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Six-Five Special
''Six-Five Special'' is a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain. Description ''Six-Five Special'' was the BBC's first attempt at a rock-and-roll programme. Its title was derived from its broadcast time, as it aired at 6:05 on Saturday evening. It began immediately after the abolition of the Toddlers' Truce, in which programming ceased between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. so that children could be put to bed. Jack Good and Josephine Douglas were the show's initial producers, with Douglas and (initially) disc jockey Pete Murray as its presenters, with Murray using the catchphrase "Time to jive on the old six five." Its resident band was Don Lang and His Frantic Five. The show opened with film of a steam train accompanied by the programme's theme song, played and sung by the Bob Cort Skiffle Group, which began with the words "The Six-Five Special's comin' down the line, The Six-Five Special's right ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Good (producer)
Jack Good (7 August 1931 – 24 September 2017) was a British television producer, musical theatre producer, record producer, musician and painter of icons. As a television producer, he was responsible for the early popular music shows '' Six-Five Special'', ''Oh Boy!'', '' Boy Meets Girls'' and ''Wham!!'', the first UK teenage music programmes. Good managed some of the UK's first rock and roll stars, including Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Jess Conrad and Cliff Richard. Early years Good was born in Greenford, London, England, and was brought up in Palmers Green. His father was a piano salesman in Bond Street. Jack Good attended Trinity County Grammar School and, after national service, studied philology at Balliol College, Oxford, where he became president of the university debating society and of the college drama society. Initially intending to become an actor, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and worked as half of a comedy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Dankworth
Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Variant forms of Johnny include Johnnie, Johnney, Johhny, Johnni and Johni. The masculine Johnny can be rendered into Scottish Gaelic as . Notable people and characters named Johnny or Johnnie include: People Johnny * Johnny 3 Tears (born 1981/82), American musician * Johnny Adams (1932–1998), American singer * Johnny Aba (born 1956), Papua New Guinean professional boxer * Johnny Abarrientos (born 1970), Filipino professional basketball player * Johnny Abbes García (1924–1967), chief of the government intelligence office of the Dominican Republic * Johnny Abel (1947–1995), Canadian politician * Johnny Abrego (born 1962), former Major League baseball player * Johnny Ace (1929–1954), American rhythm and blues singer * Johnny Adair (b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Hudis
Norman Hudis (27 July 1922 – 8 February 2016) was an English writer for film, theatre and television, and is most closely associated with the first six of the '' Carry On...'' film series, for which he wrote the screenplays until he was replaced by Talbot Rothwell. Life and career Born in Stepney, London, Hudis began his writing career on a local newspaper, the '' Hampstead & Highgate Express''. When World War II broke out, Hudis joined the RAF and served in the Middle East writing for ''Air Force News''. Like many other post-war writers his first foray into entertainment was writing for camp concerts. After the war Hudis decided to become a playwright, but only one of his plays ''Here Is The News'' met with critical success. This was enough to get him noticed by Pinewood Studios, who offered him a job as trainee screenwriter. During the two years he spent there he failed to get any of his screenplays into production. Hudis left Pinewood and became a freelance writer and was s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike And Bernie Winters
Mike and Bernie Winters were an English comedy double act, consisting of brothers Mike Winters, born Michael Weinstein (15 November 1926 – 24 August 2013) and Bernie Winters, born Bernard Weinstein (6 September 1930 – 4 May 1991). The act was very popular in the United Kingdom from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. Early life The Winters brothers were born in Islington. One of their grandfathers, who had arrived in Britain from Russia aged 16, ran a restaurant in Parfett Street, Whitechapel. Samuel, Mike and Bernie's father, was a boxer and gambler; their mother, Rachel, came from a circus family. In an interview posted on YouTube, Mike Winters says that Rachel's brothers were champion boxers Jack Bloomfield and Joe Bloomfield. When Bernie was three, the Weinstein family moved to a house in Tottenham, across the road from George Marks, who later became Harrison Marks, the glamour photographer. Mike recalled that it was with George that he mounted his first 'promotion'. " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones, Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer, and a principal cast member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'', performing a range of roles including the characters Eccles (character), Eccles and Minnie Bannister. He was the earliest-born and last surviving member of The Goons (The Goon Show), the Goons. He took his success with ''The Goon Show'' into television with ''Q... (TV series), Q5'', a surreal sketch show credited as a major influence on the members of ''Monty Pytho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Steele
Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele recorded a string of hit singles including "Rock with the Caveman" (1956) and the chart-topper "Singing the Blues#Marty Robbins and Tommy Steele versions, Singing the Blues" (1957). Steele's rise to fame was dramatised in ''The Tommy Steele Story'' (1957), the soundtrack of which was the first British album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. With collaborators Lionel Bart and Mike Pratt (actor), Mike Pratt, Steele received the 1958 Ivor Novello Awards, Ivor Novello Award for Most Outstanding Song of the Year for "A Handful of Songs". He starred in further musical films including ''The Duke Wore Jeans'' (1958) and ''Tommy the Toreador'' (1959), the latter spawning the hit "Little White Bull". Steele shifted away from rock and roll in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dallas Boys
