Atlantic 252. But the big issue for Virgin was always whether a rock audience would put up with AM's audibility over a clear FM signal. Certainly in Beverley, where I recorded the opening minutes, 1215 AM sounded a bit slushy.
Though the official launch was scheduled for 12.15 on 30 April 1993 the station had been beaming out live test transmissions throughout the month. The first live voice on air for those tests was Tommy Vance, just minutes after signing off from his last Friday Rock Show on Radio 1.
Thanks to YouTube user 'Neatishead' for uploading this audio of test transmissions and the launch.
Needless to say I also had my tape rolling to capture the opening from Richards' Branson and Skinner. "The radio revolution is here!".
The newsreader is Tim Page (these days the news editor at BBC Radio Shropshire) who reads the bulletin provided by Chiltern Radio's Network News.
The opening weekend featured 1,215 classic hits, played in alphabetic order of title. This is how the first hour panned out:
Born to be Wild - INXS
Purple Haze - The Cure (although Skinner back announces it as Hey Joe)
A Day in the Life- The Beatles
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan
A Kind of Magic - Queen
A New Flame - Simply Red
A Sort of Homecoming- U2
Abacab - Genesis
Abracadabra - Steve Miller
Accidents Will Happen- Elvis Costello
Across the Universe- The Beatles
The first station schedules ran as follows:
Saturday
6.00 Graham Dene
10.00 Chris Evans
13.00 Emperor Rosko
16.00 Dave Fanning
20.00 Kevin Greening
23.00 Tommy Rivers
2.00 Sandy Beech
Sunday
6.00 Graham Dene
10.00 Classic Tracks with Kevin Greening
16.00 Album Chart with Russ Williams
19.00 Jonathan Coleman
22.00 Nick Abbot
2.00 Sandy Beech
Weekdays
6.00 Russ Williams
10.00 Richard Skinner
13.00 Mitch Johnson
16.00 Tommy Vance
19.00 Jonathan Coleman (Fri Emperor Rosko)
22.00 Nick Abbot (Fri Kevin Greening)
2.00 Wendy Lloyd (Fri Sandy Beech)
Here's how Martin Wroe of The Independent reviewed Virgin 1215's launch. Quoting Stuart Bailie of the NME he saw the station as being "for people who have nearly stopped listening to music, people on their way to the paddock. But just because millions of people buy Dire Straits albums doesn't mean their music is any good. But their are a lot of people out there with very sad taste, so the station could succeed." Meanwhile, at the other end of the musical spectrum, Mike Soutar of Smash Hits said: "If it's a feel good station, which Radio 1 is not, then it will succeed. But my readers won't be listening to it. they're all at school."
The sole survivor from 1993, still on Absolute, is, of course, Russ Williams. From that first weekend here's part of the Virgin Labatt's' Album Chart show. The newsreader this time is Robert Nisbet, now Sky News's European Correspondent.
Throughout the 1960s he was the unflappable safe pair of hands, equally adept at anchoring election coverage, moon landings, current affairs and global broadcasts. At the start of the decade he was the avuncular host who came into people's homes every evening on Tonight ("the next Tonight will be tomorrow night, until then good night") and ended it advising on the latest package deals in sunny Spain on Holiday 69.
Arthur Clifford Michelmore was born in Cowes on the Isle of Wight on 11 December 1919. On leaving school he trained as an RAF engineer in Loughborough. During the war he became a squadron leader and afterwards in 1947 began broadcasting as a sports commentator with the British Forces Network, then based in Hamburg. A year later he became the BFN's Head of Outside Broadcasts and Variety and a year later the Deputy Station Director. As I related in my post on Family Favourites, Cliff was called in to present the German end of the programme at short notice where he was partnered in London by Jean Metcalfe. By 1950 they had married and would become broadcasting's golden couple. Such was the media interest in Cliff and Jean that when their son Guy was born in 1957 Rory McEwen composed this topical calypso for Tonight:
Cliff Michelmore's in a lather
He's suddenly found out he's a father.
A brand new Michelmore's on tonight,
Shoving his father out of the light
He weighs 6 pounds
A bouncing lad,
Which is 16 stone lighter than his dad.
The Daily Heraldreported that Woman's Hour had rung Cliff to say: "It's no good, old man. Woman all over the country are badgering us to broadcast a few burps from your offspring. Can we send a microphone along?" Poor Jean found her stay in hospital shattered by photographer's bulbs flashing and the reporter from Woman's Hour immortalising baby Guy's first gurglings on tape.
When Cliff left the BFN and returned to the UK it was as a freelance working for the BBC. On the television service he was both behind the camera producing shows such as the children's magazine All Your Own, presented by Huw Wheldon, Playbox and Johnny Morris's The Horse Chestnut Manas well in front of them on the children's shows Telescope, Westward Ho! and Junior Sportsview. For BBC radio he was introducing music shows such as Top Score and Housewives' Choice as well as providing sports commentaries. Indeed looking through the BBC Genome website throughout most of the 1950s and 1960s there's hardly a week where Cliff's name doesn't appear on either TV or radio either presenting, commentating or producing.
Cliff's break into mainstream TV came about following the arrival of ITV in 1955. The BBC decided to schedule a 20 minute Newsreel, news summary and weather forecast from 7 pm. leaving a 10-minute gap before the evening's entertainment kicked off at 7.30 pm. Producer Donald Baverstock jumped at the chance to fill the void and thus Highlight was born. Billed as "people, events, comments of today" in effect the formula was three short interviews, carefully balanced: "a hard interview at the start, a human interest story in the middle, and a pretty girl at the end". Woman's lib had not reached Lime Grove in the mid-50s.
Initially the presentation duties alternated between Macdonald Hastings and Geoffrey Johnson Smith. When Mac gave it up Cliff was drawn in, apparently following an introduction to Donald Baverstock in one of the pubs near the Lime Grove studios.
Cliff was worth his salt and readily adapted to this live evening broadcast. On one occasion, not long after he joined Highlight, the contents of an edition were the financial journalist Edward Westrop talking about the state of the economy, an interview over the circuit to Cardiff with Welsh author Gwyn Thomas about a new production of Under Milk Wood and rounding off with a talk to a young Scot who'd just won the World Ham Slicing Championship. The journalist's train broke down at Notting Hill Gate so he was a no-show, the line between Lime Grove and Cardiff went down and so Cliff was left with having to fill the time discussing the finer points of ham slicing. His only consolation was that he went home with copious amounts of ham!
Working on HighlightCliff also learnt a valuable lesson that stood him in good stead for the remainder of his career. It came about when he was lined-up to interview Krishna Menon, a Minister in the Indian Government, who was in London to have talks with Harold MacMillan and had also caused ructions at the UN over their stance on Formosa (as Taiwan was then known). Each of Cliff's question was met with somewhat enigmatic rebuke "That question is not cast in the mould of my thinking." Years later Cliff would reflect: "You cannot go into any interview over prepared. Under prepared yes, but never over prepared".
