One of the most unusual and for a lot of people, one of the most popular programmes on the television in the 1960s was University Challenge presented by Bamber Gascoigne.
DONATE
Ads by Google
Categories
Tag Archives: Entertainment
University Challenge
Let’s Jive
Ballroom dancing was one of my passions in the 1950s/60s and, until recently, I thought that it had almost disappeared. I need not have worried, however, for nothing from that era really dies, does it?
Looking through Flickr I chanced to see the photostream of Jive Addiction – the link is here – and suddenly it was 1960 once more and I was back in a ballroom. The photos portray the action so well that I spent a good half an hour looking through them, pleased to see that serious rock and roll jive is still alive and well.
Posted in Entertainment
Tagged 1950s, 1960s, 50s, 60s, ballroom, dance, Entertainment, jive, rock and roll
The Avengers
One of the most iconic and 1960s defining series ever to be screened on TV, The Avengers celebrates its 50th Anniversary – can it really be that old?
I have to admit that I rarely understood the plot in any depth but that really didn’t matter, it was the spectacle that was important. I can say that it was a story of secret agents and espionage during the Cold War and took place amid the backdrop of what was later called the Swinging Sixties. It was, of course, pure fantasy but what set it apart was the emphasis, especially later in the series, on fashion and style, giving it a look that is quintessentially both British and Sixties.
Pirate Radio Part 5 The Shivering Sands
Part 1 : The birth of Radio 1 and Radio 2
Part 2 : Needle Time
Part 3 : Radio Caroline
Part 4 : Caroline has competition
Screaming Lord Sutch was a fabulous character who did much to liven up, first the music scene and later the political scene in the UK. And today we look at his contribution to the dreams of pirate radio off the shores of England.
Around the same time that Radio Atlanta began, David Sutch thought that, maybe, he would like to run a pirate radio station. After some thought he decided on a slightly different venue for his station, rather than a precarious boat anchored out in the North Sea.
Off the coast of the UK were several deserted army forts that had been built during the Second World War and Sutch decided to use the fort known as The Shivering Sands to mount his operation.
Posted in Entertainment
Tagged 1960s, 60s, david sutch, Entertainment, Music, pirate, radio, radio atlanta, radio caroline, radio city, radio sutch, record, screaming lord sutch, sixties
Entertainment TV The Baron
An excellent classic TV series from the mid-60s, the writing was by John Creasey (of Gideon’s Way fame) and the television adaptation by the same team of Robert Baker and Monty Berman at British, ITC Entertainment.
Produced in the same mould as Danger Man and The Saint, this all action series was about a character known as The Baron (the character’s name being John Mannering).
In a change from the books, The Baron was created as an American, and not British, so as to appeal more to the American market but his sidekick, the character’s name was Cordelia Winfield, remained British.
The lead, The Baron, was played by an American, Steve Forrest while the character of Cordelia Winfield was played by the lovely Sue Lloyd (who went on for many years in the 70s to play Barbara Hunter in Crossroads).
Posted in Entertainment
Tagged 1960s, 60s, baron, colour, drama, Entertainment, itc, tv
Pirate Radio Part 4
Part 1 : The birth of Radio 1 and Radio 2
Part 2 : Needle Time
Part 3 : Radio Caroline
Part 5 : A sad, sad end
As I said last week, Radio Caroline began broadcasting on 29 March 1964 and news of its arrival on the airwaves travelled fast. In a very short space of time a sizeable audience had assembled all of whom were enjoying the chance to listen to the music they wanted.
In radio broadcasting there is a direct link between the size of the audience and the amount of advertising revenue and so the future looked rosy for Radio Caroline. However, Ronan O’Rahilly, the station’s founder, was not the only person to realise the revenue potential and away in America a ship was being fitted with a radio transmitter at the request of Australian music publisher Alan Crawford.
Posted in Entertainment
Tagged 1960s, 60s, Entertainment, Music, pirate, radio, radio atlanta, radio caroline, record, sixties
Pirate Radio Part 3 Radio Caroline
Part 1 : The birth of Radio 1 and Radio 2
Part 2 : Needle Time
Part 4 : Caroline has competition
Part 5: A sad, sad end
Britain had it’s first pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, in 1964 but the rules of the game had already been set as long ago as the late 1950s in Denmark.
Radio Mercur broadcast from a position between Denmark and Sweden and had begun operations in 1958. However, programs were not produced on the boat but tapes were recorded in a studio in Copenhagen and then taken to the boat to be replayed. It was at that time that the term ‘Pirate Radio’ was probably coined by the Danish press.
Posted in Entertainment
Tagged 1960s, 60s, Entertainment, Music, pirate, radio, radio caroline, record, sixties
Pirate Radio Part 2
Part 1 : The birth of Radio 1 and Radio 2
Part 3 : Radio Caroline
Part 4 : Caroline has competition
Part 5: A sad, sad end
On my portable radio I can tune a dozen or more radio stations and listen to a wide range of music and it’s something that I, and most other people, take for granted.
We have dealt with the reorganisation of the BBC but I want to very quickly set the scene as it was at the start of the decade so that you can see what prompted people to take the extraordinary step of installing radios on boats and then anchoring them in the sea just off the coast.
Imagine, for one moment, that I take away all but one of the radio stations off your radio and make you listen to just one music station. You now have no choice what you listen to, you have to accept the music you are given. Also, to buy music is now expensive and, worse, you have only one device that you can play it on. Now that’s bad enough but worse to come.
Posted in Entertainment
Tagged 1960s, 60s, Entertainment, Music, pirate, radio, record, sixties