The Dallas Boys were a five-piece vocal group from Leicester, England who were regular performers on British television in the 1950s and 1960s. They have been described as "Britain's first boy band". History The group formed in Leicester and comprised four former pupils of Moat Boys School (Joe Smith, Stan Jones, Bob Wragg, and Leon Fisk) and London-born Nicky Clarke.'First boy band' singer Joe dies , '''', 28 July 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2013 After winning a talent content, they became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marty Wilde
Marty Wilde, (born Reginald Leonard Smith; 15 April 1939) is an English singer and songwriter. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, scoring several 1950s and 1960s hit singles including " Endless Sleep", " Sea of Love" and " Bad Boy". During the late 1960s to early 1980s, Wilde continued to record and, with Ronnie Scott, co-wrote hit singles for others including the Casuals' " Jesamine" and Status Quo's " Ice in the Sun". He is the father of pop singer Kim Wilde and co-wrote many of her hit singles including "Kids in America" with his son Ricky. He continues to perform and record. Career Wilde was born in Blackheath, London. He was performing under the name Reg Patterson at London's Condor Club in 1957, when he was spotted by impresario Larry Parnes. Parnes gave his protégés stage names such as Billy Fury, Duffy Power and Dickie Pride, hence the change to Wilde. From mid-1958 to the end of 1959 Wilde was one of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wee Willie Harris
Charles William Harris (25 March 1933 – 27 April 2023), better known by his stage name of Wee Willie Harris, was an English rock and roll singer. He is best known for his energetic stage shows and TV performances starting in the 1950s, when he was known as "Britain's wild man of rock 'n' roll". Life and career Born in Bermondsey, Harris left his job at a Peek Freans bakery in London to start his music career. He began performing at The 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, where he was the resident piano player, performing with Tommy Steele, Adam Faith, Screaming Lord Sutch, and others. He was named for his 5' 2" height, and in tribute to Little Richard. In November 1957, he was picked by TV producer Jack Good to appear in the BBC show '' Six-Five Special''. His appearances on the show led to concerns being expressed in the media about the BBC's role in "promoting teenage decadence". His debut single, the self-penned "Rockin' At the 2 I's", was released on the Decca labe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finlay Currie
William Finlay Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television.McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. pp. 175-176; He received great acclaim for his roles as Abel Magwitch in the British film ''Great Expectations'' (1946) and as Balthazar in the American film '' Ben-Hur'' (1959). In his career spanning 70 years, Currie appeared in seven films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, of which '' Around the World in 80 Days'' (1956) and ''Ben-Hur'' were winners. Career Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He attended George Watson's College and worked as organist and choir director. In 1898 he got his first job in Benjamin Fuller's theatre group, and appeared with them for almost 10 years. After emigrating to the United States in the late 1890s, Currie and his wife, Maude Courtney, did a song-and-dance act on the stage. He made his first film, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Regan
Joan Regan (born Joan E. Bethell; 19 January 1928 – 12 September 2013) was an English traditional pop singer, popular during the 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Joan E. Bethell was born in either Romford, Essex, or West Ham, London (sources disagree), on 19 January 1928, the youngest of six children born to Joseph Bethell and Katherine E. Hartnett, whose marriage was registered in March 1916. The family was of at least partial Irish Catholic descent. Joan suffered from rheumatic fever as a child which left her with a damaged mitral valve, although this did not cause problems until she was in her seventies. Regan married an American serviceman, Dick Howell, a friend of her brothers who met in the Navy. She and Howell married on her birthday in January 1946. For a time they lived in Burbank, California. They had three children, one of whom died at an early age. The marriage eventually broke down. Regan, a Catholic, was able to obtain a legal dissolution, rather than a div ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (born Clementine Dinah Hitching; 28 October 1927) is an English singer and actress known for her scat singing. She is the widow of jazz composer and musician Sir John Dankworth and the mother of bassist Alec Dankworth and singer Jacqui Dankworth. Early life Laine was born Clementine Dinah Hitching on 28 October 1927, in Southall, Middlesex (now London), to Alexander Sylvan Campbell, a Jamaican who worked as a building labourer and regularly busked, and Minnie Bullock, an English farmer's daughter from Swindon, Wiltshire, whose maiden name was reportedly Hitching. The family moved constantly, but most of Laine's childhood was spent in Southall. It was not until 1953, when she was 26 and applying for a passport for a forthcoming tour of Germany, that Laine found out her real birth name, owing to her parents not being married at the time and her mother registering her under her own name (Hitching). Education Laine attended the Board school ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
