All Tinsel and Turkey... Christmas night in the Stars of BBC and ITV...

Christmas brings many things, presents, food and television in abundance. As the schedules have been released for this year the usual soaps and also big hitting programmes dominate, but it wasn't always like this. At one time there was a one stop shop to see all your stars in, the BBC coming together if you will. The show which dominated the big day itself for more than fifteen years was Christmas Night with the Stars, a place where the stars shone so bright and you could get the likes of Cliff Richard rubbing shoulders with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. Usually in ten minutes sections of

the most popular sitcoms of the year, the best light entertainment shows and the biggest stars. This was a show of might by the BBC to show the viewers their selection box of personalities.

The first show in 1958 was hosted by magician David Nixon, performing tricks himself as well, the line-up was a stellar one with the cream of British comedy appearing in sketches such as Ted Ray, Charlie Chester, Charlie Drake combing with future stars Tony Hancock and Kenneth Connor, the nature of the show meant that Dixon of Dock Green appeared with Billy Cotton and also the Beverly Sisters performing, though the interest comes in the cast with future Benny Hill writer Dave Freeman performing with Charlie Drake and the writers of the show reads like a who's who of comedy writing. The partnerships of Galton and Simpson are there with Muir and Norden plus Charlie Chester as well. This was the cream of the talent the BBC had, meaning something was there for everyone. To say that the BBC wanted to get a march on the fledgling ITV franchises was an understatement, though this showed ITV on the biggest occasions that the Beeb were willing to fight for their audience. Plus with the Light Entertainment department getting new directing and producing talent into their ranks, this would set the BBC up for the 1960's.

With the BBC's intentions clear to fight for the audience which was out there, the sixties was to be a decade which would change light entertainment for ever. A decade of pushing the boundaries, where Britain would change in itself. At the start of the decade with the opening of the new Television Centre in 1960, one of the newest purpose built television studios in the world. The raising of the standard, made the programmes even better. The first show of the new decade featured Sid James from Citizen James, Harry Worth on film plus regulars David Nixon and Jimmy Edwards. It might seem the programme had hardly changed at all, but by 1962 Eamonn Andrews has taken on the role of presenting The Black and White Minstrels, Dixon of Dock Green and The White Heather Club. But backing these favourites up were two shows which were new and were to show the BBC had started to change in its comedy output. The Rag Trade starring Peter Jones, Reg Varney with support of Miriam Karlin and Esma Cannon, the show had been on the air since 1961 but 1962 was the first time when the honour of appearing on the biggest show of the year was bestowed on it.

By 1964, the programme had moved away from including shows with a dramatic narrative. So Jack Warner became the host as Eamonn Andrews had moved to ABC, but the focus was more about the light entertainment stars. The Black and White Mistrels were present with Billy Cotton, the traditional had there place in there but with pop starting to rule the roost, the show acknowledged this with appearances from Kathy Kirby and The Barron Knights. Two stars who were to become two of comedy's biggest stars performed sketches in the form of Benny Hill and Dick Emery, their comedy seemed the same by the end of the decade Hill had moved to Thames Television and Emery was still present on BBC1. Though with comedians there was a place for the all-round entertainers as well, Roy Castle being one of them. The future Record Breakers host had his own show, singing and dancing showing off his talents on a weekly basis, Castle was very much a British 'Sammy Davis Jnr.' , though his career though bubbling along didn't hit the heights as many people thought he would do at that time. Alongside Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd, Freddie Frinton and Thora Hird performed a shortened version of their sitcom Meet the Wife, but 1964 also saw the launch of BBC2 and one their biggest comedies which had been repeated on BBC1, The Likely Lads was asked to film an insert for the programme with Rodney Bewes as Bob and James Bolam as Terry reflected on the Christmas season in their own inimitable way. It was a sign that a new wave was sweeping through light entertainment.

Come the end of the decade, with the new ITA franchises in place and the BBC looking towards newer talent, it gave the 1968 a new fresh look which would start the new era of light entertainment at the BBC. In this year, the show was a powerhouse, the host being the newly arrived from ATV, Morecambe and Wise hosted the programme. Just having Eric and Ernie on Christmas Day was a bonus, allowing them to perform at their best, though the supporting cast was one which the BBC could be proud of. The personality led variety show had come to define light entertainment by the end of the decade, ITV had led with the Tom Jones show but the Beeb could count on Cliff Richard to do pretty much the same job but in a more boy next door style, the might of pop was important to the very important teenage audience so both Lulu and Petula Clark were included too. Both performers would go on to have their own personality led variety show the same as Cliff Richard with in the next five years following the programme.

Though the biggest star the BBC could offer was Rolf Harris, this antipodean bundle of many talents had his own show on a Saturday night inviting the top singing stars of the day, performing dance routines with Duggie Squires' Young Generation containing a future Blue Peter presenter in Leslie Judd and future Light Entertainment executive who would put his own mark on the genre in the 1990's, Nigel Lythgoe. Add in the combination of jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, comedy from Marty Feldman and with new to that year comedies Not in Front of the Children and more importantly Dad's Army filming sketches for the programme, it is little wonder what the new ITV companies did for 1969, they thought back. They launched the All Star Comedy Carnival, taking the best of what ITV had to offer from all the regional franchises and showcasing them in one place. That first year one of the main attraction was the Granada series 'The Dustbinmen' featuring a pre-Are You Being Served Trevor Bannister.

With the start of the 1970's, it saw the death of Tom Sloan in May 1970. The head of the Light Entertainment group had been influential in bringing so many shows which would define the BBC's output in the 1960's such as Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, Dad's Army, the Val Doonican shows and even Dixon of Dock Green. His influence over the BBC's biggest department meant that he could persuade the performers to make appearances on Christmas Night with the Stars, but all backed up with his team behind him like Stewart Morris, Yvonne Littlewood, Roger Ordish, Terry Heneberry, Michael Hurll and most importantly Bill Cotton Jnr. Cotton Jnr. himself had been a producer for in house BBC productions since 1956 including his own father's Band Show, so he was the natural choice to take over the role. The 1970 cavalcade of stars had Cilla Black appearing with Dick Emery, Terry Scott, June Whitfield and Stanley Baxter. But the star power the show had meant, Clodagh Rogers could be seen alongside Nana Mouskori, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis contributing to give a transatlantic feel but none could top an appearance by Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra that's without noting the 'Galloping Gourmet' Graham Kerr as well. This provided a combination of laughs, music and even cooking as well, all the things for a perfect Christmas party.

So with this wealth of talent on the one programme, what could ITV do for their All Star Comedy Carnival of that year? Well, at 6.30pm, the programme started with the mixture of The Lovers with Paula Wilcox and Richard Beckinsdale, Hark at Barker meant that Lord Rustless would get a place in the Christmas schedules for Ronnie Barker, the Doctors in the House were there from London Weekend with the jokes coming thick and fast from Yorkshire Television's Jokers Wild with Barry Cryer presenting and his future Kenny Everett writing partner Ray Cameron on writing duties. To add in variety, Des O'Connor brought a snippet of his own show with Des singing, even down in Weatherfield there was a seasonal visit to Coronation Street with the regulars of the Rovers Return pondering about the festive season in a especially written mini-episode. This of course pre-cursing the days when the soaps and their story lines would become a integral of the Christmas Day schedules. All linked together by Max Bygraves and with musical accompaniment from Geoff Love and his orchestra as well, even popular BBC sitcom stars Warren Mitchell and Rodney Bewes turned up on the programme. Though it is surprising that the programme that followed the show On the Buses wasn't part of the comedy carnival itself with it being one of ITV's top rated shows at the time, but maybe keeping separate from all the other shows meant the rest of ITV's comedy and entertain could be showcased without them being overshadowed by a mini-episode of such a popular show. On reflection, ITV's effort may have seemed weaker in comparison for that year to the BBC's effort but it did offer an alternative to the BBC though.

