this is not on lostshows. Monday 22 January 9.45 -10.0 pm Blossom Dearie Sings For Your Approval Live from Ronnie Scott's Club Director John P. Hamilton Rediffusion Network Outside Broadcast again can anyone shed anymore light on this Show please?
Blossom Dearie began appearing very regularly on TV towards the end of the 1960s. She had a peculiar high pitched girlish voice which I could not stand but apparently she was highly regarded as a jazz singer.
An episode of The Newcomers has shown up on You Tube ,episode 166 tx 05/05/1967. It seems to be sourced from the original VT. Wikipedia states that only 3 episodes are in the BBC archive Episode 59 –Original transmission 26 April 1966. Episode 172 – Original transmission 26 May 1967. Episode 222 – Original transmission 7 December 1967
LONDON ITV 2.10—4.15 CRICKET. Fourth Test Match; England v. Australia.
I have read (possibly on this forum) that YTV retain VT coverage of this test match that was played at Headingly,Leeds during the first week of their franchise.Later in that summer the BBC were broadcasting the final test at The Oval partly in colour in 1968. The remaining footage (which I watched live) is famous for showing Derek "Deadly" Underwood blowing the Aussies away with minutes to spare to give England a 1-1 share of the spoils in the series. What then followed was a discussion led by Peter West as to the composition of the MCC squad to tour apartheid South Africa which was to be chosen that evening.By then Colin Cowdray,despite still being a player, had become a selector and the subject as to whether Basil D'Olivera should be selected after his strong all round performance in the series took place with Cowdrey remaining non-commital about the sitution. Later in the evening it emerged that the MCC had omitted D'Olivera from the squad to massive dismay. In today's term this would have equated with the ECB ommiting Moeen Ali from the England squad to tour an aparthied South Africa because he "hadn't done enough to merit selection". Ironically days later D'Olivera's repalcement Tom Cartwright pullled out of the tour with injury which left the MCC (having been roundly condemmed for the original decision) with no choice but to name D'Olervira in their squad,which led to the tour being cancelled. Cowdrey was a beautifully elegant batsman in the true traditions of test cricket but his beahviour over the D'Olevira affair was despicable and I lost all respect for him afterwards.
The programme tonight started off on the wrong foot with typical BBC lazy production values when the well known performance of Astronomy Dominie was credited as being "taped at the Queen Elizabeth Hall". Seeing as this stuff is aimed at us of a "certain age" it is obviously from the Late Night Line Up type programme that was introduced by Robert Robinson about a week later. The Floyd played live and then some Austrian composer who had been "brought up on the string quartet" proceeded to try and patronise Syd and Roger. When asked why it had to be so loud Roger replied that it did not have to be but that was the way they liked it............
It's a shame they did not include the TOTP footage from 1967 and just fess up about the deplorable archiving policies of the Beeb at that time (and many years after)...that goodness for French and German TV archive policies in the 60s! Finally the band only version of Atom Heart Mother was brilliant...never seen this before. They say that they came close to nervous breakdowns trying to make this a symphonic masterpiece....but from this comparative failure emerged Meddle and Dark Side of the something.................................................................................................................
I think that the young lad playing the major role in the first bit of the programme may well be John Salthouse who went on to play DI Galloway in The Bill amongst other roles. John was born in 1951 which would have made him 14/15 in 1966. Watch the first couple of minutes of the first episode of The Bill which features him and see what you think.....
I agree that Goodnight Sweetheart worked the best. It had the original writers and cast who were clearly comfortable in their roles. The whole premise of the show was ridiculous but for some reason it really worked. Also agree that Kevin McNally really nailed Hancock.
So Disney were the rights owners of this programme? What would have possessed them to wipe it in its entirety? I am not up to speed about how programmes are archived these days but I was under the impression that they could be stored digitally thereby negating the need for bulky video tape libraries? I have no memories of this programme as I was well past children's TV by then ,but my kids now in their early 30s remember it. I have often bemoaned to them that so much TV of my childhood years is gone forever whereas I would tell them that most of what they watch will always be available somewhere in archives,online etc. So it's good to know that not everything will have been lost ,despite Disney's cultural vandalism.
I remember regularly watching the Newcomers but little about it. Was it on Tuesday and Thursday on BBC 1 at 7.00 - 7.30 in the evening? The basic initial premise, I think was that the Cooper family, Maggie Fitzsimmon and Alan Browning (playing husband Ellis) move to the rural village of Angleton. Was he appointed as a manager with a new company? Did they move to a new estate in Angleton. Gran, Gladys Henson had to be encouraged to move with them as well as two children? I remember the editor was Gerald Brooks. I remember Campbell Singer (he'd not long been in Doctor Who. The only episode I can recall was Ellis Cooper having a heart attack roughly after the programme had been on for a year. At the end of the episode Ellis lay on a hospital bed. The camera zoomed in onto the cardiographer showing his heart beat. It stopped. Flattened.... Roll end titles. Next episode lots of tears from wife, Maggie Fitzgibbon. I think soon after she decided to leave Angleton and return to London. A new family moved in. That's my recollection on 430 episodes. I don't recall any merchandise or novelisation. Rather sad really.
This just about sums up my memories of The Newcomers. It was on twice a week but had few ,if any ,truly memorable story lines. It is interesting that a lot of the cast members are recalled as they were all well known at the time and could have done a lot more with better material. It was the mid 60s so we only had 2 or 3 channels to watch ,so there was an element of the captive audience about this. The Beeb famously struggled for decades to produce a soap to match Corrie in the ratings.I don't really remember Compact, The Newcomers was too bland ,United too blokey and lets just not talk about Triangle!
Thanks John. The Newcomers is one of those programmes that I was aware of back in the day ,although apart from remembering that Maggie Fitzgibbon and Alan Browning were in it I have no other recollections.
11.45 : The Martin Loach Collection Newcomers tx: 1968
"Wikipedia states that: Only three editions are known to have survived in the BBC's Archives: Episode 59 – Original transmission 26 April 1966. Episode 172 – Original transmission 26 May 1967. Episode 222 – Original transmission 7 December 1967."
I have really enjoyed reading this thread. It is interesting how many contributors ,including myself, have such fond memories of the Trems. Not particularly groundbreaking with their music but always well performed and entertaining. They never seemed to be off the box in the 60s.
These performances are quite important in the history of the Tremeloes. They were offered Yellow River as a single but after recording it turned it down as they were trying to move away from their good time pop image. The song was then released by Christie and went on to be a world wide hit that has been covered by numerous artists. They wanted to concentrate on songs written in house by Alan Blakely and Chip Hawks,hence the release of By The Way ,which flopped. They continued to release Blakely/Hawks singles for some years with little success.