By 1956 Cliff was not only working on Highlight but was still covering sporting matters on Today's Sport and Sports Round-Up was well as covering current affairs on Panorama. It was also about this time he acquired a new nickname. The story goes that he'd missed his train from Victoria Station and had retired to the Golden Arrow bar for a quick drink. He felt a tug at the bottom of his jacket, gazing up at him was a small girl. "Excuse me", she said. "Are you Clifflemore?" Answering yes she ran off and returned a minute later. "Clifflemore, this is my brother." He was carrying a bag of sweets and said, "Have a phweet, Clifflemore."
At the end of the year the Postmaster General, Lord de la Warr, extended the hours available to television (following pressure from the commercial channels rather than the Corporation) by opening up the closed hour between 6 and 7pm, the so-called Toddlers Truce. Donald Baverstock proposed that the Highlight team, with Cliff as presenter, bridge the gap with a nightly show called Man Alive. By February 1957 that title had been dropped in favour of Tonight. The programme was to be "very informal and relaxed in manner, the tempo brisk and competent." Crucially the use of filmed reports was to be an important element, a decision which led to the launching of the TV careers of Alan Whicker, Trevor Philpott and Fyffe Robertson. All this was promised on a very low budget of between £200 and £300 per day. Plus, as Lime Gove was unable to accommodate the expanded show, a temporary home was found in the old Marconi Studios in St Mary Abbott's Place in Kensington - a studio that had recently been vacated by ATV.
Cliff introduced the first edition of Tonight on Monday 18 February 1957. It had a specially composed sig tune, Tonight and Very Night, written by Felix de Wolfe. The packed running order included the draw for the FA Cup, a press review by John Metcalf, Cy Grant with a topical calypso penned by Bernard Levin of all people, actor Derek Bond telling the story of 'Bulbous Betty' the statue of Aphrodite that was offending people in Richmond Park, Derek Hart interviewing the great Ed Murrow and (intriguingly) Jonathan Miller giving his impressions of shops in Charing Cross Road.
Appearing for the best part of an hour each night Cliff would become a household name, a kind of TV everyman. The Evening Standard likened him to being "the John Bull of the Small Screen" It went on to say "this avuncular pink-faced middle-brow with middle-class accent, occasional squeak in the voice and mid-as-cocoa manner has a very warm place in the hearts of millions of Britons". Behind the scenes he was well-liked by colleagues but apparently "he was not easy to get on with; he could be prickly and he did have bursts of temper, but these never lasted long."
Tonight ended its run in June 1965 but Cliff was soon back as main presenter of BBC1's new current affairs programme, Twenty-Four Hours, broadcast on weeknights at 10.30 pm - so in some ways a forerunner to Newsnight. He was cutting back on his radio work, reports for the West region and football commentaries for the Light Programme, but was still much in evidence on the telly: "One way or another I got caught up in the Cuban missile crisis, General Elections, Olympic Games, early space shots, Royal Investitures, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, Concorde's maiden flights, the Apollo Moon programme."
Cliff was chosen to anchor the programme with the biggest worldwide audience (at the time), the Our World satellite link-up of 25 June 1967 that pulled in at least 400 million viewers, some estimates say 700 million.
In July 1968 Cliff left Twenty-Four Hours (the programme continued with Kenneth Allsop and Michael Barrett and later David Dimbleby by which time its title had slimmed down to 24 Hours). Ostensibly he left to "settle for a more predictable lifestyle" which would allow more time with the family. In fact he was also planning to move into industry and set up a corporate video programme production, as a subsidiary of EMI, with Gordon Reece. However, a return to TV was not far away.
The edition of the Radio Times that ushered in 1969 was packed with the usual holiday ads: JetSet holidays offering 15 days in Majorca for £35.10.0, Hoverlloyd with Ramsgate to Calais in 40 minutes for £10 plus a new weekly column from travel writer John Carter. Meanwhile the centre colour pages showed the Michelmore family on holiday, in Scotland and on the Isle of Wight, though they had plans to visit Canada. All this was to promote the new BBC1 series Holiday 69, designed to "take the worry out of your holiday planning". The first edition covered the increasingly popular package holidays, week two looked at holiday camps. For the next seventeen years Cliff was the trusted programme host, offering viewers a mix of exotic, and not so exotic, travelogues plus a dose of consumer advice. Here, in 1994, he returned to the programme when it celebrated its 25th anniversary. The presenter at the time was Jill Dando.
After Twenty-Four Hours Cliff didn't leave current affairs entirely. In 1980 and 1981 he was one of the presenters of Southern TV's regional news show Day by Day. It wasn't an entirely happy period as the commute to the studio's in Southampton proved exhausting.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Cliff returned to radio. In 1982 and 1983 he sat in for both Jimmy Young and Ed Stewart on their Radio 2 shows. The latter now included a Family Favourites feature so it was full circle. There was Waterlines (1984-92), a sort of aquatic Going Places, on Radio 4 (later transferring to Radio 5) and Coastline (1991-92) also on Radio 4. He took over as chair from David Hamilton of Radio 2's nostalgia based quiz Some of These Days (1986-91). His last regular series was again mining a nostalgia seam in A Year to Remember.
Since Jean Metcalfe's death in 2000, Cliff's media appearances were infrequent. He was last seen on TV on BBC Parliament's 2007 theme night The Pound in Your Pocket and in 2009 he was reading listener's news on iPM.
In 1984 Cliff suffered a suspected heart attack which caused him to take stock of his life. In the joint autobiography Two-Way Story he imagined what his obituaries might read like: "They might say I had been extremely fortunate to have achieved a measure of success in broadcasting in spite of lacking the intellectual powers and education of some of my contemporaries and the physical attributes of others. Hopefully they would add that I was greatly blessed by the love of a wife and family who, with good humour and tolerance, overlooked, and even ignored, the deficiencies in my character."
Cliff Michelmore 1919-2016
"The next Tonight will be tomorrow night, until then good night."
Quotes taken from:
Two-Way Story by Cliff Michelmore and Jean Metcalfe (Futura, 1986)
Tonight: A Short History by Deirdre Macdonald (BFI Dossier 15, 1982)
One of the last vestiges of 1950s commercial television disappears this Sunday as What the Papers Say, residing on Radio 4 for the last six years, publishes its last edition.
For 52 years the Granada TV produced review of the week's press ran on ITV (1956-1982), Channel 4 (1982-89) and finally BBC2 (1990-2008). In March 2010 it was brought back from the dead for a special election run on Radio 4 as What the Election Papers Say, reverting to its original title from 16 May 2010.
On its move to the BBC in 1990 there was a fascinating look at the programme's past linked by the then producer Brian Armstrong. Thanks to Transdiffusion for this upload.
From my own archive comes this edition from 26 May 1990 with Mark Lawson of The Independent. The readers are Delia Corrie, David Mahlowe and Peter Wheeler.
And here is that final radio edition of What the Papers Say, written and presented by Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror. The readers are Colleen Prendergast, Graham Seed, Steve Critchelow and Rachel Atkins.