1971 saw more change with the BBC's Light Entertainment department bringing new shows to their schedule with the Generation Game, Parkinson and the Two Ronnies, Messrs Barker and Corbett being reunited with each other. Bill Cotton's stamp was firmly on the department now, but come Christmas Day the stars were rolled out once again including mini episodes of Dad's Army, Till Death Do Part sharing the limelight with efforts from Lulu and her show, Mike Yarwood making an impression on the audience both in the studio and at home. It was a show of force once again from the Beeb, but ITV counteracted pretty much with the same shows of the previous years but with the inclusion of The Fenn Street Gang and Please Sir! Which they had left behind, Father Dear Father came from Thames and Lollipop loves Mr Mole from ATV. Plus Les Dawson made a mini-episode of Sez Les which was doing great business for himself and also Yorkshire Television as well. Mike and Bernie Winters hosted this year, they themselves had made a contribution of a music item with Opportunity Knocks' Hughie Green on trumpet/guitar, ITN newsreader Gordon Honeycombe on sax, illusionist David Nixon on double bass, Eamonn Andrews on trombone and the whole of the World of Sport team providing the rhythm section, plus Mike Winters playing the clarinet. This is one of those occasions where you wish the footage has not been lost, just to see this spectacle. Not only for the sight of Dickie Davies on drums or the fact what song they actually played, with the Christmas TV Times of that year handily saying it would be an old favourite.

But with this chance at the BBC came a new policy to do with Christmas television, all the stars who had roughly ten minutes to showcase themselves and their programmes during Christmas Night with the Stars seemed such a tight time to do so. So it was that 1972 was the last Christmas Night with the Stars for another twenty four years, introduced by The Two Ronnies after their success with the own show in the previous year. As in previous years Dad's Army and Mike Yarwood did mini-episodes of their own shows, with this year two additions to the line up of The Liver Birds and The Goodies, themselves fresh from their own success on BBC2. Plus Lulu appeared as well as The Young Generation with this year Nigel Lythgoe being credited as the choreographer of their dance routine, the credits for this show read like a who's who of the BBC Light Entertainment department, the Two Ronnies directed by Terry Hughes, Dad's Army by David Croft, Jim Franklin producing The Goodies as well as Michael Hurll and Sydney Lotterby. In addition to both musical directors Ronnie Hazelhurst and Alyn Ainsworth and a stellar list of writers including Michael Palin and Terry Jones, Barry Cryer and Neil Shand to name a few. This was the way to go out, as from 1973, the Christmas specials would out on their own and longer then before. The BBC worked out that each show could do even more by each production

being able to work on their own efforts, thus focussing the talents of the crew, the writers and the performers. That idea was to have massive success as the Christmas schedules of the BBC would continue to dominate for many years to come.

The swansong for the All Star Comedy Carnival would come for ITV in 1973, up against the BBC's new style Christmas Day schedules. They could offer Jimmy Tarbuck in a mock house with the going on with Man about the House, Les Dawson making another appearance with Sez Les, My Good Woman from ATV and Billy Liar from LWT plus Spring and Autumn from Love Thy Neighbour's Vince Powell. But not even the might of the Wandsworth School Choir and Fyfe Robertson could overthrow BBC1's offering. So it was not surprise that after this year's edition that ITV took the same approach as the BBC of pitching the best of their shows up against each other, for Christmas Night with the Stars, the style of that programme was used for the Funny Side of Christmas in 1982. Again the best of BBC comedy all in the same place and with revivals in 1994 on BBC2 featuring the likes of Steve Coogan performing and again ten years later in 2004 presented by Michael Parkinson, but this version seemed more like an extend version of his chat show. For the All Star Comedy Carnival, the idea has not been revived by ITV and looks likely not to be any time soon.

Some people may say that these programmes, maybe they were of their time. But however without them we would not have got to the Christmas Day schedules today, they were the first to introduce soaps on Christmas Day, they were the first to have the leading comedies of the day back to back, they were the first to have top variety in the same place and they were the first to introduce new comedies to a wider audience. Whatever way you want to look at it, Christmas would not have been brighter places without them.

The Spies We Loved - The world of Espionage and Spying on Television

For as long as there has been television and radio, there has been a fascination of the world of the spy and espionage plus also the the sometimes murky word which goes behind it. Cinema-goers have followed the likes of James Bond through Harry Palmer and onto Jason Bourne, to get their fix of glamorous locations, beautiful but sassy women and physically demanding action as well.

Those this cannot be said that television has been left behind in this, to a certain extent the ITC series of the sixties and the seventies dealt with lone action heroes going about their duties as citizens to sort out any problems which may occur, but away from the world of Simon Templar and The Saint to Danger Man's John Drake was the grip of the Cold War where all sides were trying to work out what what each other was doing.

In 1963 one of the earliest series, Espionage was made by ATV both broadcast in Britain and in America on NBC. As an anthology of stories allowed for a fluid cast with no leading characters however the series did introduce many famous names some of their earliest acting roles such as a pre-Easy Rider Dennis Hopper, David Kossoff along with Patrick Troughton, Patricia Neal and Billie Whitelaw plus also Anthony Quayle who had himself been a member of the Special Operations Executive during World War Two.

The series differed from being based in the Second World War to modern Cold War times with agents operating for peaceful means or as resistance operatives, taking in the tales of

the agents working on the front line and showing the public what life was really like for these operatives rather than fast cars and a fast lifestyle as well. Allowing for reality to be shown in daily operations allowed series to go in one of two directions, either down the fast paced action route or the more in-depth dramatic route more real to situations that agents were facing on a day to day basis.

With the American networks taking the more glamorous action, the British broadcaster wanted to show the real side of spying, leading to more grittier series which did not flinch away from tough, bleak reality. But what happens when you ask too much about about what you do when your job is in the dark and murky world of espionage? The answer is simple, you become a special agent. That is what happened to David Callan over four series and feature length film. Callan played by Edward Woodward as the reluctant professional killer for 'the Section' a shadowy branch of the intelligence services first appeared in an edition of Armchair Theatre on February 4^th 1967 featuring in a story called 'A Magnum for Schneider' written by James Mitchell who had written not only Callan, had been a prolific writer of spy thriller but also crime fiction plus writing for shows such as The Troubleshooters for the BBC, Justice for Yorkshire Television and ABC's own The Avengers as well as creating When The Boat Comes In for the BBC.

With such a cast including the likes of Edward Woodward and Peter Bowles, gave the story a almost chilling edge underscored with the music of Robert Farnon at the beginning, though the action takes place in the studio as opposed to the glamorous ITC shows of the time, allowing the scenes to be more realistic than fantasy of which the normal world of the agent was.

David Callan, himself had a steady hand and a cool nerve, but Callan also had a conscious about what he doing, much of the action was about those who were doing wrong, did wrong or about to do wrong at some point in the future. Cold blooded, he may seemed but it was for safety of the public he did it. Long before Spooks hit out screens in the new millennium, Callan focused on the darker side of spying and who to get results. But it was the downtrodden nature of the character which grabbed the public's attention, trading in being in an anti-hero.

With Edward Woodward's memorising performance as Callan, it became a firm favourite with viewers everywhere. But when the stories became more about his struggle then the action which had made it popular. Where as Bond was going to paradise, Callan was doing the dirty work, becoming an anti-hero for the times. The right show had come at the right time, in 1967 where other action series had become luxurious, Callan had paired it right down to the basics. A gritty man for gritty times, where was Britain had been a bright, colourful place by this time it seemed like the party was over and a reality check that these

things had to be done by operatives to keep its citizens safe for the good of the nation it seemed.

