Memories of the early 1960’s – entertainment

In the early sixties entertainment was far different to today’s 24/7 portable TV in every room affair. Like most families, we had one small, black and white television in the corner of the living room but it played a much smaller part in our world than TV does today. In the 1960’s, radio was King. There were broadcasts all day and it was the background to our lives. We listened to the BBC, as did most Familes, although I think Alex may have secretly tuned to Radio Luxembourg or one of the pirate stations like Radio Caroline, broadcasting subversive rock and roll music.

Rock and Roll wasn’t on the BBC agenda in those days. I remember Lonnie Donegan’s Skiffle, jazz with Kenny Ball and, pop with the Beatles, Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and the like along with a few songs aimed at children like me. Danny Kaye with his Ugly Duckling and Peter, Paul and Mary’s Puff the Magic Dragon were my favourites, although the latter, may not have been as child friendly as I thought at the time. Frank Ifield yodelling and Pete Seegar’s Little Boxes were also firm favourites, the latter because the ‘little boxes made of ticky tacky’ conjoured a wonderful image even if the satire and social comment was lost on me.

After Sunday lunch, I recall Dad sitting down to listen to The Billy Cotton Band Show, which began with Billy shouting “Wakey, Wakey!” This became a catch phrase in our house. On Saturday mornings there was even a request show for children, Children’s Favourites. The theme tune, Puffin’ Billy by Edward White, still sticks in my mind as do songs like Nellie the Elephant, The Windmill in Old Amsterdam, Laughing Policeman, Jake the Peg and Hello my Darlings. Children these days don’t know what they’re missing.

It wasn’t all music though. Pappy was fond of soaps like Mrs Dale’s Diary and The Archers and I knew to be quiet when those instantly recognisable theme tunes came on. My all time favourite was, of course, Listen with Mother. Early every afternoon I’d sit on the floor and listen enraptured to stories, nursery rhymes and songs. It must have been a welcome break for Mother and Pappy.

Mostly the shows stick in my mind. Many of them were comedy shows like Round the Horn, The Navy Lark, Hancock’s Half Hour and I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again. I didn’t understand the jokes but I liked listening anyway, if only for voices like the inimitable Kenneth Williams and the laugh of Sid James. The Clitheroe Kid with Jimmy Clitheroe playing a naughty boy who got into all kinds of scrapes did make me laugh although I’d never have dared to do the things he did.

When it came to TV, there was nothing doing at all until quarter to four in the afternoon. We would have to switch the set on in plenty of time to ‘let the valves warm up,’ and I remember watching a white dot on a black screen before, finally, the test card appeared. This was long before colour TV and the little girl with the clown, so the test card was just a boring pattern of lines that was, apparently, there to help you tune your set. Eventually, a white clock face would come on to count down the last minutes before programmes began. Watching the hands go round was so exciting I could hardly contain myself.

What followed was Watch With Mother with a different show every day. One of my favourites was Bill and Ben The Flowerpot Men with their weird flubalubalob, language and the excitement of waiting for them to catch Little Weed, which they never did. Then there was Andy Pandy, Rag, Tag and Bobtail and Picture Book but my favourite of all was puppet show The Woodentops with spotty dog and his strange bark.

After Watch With Mother finished it was back to the test card or maybe one of those strange interlude programmes they used between scheduled programmes or when things went wrong. These were a round of films with music and I remember the Potters Wheel which really was just a potter, or at least his hands, and a wheel making a pot endlessly. There was also a windmill slowly turning and a plough going across a field. None of it would be given airtime today but I suppose the novelty of television made anything at all seem interesting.

Just before five, Children’s Hour began. Quite often I and most of the other children in the Crescent would have already gone out to play by this time if it wasn’t raining or freezing cold, although there were certain shows that were required viewing. Puppet shows Stingray and Thunderbirds came into that category as did Dr Who but the Daleks scared me so much I couldn’t sleep so I was banned from watching.

Other programmes that I remember watching from time to time were Animal Magic, with Johnny Morris doing funny voices for all the animals in Bristol Zoo and Tales of the Riverbank with live animals called things like Hammy the Hamster and Roderick the Water Rat driving cars and boats and getting up to all sorts of mischief. The voices were also all provided by Johnny Morris although I’m sure I believed the animals were really talking. Another was Small Time with Muriel Young, Wally Whyton and guitarist Bert Weedon. There were puppets, Pussy Cat Willum, owl Ollie Beak, dog Fred Barker and fox Basil Brush along with short programmes like Ivor the Engine and my favourite, Sarah and Hoppity. Even now I remember the beginning of that show with Sarah swinging on her front gate,

Children’s programmes were only really shown in the late afternoon with the majority of television viewing being devoted to adult shows. Even so, there was some crossover with cartoons like The Flintstones which, much like the Simpsons today, was aimed at adults but watched by children, or maybe it was the other way round. Either way, the whole family watched and laughed at the antics of Fred, Wilma, Barbey and Betty even if many of the references went over younger heads and much of it was based on an American world we knew nothing of with things like drive in movies.

