A 1950s Childhood (12 page)

Muffin The Mule
(1952–5) BBC TV, and then repeats appeared on ITV during 1956–7. A series of fifteen-minute puppet shows featuring Muffin the mule, with its television creator, Annette Mills (older sister of John Mills), at the piano.

Noddy
(
The Adventures of Noddy
) (1955–6) ITV. The adventures of Enid Blyton’s ‘little nodding man’ and his many puppet friends, including Big-Ears, Mr Plod and Bumpy Dog.

Oh Boy!
(1958–9) ITV. Rock and roll live music show, produced by Jack Good and presented by Jimmy Henney and Tony Hall. It may have only been on the smallest of silver screens with rubbish sound quality, but it was a very entertaining and exciting show for kids of all ages. The show included live performances by British artists like Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde and Billy Fury, as well as top American artists like The Inkspots, Conway Twitty and Brenda Lee.
Lord Rockingham’s Xl were the house band, supported by The Vernon Girls, the Dallas Boys and Neville Taylor’s Cutters. Other heart-throbs of the day that also appeared included Ronnie Carroll, The Drifters (later changed their name to The Shadows to avoid confusion with the successful American group called The Drifters), Tommy Steele, the John Barry Seven, ‘Cuddly’ Dudley (Dudley Hessop), The King Brothers, Terry Dene, Lonnie Donegan, Alma Cogan, Don Lang, Shirley Bassey, Gerry Dorsey (later changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck), Marion Ryan, Tony Sheridan.

Perry Mason
(1957–66) BBC TV. This American legal drama series starred Raymond Burr as a fictional Los Angeles defence attorney, Perry Mason, who always won his cases. Perry would solve the cases with the help of his investigator, Paul Drake, played by William Hopper, and his confidential secretary, Della Street, played by Barbara Hale. They did it all by themselves, sometimes they even found the body! And of course the police and the district attorney always charged the wrong person with the crime. The drama would end with Perry Mason getting the real villain to break down in the courtroom’s witness box and admit to having done it.

The Phil Silvers Show
(1957–61) BBC TV. Phil Silvers played the fast-talking Sergeant Ernie Bilko in this American situation comedy in which Bilko and his subordinate team of soldiers undertake all sorts of get-rich-quick schemes behind the back of Colonel John T. Hall, played by Paul Ford, at the fictional Fort Baxter. Other cast members included Harvey Lembeck as Corporal Rocco Barbella, Allan Melvin as Corporal Steve Henshaw, Herbie
Faye as Private Sam Fender and Maurice Gosfield as the slovenly Private Duane Doberman.

Picture Book
(1955–73) BBC TV. Part of the
Watch With
Mother
series, created by Freda Lingstrom. Patricia Driscoll initially introduced
Picture Book
, but she left in 1957 to play the part of Maid Marian alongside Richard Green in the ITV series,
The Adventures of Robin Hood
. You will remember Patricia’s soothing voice, and her catchphrase, ‘Do you think you could do this? – I am sure you could if you tried’. Vera McKechnie replaced her and kept up the good work. Each Monday the picture book would be opened to reveal a drawing of a house, and the camera would take us through the window to set the scene for a story to be told.

The Pinky and Perky Show
(1957) BBC TV. A pair of puppet pigs that wore different clothes but were indistinguishable on 1950s black and white televisions. Pinky and Perky spoke and sang in high-pitched squeaky voices, created from speeded-up recordings, and they performed comedy sketches. They became very popular in the 1960s.

Popeye! (The Sailor Man)
(1958) ITV. The cartoon adventures of Popeye the sailor man, his girlfriend Olive Oyl and his love rival, the villainous brute Bluto. There was also the infant, Swee’ Pea, who was found abandoned, and the hamburger-munching J. Wellington Wimpy. The adventures always involved a punch-up with Bluto, with Popeye eventually winning after gaining some extra muscular strength by swallowing a can of spinach. This show was a firm favourite with the kids.