Where as Callan ruled the small screen at the end of the sixties and into the early seventies, Harry Palmer was doing much the same for cinema audiences. The anti-Bond in the novels by Len Deighton was deliberately the complete opposite of James Bond, his upbringing and style were said to be working class and for all the glamour Bond encountered Palmer has his hands tied by bureaucracy about what he can and can't do in his position. For the big screen, the production values were almost as big as Bond's with Michael Caine playing eponymous character for the films.

However where it had seen that the movies and television were seeming miles apart apart from the bigger serials made by ABC and ATV in Britain, but with both Callan and Palmer cemented the style of the spy series. The unglamorous world for operatives being shown, more listening than doing meant that one of the greatest tales of espionage, cross and double cross could be the most simple telling of a tale ever.

Though in 1969, when Thames Television already had Callan, they decided to launch a new drama series looking at the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police, dealing in anti-espionage and anti-terrorism as well bridging the gap between the police force and MI5. The focus was on showing what was going on in the capital, the black heart which was beating underneath. The series first premièred on the 17^th of September 1969 with the first episode called 'Troika' looking at a spy ring based in London with the link between a civil servant, an ice skating champion and a KGB agent based posing as a travel agent, the view of this side of society was a new one for viewers allowing them to see the police which before had been more of the beat officer, though style the production used in the first two series was quite jarring with the scenes within their headquarters recorded on videotape and the outside shots filmed on outside broadcast film cameras, much like the same technique used by Thames' own Van der Valk and other shows. However when Euston Films took on responsibility of making the show in 1973 as one of its first of many productions, the whole of the programme was filmed on 16mm film giving it a gritter appearance later to be used by The Sweeney and Minder as well.

When the characters of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Haggerty played by Patrick Mower and Strand, a shadowy civil servant played by Paul Eddington that the series picked up in 1973, but the 1974 series also featured Dennis Waterman as a criminal in the episode “Stand and Deliver”, with later Mower, Eddington, George Sewell who played Chief Inspector Alan Craven in Special Branch as characters in The Sweeney though Waterman was to play George Carter memorably alongside John Thaw's Jack Regan. It is said that Special Branch formed a template for The Sweeney to take on the baton from there. But Patrick Mower was to get his own action role in the BBC's own Target at the end of the 1970's, proving that Special Branch was a good training ground for action stars.

At the same time as Target was on the BBC, Yorkshire Television came up with a new series to look at the men and women who served for the Special Intelligence Service, more commonly know as MI6, though the acronym S.I.S was in the series itself. The operatives working for the department were a special breed usually charged with dealing with highly political sensitive or diplomatically complex missions such as defections, assassinations and rescue missions. But because of the seemingly underfunding of the department led by Neil D. Burnside played by Roy Marsden, the S.I.S has to share information with the C.I.A leading to both coming into conflict at times but with Burnside's job of delicately trying to please both the British and United States governments at the same time.

But this does have an effect on Burnside's well being and health in the end, with him looking out for his operatives and their safety turning into an obsession for him. Though the story of The Sandbaggers and what happened to him could could have been in the plot in the series itself. Scottish writer Iain Mackintosh, a former naval officer who had previously written the BBC's Warship had written all of the first two series scripts, but in 1979 when travelling with his girlfriend, a British Airways stewardess they were lost at sea when the single engine aircraft had disappeared over the Pacific Ocean after they had stopped off at a disused U.S. Air force base and that the plane crashed in an area not covered either U.S. Or Russian radar. Three of the scripts were written by Mackintosh when him and girlfriend had disappeared leading to the last four being written by other writers and the last episode's conclusion to be inconclusive and unresolved because the new writers and the producers though they could not write an ending that would have been up to the standards that Mackintosh had set for the series.

The style itself was to be an antidote to the James Bond films which had been about girls, gadgets and cars. With hardly no action sequences and more dialogue than most shows allowed the series to go in a new direction focussing on the reality of the operatives, their lives in such a risk business with regular characters getting killed, double crossing complex plots and a multi-layered story.

But why does the world of the spy and espionage appeal to viewers when they had more glamorous series and films out there? Does it come from a need to find out what exactly these people do to protect our nation, perhaps it can be explained in the same way as a good murder mystery. The actual suspense of what will happen to characters next and the plots itself had to be followed week to week, as the 1970's went into the eighties people's minds were a world away from the glamour of vodka Martinis and thinking towards the Cold War plus what it actually meant. In safety knowing there was something to trust, though not all the time as it seemed the opposition was internal and external as well.

Though if it wasn't for these earlier series, then the likes of Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy could have not been made allowing the public to understand the complex situations that agents could be put into both in their work and their own lives, but the unravelling of these cases shown in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy and its sequel Smiley's People meant the web which was weaved by what seemed like a simple situation led to complications for its protagonists. Later on in Spooks, let the action take centre stage just as the Bond series of films were being rebooted from the heyday of the 1970's and 80's with more dramatic licence, showed the working of the inner sanctum of MI5 and its agents. The focus to the new millennium and its challenges, led the series become pure in the workings of the action by almost copying a movie style, with the series becoming cinematic later on. Though as the stories got bigger and bigger, thus the action itself had to be come bigger and bigger. Much with The Sandbaggers in the 1970's the characters were seemingly expendable and there was much risk to the job than had been seen before.

Whether if its MI5, MI6, the KGB or the CIA, the fascination with the secret service continues for viewers and writers alike and as long as there as spies and cases to solve there will be room for the spies we love.

Mike Yarwood - This is Him... (Part Two)

In the last part we looked at how Mike Yarwood had become a impressionist and performer, through doing impressions for his family and work colleagues and how television director Royston Mayoh had a direct effect on his career by helping him hone his act both for cabaret and also television.

By the end of the 1960's Mike Yarwood had made his first tentative steps into television having appeared on ABC TV's Comedy Bandbox and also Sunday Night at the London Palladium, which at that point Mike thought that it would give him his big break as had happened to Jimmy Tarbuck before him. In 1968, he had done two series for BBC Two of Three of a Kind with comedian Ray Fell and also Lulu. Though when a third series was going to go ahead without Lulu who had moved onto BBC One with her own series, Yarwood himself thought that he was good enough to had his own solo series and in a fit pique turned down the opportunity to appear in the third series.

At that time in 1968, it seemed that Mike Yarwood had made totally the wrong decision by ignoring his agent Dave Forrester's advice at rejecting the chance to carry on working for the BBC at that time. But it was around then that Yarwood had some luck, Lord Lew Grade was planning a charity gala at the London Palladium to raise money for the British Olympic team so that they go to the Mexico Olympics, the first to be shown by ITV in almost full coverage. One of the main acts who were going to appear on the show pulled out, it was around the time when Eric Morecambe had a heart attack, so it was impossible for Morecambe and Wise to appear at that time. This left gaps to filled, so Mike was asked by Lew Grade to appear at the gala.

Because of the importance of the gala, The Queen and Prime Minister Harold Wilson were to be in attendance, though the climax to Yarwood's act was to be an impersonation of Wilson himself. Though this was to cause problems for Lew Grade as Mike Yarwood recalls in his 1986 autobiography Impressions of My Life.

“ 'What are you going to do in the Harold Wilson part?' asked Lew Grade.

'Oh, I've got a script,' I said vaguely. Lew shook his head 'Be careful. We don't want anything political with The Queen here. Just come on and say good evening or whatever and leave it at that.'

I was in despair. Harold Wilson was the most popular part of my act. I felt sure it would fall flat if I was to leave him out, but what was the point of coming on with the pipe and mac and saying 'Good Evening'? That would hardly leave them rolling in the aisles.

I had a moan to Jimmy Tarbuck who was also in the show. 'Why don't you come on and look down at Wilson and say “Snap”? said Jimmy.