Pappy was very fond of an early evening programme called Gone Fishing which later became Out of Town where Jack Hargreaves talked about the countryside. Perhaps it reminded Pappy of his younger days living in the village of Hartley Wintney in Oxfordshire. I seem to remember it being about things like ploughing and building willow fences which was pretty interesting stuff to a little girl of four or so even if I’d never seen a willow fence or a plough. The gentle theme tune sticks in my head even now a song staring off, ‘Say what you will, the countryside is still, the only place that I can settle down.’ What a pity there aren’t more things like that on to today.

Other shows I watched but probably didn’t really understand were Bootsie and Snudge about two soldiers who’d just been demobbed from their National Service and Steptoe and Son about a father and son who ran a rag and bone business. The rag and bone man was a familiar sight on our street back then with his horse and cart and call of “ragaboowne!” and the Steptoes had a horse and cart just like it. Harold, the son was always calling his father, Albert, “you dirty old man,” but the old man always seemed to get the better of his son in the end and would give the camera a leering toothless grin.

Then there were the action shows with dapper heroes and fast cars. The Saint, with Roger Moore as suave conman Simon Templar was probably the first of these. Another was The Avengers, a spy series with bowler hatted John Steed. This was one of the first to feature strong women as sidekicks. Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale and later Diana Rigg as Emma Peel wore stylish clothes, carried guns and often came to the rescue. Sadly in The Man From UNCLE the women were usually the ones being rescued by secret agents Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin.

Game shows were pretty popular with two competing shows in the early sixties, Take Your Pick with Michael Miles and Double Your Money with Hughie Green. In Take Your Pick there were yes or no questions and a gong would sound to tell people to leave the stage. At the end the winning contestant was faced with a wall of boxes cobtaining prizes that could be something good like TV’s and holidays or a booby prize. The contestants had to choose whether to take the money or open the box. Most seemed to go for opening the box even though the prize was often something rubbish like rotten tomatoes or dog food. Double Your Money also had questions and the contestants won money for giving correct answers. The big prize was £1,000, which was a huge amount of money back then.  For this contestants had to go into a sound proof booth for some reason.

Hughie Green also hosted the popular talent show Opportunity Knocks. Many of the acts were singers and some actually went on to become famous like Mary Hopkin, Bonnie Langford and Bobby Crush. Some popular comedians came from the show including Freddie Star, Little and Large and Les Dawson. Many of the acts were never likely to make it to the big time though, although the plate spinners and the muscle man who flexed his greased up muscles to music even if they were fun to watch. There was a clap-o-meter in the studio to see what the studio audience thought but the real votes were posted in by the TV viewers and the winner was announced the next week. We never posted a vote but I always enjoyed watching.

Music wasn’t confined to the radio either. There were shows like Ready Steady Go aimed at teenagers with popular groups playing live in the studio. For me this was the first time I saw what my favourite singers looked like and I remember watching Gerry and the Pacemakers, Helen Shapiro, Cilla Black, Lulu, Sandie Shaw and, of course, The Beatles. Funnily, my favourite group were Freddie and the Dreamers, probably because of mop haired, spectacle wearing Freddie’s energetic dancing and his jumping in the air doing the splits at the end.

Not all the music shows were aimed at teenagers, laid back crooners like Val Doonican, Perry Como and Andy Williams had their own shows. Then there were variety shows like Sunday Night at the London Paladium, although this did feature popular bands like Bill Haley, Chubby Checker, Sammy Davis Junior and even the Beatles. If I was really good I was allowed to stay up to watch and I enjoyed comedians like Jimmy Tarbuck, Norman Vaughan and Bob Monkhouse even if I didn’t get most of their jokes. There were high kicking dancers, a puppet mouse, Topo Gigio, and a game show, Beat the Clock with a clock that ticked away the seconds while people tried to do some trick or task. It was all performed live and once I recall Judy Garland being late on the stage. The spotlight played on the closed curtains, the music played but Judy didn’t appear. The show always ended with dancers and all the guests on the stage slowly revolving. Then I would be packed off to bed.

Please see my copyright information before you copy or use any of the above words or pictures.