For almost ten years my adopted hometown was Goole. At the time, roughly the mid-1980s to the mid-90s, I was both living and working there; my short, five minute, pedestrian commute from Broadway to the town centre offices of Boothferry Borough Council. Boothferry was still part of the much-maligned Humberside, both of which disappeared from the local government map exactly 20 years ago today. In this linked post - see also my Random Gubbins blog - I invite you to take an audio tour round the town.
Goole's history is inextricably linked to the waterways that surround the town, though surely the term 'Venice of the North' should be taken with a large dose of salt. And speaking of salt those twin water towers in the photo above are nicknamed the Salt and Pepper Pots. There was a small fishing and agricultural settlement, in what is now known as Old Goole from the 14th century. In the 1600s the surrounding marshlands were drained by Dutchman Cornelius Vermuyden, the Dutch being dab hands at drains and dykes. In 1826 the Aire and Calder Navigation Company opened the docks and canal basin to the north of the Dutch River, triggering an expansion of the town.
In this programme from the BBC Radio 4 series Take a Place Like, Stanley Ellis, John Grundy and Dr Juliet Barker have poke around the town taking in the Lowther Hotel, Hilda's Fancy Dress in The Arcade, the port itself and Goole Hall. Take a Place Like Goole was broadcast on 7 August 1988 and repeated the following day, from which this off-air recording comes. Apologies for the interference in the opening minutes.
In March radio station launches were like buses, nothing for months and then a handful came along all at once. These new stations were part of the Sound Digital DAB multiplex, a joint venture company owned by The Wireless Group, Bauer and Arqiva.
The new offerings from Bauer were brand extensions of Magic: Mellow Magic and Magic Chilled. First out of the blocks on 14 March was Mellow Magic, "carefully programmed to provide a relaxed and laid back station" aimed at the 50 to 64 age group. Existing Magic DJs Paul Hayes, Gary Vincent and Martin Collins are joined by the station-hopping Lynn Parsons, Forth 1's Arlene Stuart and actors Patsy Kensit and John Hannah. The station also offers the chance to hear former BBC staffers Fran Godfrey and Alice Arnold. Indeed it was a welcome opportunity to hear Fran, one of Radio 2's best, and much missed, newsreaders reading the news again on the weekday breakfast show - the only live show.
On the face of it there's little here that listeners can't get from Magic, the City 2 network or Smooth. The licence application suggests that the evening programmes may see a return of Saga Radio-type shows but, based on my admittedly brief review of one night's listening it was more of the same classic pop with a Billie Holiday track thrown in for good measure.
I'm not sure how much Bauer invest in their websites, very little it seems. Essentially both Mellow Magic and Magic Chilled offer one page without a full schedule, what happens overnight remains a mystery. Mellow only highlights nine musical artists: Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Dusty, Elton, Billie Holiday, Michael Buble, Simon and Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand and Rod Stewart. Neither website suggests anything they've actually played.
Magic Chilled - one of the stations on DAB+ as well as online - promises "a contemporary music escape with a playlist featuring fresh laidback hits". Although it lists an all female presenter line-up - Jade Ewen, Sarah Champion, Pips Taylor, Eloise Carr and Louise Molony - the links are all pre-recorded and kept to a minimum, every 3 or 4 records. So laid back was Chilled that it didn't really launch on 21 March as such; the test transmissions segued seamlessly into a breakfast sequence and then Jade Ewen's links from 10 am.
Launched with far more sense of occasion, and offering something new, certainly for commercial radio, were The Wireless Group's talkSPORT2 and talkRADIO. Going to air on 15 March, just in time for the Cheltenham Festival, was talkSPORT's sister station with sports coverage that wasn't just football-focused: racing, cricket (there's been extensive coverage of the World Twenty20), rugby, tennis, golf and athletics, so offering some alternative to 5 Live Extra. In this montage there's actor Lewis MacLeod (Dead Ringers and Wired News) declaiming "the prodigal son is ready". There's also talkSPORT2's Managing Editor Mike Bovill and the opening introduction from Ian Danter.
talkSPORT2 benefited from cross-promotion from talkSPORT, the two stations share some programming anyway as there's not quite enough other sports to satisfy a full-time extra station.
The talk radio format very much remains a minority one in the UK so perhaps most keenly anticipated of the new stations was the launch of talkRADIO (I'm carefully typing those lower and upper case characters!). Less news agenda driven than 5 Live or LBC - though this was tested on day two with the bombings in Brussels - it benefits from an experienced and lively line-up: Paul Ross (the only one from the original Talk Radio UK), Julia Hartley-Brewer, Jon Holmes, Sam Delaney, Jonny Gould and Iain Lee on weekdays. talkRADIO posted this video of the station launch.
Unfortunately, at least for those of us listening online, the sound quality on day one was appalling; it had marginally improved the following day.
David Lloyd did a quick editing job to put this montage together.
Judging by the listener reaction online there was much love in particular, and quite rightly so, for Jon Holmes and Iain Lee. Both started by knocking their former employers and their radio opposition - Holmes had only appeared on Radio X the day before whilst Lee had, of course, been dropped by 3CR last year - but they were asked to rein this in on day two, mind you both mentioned this management talking-too on air.
The only other observation is the lack of callers; the weekday shows, apart from Iain's, appear to be in single figures over a 3 or 4 hour show. Is the 0844 number putting people off (they do call back) or is it a production decision?
There was an exemplary lead-in to the launch (is that re-launch?) of Virgin Radio which went live on 30 March: "a broadcast legend returns". Online they had a fully operational website before the D-Day with presenter Q&As, press releases, schedules and playlists all supported by Twitter and Facebook. They then pushed the boat out, in fact pushed the train out - the Virgin Radio Star travelling from Manchester to London - as part of a launch day hoopla, all produced by TBI Media. This provided great publicity but I'm not sure it contributes much to the listening experience, "it's moving" we were excitedly told. Let's hope they continue to support new talent such as Gavin James who provided the live opening track, his take on Bowie's Changes.
Here are those opening moments:
Virgin's Programme Director Liam Thompson spoke about the station's audience: "We feel that there is an opportunity amongst those who feel too old for BBC Radio 1, but not old enough for BBC Radio 2. Our audience will be music-lovers who want to hear great new music, as well as the classics".
Whilst there are elements of its previous incarnation in the new station , unlike its Virgin 1215 predecessor - predominantly aimed at the male guitar rock lover - Virgin offers "classic and contemporary pop and rock hits" for a 25-44 year old audience. It remains to be seen how it will fare against the Absolute stations that took over from Virgin in 2008.
From the evidence of day one Virgin Radio, like its new Wireless Group stable mates, suffered from some technical issues, and that's not just the expected drop-outs during the train journey. It's almost as if they're trying to recreate the same reception conditions of the old AM service. I've read of audio quality complaints about both DAB and online steaming. Hopefully these will be fully addressed quickly before people switch elsewhere. Having said that it seemed fine to me over here in France via Radioplayer.
I should also name check the other new station to launch on D2, Premier Praise, the Christian music station that went to air on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately due to a combination of the shift to summertime and a late night I missed the station switch-on, though I did catch part of Steve Fanstone's show during the day.