I thought about it. It might work. 'Thanks, Jimmy. I'll give it a try,' I said.”

So thanks to Jimmy Tarbuck it seemed that Mike's act on the night had been saved. When he went on to do his spot, he felt that it as was going well. Then he put on the mac and picked up the pipe to do the climax of his act, so much that because of Wilson being in the audience, there was an expectation of Yarwood was going to do. At this time it is important to remember that politicians were still held with high respect by most people and especially the Prime Minister. The fact that That Was The Week That Was had punctured the pomposity of politicians allowed for performers to get away with more then they had ever done before against the political class. When Yarwood walked to the front of the stage to do whatever dialogue he had lined up and all he did was a double take of Harold Wilson and his wife Mary that he had just spotted them in the audience. With a look at Wilson and after a brief few seconds Mike uttered the words which would bring the house down, he said “And as for you sir, I've got only one thing to say to you... Snap!” then at that point hurrying off stage as if he'd lost his nerve.

It was this performance at the gala which got Yarwood great reviews from critics and Lew Grade spotted that Mike was a performer that he could work with, so he signed up Yarwood for three shows, but there was to be more offered if they went well.

With these new shows for ATV came an appearance at the London Palladium appearing with Cliff Richard, going to rehearse for the ATV shows during the daytime and performing at the Palladium during the evening. With Mike's personal life taking an upturn at that time with his future wife Sandra who was a dancer at that time. In taking the Palladium shows with Cliff Richard, it boosted Yarwood's performing skills even more by doing more larger nightly performances. But it was one remark to Cliff that took Mr Richard aback, when introducing Cliff to the audience, he had quipped to the screaming audience of girls in Frankie Howerd's voice “All right, all right... Don't get you knickers in a twist!” It got such a big laugh that Mike used night after night in his act to introduce Cliff Richard. At that time with Mike performing at the Palladium, in pantomimes and also summer season. His was a talent that was getting noticed, though much like Morecambe and Wise who nurtured their act on ITV and to move to the BBC in the same year. Mike Yarwood's career was helped by ATV such as a contemporary at that time Dave Allen.

By the time of the Royal Variety Performance of 1968 and the ATV show going well, meaning as with all royal shows that the comedians shared the one dressing room, Mike was used to having small dressing room but on this occasion he was sharing the star dressing room with Frankie Howerd. But this was to lead to ructions between Mike and Howerd over Yarwood's impression of him.

“The only thing that slightly marred that evening was Frankie's disapproval of my impression of him. Strangely enough in all these year she's the only person who's ever admitted to my face that he didn't care for being mimicked.”

Howerd himself thought that Mike's impersonation was effeminate, though it was the style of delivery which Frankie did himself which was more gossipy than anything else, though this showed even in the most talented and adept performers that self-doubts of themselves could be there although they never showed it whilst performing. Something that Yarwood was to know more about by the end of his career. The fragility which can dog a performer, all through that time. Though in performing during the Royal Variety Performance meant that Mike was in demand, the new up and coming talent who was now starting to move up the Showbiz Set. Just as his home life was settling down, 1969 was to start with a bump with his ATV contract not being renewed after three television shows for Lew Grade. The same reasons for Yarwood not taking a third series of Three of a Kind with the BBC, had come around again. It was seemed that the management thought that he was too big-headed, thought it might have seemed Mike's showbiz career had stalled at this time his agent kept him going and negotiated for him to do summer season in Bournemouth with Frankie Vaughan.

Around this time Mike had proposed to Sandra, but this was to have unwanted effects when working with Frankie Vaughan. During one of the summer season shows with Yarwood, he had a spotlight turn around and shine on Sandra announcing that Mike and her were going to get married much to Sandra's embarrassment though she was in the business herself, it showed that even if people were in show business that a moment when being caught off guard could be embarrassing even if the sentiment was meant to be caring. But in looking at Vaughan's performance, Mike learnt even more in how to work a crowd with the movements and the style he used in his act. The most valuable lesson that he learnt from Frankie was that if you wanted to be a star, you had to be a star all of the time and not just on stage.

Just at this time when everything was going right in Yarwood's own personal life with marriage to his fiancée Sandra and finding out they were going to have a baby together, the same could not be said for his career. Work was plentiful and he was still appearing on other performers own shows, it seemed that although still working, the actual direction he wanted his career to go in was going in a straight line. Though for this somewhat feeling that he had come as far as he could, in his work snobbery was coming through. Questioning his venue for summer season in Blackpool and also his place on the bill, when he should be higher up having made television appearances and top the bill at club one-nighters. In this impetuousness, his agent Dave Forrester kept his feet on the ground, trying to save Mike from rushing too far ahead of himself as almost a case of too much, too young. In his thinking, Forrester wanted the best for Mike and for him to have a lasting career.

Though the Summer of 1970 was to prove, a lucky period for Yarwood. After one performance, Yarwood stepped off the stage and went back to his dressing room to find the BBC's Bill Cotton Jnr. waiting there to meet him. As Yarwood explains

“ 'We'd like you to do a series, Mike' Cotton said after the polite preliminaries. Then, seeing my face, he added, 'Yes, its going to be your show, although you will have someone with you.'”

That offer of a show was to become Look – Mike Yarwood, which gave him full range to try out new material and new ways of performing it as well.

Mike was joining a family of entertainers at the BBC, who after many years were looking to regain viewers away from ITV's dominance of light entertainment programmes up to the late 60's. With Morecambe and Wise coming from ATV, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett from LWT and Bruce Forsyth being given the chance to present a new game show. It was Bill Cotton Jnr's foresight to be able to find performers, put them into the right shows with the best writers and also the best production teams. Yarwood was to be another cog in this smoothly run engine, as the television industry produced some of the most memorable programmes of this time.

But with the new series came other things, for the money Mike was making by doing the shows for the BBC, it seemed like the money he was earning was going out the door quicker then it was coming in. On occasions, this seemed harmless enough with the odd purchase or an item which he was determined to get whatever the cost. It was fine on the luxury items, but when it came to smaller almost trivial items, it seemed like it was almost like a compulsion to buy things, most things could be quantified but some things were almost strange even to Yarwood. In needing a dinner jacket for summer season, Mike purchased six because if Tom Jones always ordered six at a time, then it was good enough for him. In being a performer, it was important to look the part so high-quality ties were bought four at a time. These things may have been quantifiable in Yarwood's own mind, it did show that with money, came the responsibility to go with it.

The seventies were one of Yarwood's best periods as a performer meeting the great and the good and also topping the television ratings regularly with his shows, but off screen things were turning out differently. The first incident was a indication of those who do not have fame recent others with it, whilst appearing in summer season in Scarborough and at a low ebb missing his family when going through fan mail to pass the time away in-between performances. When being met with a piece of writing paper and unfolding it came a chilling message inside.

As Yarwood takes up the story himself,

“ 'We're going to get you, Yarwood' I read, 'and by the time we've finished with you, you'll be unrecognisable...' and so it went on, threatening to kill me and injure my family. It was signed 'The Angry Brigade'.”

Having read this, Yarwood thought this should be dealt as police matter as having believed this was a genuine threat to himself and his family. When Special Branch eventually looked at the letter, they dismissed it as a hoax. To put this into context, with terrorism on the mainland of Britain from both sides of divide to do with Northern Ireland's Troubles and threats sent to venues and warnings as well by various groups, it was a very high alert time for people. In his own thinking when it was suggested that the letter maybe from someone who was jealous of Mike's success with the undertone of the group claiming responsibility would not issue a warning as to what they were going to do. If it had the sole aim of scaring Yarwood, it had done.