Quatermass – The Quatermass Experimen
t (1953),
Quatermass II
(1955), and
Quatermass and the Pit
(1959) BBC TV. These science fiction dramas frightened the life out
of everyone and sent kids to bed with nightmares. Aliens taking over the world, dramatised with eerie sound and visual effects. Very amateur by today’s standards, but realistic enough for the 1950s.

Rag, Tag and Bobtail
(1953–65) BBC TV. Part of the
Watch
With Mother
series, produced by Freda Lingstrom using stories by Louise Cochrane, about the woodland adventures of a hedgehog, a mouse and a rabbit.

Robin Hood (The Adventures of Robin Hood)
(1955–60) ITV. Weekly half-hour adventures of the legendary Robin Hood and his band of merry men who stole from the rich and gave to the poor in Sherwood Forest; starring Richard Green as Robin Hood, Alan Wheatley as The Sheriff of Nottingham, Archie Duncan as Little John, Bernadette O’Farrell and later Patricia Driscoll as Maid Marian, Alexander Gauge as Friar Tuck and Paul Eddington (later famous for his roles in
The Good Life
,
Yes Minister
, and
Yes Prime Minister
) as Will Scarlet. This was a hugely popular children’s programme. The theme song was written by Carl Sigman and sung by Dick James – Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen …

Sir Lancelot
(1956–7) ITV. The adventures of Sir Lancelot du Lac, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table and Queen Guinevere’s champion. In each of the thirty episodes we saw Sir Lancelot, played by William Russell, fight off the baddies and save his fellow knights from danger, and he was always there to rescue the queen or any princesses that might find themselves locked up in the tower.

Six-Five Special
(1957–8) BBC TV. Britain’s first rock and roll and jazz live music television programme, produced by Jack Good and presented by Pete Murray. It took its name
from the time it was broadcast – five past six on Saturday evenings. Pete Murray, a hip thirty-two-year-old disc-jockey back then, littered his presentation with trendy 1950s words like square, cat, cool, gas, get with it and have a ball. The co-producer and narrator, Josephine Douglas, would translate Pete’s trendy slang words for the benefit of any 1950s parents that might be watching the show. Regulars on the show included Kenny Baker and his Jazzmen, Michael Holliday, Bobbie and Rudy, and the King Brothers. Other guests included Petula Clarke, Jim Dale (went on to present the show), Terry Dene, Lonnie Donegan, Vince Eager, Johnny Dankworth, Russ Hamilton, Tubby Hayes, Cleo Lane, Don Lang, Freddie Mills, The Mudlarks, Joan Regan, Ronnie Scott and Marty Wilde. The show also included sport, news and comedy segments. Another essential watch for kids of all ages who wanted to see all the top artists of the day perform live.

The Sooty Show
(1955–92) BBC TV. The yellow glove puppet bear with black nose and ears was devised by Harry Corbett in 1948 and first appeared on our screens in BBC TV’s
Talent Night
in 1952. Sooty and Harry then became regulars on the BBC’s children’s show
Saturday Special
from 1952–5. In 1955 they were awarded their own show,
The
Sooty Show
. In 1957, Harry introduced a friend for Sooty called Sweep, a dog with long ears and red nose (not that the colour mattered on black and white television). In 1967,
The Sooty Show
transferred from BBC to ITV, and Sooty with his magic wand continued to entertain kids with different presenters until 1992. ‘Bye bye everyone! Bye bye!’

Sportsview
(1954–68) BBC TV. This was the first television sports magazine programme, and Peter Dimmock
presented it. Its most memorable sports coverage items included Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile.

ITV’s television line-up for Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium on Sunday 27 January 1957.

Sunday Night at the London Palladium
(1955–67) ITV. British television variety show produced by Val Parnell. The regular 1950s hosts were Tommy Trinder (1955–8) and Bruce Forsyth (1958–60). There were also other hosts that stood in from time to time during this period, including Dickie Henderson, Alfred Marks, Bob Monkhouse and Robert Morley. Entertainment included the Tiller Girls, speciality acts, and guest artists like Gracie Fields, Bob Hope, Guy Mitchell and Johnny Ray. The middle of the show featured the popular game show
Beat the Clock
, in which members of the audience were invited to complete unusual tasks in a short period of time, measured by a large clock at the back of the stage. The show ended each week with all the guests assembled on a revolving stage.