And finally the other station launch that was part of the Sound Digital package was British Muslim Radio, now rebranded as Awesome Radio. Whilst an audio stream has been up and running since 29 February the website offers no clues as schedule or presenters and its only tweeted six times and has just 36 Facebook followers. Listeners are invited to submit their CVs to become part of the Awesome team.
Bob Harris celebrates his 70th birthday today. Music-loving Bob has always carefully crafted his radio shows and championed the cause of many musicians. This was more than evident in this weekend's Radio 2 show - for some mad reason tucked away at 3 a.m.
Back in October 1972 Bob was interviewed for the new magazine Deejay and Radio Monthly and recalled how he got his break into radio.
He'd been playing records as part of an experimental evening at the Royal College of Art and four months later was interviewing Radio 1 producer Jeff Griffin for Friendsmagazine. Jeff "remembered this thing at the Royal College, talked to me about it and asked me to do a pilot show for Radio Three".
"I took the list of records and ran with Jeff through the way I'd presented them - so in fact the pilot I did was based on the programme I'd done at the College. We directed it at Radio Three initially because Jeff thought it might be a little heavy going for Radio One - but in fact they were at the time already running a pop music series, and they never run two simultaneously. So Jeff re-directed it to Radio One - not as a programme idea, but as an illustration of what I could do."
The BBC liked what they heard and Bob was offered holiday relief for John Peel in August and September 1970. This is his first Radio Times billing (via BBC Genome). The following month, following the departure of David Symonds, Bob was offered the Monday night edition of Sounds of the 70s.
Bob, now also presenting The Old Grey Whistle Test, left Radio 1 in 1975. Controller Derek Chinnery "didn't much like the kind of music we features on Sounds of the 70s". In fact the station was having to trim back its broadcasting hours as part of a round of yet another financial belt-tightening. After that Bob recorded some shows for Radio Luxembourg but wasn't regualarly back on air until 1978 when he joined Radio 210.
Keen to return to the Corporation Bob accepted a drive time job with Radio Oxford in 1981. By the mid-80s he was also appearing on LBC, Radio West and Radio Broadland, BFBS and The Super Station. In 1989 he was finally back at Radio 1 when executive producer Stuart Grundy invited him to sit in for Richard Skinner; he gained a regular Sunday night show the following January following the death of Roger Scott.
Later in 1990 Bob's finally secured a daily show kicking off at midnight, following Nicky's Campbell's Into the Night. Three years later, following a "repositioning" of the network, he was back out the door. Here is a large chunk of that final Radio 1 show from the early hours of Friday 22 October 1993. And if you don't already know Bob's final record you'd never guess it. Part 1
Part 2
Bob secured more work with BFBS as well as regular shows on GLR. It was Jim Moir who invited Bob back to national radio with a Saturday night show on Radio 2 starting in 1997. He's been there ever since, adding Bob Harris Country in 1999.
BBC Radio Norfolk boss and regular presenter of Treasure Quest - a mad dash around the county by car in search of clues but without the Anneka Rice jumpsuit - has retired after 35 years at the station.
David Clayton stood down as Editor last month and presented his final Treasure Quest last Sunday. Whilst not part of the Radio Norfolk launch team in September 1980 he started to guest as a showbiz expert and appeared on Juke Box Jury before being offered a Sunday breakfast slot in 1981. In 1983 he moved to a weekday mid-morning show, The Norfolk Airline, co-presenting with Neil Walker. They won a Sony in 1986 for Best Magazine Programme before graduating to national radio on Radio 4's The Local Network(1987-91).
In The Local NetworkDavid and Neil linked up with "BBC Local Radio stations to investigate issues of common concern around the country" covering everything from tourism and bridge tolls to puddings and pools winners. Years later there was a long-standing joke at Radio Norfolk that David would often claim "I once made a programme about that for Radio 4", much the way that Uncle Albert would preface his "during the war" anecdotes.
A Radio Timesarticle introducing the new 1987 series of The Local Network described the duo as the 'Timpson and Redhead' of Radio Norfolk. "Some people define it as chemistry and that's the basis of all good double acts", said David. "But it may have something to do with the fact that we have very little in common and rarely meet off the air."
Also broadcasting from Norwich David briefly appeared as an in-vision announcer on Anglia TV and read the news on Look East for several years in the mid-80s. He also co-presented, again with Neil Walker, two short series for Radio 4 called Today's the Day (1990-92) that sought to "explore extraordinary days in people's lives".
Returning to Radio Norfolk in 1991 he was first Programme Organiser (what would now be called an Assistant Editor) and then Managing Editor in 1998. Although now management he still couldn't be prised away from the studio and continued to appear on air, usually on Sundays. When Treasure Quest started in 2008 David took over the 'Kenneth Kendall' style role
David had a big on-air send-off last Sunday inGoodbye to all that. The previous week one of those The Local Network shows got an airing. Last heard on Radio 4 in February 1988 it investigated regional differences in comedy. It's still online here.
You can hear another edition of The Local Network that I posted in 2012 here.
My thanks to Paul Hayes, aka The Questmaster, at BBC Radio Norfolk for his help with this post.
This year the Grim Reaper is, it seems, intent on populating his own light entertainment cast. Only last week we lost the supreme writer and comedienne Victoria Wood. Best known, of course, for her TV work I've had a look at her radio appearances on the BBCGenome website.
Victoria never did have her own radio series and most of her broadcasts are guest appearances often singing her comic songs. Her first broadcast, at least on national radio, was a 1977 edition of Comedy Parade featuring Rob Buckman (at the time best known for YTV's Don't Ask Me working alongside Dr Magnus Pyke) and Chris Beetles. She appeared again with Rob Buckman five years later in Get the Most Out of Your Body. She popped up on Start the Weekand Midweek and as a panellist on Just a MInute. Her only other panel game was I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue in 2009.
In the mid to late 1980s Victoria was heard reading stories for children on Listening Corner and Cat's Whiskers. She was a castaway on Desert Island Discs in 1987 and again in 2007 and guested on Woman's Hour and Kaleidoscope. In 2005 she wrote a spoof version of The Archers for Comic Relief.
But the piece of archive I've dug out is one of her appearances on the Radio 2 comedy The Little and Large Party. As far as I know this show hasn't had a repeat since its first broadcast in 1981 so it's a bit of a rarity. It was Little and Large's only radio series and for each of the eight shows Victoria provided a comic song. In this, the first episode of the series, she recalls her school days with the wireless on.
This week you can get your annual dose of European pop as the Eurovision Song Contest rolls into Stockholm. But you didn't always have to wait so long for your fix of Europop. For twenty years BBC radio offered monthly, and for a few years weekly, get-togethers with our EBU counterparts. In this post I recall Pop Over Europe, European Pop Jury, Nord-ring and Europe 74 to 82.
The European Broadcasting Union had been formed in 1950s and many of the broadcast exchanges tended to be sports events and concerts or outside broadcasts that allowed viewers to marvel at the new technology, such as the 1950 link-up for Calais en fete. The Eurovision Song Contest came along in 1956 and this led to German radio station Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne organising a monthly programme showcasing the latest popular music called Music Knows No Frontiers.