With this Yarwood was ordered to take out of his schedule for rest and recuperation, with the theatre management understanding of the situation and giving him as much time as he needed to do so. But although in taking the time off, the doctor who was treating him gave him a remark when he had told him to rest. The thought was that Mike had started to drink too much, almost pushing 'The Angry Brigade' letter and this other remark to the back of his mind in quantifying that he was doing as much as anyone else would have been around that time. In the time earned, it was just that he should spend it relaxing in the BBC Club or in the pub. But Yarwood's drinking was to become a problem in his personal life though he did not let this show in his performances, delivering show after show for ATV, BBC and later on Thames Television. In doing this, the Dutch courage was used to cover up stage fright and allow him to go on perform, relaxing himself so he could do a good show as always. Though as the 1970's went along, even with this Mike was trying quantify this as he explained to Channel 4's 2001 documentary 'The Showbiz Set'.

“I would at least drink half a dozen stiff vodkas, just enough to get a buzz on, just enough to feel no pain. But the thing is you get to the theatre sluggish and you need a pick-me-up and I would have a couple of vodkas and tonics before a show.”

Just as he was becoming one of light entertainment's biggest stars and his home life was settled, the drinking was having an effect on him. The pressure of delivering a good performance time after time was seeming to take it toll, though this was to change on his personal life as he continues.

“It make me cringe just to think about it, the drinking became more important then anything else and I spent less and less time with the children because when I wasn't in the pub, I was at home sleeping it off. I missed my first daughter's, first birthday because I was too hungover, that's the saddest thing I can think of actually. It makes me very sad to think about it actually.”

By trying rationalise away the drinking, it seemed that it had its place in Yarwood's performing and personal life. Though when filmed for a Thames Television documentary in 1984 about himself and the making of one of his television specials. A seemingly throw away line is used between Yarwood and the late John Ammonds, his producer at both the BBC and Thames might have let on more then the public had thought at that time.

Mike Yarwood impersonating John Ammonds : “Have you been drinking lately?”

Ammonds to Yarwood: “Not recently...”

Though as John Ammonds explained in 2001 about working with Yarwood whilst he was drinking.

“He never got really plastered lying on the floor like that, but it did interfere with the concentration. I think he would agree now, it did interfere with his work and made him more worried then ever. In fact, when of course he thought drinking would have the effect of taking away the worries, but it never does.”

As this was going on Yarwood was still able to make some of the finest shows seen on British television with a rota of characters that everyone could recognise. Thanks to the political landscape, apart from a few changes that the party leaders of the Labour Party in the shape of Harold Wilson and later Jim Callaghan and on the Conservative benches Ted Heath, along with union leader Vic Feather led to them becoming stock characters besides with the big personalities who had big personalities them such as David Frost, Patrick Moore and Brian Clough linking back to his love of football.

With starting the 1970's with Look – Mike Yarwood and also a radio series Hear – Mike Yarwood as well, made one of most popular entertainers and one of the most highly paid ones as well. It seemed like success was breeding success with a special show at the Talk of the Town, London showcasing his live cabaret act for BBC2's 'Show of the Week' strand. By the mid-70's not only the political landscape was changing as well as his BBC show. At the start of 1976, he was awarded the OBE in that year's New Year's honours list by Harold Wilson showing that he even by doing an impression of him that even politicians could have a laugh at their own expense.

His political material was never hard hitting satire much like Rory Bremner's in later years to come, but it made for the politicians and union leaders who dominated the 70's, could have otherwise been anonymous to the public at large. It gave them another platform on which they were recognised on, even later on Rory Bremner and other non satirical impressions would admit that Yarwood was their biggest influence in starting to imitate people both famous and around them leading more of a periphery of impressionists from the mid-70's onwards and into the new decade.

In 1976 his show changed title to Mike Yarwood in Persons and became a more variety based show welcoming other guests on to perform but always with Yarwood showing his talent for signing at the end with the inevitable phrase 'And this is me...' Starting with two specials, one in May and other under the 'The Mike Yarwood Christmas Special' title in December to start the Mike Yarwood in Persons period when finally the first series of which was broadcast fortnightly between January and March 1977. Though the series its self had a who's who of big name light entertainment producers amongst them future BBC head of light entertainment Jim Moir, John Ammonds who worked with Morecambe and Wise during this period as well plus future big name Alan Boyd, the man who brought Blankety Blank to the screen as well when in the ITV system a number of shows for LWT including Game for a Laugh and later to work for Television South.

But coming into 1977 saw a new personality come to the fore which was to even to test Yarwood's material, the rise of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader taking over from Ted Heath in 1975. This caused some problems for Yarwood, as most of his impressions were men and very rarely he did dress up as female characters. But to be relevant to his ask he had to keep Thatcher in there with references to her, even trying to impersonate her. Though after a while it was clear that this was not going to work as a on-going thing. So how exactly to solve the problem? Well, Mike and the producers didn't have to look too far, on ITV in this same period was 'Who Do You Do?' and one of the pop female impressionists was Janet Brown who was a part of that show.

The producers of Mike's show decided they wanted Janet to come on board the show to impersonate Mrs Thatcher, so it was possible to Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher or Robin Day and Thatcher doing a double-headed sketch together thus expanded the range and also the way that sketches could be performed without the need for lengthy filming of Yarwood doing a whole range of impressions and have them superimposed in a sketch using a technique called colour separation overlay.

But the use of C.S.O. was always important to Mike to be able to have several of his impressions in the same place at the same time, as the technology got slowly better it allowed him to play around more with it. Though during filming these sketches, because for eye-line levels, it meant there would have to be someone standing where another character would be in the final piece and most times it would be one of the crew but when John Ammonds was producing the show himself, he would be the stand-in and helping to prompt Yarwood by mouthing the lines to him so he knew what to say and when in the sketch. These techniques may seem like a long drawn out process, but it allowed Mike to be cutting edge in something that hardly no other performers had done to that point.

Come the end of 1977, with the BBC's biggest night of the year on Christmas Day. The corporation had rolled out the red carpet for their biggest shows on that evening with a schedule unmatched ever since including Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game plus Morecambe and Wise with their Christmas Special. On that night Mike found himself in between the two shows but never the less in a key position of that night's schedule to keep the viewers with BBC One. With an excellent viewing figure on that night, little did he know that he was to become the BBC's big Christmas Night star next year.

With Morecambe and Wise leaving the BBC at the end of 1977, this meant that the prime position was up for grabs on Christmas Day night in 1978, with Bruce Forysth moved to LWT and placed on Christmas Eve, Morecambe and Wise had gone to Thames Television and ITV had scheduled them for their prime slot during the evening. But the BBC had either The Generation Game with Larry Grayson, The Two Ronnies or Mike Yarwood to go head to head against Eric and Ernie. So it came down to Mike to take on what would be seen as ITV's scheduling juggernaut. Added to this there had been industrial action by unions at the BBC just before Christmas and had seemed that the BBC might have had to offer only a limited Christmas Day service. Eventually when the two shows played out Mike was at 8pm and Eric and Ernie at 9pm on ITV, the outcome was surprising though in the least. Morecambe and Wise had grabbed a substantial audience themselves but when the final ratings had come out, Mike had beaten them. Justifying the BBC's faith in him that for 1979 and 1980 he was given a prime slot on Christmas Day and his own stand-alone series had grown. By 1981 though he had been shifted off the big day for a slot on Boxing Day, after what had happened with Morecambe and Wise in 1977 maybe the BBC did not want a repeat. So, subtly the show was moved to the day after Christmas already in the knowledge that he'd moved to Thames Television.

