Roger Whittaker's Whistle Stop 1968 BBC and more....

[Jeff Leach]

Whilst watching a rerun of Sounds of the Sixties tonight - on the end credits there is a montage of show recording Tickets for amongst others

the recording of a 1968 show "Whistle Stop"

I haven't heard of or discussed at any length before and I thought it warranted further investigation

(One mention back in Feb 8, 2012 at by Alan Turrell)
How about Roger Whittaker's 1967-68 show called Whistle Stop , there were some great pop music acts on there, including Honeybus, The Herd , Manfred Mann ,Simon Dupree & The Big Sound and many more ,although lost shows say all 22 episodes are missing , i had the feeling that 1 or 2 performances were still around but i could be wrong.



The ticket stated that it was introduced by Roger Whittaker (recorded 22nd Feb 1968) and appears to be a music themed show

From the guests info listed on the lost shows site it seems a bizarre mix of  comedy performers and current pop bands

It lists regulars of Jack Haig, Dilys Watling, Larry Parker, Theodore Rabbit, The Bert Hayes Octet

Paired with pop acts for example The Peddlers, Manfred Mann, Eric Burdon and The Animals, The Fortunes, The Alan Price Set

Lost shows entry : www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?programme=69e2546a-981b-41a1-a3a9-8d00a503c321

This excellent site www.tvpopdiaries.co.uk/1968.html

expands on the guests listed

Series One

Friday 18th August 1967 BBC1 Whistle Stop 4:55 - 5:40 pm (first edition)Host: Roger Whittaker, Lulu

Friday 25th August 1967 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Alan Price Set

Friday 1st September 1967 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Fortunes

Friday 8th September 1967 BBC1 Whistle Stop Eric Burdon & The Animals

Friday 15th September 1967 BBC1 Whistle Stop Manfred Mann

Friday 22nd September 1967 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Peddlers

Friday 29th September 1967 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Cast of Crackerjack


Series two

Friday 23rd February 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop (first edition)Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick And Tich


BBC1 Whistle Stop Friday 1st March 1968 Kenny Lynch

Friday 8th March 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop Roy Budd

Friday 15th March 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Peddlers

Friday 22nd March 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Scaffold

Friday 29th March 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop Simon Dupree & The Big Sound

Friday 5th April 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop Tony Blackburn

Friday 12th April 1968 Good Friday BBC1 Whistle Stop Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen

Friday 19th April 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop Musical guests not known

Friday 26th April 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Herd

Friday 3rd May 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop Herman’s Hermits

Friday 10th May 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop New Christy Minstrels

Friday 17th May 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Tremeloes

Friday 24th May 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop Honeybus

Friday 31st May 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop The Barron Knights

Friday 7th June 1968 BBC1 Whistle Stop last edition Don Partridge


Can anyone (William) enlighten with any more info on the shows content ?

There seems to be no visual record in existence

[tonyrees]

Hi Jeff, thanks for giving my website a plug! My brother Graham appeared on the Roy Budd edition from March 1968. He represented his school in a Scalextric race against a boy from another school and also met Roy Budd himself.

[williammcgregor]

Hi Jeff,

Nice thread, I like hearing about obscure pop music shows,hopefully I can help with some extra info...I got this from the NME

12/4/68 The Paper Dolls

19/4/68 The Love Affair

meantime I'll keep looking for info elsewhere

cheers
William

[Jeff Leach]

Apr 5, 2014 7:50:17 GMT tonyrees said:

Hi Jeff, thanks for giving my website a plug! My brother Graham appeared on the Roy Budd edition from March 1968. He represented his school in a Scalextric race against a boy from another school and also met Roy Budd himself.

Found it very informative Tony - more pieces found in my jigsaw of music TV Knowledge !

[williammcgregor]

Reproduced with the kind permission of Keith Badman

[williammcgregor]

23rd February 1968 Radio times feature



15th March 1968 show below

[williammcgregor]

Here's an introduction to the 1st show from the Radio Times dated 18th August 1967

love the idea of "The Whistle Stop Grand Prix" on a 17ft track, brilliant low tech entertainment! that would have appealed to me at the time as I was 11 yrs old




25th August 1967 Radio times



checked all episodes and there is nothing more to be seen guest wise in the Radio Times

[williammcgregor]

Just checked the dates of all the shows in the Daily Mirror and Daily Express and this is all I found

Daily Express 24th May 1968

[allanwilko]

Apr 5, 2014 7:50:17 GMT tonyrees said:

Hi Jeff, thanks for giving my website a plug! My brother Graham appeared on the Roy Budd edition from March 1968. He represented his school in a Scalextric race against a boy from another school and also met Roy Budd himself.

I've just found out via a friend's diary, the date of my school's appearance on the show. Broadcast on 24 May 1968 (recorded 23 May), the guest band was the Honeybus and I won the Scalextric round. I won a record voucher. My school was Hexthorpe Junior School in Doncaster. I remember meeting Roger Whittaker before the show and he being really pleasant, shaking our hands.

[Al Hine]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66843162

Roger Whittaker has died, he was 87. RiP.

[Jeff Leach]

With Roger's recent passing I had a look for some of his early TV appearances and came across this clip from 1968

From a series called Degree's of Folk which miraculously apparently exists in full - Some good guests listed including

Alexis Korner, Julie Felix and Pentangle.

[Jeff Leach]

More info here :

wiki.scotlandonair.com/wiki/Degrees_of_Folk#:~:text=Degrees%20of%20Folk%20was%20a,June%20to%205%20August%201968.

[Sue Butcher]

That's ace whistling, it'd put some birds to shame! Since we can't see any, I will say that I didn't think Whistle Stop was that great. I remember the 1968 series and Wacky Jacky Haig, but not the Scalextric contest; slot cars were big that year, Blue Peter and Tom Tom had them.

[nicadare]

From a wiped episode of Toppop (NL)

[John Green]

Sept 23, 2023 6:29:04 GMT Sue Butcher said:

That's ace whistling, it'd put some birds to shame! Since we can't see any, I will say that I didn't think Whistle Stop was that great. I remember the 1968 series and Wacky Jacky Haig, and but not the Scalextric contest; slot cars were big that year, Blue Peter and Tom Tom had them.

O/T, but I've just seen Bruce Wayne explaining how to take corners with slot cars, in a 1967 episode of Batman.

Roger Whittaker was apparently hugely popular in Germany: www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/19/tributes-flow-for-germanys-favourite-englishman-roger-whittaker