Some obscure early TV appearances by Kenny Everett
Jul 12, 2020 14:21:55 GMT
Ray Langstone (was saintsray), Tony Walshaw, and 3 more like this
Post by markdixon on Jul 12, 2020 14:21:55 GMT
I started a thread recently about ‘The Kenny Everett Explosion’, and this got me thinking about other aspects of Kenny’s early TV career. I’ve found a few details about some of his little-known TV appearances and I thought I’d share them here.
Granada’s continuity man
Everett was hired as the continuity announcer for the Granada region for the Christmas week of 1968. This followed his success as one of the presenters of ‘Nice Time’. This was the first time Granada had ever used an in-vision continuity announcer.
There was an interview with Everett in the TV Times (Granada edition) 21-27 December 1968. It was promised that he’d be ‘feeding platefuls of laughs as Granada’s continuity man’. He was asked what he was working on for his festive presentation stint. He replied, “Something zany I suppose. That’s what they say about me isn’t it? That zany disc jockey. All good fun isn’t it …”
As far as I know, none of his links survive. Transdiffusion have audio clips of Granada TV continuity from the 60s, but they don’t seem to have anything from Christmas 1968.
‘Claim to Fame’
In 1971, Everett was the host of a 3-part series on BBC West called ‘Claim to Fame’. This was shown on Tuesday nights from 02 November 1971 to 16 November 1971. The series involved a ‘search for talent’, but it wasn’t a talent show in the traditional sense. Each episode featured filmed reports about people in the South West of England with unusual jobs or hobbies. Each week, the person with the best story became a champion. Viewers were encouraged to contact the programme if they thought they had a better claim to fame than the champions.
‘Claim to Fame’ doesn’t show up in BBC Genome because it was a regional programme. The series was mentioned briefly in the ‘Hello Darlings!’ biography, but the authors seemed to think it was a radio programme.
All that survives of the series is a black and white 45 second outtake. This was made available on the news section of the BBC website in 2017 and it’s still there (search for ‘Kenny Everett film clip discovered in BBC archives’).
Any further information is welcome.
Granada’s continuity man
Everett was hired as the continuity announcer for the Granada region for the Christmas week of 1968. This followed his success as one of the presenters of ‘Nice Time’. This was the first time Granada had ever used an in-vision continuity announcer.
There was an interview with Everett in the TV Times (Granada edition) 21-27 December 1968. It was promised that he’d be ‘feeding platefuls of laughs as Granada’s continuity man’. He was asked what he was working on for his festive presentation stint. He replied, “Something zany I suppose. That’s what they say about me isn’t it? That zany disc jockey. All good fun isn’t it …”
As far as I know, none of his links survive. Transdiffusion have audio clips of Granada TV continuity from the 60s, but they don’t seem to have anything from Christmas 1968.
‘Claim to Fame’
In 1971, Everett was the host of a 3-part series on BBC West called ‘Claim to Fame’. This was shown on Tuesday nights from 02 November 1971 to 16 November 1971. The series involved a ‘search for talent’, but it wasn’t a talent show in the traditional sense. Each episode featured filmed reports about people in the South West of England with unusual jobs or hobbies. Each week, the person with the best story became a champion. Viewers were encouraged to contact the programme if they thought they had a better claim to fame than the champions.
‘Claim to Fame’ doesn’t show up in BBC Genome because it was a regional programme. The series was mentioned briefly in the ‘Hello Darlings!’ biography, but the authors seemed to think it was a radio programme.
All that survives of the series is a black and white 45 second outtake. This was made available on the news section of the BBC website in 2017 and it’s still there (search for ‘Kenny Everett film clip discovered in BBC archives’).
Any further information is welcome.