Once again in 1981, his act was changing to compensate that the fact Janet Brown was impersonating Margaret Thatcher on her own show, Yarwood moved into the mimicry of the Royal Family especially Prince Charles and after his Royal Wedding in 1981 to Lady Diana Spencer, he used the same trick as he had done with Janet Brown by getting Suzanne Danielle to play Princess Diana in the sketches and later on impersonating Prince Andrew to Kate Robbins' Sarah Ferguson. Though it did seem a few small changes to allow new impressions, that some of the impressions were getting dated in having Harold and Albert Steptoe in his act after their series had finished a number of years ago on the BBC. Plus also Harold Wilson who had been out of power for five years by that point, but with the election of President Ronald Regan in the United States allowed him to use the same gentle political humour as he had done for Wilson but also use Regan's old show business connections to have sketches including the like of Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr., all of which Regan had worked with during his Hollywood career.

Around this point, though still popular with the viewers and also having great material from such writers Barry Cryer, John Junkin, Eddie Braben, Colin Edmonds and with script advisor former Morecambe and Wise writer Dick Hills, the shows started to feel dated. Though this could be said to be an effect of the rise of Alternative Comedy and its style of more barbed political humour and faster paced-delivery as well. By the end of 1983, Mike had completed the first series of his Thames shows and was about to have a special broadcast over Christmas of that year. 1984 however was to bring something which totally changed the landscape of what he was doing when Spitting Image brought a new edge to impressions and in particularly political satire.

Though as the worry about his shows and his increasing stage fright lead to more drinking than ever, leading to him admitting he was an alcoholic. But just like the BBC and Thames had done for Eric Morecambe to reduce the worry and also strain of working by only doing specials once or twice a year, it gave more worry by doing less television shows. With the removal of the alcohol as his crutch in performing, it seemed to have a major effect on his performance, the worry and stage fright was seemingly getting too much for him. His final special was shown by in December 1987, by that time he was doing very little television apart from the odd appearance on other shows and also gala performances for various causes. Later on Mike appeared on Have I Got News for You as a guest, allowing him to perform but also be himself following on from this there was a plan to bring him back to television as a adviser to the public wanting to do impressions in a planned BBC show called 'Taking Off with Yarwood' but he politely refused to do it.

It came as no surprise when he finally gave up performing in 1994 for his own health and well being finally giving alcohol for good allowing himself time to spend with his children who had by then had their own children.

The legacy of Yarwood lives on with most impressionists who worked during the 80's and 90's stating that it was Mike's influence which got them started in impressionism in the first place by having seen him performing on the television and as he would at the end of every show 'And this is me....' and I hope these two articles have given you an impression of the man himself. 

Someone to Watch It over us... The story of ITV's Children's Television Presentation

On the 3^rd of January 2013, CITV or by its full title Children's ITV will be thirty years old. Following the documentary broadcast on ITV over the Christmas and New Year period, which concentrated on that period and shown that the service itself was the first to offer national continuity for the children's slot, although not live at first and not the first to do it at all. The programme did try and maybe to set out its own history, but the history of children's television and its programmes on ITV stretches back to the origin of Independent Television itself.

With the launch of Independent Television in 1955, they set out to offer an alternative to the BBC and part of that service was to offer something different from the BBC's Children's

hour. The BBC had started to produce a strand for children called 'For the Children' in 1930's at the dawn of television itself, the first broadcast was ten minutes long on Saturday 24^th April 1937. With a mixture of different presenters, performers, story-telling and songs, the programme seemed more like a miniature theatre show and with a regular slot on Saturday afternoons until September 1939, when the programme was brought off the air by the one thing which would dominate the lives of everyone and more so children for the next seven years, World War Two. The suspension of the television service meant children relied on the radio service where Children's Hours was broadcasting and had been since 1922 and became a vital companion for children everywhere, many of them evacuees away from their own families.

When fighting ceased and the television service returned in 1946, the strand doubled in length to twenty minutes and moved to Sunday afternoons, the first broadcast after the war was on July 7^th 1946. Though during this time, it would see Muffin the Mule make his debut with his “friend” Annette Mills. But by 1952, the 'For the Children' would be dropped with the strand for younger viewers falling under the Watch with Mother strand and the other programmes introduced by continuity announcers. This settled the pattern for the BBC for nearly thirty-five years, but with the launch of the Independent Television service would see children's television change.

Independent Television launched on the 22nd of September 1955 with Associated-Rediffusion on weekdays and ATV at weekend to start broadcasting, followed by services in the Midlands in February 1956 with ATV during weekdays and ABC at weekends plus Granada launching on weekdays in the North and ABC at weekends during May of 1956. With these new companies came, new ideas for the making and broadcasting of children's

television. One of these was Small Time, the daily 15 minute slot for the under five's produced by Associated-Rediffusion and eventually picked up by Southern and Anglia Television plus also some others as well. The slot started on 23rd of September 1955 at 12.15pm with Johnny and Flonny, a series which had glove puppets as their performers as well as their assistant Paul Hansard, the next had one of Britain's biggest entertainers making one of their first appearances. Rolf Harris appeared in the The Big Black Crayon alongside Jean Ford, then on the Wednesday saw Toybox with Susan Spear. But Small Time also started careers in children's television of presenters and programme creators which would go onto bigger things and helped shape ITV's output during the sixties, seventies and beyond.

But this proved, that with one company making making such a slot, that other ITV franchise holders would take their the best of others programmes to be broadcast by themselves. Though this would be a problem, with some regions picking and choosing their programmes and sometimes placing programmes which may have been on family viewing instead.

Come 1957, The Adventures of Twizzle brought the fist ever television project by Gerry Anderson and his production company AP Films to the screens, shortly afterwards in 1958 by Torchy the Battery Boy. Anderson, so synonymously linked with Lord Lew Grade's ATV, had The Adventures of Twizzle distributed by Associated-Rediffusion, Four Feather Falls by Granada. But with APF in financial trouble and following Anderson's direction of low budge feature film Crossroads to Crime for Anglo-Amalgamated Studios, he was struggling to find a buyer for his new project. But if it wasn't for a fortuitous meeting with Lew Grade, who offered to buy the show. With the international success of Supercar meant that Grade finance for Anderson to produce Fireball XL5. With the success of Anderson's next project of Thunderbirds produced between September 1965 and December 1966 going stratospheric, meant that the output from AP Films was significant part of ITV's children's schedules leading to in the mid sixties. As well as the success of the programme being sold all around the world, proving that home based production could be popular both in the United Kingdom but able to bring profit back so money could be spending on making new programmes for children.

But with this, it proved that ITV could compete with the BBC over children's programming. In the early 60's, the BBC had downsized and merged their children's department into one Family Programmes department which meant that all of the children's programming including Blue Peter would be included under this department. With ITV and the federal system that they offered, meant that other regions were still buying in programmes from each other and also material from abroad as well. The powerhouses such as Rediffusion, Granada and ATV would produce programmes with other smaller regions having a contribution to make such as Southern, Anglia and Tyne Tees. Rediffusion brought comedy in the traditional style with Sooty and Harry Corbett moving over from the BBC plus new comedy with Humphrey Barclay overseeing new talents to performing Terry Jones, Michael Palin and also Eric Idle later to go onto merge with with John Cleese and Graham Chapman from Rediffusion's other new comedy show later in the evening, At Last the 1948 Show to form Monty Python. Plus with comic actors Denise Coffey and David Jason as well, they became the performers in Do Not Adjust Your Set from 1967 and such was the success of the programme that it led to it being repeated later in the evening when people got in from work or whatever they were doing during the afternoon so that more people could see this children's programme which had became a cult hit with viewers.

Southern Television had launched How in 1966, as a way to teach children about different aspects of their world around themselves and how it worked. Proving that what seemed like dry facts could be made interesting if they were presented in an entertaining way. Though one man who started on the programme in 1966, would go like the programme for the next 15 years to become one of the best known children's presenters in the country and even going beyond that to become a household name.

