The world of British television off and on the screen, as it was sixty years ago.

M.E. No Likey

Time for a gander at The Stage, and its TV Page’s TeleBriefs column is, disappointingly, mostly concerned with television on the other side of the Atlantic.

In the few British TV snippets we are given we are told that the band leader Harry Parry will be returning to television “on September 14, as musical director of the BBC Children’s Television show Crackerjack“. Eamonn Andrews is set to be the master of ceremonies and the programme will run on alternative Wednesdays from 5.15pm to 6pm.

Also for Children’s TV, Terry Scott will be introducing his child character ‘Sammy’ on 7 September.

Elsewhere in the paper, it says that Kenneth More has refuted the announcement made last month that he would be appearing in a Sunday afternoon magazine programme made by Associated Broadcasting. Apparently “Lionel Gamlin’s off-set voice will be heard instead.”

The ViewPoints… reviewer M.E. was singularly unimpressed by last Saturday’s Howerd Crowd in which, he says, “jokes misfired [and] situations remained unfunny”. Not only that, but “Frankie Howerd himself was decidedly off-form” and “The kindest thing to say about [the show]… is that it must have been all a mistake.” He liked Señor Wences, though, who “fascinated from the outset” and “provided the laughs of the evening.”

M.E.’s colleague A.G. was equally unenthralled by This Is Show Business. It was “unsatisfying” as a whole with Peter Butterworth’s segment “mildly amusing” while another section involving Michel de Luitry and Domini Callaghan “didn’t help matters” and one with Constance Cummings was “even less promising”. Even the great Robb Wilton “had an off night” and “was only wanly amusing”.

Some of the dancers selected for Sunday Night at the London Palladium are named. They are Gay Owen (19) of Camberley; Joyce Champion (20) of Glasgow; Angela Bracewell (18) of Southport; Sonia Bendi (18) of Kensington and, from who knows where because The Stage isn’t telling, Valerie Hayes (21), Wendy Garton (18). The six were chosen, it says, by “Val Parnell, Lew Grade and Bill Ward” and will be “under the direction of George Carden”.

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