By 1963 the BBC had decided to join the party, by which time the programme was known as Music Has No Frontiers. The shows were broadcast on the Light Programme and introduced by Catherine Boyle, presumably chosen on the back of her two appearances as host of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 and 1963.
The four programmes in the series were not just confined to pop. The Radio Times billed it as covering "operetta to pop-chart songs." Seven countries took part: West Germany, Monaco, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and the UK.
Pop Over Europe 1 February 1964
By the time the series returned in February 1964 it had a new title Pop Over Europe and was heard pretty much monthly for the remainder of its life. Writing for the Radio Times, BBC producer Edward Nash was keen to portray a scene of Euro-harmony, even if he's confused about the number of countries taking part; it was seven not eight.
Aren't people kind?' said Catherine Boyle after the second programme in the Music Has No Frontiersseries, back in October. prompting the remark was the fact that, unknown to her, the compere of the Geneva contribution, Vera Florence, had brought to the studio Catherine's fifteen-year-old brother, Enrico, who is at school there, to greet her during our pre-broadcast rehearsal.
This friendly, family kind of atmosphere has characterised every programme; in fact, when we meet in Broadcasting House each month the initial greetings to and fro across Europe, in a bewildering assortment of languages, have to be heard to be believed! Gunter Krenz, who holds the reins of the whole enterprise in West German Radio's studios in Cologne, thrives on the challenge of this multi-lingual programme and is always seeking to extend the radio circle - latest newcomers to the chain being the BBC and, from last month, Radio Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
The object is simple - a top pop song of the month, introduced and played from each of the eight stations taking part, adding up to a programme which gives a cross-section of the European pop scene.
In December 1965 Nash again wrote for the Radio Times:
In two years at the London end of the Pop Over Europe series, it has always been fascinating to watch the trends and influences in pop styles in the seven countries involved. One thing stands out--come Beatles, Presleys, Stones, and Hermits - national characteristics in this type of music remain as ineradicable as ever. The clangorous Liverpool sound may have conquered many a foreign capital, yet, strangely, it has left in its wake no local imitators in any way worthy of the name. In Monte Carlo, for instance, 'yeh-yeh music,' as they call it, aroused only transitory interest, leaving such adored favourites as Sacha Distel and Charles Aznavour, albeit joined by newcomers like France Gall, in serene control. Throughout West Germany and into Austria the star names on disc are the romantic balladeers, velvet-voiced Peter Alexander and popular Freddy Quinn. In Italy the local partisanship is even stranger, the hit parade being dominated by home-bred stars like Gianni Morandi, Gabriella Cinquetti, and Nino Rossi. This is not to say that the British pop song no longer makes the grade in Europe-it's still a rare Top Ten there that hasn't a British group in it, as you may very well hear if you listen to Pop Over Europe this afternoon.
Pop Over Europecontinued monthly on Saturday nights throughout the 1960s and 1970s, on the Light Programme and then Radio 2, and changed very little of the years. By late 1966 the countries taking part dropped by one as Belgium bowed out but by 1969 Hungary and then Ireland joined the line-up. Portugal's Radio Lisbon was added in 1970, and then Poland the year after. Whilst Catherine Boyle remained the regular host - she wasn't billed as Katie until 1971 - David Gell would occasionally take over the hot seat.
Presumably tired of saying bienvenue and willkommen every week, Katie's stint ended in January 1980 and for the next four years Pop Over Europe was introduced by Marina von Senger of the BBC's German Service. This is the only clip I have Marina, indeed it's the only clip I have from the programme's 20-year history. It dates from 12 July 1980.
The final edition of Pop Over Europe aired on 16 December 1984, by which time it went out on a Sunday afternoon.
Katie Boyle - A Short Biography
Mention the name Katie Boyle and you might be reminded of Eurovision, the TV Times agony column Dear Katie and Camay soap. It's perhaps no surprise that she was a regular Eurovision Song Contest presenter and host of Pop Over Europe when you consider her background and upbringing.
Born in 1926 Caterina Irene Elena Maria Imperiali de Francavilla had a father who was half Neopolitan and half Russian. Her mother was half English and half Australian. She was raised in Tuscany and schooled in England, Italy and Switzerland. On her parent's divorce she also gained Hungarian nationality as in Italy divorce was still illegal and Hungary seemed to be a "hospitable and uncritical country".
In 1946 she arrived, with her mother, in London. After learning shorthand and typing and looking for a job she was spotted by someone from Woman's Own and offered modelling work. Catherine continued to model and take occasional acting roles. Bizarrely her first role was in the film 1950 Old Mother Riley, Headmistress billed as Catherine Carelton - by now she'd met and married her first husband, army officer Richard Boyle who also sat in the House of Lords as Baron Carleton.
It was BBC producer Richard Afton that helped launch Catherine's TV career. He invited her to appear in the Beauty Spot on a new show called Quite Contrary (1953-55). After a couple of a appearances Afton offered her the presenting role and she was on the way to being one of Britain's early TV personalities.
Under her first agent Maurice Winnick she became a panel game regular, a younger version of Barbara Kelly if you will, on BBC and ITV shows such as The Name's the Same, I've Got a Secret, Tell the Truth and Pick the Winner plus the Italian version of What's My Line? known as Che cose fa il Signor X? She was also a frequent panellist on Juke Box Jury and had a star vehicle (plus a Radio Times cover) in two series of Golden Girl (1960-61). Catherine was 'dropped' by the BBC for a while in 1955 whilst going through a divorce and then second marriage to Greville Baylis. For ITV she appeared on, amongst other things, Associated-Televison's admags such as The Posh Shop and as a Countess in a 1957 Armchair Theatreproduction of It Pays to Advertise(for which, ever photogenic, she gained a TV Times cover).
In late 1959 Tom Sloan, Head of Light Entertainment, Television, called Catherine into his office. "I've heard how you switch from English to French to Italian with the family", he told her. "So I'm going to let you introduce the Eurovision Song Contest". Sure enough she presented the show in 1960 and again in 1963, 1968 and 1974. In each case, apart from 1968, the BBC had to step in to host the contest when the previous winning country backed out with financial difficulties.
During the 1960s Katie (her billings now varied between Catherine and Katie) regularly appeared on the BBC Light Programme on disc shows such as Rendezvous (1962), Just Me (1963-64), Melody Fare (1964 & 1966) as well as Pop Over Europe. On TV she popped up on the panel games Pick the Winner (1964-65), Call My Bluff (1967-70) and even as one of the commentators alongside David Vine on It's a Knockout. On BBC Radio 4 Katie frequently joined in the discussion on the all-women show Petticoat Lane, the Loose Women of its day.
For many years, eighteen in fact, Katie was a TV Times columnist. The original intention of Dear Katie when it launched in the 3 October 1970 edition was to provide general advice about health, the home, fashion, cooking and so on. "Let me make it quite clear that if this turns out to be any kind of agony column, the agony will be strictly mine and confined to the physical slog of keeping up with your letters." Needless to say that within months she was the magazine's agony aunt. She penned her final column on 17 September 1988 before handing over to Dr Miriam Stoppard.