Rediffusion, ATV and Granada was proving that the Independent network could make quality programmes that had appeal, but by the late 1960's both the BBC and ITV were to get ready for the decade to come with programme which would a reflection of the world outside the front living room.

Though in 1967, the Independent Television Authority advertised their ITV franchises to start broadcasting in 1968, but with so much rumour and counter-rumour in the air. What was to happen, was to maybe shock and surprise people. But it was to have an effect on children's broadcasting overall, with the franchise round most regions seemed straightforward or were they? The creation of a new Yorkshire region saw applications from all over, but with the Telefusion rentals and pipe-tv group winning the franchise though with the stipulation that they had to take on the management and talent of rival bid Yorkshire Independent Television to form Yorkshire Television. ATV had lost their weekend franchise in London to David Frost's London Weekend but had gained the new seven day Midlands franchise and then came the London Weekday franchise, two companies, Rediffusion London and ABC TV, who provided great service for ITV individually since the inception of commercial television. Though with London Weekend getting the franchise for broadcasting at weekends in London, the new formed Yorkshire Television taking up the area on the east side of the Pennines, so neither could go their either with Lew Grade settled even more so in the Midlands now. Lord Charles Hill had a problem, both franchises had the talent and the management to make one company, more important to our story though was that Rediffusion had a very strong children's department which would be a huge part of ITV in the years to come competing against the BBC.

The small matter of this occurring between Rediffusion and ABC to form a new company taking on the responsibility of broadcasting to London on weekdays, though not a merger of the two companies but it was not quite to have winners either way. From Rediffusion being top banana of ITV, but their investment meant they were now part of a new company called Thames Television. Meaning the children's department at Rediffusion which had been so successful, took one the responsibility of making programmes for itself, but also making programmes to be distributed to the rest of the ITV network.

With the new companies producing new programming such as Magpie from Thames to rival Blue Peter, LWT moving into children's comedy and drama with Catweazle, Yorkshire with Junior Showtime, along with ATV with Captain Scarlet, the latest production from Gerry Anderson's AP Films. But what about the presentation? Because of the federal system of ITV, all the franchises had their own ways of presentation. Usually a normal continuity announcers just being a bit more jovial then usual in their usual suit or dress announcing programmes. Back in the early seventies, plans were mooted to do networked children's continuity in between the programmes. Though each region themselves had a strong sense of its own identity by putting their idents on the front of the programmes, meaning something broadcast by Southern would have the ident at the beginning before the programme even started to show it was from Thames. So the idea of networked children's continuity didn't even leave the ground, though the schedules having fully networked programmes with itself like How and Magpie, would sit alongside Anglia's Survival films and even repeats of family dramas which had been brought in by the various companies.

Over at the BBC, without this problem they were starting to move ahead in the schedules and something needed to be done for at least ITV to get a brand for their children's programming, that it could be identifiable from the other programmes surrounding it, making children feel that the programmes were for themselves like they did on the BBC. The BBC may have had the BBC1 globe before all the programmes, but their menus and captions looked like they were for children's programming. ITV regions had done it, but only the children in each region saw their own identities, leading to puppet characters such as Gus Honeybun and BC becoming such a success in the Westward/TSW and Anglia regions respectively.

Watch It presentation from the early 80's

The change in style came in 1980 when finally the idea of the Watch It branding was formed, the programmes were distributed in the same way that schools programmes were via ATV and it was little surprise that it was conceived there too by the promotions department under Jim Stokoe, who oversaw the style of presentation for schools and colleges. Though not a wholly networked brand at all, ATV supplied animation and stings for each franchise to use at their will and when the seasons changed new one were sent out for companies to use if they wanted. But the continuity announcers stayed meaning that Southern or later TVS and Granada would have their own doing it, but with the logo itself, the animation would have the exclamation mark in the animation osculating to make it look like it was saying 'Watch ITV', subliminal maybe. But the initial idea of Children's ITV came from Lewis Rudd, Rudd had been involved in Children's television since the mid 60's firstly with Rediffusion, through Thames being involved with Magpie, Rainbow and The Sooty Show as a producer later on becoming the Head of the Children's department at Southern and then at the newly formed Central Television in 1982. He suggested a new method of presentation and it was the Central presentation department again with Jim Stokoe which came up with the concept of Children's ITV. An all networked service with regular presentation and presenters which would appear as a united brand to rival the BBC, beating them to the punch.

The way the system for broadcasting the service was itself like the system used for supplying the presentation for ITV's School and Colleges service from Central, whilst the individual companies played out their own programmes and supplied them around the rest of the network. Presentation itself was recorded, featuring faces from the programmes which were being broadcast meaning that the first ever presentation face was Matthew Kelly, already famous for Game for a Laugh, but also presenting the Madabout series for Tyne Tees. Plus taking their turns were Isla St Clair, from The Saturday Show, Mick Robertson formerly of Magpie, now with his new programme Freetime, Tommy Boyd also from Magpie and St. Clair's co-host on The Saturday Show with lots more faces over time. Meaning it had made its mark and the BBC had to fight back with the launch of the Broom Cupboard and Philip Schofield in 1985.

So contrary to ITV's documentary, Children's ITV may have started in 1983 but children's programmes on the independent channel stretched even nearly thirty-years before that. The history of children's television is a long one and also varied in the style, programmes and presentation, but it is an important one to both for continuity and also the way television came to be in the latter part of the 20^th century. But 1983 was not only famous for the launch of united ITV children's service, the BBC's Children's Department also celebrated an anniversary as well, more of which soon.

Whichever way you look at Children's ITV is 30 years old and now has its own channel instead of a strand, giant leaps in 30 years. But if it was not for people like Lewis Rudd and Jim Stokoe, it would have just been a continuity announcer in front of a plain background announcing the children's presentation much like any other time of the day, Watch It and Children's ITV brought colour to the screen and also whole wave of programmes with it as well. 

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"Sykes and A Life..." Eric Sykes, the man and his work...

In this age of comedy, with stand-ups, sketch shows and panel games. Its it refreshing to think back on a time when silence was golden, with the passing of Eric Sykes this year this seems like a perfect time to look back this breed of comedy film where the actions speak louder then words as well as the man himself.

Eric Sykes was born in Oldham, Lancashire in May 1923 but owing to complications from his birth, his mother died three weeks later. The second and younger of two children, Sykes had an older brother called Vernon and when his father remarried when he was only two years old, he gain a half-brother called John. Schooled in Oldham, Sykes joined the RAF in World War Two as a wireless operator and a rank of Leading Aircraftman. But the war was to have effect on what Sykes was going to do afterwards in peace time, whilst ensconced with a Special Liasion Unit, he met Flight Lieutenant Bill Fraser.

Afterwards Sykes came to London to try his luck, but arriving in the capital during the coldest winter in living memory at that time in 1946, renting lodging to stay in at the end of his first week in them, he was cold, hungry and penniless but a chance meeting with Bill Fraser who was performing comedy at the Playhouse Theatre himself, invited Sykes along to a performance and offered him food and drink, but he had invited Eric there to ask him if he would like to write material for Fraser. Sykes accepted the offer and before long he was scripting for both Bill Fraser and Frankie Howard as well. When he formed a writing partnership with Sid Colin, they worked on BBC's radio's Educating Archie Andrews featuring Archie Andrews and his ventriloquist friend Peter Brough, but working on the show lead Eric to meet fellow performer Hattie Jacques, who would share a vast majority of his career with her playing Sykes' long time identical twin sister in the television series bearing Sykes' own name.