Take Your Pick
(1955–68) ITV. Quizmaster Michael Miles invited contestants to answer simple questions for 60 seconds without using the words Yes or No. Alec Dane stood next to him with a gong, ready to gong the contestant out if they said the forbidden words. If the contestant got through that round then they could select any key from one of thirteen boxes. Miles would offer them increasing amounts of money in exchange for the key. If the money didn’t tempt the contestant then he or she went on to open their chosen box with the key. Three of the boxes would contain booby prizes and box 13 would contain a mystery prize. There was also a ‘treasure chest of money’ and a ‘star prize’, which was always a three-piece-suite … ooooh!

This is Your Life
(1955–64) BBC TV. Hosted by Eamonn Andrews with the ‘red book’, which each week was filled
with a ‘surprise’ guest’s life story. Andrews was himself the first unwitting victim of the show (he thought he was going to surprise Freddie Mills but the guest turned out to be Andrews himself). There were just a few that rejected the surprise, most notably footballer Danny Blanchflower in 1961, who didn’t take kindly to the invasion of his privacy and just walked off.

Torchy, the Battery Boy
(1958–9) ITV. The adventures of Torchy, the puppet boy who is powered by battery, and his friends in Topsy-Turvy Land. The series was produced by AP Films and Gerry Anderson (he of later
Thunderbirds
fame) at a time when you could still see the puppet’s strings.

Tugboat Annie
(
The Adventures of Tugboat Annie
) (1957–61) ITV. ‘Tugboat’ Annie was the widowed captain of the tugboat
Narcissus
. The stories revolved around the rivalry between ‘Tugboat’ Annie Brennan, played by Minerva Urecal, and her long time rival, Captain Horatio Bullwinkle, played by Walter Sande, captain of the
Salamander
. They each did all they could to hinder the other’s activities, trading insults all the way.

Twizzle
(
The Adventures of Twizzle
) (1957–8) ITV Associated Rediffusion. Twizzle was a boy doll that could extend its arms and legs to be ‘as tall as a lamppost’ by twizzling them. The series started with Twizzle running away from a toy shop to avoid being bought for two shillings by a horrid little girl. Twizzle met lots of new friends and had a series of fun adventures. His first new friend was Footso the black cat who helped him build Stray Town where stray toys could live safely, away from owners that mistreated them. Other friends included Jiffy the Broomstick Man, Chawky the white-faced Golliwog, Polly
Moppet, Candy Floss, and Bouncy the ball that had lost its bounce. The series was made by AP Films, Arthur Provis and Gerry Anderson’s newly formed independent production company. They had a long way to go in television puppetry, what with all those jerky movements and thick strings that were as visible as the puppets themselves.

Wagon Train
(1958–65) ITV. Very popular hour-long western series, starring Ward Bond as wagon master Major Seth Adams, and Robert Horton as Flint McCullough. You will probably also remember old Charlie Wooster, the comical cook, played by Frank McGrath. Each week, the wagon train team managed to save some pioneering settlers from the Indians as they made their way through the endless deserts and rocky mountain passes in covered wagons. Lots of exciting horseback chases, with loads of guest stars.

Watch With Mother
(1952–73) BBC TV. Created by Freda Lingstrom as television’s answer to radio’s
Listen With
Mother
. Originally known as
For The Children
, which had been on television since before the war and first introduced us to
Muffin The Mule
in 1946,
Watch With Mother
brought together a daily sequence of programmes aimed at preschool children, including
Picture Book
(on Mondays from 1955),
Andy Pandy
(on Tuesdays from 1950),
Flowerpot
Men
(on Wednesdays from 1952),
Rag, Tag and Bobtail
(on Thursdays from 1953), and
The Woodentops
(on Fridays from 1955).
See separate programme headings for more details about
these shows.

Peter Sellers kept us all laughing throughout the ’50s as one of the Goons on BBC Radio’s
Goon Show
, and with his comedy appearances on other radio shows like
Ray’s a Laugh
and
Workers Playtime
.