There was less TV work for Katie in the 1980s and 90s though inevitably panel game invites were still on the cards, e.g. Blankety Blank and Punchlines. However radio was once again keeping her busy. On BBC Radio 2 she was a panellist on Where Were You in 62? and Back to Square Oneand then back as a DJ for a week in 1988, deputising for Desmond Carrington and Gloria Hunniford before getting her own Saturday afternoon show in January 1990. By the summer of 1990 Katie succeeded Judith Chalmers on the mid-morning show, in what is now Ken Bruce's timeslot. Those daily shows ran until April 1991. She continued to broadcast for the station with Katie and Friends"a weekly magazine programme for animal lovers of all ages". (1991-95) The idea for this programme was no doubt triggered by Katie's long involvement with the Battersea Dog's Home, a charity she'd supported since the late 60s and continued to do so as a director until 2004.
Katie's last TV appearance, suitably Eurovision-related, was in a celebrity special edition of The Weakest Link back in 2004. She celebrates her 90th birthday on the 29th of this month.
I've posted this audio before but here's Katie presenting 35 Years of Eurovision as heard on BBC Radio 2 on 5 May 1990.
Nord-Ring
If you imagine a Venn diagram of Europe then there was a second set of countries, with some overlap with Pop Over Europe. These were the members of the Nord-Ring: the UK, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
The Nord-Ring programme history is a little more complicated but for a large part of its twenty-two year history, 1964 to 1986, it mainly consisted of joint broadcasts of concerts which, in the 1970s, were part of the Nordring Festival with entries competing for the Nordring Radio Prize.
The first programme in the series that provided a "popular music passport to Northern Europe" aired on the Light Programme in September 1964. It was a concert from Oslo that included in the line-up world renowned Belgian harmonica-player Toots Thielmans and Britain's Mark Wynter, best-known for his cover of Venus in Blue Jeans. Representing Sweden was the folk singing group The Hootenanny Singers whose number included one Bjorn Ulvaeus.
Radio Times caption for 17 October 1967
Aside from that concert, the first batch of Nord-Ring shows were broadcast as part of the Saturday afternoon sequence Saturday Swings, introduced for the BBC by Don Wardell, at that time a regular DJ over on Radio Luxembourg, but it was Paul Hollingdale who looked after proceedings for most of the 60s.
The umbrella title of Nord-ringcovered a number of series: Nord-Dancefeaturing some of Europe's top orchestras coming from venues ranging from Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens to Butlins in Bognor Regis! A similar series went out at intervals between 1965 and 1969 titled Dancing Round Europe.
BBC producer Geoffrey Owen and John Billingham looked after most of the early shows. In September 1966 Geoffrey Owen wrote for the Radio Times:
The radio organisations of the seven countries of Northern Europe which ring the North Sea have formed themselves into an association called Nord-Ring. The countries of Nord-Ring are Britain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
The aim of this association is to promote and encourage the interchange of popular music between the member countries for the mutual entertainment of listeners throughout this large community. This year, so far, the Light Programme has broadcast Nord-Ring productions on New Year's Day and at Easter, as well as the recent Dancing Round Europe series. Now Nord-Ring Touris presenting, in turn, a concert from each of the seven countries. Tonight the first programme from Broadcasting House, London, will be simultaneously transmitted throughout the Nord-Ring area.
The British representatives in tonight's concert are Edmundo Ros and Janie Marden. They are joined by three young girl singers from Holland, Norway and Denmark, Conny van Bergen, Elisabeth Granneman and Lise Reinau; by instrumentalists Henry Arland and Etienne Verschueren from Germany and Belgium; by the top singer from Sweden, Lasse Loenndal; and Paul Fenoulhet conducts the Radio Show Band. Paul Hollingdale introduces tonight's concert; he will help you to share this gay international event with our neighbours across the water.
Nordring productions seem to disappear from the schedules in 1970 and 1971, it's not clear why, but make a brief re-appearance in the summer of 1972 when Ray Moore introduces Wonderful Cophenhagen live over three nights.
From 1973 Nordringgot all competitive with countries seeking to nab the Nordring Radio Prize over a series of specially commissioned concerts. The BBC's entry in that year, for instance, was arranged by Les Reed, had a script by Benny Green and was narrated by Marius Goring. These festivals ran every year until 1984 - the 1983 series being broadcast as part of Saturday Rendezvous.
Dolf van der Linden (left) would often conduct for the Nordring Festival concerts
Meanwhile Radio 2 started another related series in 1976 called Nordring Roundabout in which David Gell "introduces a selection of music from the countries of Northern Europe; followed by some of the top records from other Continental countries". When David left the BBC the following year, Andy Cartledge took over and from 1978 to 1982 Nordring Roundabout became a feature on the Europeprogrammes (see below) with Colin Berry.
To add to the mix, in 1978, in addition to the Nordring Festival 1978 series, there's a series of concerts introduced by Len Jackson under the title Nordring Rendezvous. These programmes ran at intervals until 1986, with Len also presenting them as Saturday Rendezvousin 1983 and 1984 and then reverting back to their original title in 1985 and 1986 with Sheila Tracy.
I'm not clear what happened to the whole Nordring partnership after 1986. BBC Genome only makes two more references to it: a 1988 recording of the Finnish Radio Big Band on Peter Clayton's Sounds of Jazz and a 1989 Nordring Gala Concert featuring the BBC Big Band, a German singer and a Dutch pianist. Nor do I have a single second of any of the Nordring shows. If you happened to tape one please contact me.
European Pop Jury
Alongside David Gell (right) is David Lucas of the BBC Gramophone Library and scorer Tricia Madden who went on to join BBC2's Promotion Team as the 'Colour Television Girl'
European Pop Jurywas radio's equivalent of Juke Box Jury, but instead of a celebrity panel passing their verdict on the discs it was 200 'jurors' in each country with a push button voting mechanism.
The programme was a Swedish idea, as indeed was the 'mentometer' voting system, introduced for the EBU's 1965 Radio in Europe Week. BBC producer Johnny Beerling wrote this for the Radio Times when the first one-off edition aired on the Light Programme in November 1965:
To the non-fan one pop disc may sound very like another. To the fans, who know the difference, how do British discs compare with those from other parts of Europe? This afternoon, a Swedish device called the mentometer will be installed in Belgium,Britain, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland to measure the response of 1200 jurors to two records from each of those countries.
The programme will be broadcast simultaneously in the countries taking part, and the six juries will vote, giving scores to each record played. The one that is awarded the most votes will become the top pop of Europe for this week.
In Sweden the mentometer has been used for four years to pick the regular hit parade, and it was from that idea that our own Top Ten Game was devised. The European Pop Jury was suggested by Swedish Radio as part of the European Broadcasting Union's Radio in Europe Week. Since English is understood in the participating countries, it was decided to direct the proceedings from London, and Klas Burling will be coming from Sweden to produce the programme with me. David Gell will link the other comperes, who will supply local scores and translations into their own languages where necessary.