The 1950's was to see Sykes to move to television with him writing episodes of series and also one-offs for performers, in 1954 he wrote the The Big Man which starred Fred Emney and Edwin Styles, also he made his first ever performance on film Orders Are Orders with Sid James, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Bill Fraser and Donald Pleasence as well. Eric shared an office with Spike Milligan at this time in Shepherd's Bush writing above a grocer’s shop, though later on Sykes and Milligan were to form Associated London Scripts which was a co-operative, not for profit writing agency, which was Eric's idea for writers to be in one place to do their writing. Sykes and Milligan were the first two writers to take space later with Tony Hancock, Johnny Speight, John Antrobus taking offices alongside with Dalek creator and Doctor Who writer Terry Nation plus with a friend of Alan Simpson, Beryl Vertue who eventually became the firm's business affair manager and agent being the in-house agent, by 1957 the co-operative had over thirty writers eventually moving to Baywater Road adjacent to Hyde Park. By 1967 impresario and producer Robert Stigwood brought a controlling interest in ALS, which Galton and Simpson agreed to but Sykes and Milligan did not. The reason that Galton and Simpson had agreed to it because at that time Stigwood was moving into film productions, so they sold their share to Stigwood but they sold their share in Orme Court where they were based to Eric and Spike, but Milligan sold his share to Sykes and meant that Sykes held onto the freehold until into the 21^st century. Meanwhile Beryl Vertue went with Stigwood becoming Stigwood's Deputy in the group and that lead her to becoming a leading independent producer and also still working with Eric as well.

Sykes' most famous film with Tommy Cooper was The Plank, this silent film with two of comedy's masters involving the titular plank itself, was filmed in 1967 by Associated London Films, written and directed by Eric Sykes following the journey of two workmen who require a floorboard for a house they are building. This may seem easy enough, go to the timber yard and by the plank so it can be measured and cut to size. But its the return journey which is fraught with incident as the plank itself causes a whole heap of trouble for people who come across it. The actual plank itself from the film sold for over one thousand pounds at auction in December 2011, showing its place in British comedy as one of most key props. But what about the cast of the film itself? Cooper and Sykes were the two main stars, the supporting cast reads like a who's who of comedy, light entertainment and even acting for the next twenty years after it was made. Jimmy Edwards of Take It From Here and Whack-O! fame plays a police constable who has to deal with all the chaos left behind by the plank, Edwards was later to take a role in the next Sykes silent film project in 1969's Rhubarb.

From the world of comedy and entertainment come first of all from the Carry On world Hattie Jacques, Jim Dale and also Roy Castle. Jim Dale fresh like Jacques from the Carry Ons was already a big household name from those films as well as his time presenting Six-Five Special, Thank Your Lucky Stars and also as compère of Sunday Night at the London Palladium as well. Roy Castle had already found fame for his own BBC show during the mid 1960's and was to join the Carry On team during the next year for Carry On Up the Khyber. Plus with the additions of Bill Oddie, Jimmy Tarbuck and Kenny Lynch to name but three others who appeared in The Plank.

The set pieces owe a lot to the vaudeville style and also the silent films of early Hollywood, though it could be said that it had a lot of influence on the young Sykes seeing these films not only on his comedy career and the music hall/vaudeville as well. So routines which could have been seen on the stage were transferred on the screen by the comedians of the age and reused in different ways. Though the slapstick style can been seen in the Goodies body of work with Jim Franklin later to be their producer using the style with their writing, so it is interesting that Bill Oddie appeared in The Plank and also the similar style is seen in the Goodies' series as well.

But the 1960's saw the launch of Sykes and A... written in collaboration with Johnny Speight, the original idea was to have Eric living with a wife but Sykes saw the opportunity to changing it so he would have a sister as a housemate and giving greater scope for the scripts being written and allow them to have romantically interlinked with other characters, see the dynamic change and where it would lead the script in that way.

1969 saw the Rhubarb starring once again Eric Sykes and Jimmy Edwards starring again along with Jacques, Harry Secombe as a vicar with Graham Stark and Gordon Rollings, remarkably to later on to both play in a slapstick scene in Superman III. The origin of rhubarb come from radio dramas and productions, where extras in a crowd scene or a party scene would mutter the word over and over again to make it sound like people talking. But The Goons would use the phrase to make to sound there was more people in a scene then Peter Seller, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe themselves though they would say it loudly and clearly with the occasional shout of “Custard!” to break the monotony of it. In Rhubarb, Eric Sykes as the Police Inspector and the Vicar played by Secombe play a round of golf, but the inspector uses one of his constables played by Jimmy Edwards to manipulate his ball from awkward lies but Secombe asks for devine intervention when it is needed to help his vicar character. Even all the signs, any of the number plates plus a baby holding a sign, they all had the word Rhubarb on them. Though

it is plausible that this project happened and included Harry Secombe in it, that Eric Sykes was friend and close collaborator of The Goons.

The actual silent comedy golden era in the 1920's and 1930's, which was prevalent before the age of 'talkies' made names of the stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to name three. Though the approach of producers such as Mack Sennett and Hal Roach, made sure that their stars were the ones who were making people laugh with 'sight gags', 'prat falls' and other types of slapstick. The timeless nature of the style has meant that even today, Shaun the Sheep can link itself back to these great days with it being a silent comedy relying on comedy and slapstick for its plots, Mr Bean is another one with no talking from its main character plus also some of Benny Hill's silent sketches as well. It is no wonder that the world of silent comedy exports around the world so well

and that film directors Blake Edwards and Mel Brooks revived the art of the silent comedy with The Great Race and Silent Movie respectively, the slapstick remains in the movies today, maybe in different forms and those forms have been pushed further but the idea remains.

In the 1972, the BBC had decided to revive Sykes and A... calling the new series Sykes again with Hattie Jacques, Eric himself, Richard Wattis and Derek Guyler as the irrepressible PC “Corky” Turnbull. But these episodes were re-working of scripts of the 1960's shows, forty-three episodes to be exact, a total of sixty-eight episodes were made between 1972 and 1979 including a reworking of the episode Sykes and a Stranger which had originally Leo McKern later played by Peter Seller in the 70s revival. The series ended in 1980 when the death of Hattie Jacques from a heart attack, made the series impossible to carry on.

Come the 1980's having remade The Plank for television again with Tommy Cooper in 1979, went back to remaking Rhubarb also for television in 1980 and with It's Your Move in 1982 a remake as well. The popularity of all the films being remade for television, showed that the art which was created and formed wholly, meant Sykes star was still shining brightly at this stage of his career with a further starring role in Mr H is Late in 1988, its safe to say that these films brought Eric Sykes to a whole new audience as well as comedians who appreciated his talent for writing and directing as well. Even in 1993 when writing and directing 'The Big Freeze' featuring Bob Hoskins and Spike Milligan in a tale of a father and son team of plumbers trying to their job in freezing temperatures at an old people's home in Finland.

Sykes did all that with being hard of hearing, so much that he had to wear specially designed glasses frames that fitted bone conducted hearing aids, that Eric could hear. Though his hearing had been going for a long time, after waking up from a second operation in 1954, he found himself hard of hearing plus his eyesight went over the years due to macular degeneration. But this was not a barrier to Sykes and his writing that he kept on doing it day after day and with Eric Sykes taking a voice-over part in the Tellytubbies. Come the new millennium, he was starring in a adaption of Meryvn Peake's Gormenghast which also had a part for Spike Milligan as well, though the were not on the screen together at any point but it was to mark the last time they would appear in anything together. But for the early part of the new century, it was film where Sykes' career would lay. In 2001, he starred alongside Nicole Kidman in supernatural thriller The Others as a servant and four years later he took the role as Frank Bryce in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. He fame spread with all ages with these film roles, plus with Sykes working with roles in Last of the Summer Wine and New Tricks in 2007 and an appearance in a Poirot story entitled Halloween Party.

For all his long career taking the great days of BBC Radio, television, the advent of Colour, through his films both written and directed plus others as well. His light maybe gone, but for all what Eric Sykes did, we will remember the man and the body of work he has left behind.