David Gell and scorer Jillian Comber
As Johnny says European Pop Jury wasn't an entirely original idea as the BBC Light Programme already had a home-grown version called The Top Ten Game that had started in June 1965, again using the Mentometer and again with David Gell presenting and Johnny producing. Johnny told me that he'd got the idea of sifting through the 60 or 70 weekly new releases and selecting some of the best for the programme to be put to the public vote. To help with the pre-election process was he roped in a young Phil ('The Collector') Swern. Johnny had heard about the voting system from Klas Burling during an EBU meeting. For the recordings the BBC engineers had to wire up each of the seats at the Paris Cinema studio with the push-button console. He provided this explanation for the Radio Times in 1965:
Few of the many records released every week have that special something which catches the ear and makes for a place in the best-sellers. In The Top Ten Game we hope to find out which new records have that special sound, and how they compare with those already established in the Top Ten. To help us we are using a new Swedish device called a Mentometer-a sort of opinion-meter-which has two hundred individual push-buttons: these are distributed to our studio audience. At a preliminary session, a panel of record-buyers select their ten best new releases of the week and in the first programme you will hear these ten records as well as the established Top Ten. After each of the records has been played our voters will use their push-buttons to register a score on the Mentometer. At the end of the game the ten records with the highest scores become our 'top-ten' for that week. The following week they will be challenged by ten more newcomers.
David Gell will attempt to keep order, read the Mentometer, and chat to one or two guests who may look in, while Jillian Comber from Television's Crackerjack will look after the scoring. We don't aim to produce yet another Top Ten chart as our show is only a game but it will be interesting to see how our results compare with the published charts.
The Top Ten Game ran weekly - every third week coming from one of the BBC regions - until January 1966.
A one-off programme, now called European Top Ten, was broadcast in November 1966 but after that the programme format lay dormant for a little over a year, returning as European Pop Jury on Radio 2 in February 1968 and then just a further three shows, this time on Radio 1 in October 1968, June 1969 and October 1969. Keeping score was Tricia Madden, recently voted as Radio 1's Disc Jockey Derby Dolly - well this was the 60s!
Radio Times article for the programme on 5 October 1968
Yet again the programme disappeared from the schedules only to re-appear in January 1971 and then monthly for the rest of its run until December 1983. Initially seven countries took part each time, drawn from the pool of the UK, France, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Later Spain and Yugoslavia joined. By the end only six countries participated on each show.
Very little of European Pop Jury exists but there is a full version of the show from 18 September 1976 in circulation amongst collectors. Here's a taste of that edition in which the jurors vote in Tina Charles above Abba's Dancing Queen. They didn't get that one right! The theme is Wishbone Ash's Blind Eye. Readers in Ireland will recognise the voice of RTE's Larry Grogan.
In 1977 David Gell gave up the show and returned to his native Canada. Filling his shoes were BBC TV announcer Andy Cartledge and Radio 2 presenters Nick Page and Don Durbridge. Producer Mel House then auditioned for a permanent host, Andy, Nick and Don were considered as was David Allan and Colin Berry. It was Colin that got the gig and with it the Europemagazine show (see below).
This is a clip of European Pop Jury from 17 January 1982. By now the show was recorded in the Concert Hall at Broadcasting House, though Colin recalls that he had to present two shows from BRT in Brussels owing to a GPO strike in London.
David Gell - A Short Biography
Born in Calgary, Canada in 1929 David was already working for a local radio station by the time he was fifteen, as both a record library assistant and on-air announcer. He continued to work for a number of stations in Calgary and Edmonton whilst studying for his degree, ending up as senior announcer at CKUA in Edmonton.
It was at Calgary station CFAC that he got a posting to Europe as a foreign correspondent. Based in Paris he travelled widely across Europe and ended up taking a part-time position as an announcer at Radio Luxembourg. In the event he stayed with the station for three years (1955-58) before going freelance.
At Luxembourg he presented various shows including Top Twenty, 208 Swing Club, The Six O'Clock Record Show, Monday Spin, Hits for Six, Friday Spin, Sound Off and Request Shows. After 1958 he continued to work for the station until the mid-1960s presenting recorded programmes such as Record Rendezvous, Meet David Gell and Time to Meet in which he interviewed the pop and film stars of the day.
Radio Luxembourg programmes for 12 May 1956
Now based in the UK David appeared on commercial TV on Concentration (a Granada quiz show in which contestants "can win fine prizes if they can remember which objects lie behind which number on the Concentration board), Criss Cross Quiz, Ready Steady Go,Thank Your Lucky Stars and Needle Match. For the BBC Light Programme and subsequently Radio 2 he presented over 40 different shows including Music for Sweethearts(1958-61), Transatlantic Bandbox(1959-61) and Twelve O'Clock Spin(1961-64). There were also late-night music like Pop to Bed (1962), Music to Midnight (1963), Music Before Midnight (1964), Music to Midnight (1964) and Music Through Midnight (1967). He had stints on Housewives' Choice in 1964, 1966 and 1967. There was The Top Ten Game(1965-66), Swingalong (1966-67), Music Session One for the Home Service (1967) and then Radio 4 (1969), Big Band Sound (1967-68), Album Time(1968-69), After Seven (1972-73) and Let's Go Latin (1973-75). All these were in addition to European Pop Jury, Nordring Roundabout and Europe 74 to Europe 77.
Here's a clip of David presenting a 1965 edition of the Top Ten Game:
For BBC Radio 2 David wrote and narrated the 4-part story on Tommy Steele, Flash, Bang, Wallop!and a 4-part portrait of Max Bygraves simply called Max. Both series sold around the world as a Transcription Services release. He also worked behind the scenes as a producer; he's listed on Pete Murray's Open House for instance.
David returned to Canada in 1977 where he was offered the position of anchorman for the CBC television Evening News. He continued to broadcast on both TV and radio with programmes such as Sunday Arts, Saturday Side Up and the popular and successful Mountain Top Music. He retired in the early 2000s but continued, up until a couple of years ago, to record documentaries and provide voice-overs.
Europe 74 to Europe 82
Europe 74 was introduced in July of that year essentially to fill the weeks of the schedule when Pop Over Europe or European Pop Juryweren't on. It seems likely that the programme was David Gell's idea, he both introduced and produced the early shows. By 1975 John Meloy and then Steve Allen produced, with Mel House taking over later.
The Europe programmes were usually based around a particular country or theme and included music from performers from that country and interviews (in English), most of which would be provided under reciprocal arrangements with other EBU broadcasters. Colin Berry remembers that tapes would arrive from the selected country and that he'd have to make up features to fit the content - not strictly his job as a staff announcer!
Colin's first Europe 78 on 4 February 1978
David Gell continued to present until July 1977 when Andy Cartledge and then Nick Page and Don Durbridge filled in. Colin Berry took over as permanent host of Europe 78 in February and remained with the programme until its demise in 1982. It's interesting to note that both Colin's first show in 1978 and his last in December 1982 focussed on Australia, surely foretelling their coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest from 1983 and their eventual entry into the competition itself last year.
This clip, from a full programme that's in circulation, comes from 2 July 1977 so I make this David Gell's penultimate Europe 77.
This clip of Europe 80with Colin Berry dates from 8 March 1980.
And finally honorary mentions of some other European music related shows on BBC radio:
International Spin
Between 1963 and 1967 Clive Roslin, later a BBC TV announcer and on LBC and Radio 4, regularly presented shows featuring "the pick of international pops" on the Light Programme. Initially this was on Twelve O'Clock Spin and then Pops Around the World and finally International Spin.
Music from the Continent
The shortage of needletime on BBC radio meant that producers had to rely on BBC in-house sessions and foreign orchestras. Music from the Continent (1965) offered recordings made available by other EBU broadcasters to fill a half-hour slot. The (uncredited) producer of this Light Programme show was Johnny Beerling whose abiding memory of it hearing lots of music by German zither player Rudi Knabl. Similar orchestral shows ran on Network Three as From the Continent (1965) and a Home Service filler programme called Continental Style (1965-66)
European Song Cup Contest
This is the now-forgotten song contest that was held in the Belgian resort of Knokke every year between 1959 and 1973. Although the UK entered all the contests - with singers ranging from Wally Whyton and Anita Harris to Engelbert Humperdink and Dave Berry - it was never properly covered by BBC radio apart from in 1971 when Brain Matthew introduced a week of programmes called Knokke Nights.
The contest was revived in 1980 (running until 1986 I think) as the Knokke Cup. Colin Berry introduced a handful of programmes in 1980 and 1984.
European Music Game
This was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 between 1976 and 1982. Contestants would take part in UK only heats and progress to the full European quiz. Initially these were drawn from BBC local radio stations and then from those that progressed through David Hamilton's Music Game. Quizmasters were David Gell, Tim Rice and then David Hamilton himself. The full Europe-wide quiz was usually chaired by RTE's Larry Gogan. Countries taking part tended to be from the Nordring group.
Hilversum Greets Radio 2
The name Hilversum was already familiar to anyone with one of those old radio dials. By the late 1960s it was home to the Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. Between 1979 and 1983 Radio 2 and NOP co-produced a series of concerts featuring British singers (Nick Curtis and Danny Street were regulars) accompanied by the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Dolf van der Linden, a regular from the Nordring series. Hilversum Greets Radio 2 was presented by Aad Bos (pictured left).
Euro-Mix
This was Radio 5's look at life and music across Europe. Initially presented by Caron Keating and then Robert Elms it ran from 1990 to 1994.
My thanks go to Johnny Beerling, Colin Berry and Rosemary Gell for their help in piecing together this history.
News this week that Paul Gambaccini is to be the next regular presenter of Pick of the Pops. He's probably in the studio now practicing those rundowns to At the Sign of the Swinging Cymbal. The announcement is steeped in irony: the post only becoming vacant because Tony Blackburn was, for some inextricable reason, caught up in the flak from the Savile Inquiry. Gambo himself was off-air for a year as part of a 'Yewtree' investigation.
Paul's move to Saturday lunchtime means another show comes to an end as, on 2 July, he'll present his final American Greatest Hits, a radio regular, on and off, for over 40 years. "Until next week's Paul Gambaccini show plays next week's American hits, Bruce Springsteen is number one ...."
It's a show I first used to listen to in the mid-70s on Saturday afternoons after Fluff had finished his rock show. That Radio 1 run ended in 1986. In 1998 he was back, this time on Radio 2. Here is that first return show from Saturday 18 April 1998, with Gambo following Johnnie Walker who was also back at the Beeb. The first record, inevitably, is Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, the track that both started and ended the original run of America's Greatest Hits on Radio 1.
Oh for a few hours - make that weeks - rummaging through the BBC's Sound Archives. Talk about a kid in a sweetshop. The archive has long since moved from the fifth floor of Broadcasting House, as mentioned in an article below, and is now stored in climate controlled vaults in Perivale.
For many years on a Monday morning, in a gap between Today and the 9 o'clock news, Radio 4 used to feature a series of programme, more often than not presented by the late John Ebdon, that plundered the archive for unusual and quirky nuggets. In a similar vein this sound clip comes from a short series that aired in 1980 called Keeping Track on "the art, science and business of sound recording."
Here, the presenter, Peter Clayton, talks to Tony Trebble, at the time the BBC's Sound Archive Librarian, and asks him to select some of his favourites pieces from the collection.
I was reminded of this programme when I recently read about the death, in April last year, of Tony Trebble. There's an obituary for Tony, written by Glynne Price, in the February 2016 issue of the BBC's Prospero and also on the Noticeboard for former BBC staff. Part of it reads:
"The first half of his BBC service was in library services, film and radio, when his reliability and discretion led to him being entrusted with the confidential recording for posterity of the career experiences of eminent BBC hierarchs. Moving on to Television Personnel eventually he settled effectively as a one-man Secretariat to successive Controllers and as such was ideally well-suited. Affably trustworthy he was able to deploy his own orderly-mindedness and the precise love of language that he so much admired in others particularly in navigating the treacherous waters which separated management and unions. His irrepressible capacity to find humour in most human dilemmas never succumbed to the many incipient idiocies of bureaucracy. He was a dependable source of honest counsel for anyone shrewd enough to seek it".
Back in 1975 Tony was interviewed for the Radio Times by Alexander Frater. Here's an extract from that article:
"Trebble, a spare, bespectacled , fit-looking man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of things past, has overall charge of more than 63,000 recordings which cover, quite simply, everything. There are current affairs, the voices of the famous and descriptions of great occasions.
There is a huge section devoted exclusively to the last war. There is music of every type, from assorted versions of Messiah to a Greek lady playing a 'jumping dance' on the bagpipes. There is even a section dealing entirely with rotten singers and terrible performances. There is also drama, dialects, social history, special effects and a unique collection of 5,000 bird, animal and insect noises.
Sound Archives was born in the 1930s, when it was called the Permanent Library. As well as collecting recordings from the past, they started carefully recording, for the benefit of future generations, the present as well. The 1931 Derby commentary was the first they made and today they file away, for posterity, the best 600 hours from each year's broadcasting.
Sound Archives consists of a small suite of rooms on the fifth floor of Broadcasting House, fitted with shelves and stacked with records. Trebble refers to it as his pantry. 'The records are simply ingredients which are used for mixing into new programmes. We get about 50 requests a day for material which producers want to incorporate into their current projects'. I asked him what recording appealed to him most. 'A woman in 1941,' he said, without hesitation. 'She had a loud upper-class voice and she said "First we have to win the war. Then we've got to reconstruct the world. Quite a task, really." I still think of her in awe.'
Sound Archives intend to continue recording people like that as long as they can. And as Tony Trebble says, 'When the Millennium comes and the Last Trump, we shall record that too'."
That mention of "600 hours" each year pales into comparison with the current acquisition rate of 6,000 per month.
Finally, before I leave the subject of the archive here's a fascinating Guardian Tech Weekly podcast from 2011 recorded just before the BBC moved from Windmill Road to Perivale:
