Radio News Robert Hudson, broadcaster and broadcasting administrator, has died aged 90 (7 June 2010) Robert Hudson, a radio broadcaster of impeccable professionalism in the best traditions of the BBC, was for many years a well-known voice at important cricket and rugby union matches and an exemplary commentator on State occasions. Having obtained a postwar degree from the London School of Economics he shone sufficiently at a BBC audition in 1946 to become a freelance commentator on cricket and rugby. He also covered the Boat Race three times and became the master of the state occasion. He broadcast from 31 countries, covering six royal tours by the Queen between 1961 and 1967, four state visits and four independence ceremonies. Public events that he described for radio included 21 successive Trooping the Colour ceremonies, 16 Cenotaph Remembrance Day services, four state openings of Parliament, the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday service, the royal weddings of Princess Margaret (1960), Princess Alexandra (1963), Princess Anne (1973) and the Prince of Wales (1981), and the funerals of Sir Winston Churchill (1965), the Duke of Windsor (1972) and Field Marshal Montgomery (1976). For television he covered the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet, the first and last nights of the Proms, the funeral of Dag Hammarskjöld and President John F. Kennedy’s meeting with the Pope in 1963. He also presented Songs of Praise, Pick of the Week, Down Your Way, Christmas Bells on Christmas Morning, every year from 1965 to 1981, and, on more than 200 occasions, the Today Programme on Radio 4. more.... Roland Fox, BBC Parliamentary correspondent throughout the 1950s, has died aged 97 (16 May 2010) Roland Fox was a BBC Parliamentary correspondent and only the second to hold the post; he covered the last years of Churchill's premiership and the heated Suez debates, the first televised State Opening of Parliament, and accompanied Harold Macmillan on his "Wind of Change" tour of Africa. There was no guidance, no training and no autocue; he often read straight from his notes on to the air, anticipating the next morning's press by many hours. When Winston Churchill resigned in 1955, there was a newspaper strike, so the story was broken by the BBC's Parliamentary staff. When regular television news bulletins began in July 1954, it often meant a long taxi journey to Alexandra Palace in north London, allowing Fox some time to learn his lines by heart on the way. Later the Westminster studio was adapted for television. On one occasion the studio lights suddenly failed in the middle of Fox's piece. He knew what he wanted to say and gamely continued in total darkness to the end of his live report. He never had any editorial supervision; all that was required, he said, was that he come out on time. more.... Tom Fleming, actor and television presenter on important state occasions, has died aged 82 (20 April 2010) For 44 yearsTom Fleming gave a very definite Scottish identity to the BBC's coverage of the Edinburgh Tattoo. His musical voice brought a feeling of home-grown passion to the events on the Esplanade. That voice captured the excitement and solemnity of many occasions, starting with the Queen's Coronation in 1953, when Fleming was outside Westminster Abbey. He also provided the television commentary for the funerals of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Queen Mother and numerous other state occasions. Another annual duty was the Ceremony of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London. Fleming was able to find the correct intonation for any event and make it suit the occasion. Fleming was a renowned actor and did prestigious seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company and was closely connected with the epic drama The Three Estates, which he first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in Tyrone Guthrie's celebrated production in 1953. In 1953, he joined the BBC to commentate on the Coronation and proved a natural: unflappable and always ready with some information when things were delayed. In 1956 he gave a sympathetic reading of the title role of Jesus of Nazareth: particularly challenging as it was the first time the face of Christ had been acted on television. The 12-part series, shown over Easter, displayed Fleming's acting skills to excellent effect. One of his more unusual assignments was to front the BBC's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest from Edinburgh in 1972. Fleming's contribution to outside broadcasts for the BBC was immense. He commentated on two royal weddings and ten funerals, and the enthronement of two Popes and three Archbishops. One of his last broadcasts was on Radio 4 in 2007, when he was in a dramatisation of Walter Scott's Heart of Midlothian. more.... Kenneth McKellar, among the most popular of Scotland's singers, has died aged 82 (11 April 2010) He became familiar to English television viewers courtesy of the BBC and The White Heather Club, a hugely popular Scottish country dance and music show which ran from 1958 to 1968 and, at its peak, drew an audience of 10 million. The White Heather Club featured stars such as Andy Stewart, swathed in lace and tartan, singing Donald Where's Your Troosers? and Kenneth McKellar with poignant renderings of Song of the Clyde, Bonnie lass o' Ballochmyle and other stirring numbers. In between, dainty girls in white blouses and laced pumps, and young men with kilts and fixed smiles, would whisk and whoop each other through the Dashing White Sergeant or the Eightsome Reel to the strains of Jimmy Shand and his Band. After abandoning the operatic stage, in 1954 McKellar signed with the Decca record company. Over a period of 25 years he recorded some 45 LPs, ranging from oratorio to Burns songs, achieving massive sales all over the world. During the 1950s McKellar became well-known in Scotland through radio, singing Scottish songs, light opera and popular songs on his own series, A Song For Everyone, for the BBC. At the same time, he began trying his hand as a songwriter and was responsible for such ballads as The Tartan, which has been covered by some 40 artistes and The Royal Mile, which was heard by more than four million people during the televised opening of the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. In 1966 McKellar was chosen to represent Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest, singing A Man Without Love. It was not a happy experience. Despite widespread predictions that he would win, he was placed ninth, a result he attributed to the fact that the Scandinavian nations had "made a mockery of the whole contest" by voting for each other. more.... Sir Alec Bedser, the Surrey and England cricketer, has died aged 91 (5 April 2010) His supreme triumph came in 1953, when his 39 wickets at 17.48 apiece in five Tests enabled England to reclaim the Ashes for the first time since the Bodyline series of 1932-33. The other nine bowlers used by England that summer managed only 52 wickets between them. In the first Test in 1953, at Trent Bridge, on a pitch that was far from vicious, Bedser returned figures of seven for 55 and seven for 45, in the process overhauling Sydney Barnes’s record of 189 Test wickets for England, which had stood since 1914. Later that summer, in which he celebrated his 35th birthday, he established a world record for Test bowling when he surpassed Clarrie Grimmett’s total of 216 Test wickets for Australia. He also became the first England bowler since Barnes to take 100 wickets against Australia. Alec Bedser continued to play for Surrey until 1960, frequently captaining the side in Peter May’s absence. He played a vital part in Surrey’s run of seven consecutive championships from 1952 to 1958, particularly in 1957, when he temporarily recovered full fitness. He served on the England board of selectors from 1961 to 1985, and as chairman from 1968 to 1981. more.... Harry Carpenter, sports journalist and boxing commentator, has died aged 84 (22 March 2010) For millions of television viewers, Harry Carpenter's boxing match commentary was an essential ringside ingredient. After wartime service in the Royal Navy as a Morse code operator, he worked on several newspapers before joining the Daily Mail as boxing columnist. In 1949, Carpenter offered his services to the BBC as a boxing commentator, but because there was no relevant footage to hand at his audition, he had to provide a commentary for a football match instead. He heard nothing for months, until the head of outside broadcasts, Peter Dimmock, phoned him to ask whether he could fill in as commentator for an amateur boxing night. Harry Carpenter proved himself adept at commentating on a host of other sporting events, but it was always boxing with which he was most closely associated. His first fight commentary for the BBC was in 1949 and in the next decade, he was responsible for the first live commentary from behind the Iron Curtain in 1957 and the first via satellite from the United States. For much of the 1970s and 80s, Carpenter co-hosted the Sports Personality of the Year programme, having first contributed in 1958. He was "flattered and pleased" that he was asked to pay tribute to the Sports Personality of the Century, Muhammad Ali. more.... Sir John Dankworth, pioneer of modern jazz has died aged 82 (7 February 2010) Johnny Dankworth, was a leading composer of film music, a tireless champion of musical education, regardless of genre, and a superb instrumentalist in his own right. In 1950 Dankworth formed his first band, the Johnny Dankworth Seven, containing some of Britain's leading young soloists. The style was neatly arranged bebop, inspired by Miles Davis's band of the time. Although this enterprise almost collapsed in its early days, a modest growth in the audience for modern jazz allowed it to gain a foothold. Within a year, the Seven, and Dankworth himself, figured among the winners in the annual polls conducted by the music press. In 1951, the Seven appeared in one of the two inaugural jazz concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. In the same year the Seven recruited a young and totally inexperienced singer, Cleo Laine. Dankworth broke up the Seven in 1953 and launched his first big band, consisting of eight brass, five saxophones, rhythm section and three vocalists. In the mid-1950s the orchestra had a long-running radio series in which Dankworth made a point of introducing guests from other musical genres. These were mainly classical virtuosi, such as the clarinettist Jack Brymer and violinist Kenneth Essex. In 1960 Dankworth gave up full-time bandleading in order to concentrate on composition. He composed and conducted the music for Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (Reisz, 1960) and The Criminal (Joseph Losey, 1960). So successful were these, and so distinctive the music, that the Dankworth sound became inseparably linked with the new wave of British cinema in the 1960s. Among the best known are The Servant (Losey, 1963), Darling (John Schlesinger, 1965), Modesty Blaise (Losey 1966) and Morgan, A Suitable Case For Treatment (Reisz, 1966). To these were added television themes such as The Avengers (1961) and Tomorrow's World (1966), as well as an endless stream of advertising commercials. John Dankworth and Cleo Laine were married in 1958 and their careers were intertwined thereafter. more.... Bill McLaren, Rugby union broadcaster, has died aged 86 (20 January 2010) Bill McLaren spent 50 years commentating on rugby union matches for BBC radio and television. In this role his powerful Scottish tones, memorable turns of phrase, dedication to research and rigid impartiality proved an awesome combination, enhancing the broadcast experience for millions of listeners and viewers throughout club and international seasons. In 1948 he was selected for the final trial to represent the Scottish national team but was unable to compete, having been given a diagnosis of tuberculosis. When he recovered he worked for three years as a reporter on the Hawick Express, all the while maintaining his strong interest in rugby. Unbeknown to him, a colleague with BBC connections wrote to a friend in London recommending McLaren’s services as a rugby commentator. On the strength of this McLaren was offered a commentary test. He was characteristically reluctant to accept the challenge but eventually agreed, making his debut on the Scottish Home Service in January 1952 for the South of Scotland versus South Africa game. This led, in 1953, to his national radio debut covering the Scotland v Wales international. In 1962 he switched to television. McLaren’s day job was to supervise sport and teach PE in Hawick’s five primary schools. He filled this role from the early 1950s until 1987, and was proud to have taught several of Scotland’s future international players in their youth. more.... Max Robertson, writer, broadcaster and sports commentator, has died aged 94 (20 November 2009) Max Robertson was the first presenter of Panorama, of BBC Television's antiques quiz show Going for a Song, and was a commentator at the Queen's Coronation in 1953; but he was best known as the "other voice of Wimbledon", alongside the television pundit Dan Maskell. Robertson covered every Wimbledon final for the BBC from 1946 to 1986 and transformed the art of tennis broadcasting for radio. He delighted audiences by being able to describe with riveting exactness every stroke that was being played, conjuring up a dynamic mental picture of what was taking place on court. Following service during the War, he began doing outside broadcasts, initially for the BBC European Service then, from 1949, for Outside Broadcasts. He was chosen to do the commentary for the first postwar Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1948 and covered summer and winter Olympiads. He also covered the royal tour of Canada in 1951 when the young Princess Elizabeth deputised for her father who was too ill to travel. Robertson established a reputation as a jack-of-all-trades. In addition to his outside broadcasts for radio, he was in increasing demand for television, working on children's programmes, sports broadcasts and conducting interviews. During the Coronation he was to be seen on the Victoria Embankment alongside three cameras, shouting against the full-throated cheering of thousands of schoolchildren as the Queen passed by. He became caught up - briefly - in BBC current affairs broadcasting when, in 1953, he was appointed to present the new flagship programme Panorama. This was, originally, a fortnightly "magazine" programme with the presenter holding the fort while roving interviewers made their contributions. After Malcolm Muggeridge took over as studio anchor man, Robertson continued to file items on such varied matters as myxomatosis in rabbits, horror comics and rag-and-bone men. In 1954 he turned freelance. As well as his tennis commentaries, he covered swimming and athletics for television and commentated on summer and winter Olympiads until 1968. more.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/nov/20/max-robertson-obituary http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6928732.ece Norman Painting, the voice of Philip Archer on long-running Radio 4 drama The Archers, has died at the age of 85. (29 October 2009) Born in Leamington Spa in 1924, the actor played the Ambridge farmer since the show's first trial run in 1950. He is featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-serving actor in a single soap opera. The Archers began life in the days of food rationing as a propaganda exercise to encourage Britain's farmers, and to fill the slot left vacant by Dick Barton, Special Agent. But it rapidly gained a special place in the affections of millions of listeners, not just in Britain but worldwide. Painting was originally recruited to write a week-long trial run of the programme. He then found himself cast as one of the principal characters. Over the years Painting's pragmatic character has been involved in numerous key storylines. One long-running plot strand revolved around who would inherit Phil's farm after his retirement. One of his most dramatic moments, meanwhile, occurred in 1955 when his first wife Grace died in a barn fire while trying to save a horse. He published five books, including reflections on the radio soap which had made him famous, Forever Ambridge (1975), and an autobiography, Reluctant Archer (1982). more.... Clinton Ford, singer and entertainer, has died aged 78 (23 October 2009) Clinton Ford was among the UK's most versatile entertainers and although he made hit records, notably "Old Shep" and "Fanlight Fanny", he could have had several more. His versatility was both his strength and his weakness as he recorded jazz, country music, romantic ballads, comedy songs, children's favourites and music hall standards. Ford worked as a Butlin's Redcoat and fronted a skiffle group in a TV commercial for their holiday camps. After the 1957 summer season in Pwllheli, he went to Liverpool and began performing with the Merseysippi Jazz Band at a new jazz club, the Cavern. Ford fronted the Hallelujah Skiffle Group but their singles didn't sell, largely because skiffle was on its way out. He recorded "Alexander's Ragtime Band", as Al St. George with the Merseysippi Jazz Band, for the Esquire label. In 1962, Ford sang about Fanlight Fanny, a striptease artist past her prime. George Formby had performed the song in Trouble Brewing (1939) and, with permission, Clinton Ford added new words. Ford was paired with trombonist George Chisholm, who shared his sense of humour. Kenny Ball asked Ford to join his jazz band and he found himself continually on the road. The band worked for radio's Easy Beat and he was learning new songs all the time, but left after a year as Ball wanted to do more of the singing. more.... Ian Wallace, opera singer and 'My Music' panellist on radio, has died aged 90 (14 October 2009) He ranged from singer, character actor, comedian, compère and clown to radio and television panellist, scriptwriter and pantomime king. What made Wallace a household name was the endearing way he had with silly songs about animals, especially one about an amorous hippopotamus with a chorus which went: "Mud, mud, glorious mud". First broadcast on a Henry Hall Guest Night in 1952, the song virtually became Wallace's signature tune. Whether in classical opera, musical comedy, plays, films, television, radio or on the concert platform, Wallace's readiness to perform on all kinds of occasion brought him an exceptional range of admirers. Apart from opera, his dramatic credits included Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream; César in a West End musical version of Marcel Pagnol's Fanny (Drury Lane); and the Emperor of China in Cole Porter's Aladdin (Coliseum). Wallace was also a regular on the Radio 4 panel game My Music and other quiz shows on radio and television in which he would, sitting down, suddenly break into snatches of opera. With his unpretentious affability he could always put audiences at ease. Wallace made his Italian operatic debut as Massetto in Don Giovanni at Parma (1950); and was La Cenerentola at Rome (1955), and Dr Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Venice (1956). From 1965, his regular appearances for Scottish Opera included Leporello in Don Giovanni, Pistola in Falstaff and the Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers. For the Welsh National Opera (1967) he sang Don Pasquale and for Glyndebourne Touring Opera (1968) Dr Dulcamara in L'Elisir D'Amore. more.... Pearl Hackney, dancer and actress, has died aged 92 (11 October 2009) Pearl Hackney was the widow of the comedian Eric Barker, with whom she enjoyed a long and successful working partnership. The couple first found fame during the Second World War in the radio comedy Merry-Go-Round, to which each of the three armed services contributed. Queen Mary was a fan and invited Pearl Hackney and Eric Barker to perform a special show for her at Clarence House to mark her birthday. After the war Merry-Go-Round split into three separate shows, with Barker (who had been commissioned in the Royal Navy and served in minesweepers) starring with Pearl Hackney in Waterlogged Spa, a spin-off that reflected postwar naval humour. After the war she regularly appeared with her husband in a satirical show, called Just Fancy, which Barker wrote for the fledgling BBC television service. The couple went on to feature in several other television series, but as Barker sought to expand into films, a stroke at the age of 52 ended his career. more.... Felix Bowness, actor and warm-up man, has died aged 87 (7 October 2009) Felix Bowness died on September 13th. He was best known as the jockey Fred Quilly in the 1980s television sitcom Hi-De-Hi! He worked in radio during the 1950s and began his radio career, billed as That Irresponsible Young Man, in 1950 on Variety Bandbox, followed by Workers' Playtime (1953-59) and Mid-day Music Hall (1954). For BBC TV, he was in the sitcom Hugh and I (1964), with Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd, and The Benny Hill Show (1965), in Hill's pre-smut days. Bowness was also in Frankie Howerd's 1966 BBC series. He was the BBC's most prolific "warm-up" man, working on The Morecambe and Wise Show and some 3,000 editions of Wogan. He was cast in Jimmy Perry and David Croft's Hi-De-Hi! in 1980, and went on to appear in their You Rang, M'Lord, and in Oh, Doctor Beeching! by Croft and Richard Spendlove. more.... Steve Race, the musician and broadcaster has died aged 88 (23 June 2009) Steve Race became a familiar face on television in the 1950s and went on to host the popular Radio 4 panel game My Music, which ran from 1967 until 1994; he subsequently set a regular crossword for The Daily Telegraph. His first job was as a pianist with Harry Leader's band, and he went on to play with the bands of Lew Stone and Cyril Stapleton, and to arrange for the Ted Heath band and Judy Garland. Race first came to notice on BBC children's television in 1953, in the magazine programme Whirligig, a miscellany of items that introduced a generation of postwar children to puppet favourites such as Hank the cowboy and Mr Turnip. In 1955 Race became light music adviser to Associated Rediffusion, remaining in the post until 1960, when he went on to conduct for many television series, including the Tony Hancock and Peter Sellers shows. Race enjoyed nine weeks of chart fame in 1963 with his catchy rendition of Pied Piper (The Beeje), which reached number 29. In 1962 and 1963 Race won awards for his commercial jingles for ITV. The most lucrative was the one for Birds Eye frozen peas: "Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop". He also won an Ivor Novello Award for his composition Nicola (named after his daughter). In 1965, aged 44, he suffered a heart attack, but it did little to halt his prodigious work rate. Immaculately dressed and sporting a distinguished white beard, Race - although a somewhat shy man - was always confident and assured in front of a microphone or a camera. 'My Music', while pioneered on radio, made a successful transfer to television bringing out the best (and worst, when it came to puns) from the comic writers Denis Norden and Frank Muir, and their fellow-panellists John Amis and Ian Wallace. Neither Race nor Wallace missed a single episode of more than 520 that were broadcast. more.... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/1715941.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6564110.ece Tenniel Evans, Taffy Goldstein in 'The Navy Lark', has died aged 82 (17 June 2009) On screen, Tenniel Evans was one of those character actors with a face recognisable in dozens of television programmes but whose name was less familiar. He played doctors, police officers, judges and vicars, and even went on to be become a priest himself. But it was out of vision, acting a look-out in the long-running BBC radio comedy The Navy Lark (1959-77), that Evans could claim to be "recognised". As Taffy Goldstein, alongside Ronnie Barker as Johnson, he was one of the two Able Seamen among an inept crew aboard HMS Troutbridge, a frigate refitted to house undesirable elements of the Royal Navy. He made his television début as a policeman in an episode of No Hiding Place (1960), before acting Jonathan Kail, alongside Geraldine McEwan and Jeremy Brett, in an ITV adaptation of Tess (1960, based on Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles). For 45 years, Evans worked solidly in character parts on television, flitting from one popular programme to another - and even playing Hitler in The Roads to Freedom (1970). Occasionally, the actor found regular roles, such as John, one of the solicitor siblings, in the legal drama The Sullavan Brothers (1964-65), Sergeant Bluett in the sitcom My Brother's Keeper (1975-76), Geoff Barratt in the final series of the post-war comedy-drama Shine on Harvey Moon (1985), Teddy Haslam in the zoo vet drama One by One (1987) and Sir Edward Parkinson-Lewis in September Song (1994). He also took over from the late Patrick Troughton the role of Perce, grandfather of Ashley (Nicholas Lyndhurst), in the sitcom The Two of Us (1987-90). more....   Lost Tony Hancock TV soundtracks from 1959 to be released by BBC (15 June 2009) The soundtracks to six lost episodes of the great comedy series Hancock’s Half Hour have been restored to the BBC archives after half a century thanks to the efforts of a bootlegger. They are thought to be the earliest examples of a DIY audio recording made directly from a television broadcast. The series, which began on radio in 1954 and moved to TV in 1956, was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, who later created Steptoe and Son. It made Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques — as well as Hancock — comedy stars. The BBC will release four of the rediscovered soundtracks as CDs and downloads this year. The sound quality on the two remaining episodes is so poor that it is not certain that they will be made available. The tapes had circulated among a few Hancock aficionados for some time but were returned to the BBC only last winter with the help of The Hancock Appreciation Society. One of them, The Wrong Man, lampoons the Hitchcock film of that name. In another, Hancock and James enter a beauty contest, and in The Flight of the Red Shadow Hancock tries to pass himself off as the Maharaja of Renjipur to escape from disgruntled members of the East Cheam Repertory Company. There are cameo appearances from Warren Mitchell and Rolf Harris. more.... Anne Scott-James, author, journalist and magazine editor, has died aged 96 (15 May 2009) One of the first female career journalists, Anne Scott-James rose to become Fleet Street royalty. A formidable woman of calm authority and understated glamour, she began her career on Vogue in the 1930s, and during the war joined the staff of the pioneering photojournalistic magazine Picture Post. She later edited Harper’s Bazaar and the women’s pages of the Sunday Express, exercising a keen news sense and demonstrating that articles aimed at women need not focus only on domestic issues and fashion. While she thrived on the discipline and pressures of journalism, she also enjoyed domestic life; she had two children (her son is the journalist and author Sir Max Hastings, former Editor of The Daily Telegraph), and pursued quiet pleasures. Her passion for gardening (at her cottage on the Berkshire Downs, which she bought in 1938) inspired, in the 1970s, a second career as an author of engaging, no-nonsense books on the subject, some of which were illustrated by her husband Osbert Lancaster. They were well received and remain influential. She was invited to appear in the popular BBC radio panel game 'My Word', and was a fixture from 1964 to 1978. more.... Bryan Martin, who has died aged 73, was one of the voices of BBC Radio 4 (22 March 2009) Recalling his first appearances on the radio as a child actor in Children's Hour when he was about 11 years old, Martin wrote to the BBC and asked for further work. He appeared in a few more Children's Hour productions broadcast from Manchester, including The Mystery of Hold Nickar Mine, with Judith Chalmers playing his sister. More part-time BBC work followed during his medical photography training, but having qualified in January 1958, he accepted a job at the BBC as a studio manager instead, mainly because he was offered a considerably larger salary than at the NHS. He travelled round the country from Midland Region to Northern Region, Scotland, the General Overseas Service and London Sound Presentation. He later became a relief announcer in the Overseas Service (Bush House) and in the regions before being taken on by John Snagge as a full-time announcer in May 1963. As well as his routine newsreading duties on the Today programme and other current affairs sequences, Martin appeared in The News Quiz, occasionally introduced The Goon Show, and read the spoof "news bulletin" which always featured in the middle of the comedy The Men From the Ministry. When he joined the BBC, the presentation department covered all three radio networks (the Home Service, Light Programme and Third Programme). Having always been interested in music, Martin opted for introducing as many concerts as possible on the Third Programme, including the Proms, and it was this work that first took him to Snape in Suffolk, where he later settled. When the presentation team was split up in the early 1970s, he was allocated to Radio 4. He announced the death of Elvis Presley in 1977, news of the Iranian embassy siege in 1980, and became the network's senior newsreader. more.... Eric Simms, BBC naturalist, has died aged 87 (18 March 2009) Simms was for 40 years one of the most familiar voices on the BBC at home and abroad as a pioneer of natural history, making more than 7,000 radio broadcasts and appearing on television some 700 times. As the BBC's resident naturalist and director of wildlife sound recording projects, he was the first person in Britain to record on magnetic tape, introducing parabolic reflectors, radio links and hydrophones. He made the first recordings of badgers, and recorded for the first time an exchange between an adult female bird and its chick inside its unbroken eggshell. Many of Simms's recordings were first broadcast in The Countryside Programme, which he created in 1952 and which ran for the next 38 years. He produced, with Myles North, Witherby's Sound Guide to British Birds with recordings of 194 species. In 1961 Simms joined the new BBC Schools TV Service, for which he produced live television programmes and directed and presented films on natural history. After six years, however, he decided to go freelance, so that he could speak freely on matters of conservation. For 11 years he presented the weekly Nature Notebook Programme on the BBC World Service and for another 11 he had a weekly spot on LBC in London. When he appeared on Desert Island Discs he played a recording of a blackbird, which had been made in his garden at Neasden. He also interviewed the Duke of Edinburgh, and spent six hours in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, for a programme called The Queen's Visitors (1975). more.... Jimmy Boyd, the singer best known for recording the Christmas novelty hit "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" in 1952 when he was 13, has died aged 70. (11 March 2009) Three weeks after the yuletide kiss-and-tell was released, the song was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It sold 2 million records in less than 10 weeks. Tens of millions of copies of the much-covered song written by Tommie Connors have been sold over the decades. It has been interpreted by such artists as the Jackson Five, John Mellencamp and Amy Winehouse. Although it came to be regarded as a holiday classic, the ditty about a child who can't understand why Mommy is cheating on Daddy with Santa Claus caused controversy in some quarters when the original featuring Boyd's childish treble was released. The Catholic Church condemned the song for implying even a tenuous link between sex and the religious holiday, and radio stations in several markets banned it. The ban was lifted after the 13-year-old Boyd appeared before church leaders to talk about the lyrics. His recording career essentially lasted until 1967 and encompassed such hits as "Dennis the Menace," sung with Rosemary Clooney, and several duets with Frankie Laine, including "The Little Boy and the Old Man," "Poor Little Piggy Bank" and "Tell Me a Story." On television, Boyd made several appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in the early 1950s and moved into acting. From 1958 to 1961, he portrayed Howard Meechim, the high school boyfriend on "Bachelor Father," a sitcom that starred John Forsythe and Noreen Corcoran. He also played the teenage nephew of Betty White's character on "Date with the Angels," a late-1950s sitcom. more.... Hank Locklin, one of the most celebrated names in country and western music has died aged 91 (10 March 200(0, Locklin had a huge hit in 1960 with Please Help Me, I'm Falling, considered among the most successful country singles of the rock and roll era. Locklin's songs epitomised the rich vocal and instrumental style known as the "Nashville Sound". Rated one of the greatest tenors in the genre, he possessed a distinctive nasal voice ideally suited to the lachrymose ballads in which he specialised. His first big success came in 1958 with Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On, a song he had written in 1949. Locklin enjoyed a particularly large following in Ireland, where he was voted most popular country singer for five consecutive years. In the United States he became a revered figure both on stage and backstage at the Grand Ole Opry – the Nashville theatre from which country music's celebrated radio show of the same name is broadcast – and he was the oldest living member of the Opry regulars. He made his radio debut singing on a station at Pensacola, strumming his guitar for instrumental backing. In 1948 Locklin and his band, The Rocky Mountain Playboys, landed a morning radio show in Houston, Texas. He made his first record on the Gold Star label in the same year before joining Four Star Records in 1949. In 1954 he had a number two hit with Let Me Be The One before signing to Decca later that year. A switch to the RCA label in 1957 led to a string of major hits, notably Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On, which spent 35 weeks in the country music charts. Other hits for Locklin included Geisha Girl (1957), Happy Journey (1961), Happy Birthday To Me (1962), and The Country Hall Of Fame (1968). He also enjoyed a long recording career with RCA Victor. more.... Tony Osborne, composer and arranger, has died aged 86 (3 March 2009) Osborne's first job was a trumpeter and relief pianist with Cyril Stapleton, and then with Frank Weir, Carroll Gibbons and Ambrose. He played in the BBC Orchestra for the comedy successes, The Goon Show and Take It From Here. Soon Osborne was working for the major companies of the day, notably with EMI, and he formed his own band, the Brass Hats, for weekly appearances on the BBC TV teenage show, Six-Five Special. When that was superseded by Juke Box Jury in 1959, Osborne wrote and recorded the theme song, "Juke Box Fury", under the name of Ozzie Warlock and the Wizards. When Osborne fell out with the show's producer, Russell Turner, Turner replaced his tune with John Barry's "Hit And Miss", which began Barry's run of success. In 1960, the American star Connie Francis recorded in England and Osborne wrote and conducted the arrangement for her million-selling "Mama", which was sung in Italian. Among his arrangements were "Sisters" for the Beverley Sisters, "Out Of Town" for Max Bygraves, "Love Is" for Alma Cogan, "Little Donkey" for Nina and Frederik, and "Say It With Flowers" with Dorothy Squires and Russ Conway. Around the late 1950s, Osborne began recording under his own name, favouring place names for his instrumental titles – the best known are "The Lights Of Lisbon", "The Man From Marseilles", "The Windows Of Paris", which became the theme music for the BBC drivetime programme, Roundabout and was recorded by Bing Crosby, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and "The Man From Madrid", a Top 50 entry in 1961. He also had a chart hit with "The Shepherd's Song" in 1973. more.... Author and dramatist Sir John Mortimer has died aged 85 (16 January 2009) Sir John Mortimer made his radio debut in 1955 when he adapted his own novel, 'Like Men Betrayed' for the BBC Light Programme. But he made his debut as a playwright with 'The Dock Brief', starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio's Third Programme, later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with 'What Shall We Tell Caroline?' at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre. His play, 'A Voyage Round My Father', given its first radio broadcast in 1963, is autobiographical, recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father. It was memorably televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a slightly longer version the play later became a stage success. In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Sir Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, whose speciality was defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey. Mortimer created Rumpole for 'Rumpole of the Bailey', a 1975 contribution to the BBCs 'Play For Today' anthology series. Played with gusto by Leo McKern, the character proved popular, and was developed into a Rumpole of the Bailey television series for Thames Television and a series of books (all written by Mortimer). more.... Angela Morley, light music composer, has died aged 88 (16 January 2009) Angela Morley was born in Leeds, Yorkshire on 10 March 1924. She attributes her entry into successful composing and arranging largely to the influence and encouragement of the Canadian light music composer Robert Farnon. She was a transsexual woman, and was originally credited under her birth name Wally Stott. She underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1972. Angela Morley is perhaps best known as a composer of light music, with the jaunty Rotten Row her best known piece. Also notable is A Canadian in Mayfair, a homage to Robert Farnon's Portrait of a Flirt. In 1953, she began a long association with the Philips record label, arranging for and accompanying the company's artists, as well as releasing records under her own name, including the 1958 LP 'London Pride'. She is also well known for writing the theme tune and incidental music for Hancock's Half Hour and was the musical director for The Goon Show from the third series in 1952 to the last show in 1960. In the 1960s she worked with Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield and the first three highly regarded solo albums by Scott Walker. In 1962 and 1963, she arranged the United Kingdom entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, Ring-A-Ding Girl and Say Wonderful Things, both sung by Ronnie Carroll. Morley orchestrated, arranged, and supervised the music for the final musical film collaboration of Lerner and Loewe, The Little Prince. In 1978 she was music supervisor on the Sherman Brothers' musical adaptation of the Cinderella story entitled, The Slipper and the Rose. She won Oscar nominations for both films. Additionally, she wrote most of the score for the 1978 film version of Watership Down, although the prelude and opening was by Malcolm Williamson. more.... Veteran BBC radio broadcaster Dudley Savage MBE has died at the age of 88 (27 November 2008) Dudley Savage became the resident organist at the Royal Cinema, Plymouth, in 1938. During the Second World War he interrupted his playing at the Royal to serve with the army in India. He broadcast BBC hospital request show 'As Prescribed' from the Royal, playing music on the organ for the programme for more than 30 years. 'As Prescribed' began broadcasting weekly in June 1948, and carried on until it was axed by the BBC in 1968. After a petition with 43,000 signatures was sent to the BBC, it was brought back as a monthly show in 1969, continuing for another 10 years and moving eventually to Radio 2. He also undertook concert tours of the UK and Europe, bringing the music of his chosen instrument to thousands of people around the world. His signature tune was 'Smiling Through'. A compilation double CD of his work is due for release in December 2008. more.... Yma Sumac, Peruvian singer who moved from folk music to Broadway and Hollywood, has died aged 86 (4 November 2008) Yma Sumac was a phenomenon in the 1950s whose varied, tempestuous career started when her extraordinary voice, ranging over several octaves, startled people on the album Voice of The Xtabuy. Featuring traditional Peruvian songs, often directed at the mountain gods, Voice Of The Xtabay (1950) was an unlikely success, selling 100,000 copies. The album went straight into the bestseller lists and was followed by Mambo!, arranged by Billy May, and Fuego del Ande (1959), perhaps her best record. British radio audiences were intrigued and countless requests flooded in to Children’s Choice, Two-Way Family Favourites and Housewives’ Choice. Sumac appeared as a foreign princess in the Broadway musical Flahooley in 1951 and in the films Secrets Of The Incas (1954) and Omar Khayyam with Cornel Wilde (1956). She made several other albums, including Legend Of The Sun Virgin (1952), Inca Taqui (1953), Mambo! (1954), Legend Of The Jivaro (1957) and Fuego Del Ande (1959). Although she did not have hit singles, she used her extraordinary voice on a recording of the South African folk song "Wimoweh", in 1952. Her Spanish name was Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavárri del Castillo; her Indian name, which meant “how beautiful”, was Imma Sumack, which she later altered to Yma Sumac. To her annoyance, a gossip columnist spelt it backwards and claimed she was Amy Camus from Brooklyn. more.... Lita Roza, Sultry interpreter of romantic ballads, has died aged 82 (15 August 2008) The public know the Liverpool singer Lita Roza for one song above all others, the children's novelty "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?" However, that doggie was her bête noire: she was talked into recording the song and did not consider it representative of her work. There were few to rival her real talent as a sultry and sophisticated interpreter of romantic ballads. In 1951, Roza recorded "Allentown Jail" with the Ted Heath band. Although record sales were not then collated, it was undoubtedly her first hit, as the song rose high in the sheet-music charts. After "Allentown Jail", her A&R man, Dick Rowe, asked her to sing "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?" and Roza replied, "I'm not recording that, it's rubbish." She recalled, "He said, 'It'll be a big hit, please do it, Lita.' I said that I would sing it once and once only and then I would never sing it again, and I haven't. The only time you'll hear it is on that record." Even when the record was No 1, no one could persuade Lita to perform her hit, but it did lead to her recording several unsuitable songs. She was appreciated as much for her stunning looks as for her voice and she topped the Melody Maker poll for Favourite Female Vocalist from 1951 to 1955, and a similar one in the New Musical Express from 1952 to 1955. In 1954, Roza left the Ted Heath band and started working as a solo act: "I would be singing with pit orchestras, who were usually dreadful," she said. "It was like going to the knacker's yard although I always carried my own pianist." In 1955, Lita had hits with two songs she liked – "Hey There" and "Jimmy Unknown" – and then sang "A Tear Fell" on a charity single for the Lord's Taverners Association, which made No 2. She recorded albums of standards, Listening in the Afterhours (1955) and Love is the Answer (1956). She had recorded another fine album, Me On a Carousel, for Pye in 1958, as well as a stream of variable singles, the better ones including "Volare" and "I Could Have Danced All Night". After leaving Pye in 1960, Roza recorded only sporadically. more.... Peter Coke, actor who played Paul Temple on radio, has died aged 95 (1 August 2008) Peter Coke was an actor and playwright best known for his portrayal of Paul Temple in the popular radio detective series devised by Francis Durbridge; in later life Coke also achieved success with sculptures which he created from sea shells. In the early Fifties, Coke, and his beautifully modulated voice, had begun to be much in demand on the radio. He took the lead role in Ivor Novello's King Monmouth in 1953, and also began to work in fledgling television series, such as The Teckman Biography and Gravelhanger. In 1954 he first took on the role of Paul Temple (as the seventh actor in the job) with Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case. From then until 1968, when he recorded Paul Temple and the Alex Affair, Coke was indistinguishable in the public mind from the well-spoken private detective who tackles crime with the aid of his wife Steve (Marjorie Westbury). In later years, at his gallery in Norfolk, Coke continued to receive fan letters and visits from admirers of the series. But while he continued to prosper on stage Coke set out to expand his career as a writer, and had his first substantial hit with Breath of Spring, a comedy at the Cambridge in 1958 which was judged a piece of "pleasant nonsense" by The Daily Telegraph. It ran for a year, and then transferred to Broadway. It also proved a firm favourite with amateur dramatic societies, and provided royalties for Coke for many years. Nine more plays followed. Coke also continued to take television parts and film roles (he was Lieutenant Lashwood in Carry On Admiral, 1957). more.... Veteran character actor Tony Melody has died aged 85 (9 July 2008) Tony Melody became a household name in some of Britain's best loved and longest running comedies and soaps. He started out as a singer with the Northern Dance Orchestra and later became a household name with character and comedy cameos. His breakthrough came during the heyday of radio comedy, in The Clitheroe Kid, the long-running show (1957-72) starring the diminutive, Lancashire-born, former music-hall performer Jimmy Clitheroe in the guise of a naughty schoolboy. Melody played Mr Higginbottom, a 6ft 4in taxi driver and Jimmy's arch-enemy, and he joined Clitheroe in the television version, Just Jimmy between 1964 and 1966. Later he moved to play more television parts such as in Steptoe and Son (teaching a young Harold Steptoe how to dance), Coronation Street, Heartbeat (helping Greengrass steal a train), Casualty, Emmerdale, City Central, Where the Heart Is and Last of the Summer Wine. One of his biggest breaks came when he appeared in the film Yanks alongside Richard Gere. more....   80 years of BBC shows to go online (11 June 2008) Every TV and radio programme ever made by the BBC could be placed online as part of an ambitious project unveiled today. The scheme will see a webpage created for nearly every programme broadcast on BBC radio and TV in the past 80 years. Initially, pages will contain information, clips and links about the show, but it is hoped that whole programmes will eventually be made available as part of a massive internet archive. This will either be via the seven-day catch-up service iPlayer or as a new online archive service. It is unclear whether the archive service will be free. The new details were revealed by Jana Bennett, director of BBC vision, at the Banff television festival in Canada. However, a number of episodes from shows including Hancock's Half Hour, Doctor Who, Steptoe and Son and the Goon Show have been lost. During the Seventies many tapes were destroyed or taped over to make space in the BBC's storage facilities or because they were considered a fire risk. Others, such as the Quatermass series, were broadcast live and not recorded. Ms Bennett said: "Eventually we will produce pages for programming stretching back over nearly 80 years - featuring all the information we have on the richest TV and radio archive in the world. The BBC is committed to releasing the public value in that archive." more.... Nat Temple, clarinettist and dance-band leader who frequently appeared on radio and television has died aged 94 (5 June 2008) Nat temple was one of the best-known bandleaders of the post-war period, particularly celebrated for his work in radio and television; he was also an exceptionally gifted clarinettist, whose talent received far less recognition than it deserved. He turned professional at 16, joining the band led by the singer and comedian Sam Costa. In 1940 Temple joined the Grenadier Guards and played with service bands for the rest of the war, including periods in North Africa and Italy. While still in the Army he contrived to play from time to time, and even record, with numerous other bands. A chance meeting with the Canadian actor and comedian Bernard Braden led to Temple's becoming musical director of a new, "oddball" radio show, Breakfast With Braden. This was followed by the late-night Bedtime With Braden, which gained a sizeable cult following. Temple was cast as the bumbling bandleader, a part he played so convincingly that he got taken on in the same role by other shows – Michael Bentine's Round The Bend, Dick Emery's Emery At Large and Peter Ustinov's In All Directions. From these, Temple graduated to children's television, acting as genial music-master for Jack In The Box, Telebox and, most famously, Crackerjack, with Eamonn Andrews. more.... Humphrey Lyttelton, broadcaster and jazz musician, has died aged 86 (26 April 2008) After spending the Second World War as an officer in the Grenadier Guards, Lyttelton became a pioneering figure in the British jazz scene. He formed his first band in 1948 after spending a year with George Webb's Dixielanders, a band that pioneered New Orleans-style jazz in the UK. The Humphrey Lyttelton Band quickly became Britain's leading traditional jazz group, and continental tours gave them a following in Europe. In 1949, he signed a recording contract with EMI which led to a string of records in the Parlophone Super Rhythm Style series and which have become highly sought after. By the late 1950s he was branching out, enlarging his band and experimenting with mainstream and non-traditional material, and shocking his established fans in the process. In 1959, the band made a successful tour of the United States. He was a keen amateur calligrapher and birdwatcher, and in 1984 formed his own record label, Calligraph. He composed more than 120 original songs during his career. In 1993 he won the radio industry's highest honour, a Sony Gold Award. He also won lifetime achievement awards at the Post Office British Jazz Awards in 2000, and the inaugural BBC Jazz Awards the following year. It was in 1972 that, against his better judgement, he took on the chairmanship of Radio Four’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Nobody imagined that his role, somewhat like a naïve and despairing schoolmaster who was forced to read out double entendres that he never understood, would last for the rest of his life. His sharp humour was hilarious and yet without malice. more....   Richard Willcox, producer of musical and variety radio programmes, has died aged 69 (5 January 2008) The first love of BBC Radio producer Richard Willcox was music hall and variety, and for many years he produced the famous Billy Cotton Band Show. The programme, which was broadcast from 1949 to 1968, became a national institution and was as much a part of the traditional Sunday lunchtime as roast beef. Cotton, a former racing driver, was a larger-than-life character who started each show with the cry “Wakey-Wakey!”. This was followed by the band's signature tune, Somebody Stole My Girl. Willcox revealed that Cotton's catchphrase originated in the days when the band had toured the country the week prior to Sunday morning rehearsal. Cotton would arrive in the BBC studio to find weary band members nodding off. “Oi, come on,” he roared. “Wakey! Wakey!” Noting its effect on everyone, it was suggested by a BBC executive that that was how the show should begin. When the series finished Willcox's knowledge and love of light entertainment made him a natural choice for producing other radio series such as The Windsor Davies Show and The Impressionists. During his long career with BBC Radio he held several posts including assistant head of light entertainment and, prior to taking early retirement. more.... British actress Pat Kirkwood, star of stage and screen, has died aged of 86 (26 December 2007) Pat Kirkwood's career spanned more than six decades and she played the lead roles in the West End shows of Noel Coward, Cole Porter and Leonard Bernstein. After appearing in a talent contest on the Isle of Man she was invited to an audition with the BBC in Manchester She made her professional debut, aged 14, as a singer on the BBC radio programme The Children's Hour. A year later, in April 1936, she made her first stage appearance at the Royal Hippodrome, Salford, billed as The Schoolgirl Songstress. The following year she starred in her debut film - Save a Little Sunshine. After the success of the revue Black Velvet at the London Hippodrome in 1939 she was hailed as "Britain's first wartime star". She became the first female to have her own television series with The Pat Kirkwood Show in 1954 and also appeared in various TV plays. In Our Marie (1953) she played the music hall star Marie Lloyd; she also appeared in Pygmalion (1956) and The Great Little Tilley (1956) as another music hall star, Vesta Tilley, which was directed by Hubert Gregg and subsequently became the film After The Ball (1957). In 1953, she was reunited with George Formby on the panel of What's My Line but was seen on screen feeding Formby questions to ask the contestants. more.... Moira Lister, actress who excelled in sparkling comedy roles ranging from Shakespeare to the moderns, has died aged 84 (29 October 2007) As an actress, Moira Lister was once compared to the American comedienne Lucille Ball, because of her way of turning glamorous women into witty commentators on life. Whether it was in a play, musical, film or television drama or even as a guest on such TV shows as What's My Line?, Call My Bluff and Life Begins at Forty, she stood apart with her slim figure, bright blue eyes and delicate, upper-class voice. She was an accomplished actress whose regal bearing found her often cast in patrician roles, though she also had a splendid sense of humour and a versatility that ranged from acclaimed performances in Shakespearean tragedy to her award-winning display of farcical expertise in Move Over, Mrs Markham. In 1954, Moira first teamed up with Tony Hancock in the second series of "Star Bill". She was brought into "Star Bill" to replace Hancock's previous lady foil of the first series, Geraldine McEwan. With considerable film experience behind her, Moira's strong personality proved her to be an ideal match for Hancock. Her distinctive, husky voice made Lister a radio stalwart in such series as Simon and Laura and A Life of Bliss, and in South Africa her radio roles included the leading parts in Rain, The Deep Blue Sea (she had earlier played a supporting role in the film version) and The Millionairess. On television, she was a sparkling critic of record releases in Juke Box Jury, and she was a guest on such shows as Danger Man, Call My Bluff and The Avengers. For three years, 1967-69, she starred in her own series, A Very Merry Widow. In 1971 she was the subject of This Is Your Life, and her autobiography, A Very Merry Moira, was published in 1969. more.... Peter Tuddenham, actor, has died aged 88 (9 August 2007) Peter Tuddenham's earliest television appearances included parts in Clara, The Maid of Durham: Or Home Sweet Home (1955) and the BBC's "Musical Playhouse" Ivor Novello productions The Dancing Years (as Franzel, 1959) and Perchance To Dream (as Lord Failsham, 1959). He also had several roles in soap opera, on radio in Mrs Dale's Diary (as Dr Mitchell, who famously once sat on Mrs Freeman's cat) and Waggoners' Walk, and as George Banham in ITV's East Anglian vets serial Weavers Green (1966). On television, Tuddenham was a regular as the pub landlord in Backs to the Land (1977-78) and as William in Double First (1988). He also guest-starred as priests in the sitcom Nearest and Dearest (1968) and the P.D. James thriller A Mind To Murder (1995), and played doctors in Quiller (1975), The Lost Boys (1978) and Nanny (1981, 1982) and an auctioneer in Lovejoy (1986). At the age of 60, after spending more than half his adult life as an actor, Peter Tuddenham became most familiar to television viewers as the voices of three computers in the cult science-fiction serial Blakes 7. more.... Phil Drabble, 'One Man and His Dog' presenter, has died aged 93 (1 August 2007) A countryman through and through, the writer and naturalist Phil Drabble shared his love of nature and rural ways in dozens of books but, most famously, as the original presenter of One Man and His Dog, which provided the spectacle of working sheepdogs demonstrating their skills at rounding up flocks in lush, green fields and meadows, moving them around fences, gates and enclosures while following their handlers' whistles and commands. He had made his radio début with a feature on the Black Country's bull-rings and bull-stakes for the BBC Midland Region in 1947. He continued to make contributions for the next 13 years, especially to the rural programme Countrylover, before presenting its successors, Countryside and In the Country, himself. Drabble's television baptism came in 1952, when he was invited to show off his tame badger for a live broadcast and he was soon in demand for children's programmes. Then, in 1961, he left his day job to pursue writing and broadcasting full time and, three years later, began a weekly column in the Birmingham Evening Mail that ran until 1990. One Man and His Dog, screened on BBC2, brought him national fame, as well as more television work, beginning with the rural magazine programme Country Game (1976-79), presented by Julian Pettifer, then Angela Rippon, with Drabble as a contributor. more.... Aileen Mills, radio actress and author, has died aged 96 (13 June 2007) Aileen Mills was one of radio's earliest soap stars, playing in At The Luscombes, which began as a West Country forerunner of The Archers; for a time, the Luscombes and their brood were the nation's favourite radio family. She was cast as Dot, a well-meaning but rather tiresome young woman, worrying mostly about what she was going to wear at the next dance, but whose character developed during the early 1950s into that of a responsible wife and mother. Launched in September 1948, in the days of valve-powered Bakelite wireless sets, and heard only in the West Region of the old Home Service, At The Luscombes was not the first radio soap opera (that was The Robinsons, later The Front Line Family); however the serial predated The Archers, which was piloted as a Midlands regional fixture in May 1949 before being networked on the Light Programme from January 1951. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s she contributed plays and stories to BBC radio. These included dramatisations of historical episodes for schools radio or Children's Hour, versions of old favourites such as Treasure Island and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and adaptations of HE Bates and Thomas Hardy. more....   Dame Vera Lynn celebrates 90th Birthday (20 March 2007) Lords and ladies turned out to pay their respects to Britain's Forces' Sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn, who has just celebrated her 90th birthday. The House of Lords hosted a special party sponsored by the Royal British Legion in the first of half-a-dozen parties for a woman whose singing inspired the nation during the darkest days of war. As one of the guests told her: "You put a smile on everybody's face, even in those terrible times. Our wireless was always on." A sprightly Dame Vera, who said she felt like she was aged 60, was in chatty mood as she mingled with her friends. Even now she is engaged in charity work for many causes, not simply those involving ex-servicemen. She said: "I don't know where the years have gone. It is amazing what you can do for others. It is up to everybody to utilise whatever talents they have to use to help others inasmuch as they can. I hope I have spent my life well. I tried to do what I could to help others." more....   Bill Threlfall, tennis player and commentator, has died aged 81 (12 March 2007) Following a career in the Fleet Air Arm during the War, Threlfall's life behind a microphone began with ITV in the 1950s. A spell with BBC Radio followed. His last broadcasts were done with Sky Sports, for whom his annual trips to New York for the US Open were always a highlight of the year. Threlfall will best be remembered, however, as a member of BBC-TV's commentary team at Wimbledon, where for some 30 years his mellifluous voice could be heard describing the action. As a former player who was still active as a coach, Threlfall spoke with authority about the game he loved and brought a sense of fun to his commentaries. more....   Wally Ridley, EMI record producer, has died aged 93 (24 January 2007) In 1948, Wally Ridley persuaded the BBC to broadcast a radio series live from a theatre. The series starred Donald Peers and his signature tune, which Ridley found, was "Powder Your Face With Sunshine". Ridley expected the BBC to mock his suggestion of a radio series featuring a ventriloquist, but Educating Archie with Archie Andrews and Peter Brough captured 20 million listeners and made household names of Beryl Reid, Max Bygraves, Harry Secombe and Tony Hancock. "I always think that Eric Sykes was the genius behind that series as he wrote the scripts and created the catchphrases," said Ridley: "Max Bygraves stumbled over long lines and so he gave him short, little lines and it worked perfectly. When I made records with Maxie, I did exactly the same thing. I found him songs with short lines that he could punch in and we had lots of hits". The same year Ridley joined EMI Records to build up a popular catalogue for the HMV label. The label, decimated by shellac shortages during the Second World War, only had regular releases from Joe Loss and George Melachrino and their orchestras. Very soon, Ridley was having success with Peers, Bygraves, Ronnie Hilton, Malcolm Vaughan, Bert Weedon and Don Lang. There was also Alma Cogan, known as "the girl with the giggle". more....   City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Concert - Workers' Playtime (posted 12 October 2006) Friday 1 December, 7.30pm at Symphony Hall, Birmingham Join the CBSO as they travel back across the airwaves to the bygone the age of the gramophone and wireless. In a glorious evening of British light music nostalgia, the Orchestra pays tribute to the long-running BBC radio programme Workers' Playtime on its 65th anniversary. Take a trip down memory lane with Elgar's Chanson de Matin, Wood's London Cameos, Sullivan's Iolanthe Overture, the theme tunes from The Forsyte Saga, In Town Tonight, Desert Island Discs, Dick Barton Special Agent, Workers' Playtime, and many more jaunty and well-loved British gems. Every composer featured in this concert has a fantastic gift of melody - come along tonight and you could be humming right through to Christmas! more.... Sir Malcolm Arnold, composer and trumpeter, has died aged 84 (25 September 2006) Sir Malcolm Arnold had been composing since childhood, inspired, he once said, by a chance meeting with Duke Ellington in a Bournemouth tea room. Louis Armstrong was another influence. He wrote something like 130 film scores, ranging from his first. Avalanche Patrol, in 1947, to David Copperfield in 1969. Along the way, he collected a Hollywood Oscar, for his score for David Lean's film of The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Other films on which he collaborated were I Am a Camera (1955), The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), The Angry Silence (1960), Tunes of Glory (1960) and Whistle Down the Wind (1961). He once claimed that he only wrote film music so that he could conduct it himself and so gain experience in this area. He may just have been teasing, because many of these scores were highly effective. During this period he also composed three operas and three ballets as well as a quantity of works for the concert hall. more....   Frank Middlemass, character actor, has died aged 87 (12 September 2006) Florid-faced, bewhiskered and with a rich fruity voice, Frank Middlemass was one of Britain’s finest character actors. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, he appeared in seasons with the Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare companies, starred in numerous TV dramas and was best known on radio as Dan Archer in The Archers. His television career began in the early 1950s in series such as Dixon of Dock Green and Z-Cars, and he also starred in early live TV dramas. By the 1980s he was one of television’s busiest actors, appearing in a host of series including The Avengers, Soldier Soldier, Dr Finlay, Miss Marple and others. In 1992 he was one of the original cast of the crime series Heartbeat, playing Dr Alex Ferrenby for 21 episodes. "I very much regret being killed off in Heartbeat," he said. "It was one of my favourite roles." In 1993 he played Clive Parrott in the series A Year in Provence, opposite John Thaw. Middlemass’s film appearances were few but they were usually in distinguished productions such as Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975), in which he played Sir Charles Lyndon, and the award-winning Second World War drama, One Against the Wind (1991), starring Judy Davis. more.... Archie Andrews is to make comeback (9 September 2006) Legendary ventriloquist’s doll Archie Andrews is set to return to the stage for the first time in nearly four decades, after his new owner revealed he is scripting a stage play charting the puppet’s life story. Colin Burnett-Dick, who bought Archie at auction for £34,000 last November had already also found a new ventriloquist to perform as part of the show - Eastbourne-based entertainer Steve Haylett. According to Burnett-Dick, the newly-announced production will be “a celebration, a tribute, a walk down memory lane” into the puppet’s past and will feature actors playing many of the famous names who appeared on Archie’s radio show in the forties and fifties, including Tony Hancock, Max Bygraves and Julie Andrews. He added: “We’re at the writing stage now. It’s going to be an autobiographical journey. It starts at the auction house where I bought Archie and will look back on his career up to then with ventriloquist Peter Brough.” The show will also include the performance of a complete episode from the Educating Archie radio series. Burnett-Dick is now looking for a producer for the show, which he hopes to have up and running in 2007 more....   Margaret Hubble, radio broadcaster, has died aged 91 (9 September 2006) Margaret Hubble was a stalwart of the airwaves for some 30 years, first as chief announcer for the BBC African Service and later on such programmes as Forces Favourites, the wartime record-request show, and Family Favourites, its immensely popular peacetime successor. She was also a friendly velvet-voiced presence on Woman’s Hour, Children’s Hour and children’s television. She trained the presenter Jean Metcalfe before her debut. “Maggie showed me what to do,” Metcalfe recalled later. “ Turn the big black knob to open the microphone; talk sense with one half of your brain, while the other is reading the clock; never pause more than 15 seconds or the enemy will jam your wavelength; play Lillibullero before every news, and remember in an emergency ‘a good announcer has at hand a stirring military band’ .” She was a contributor to Children’s Hour on the Home Service and introduced a series called Saturday Excursion, a TV programme about travel to interesting places, which ran from 1953 to 1957. more.... Maurice Bevan, baritone with the Deller Consort who also sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on Listen with Mother has died aged 85 (21 July 2006) Maurice Bevan was for more than 40 years the baritone with the Deller Consort, the vocal ensemble that heralded the renaissance of English Baroque and pre-Baroque music. His singing career was rich and varied, and included a similar period with the choir of St Paul's Cathedral as well as contributing regularly to the BBC Home Service's programme Listen With Mother. Midway through Listen with Mother, a plummy voice would ring out: "And here is Maurice Bevan to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." What followed would be a deep and resonant rendition of the nursery rhyme that would embed itself firmly in the psyche of many an impressionable toddler. So varied was Bevan's professional life that the same evening he might also be heard singing Compline - in an era when the BBC considered the service of the day worthy of broadcast. more....   Hugh Latimer, radio, TV and stage actor has died aged 93 (24 June 2006) Hugh Latimer' was a handsome, unambitious actor familiar to West End playgoers and television viewers for several decades. In parallel with his busy stage career, Latimer appeared in the film spin off from the wireless series PC 49 and in Mrs Dale's Diary, playing Bob Dale in the latter. He was in television's Dixon of Dock Green and The Adventures of Robin Hood, Warship and Hunter's Walk, as well as The Dickie Henderson Show and Two in Clover, with Sid James. After making his film debut in Corridor of Mirrors (1946) he appeared in Stranger at the Door (1951), The Last Man to Hang (1956) and the crime story The Gentle Trap (1960). more.... Richard Bebb, actor and connoisseur of the recorded voice, has died aged 79 (20 April 2006) Richard Bebb was an erudite actor on stage, screen and radio whose deep interest in the history of acting turned him into a distinguished collector and student of the recorded theatrical voice. In 1950 he began working regularly in radio and television. He shared the narration with Richard Burton in the original wireless production of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, and appeared in more than 1,000 broadcast plays. A prolific TV and film actor he often played doctors or upper-class figures. He made his TV debut in 1951 playing Octavius to Walter Hudd’s Julius Caesar and appeared in a string of drama series including Dangerman, Softly, Softly, Z Cars and Dixon of Dock Green. For several years he played Dr Harvest in the ITV lunchtime soap, Compact. He was Dr Orlov in Anna Karenina (1977) and Dr Stanhope in The Barchester Chronicles (1982). In recent years he was a regular face (and voiceover) in the Poirot series. more....   William Davies, virtuoso pianist and master of the theatre organ, has died aged 84 (18 April 2006) Willaim Davies was a household name for listeners to the BBC Light Programme. He was one of the most versatile musicians of his time, equally at home at the piano or organ, or when composing, arranging and conducting. He made his first broadcasts for the BBC as accompanist for the “interludes” that were a feature of live wireless and became organist of the Gaumont Theatre, Wolverhampton, and later the Gaumont, Finchley. In 1953 he joined the Jack Hylton organisation as pianist, conductor and arranger — in particular at the Victoria Palace, where he worked with the Crazy Gang — while maintaining a very busy freelance career. This was the heyday of “Tin Pan Alley” and the golden age of light music. By 1956 he was a member of the London Studio Players, had his own quartet and went on to become the keyboard star in programmes such as MusicBox, Friday Night is Music Night and The Organist Entertains. With his own orchestra he made several series of Strings by Starlight. His extraordinary ability to improvise material to split-second timing was still in evidence in his seventies when he did a series of At the Piano broadcasts, playing fluently for precisely the required time, without rehearsal. more....   Ken Sykora, musician and broadcaster, has died at the age of 82 (13 March 2006) Ken Sykora was, at the peak of his career, one of Britain's most popular radio personalities. A multi-award-winning broadcaster and musician, he made regular appearances on all the BBC's networks. He led his own band in the 1950s, performing with Ted Heath at the London Palladium and Geraldo at the old Stoll Theatre. He was voted Britain's top guitarist five years running in Melody Maker's Readers' Polls. Music led him into broadcasting and involvement in the creation of a veritable treasure trove of popular radio programming. He contributed to Today, Housewives' Choice, Radio Newsreel, Holiday Hour (with Cliff Michelmore), Home This Afternoon, and schools and sports programmes. The latter included the first radio series on sailing. He took part in the first experimental stereo broadcasts and the first use of radio cars on location. Sykora's radio career entered its third decade in the 1970s. He was still working as a regular host on those perennial favourites, You and Yours and Start the Week, when he and his family decided to fulfil an ambition to move to Scotland to run the Colintraive Hotel on the Kyles of Bute. more....   Ernest Dudley, Crime writer and dramatist has died aged 98. (4 February 2006) Ernest Dudley was the pen name of Vivian Ernest Coltman-Allen. For enthusiasts of classic mystery fiction, his most enduring achievement was the creation of Dr Morelle, 'the man you love to hate!', psychoanalyst-detective and male chauvinist pig, whose detection powers were dazzling, but whose treatment of females, especially his fluttery secretary Miss Frayle, verged on the abominable. Overbearing, sarcastic, patronising, contemptuous, cruel and unusually vindictive, Morelle was nevertheless doted upon by millions of listeners to his adventures on the radio in the 1940s and 1950s. more.... Phil Tate, who has died aged 83, led a popular dance band in the post-war years. (15 December 2005) In 1950 Tate took up a residency at Hammersmith Palais. His band, which shared the billing with Lou Preager's orchestra, featured the unique blend of three flutes and five saxophones. He began recording ballroom dance music for the Oriole label and, with the launch of commercial television in 1955, made regular Friday night appearances on the Associated Rediffusion show Palais Party. Tate hosted the weekly radio show Non-Stop Pop on the BBC Light Programme, in which he interviewed current pop stars, including the Beatles. He also made regular television appearances with the band on the BBC's Come Dancing. more....   Ken Mackintosh, bandleader and saxophonist has died aged 86 (29 November 2005) Ken Mackintosh's suave orchestral accompaniments entertained London's West End. To dancers at the great London ballrooms of the Empire, Leicester Square, and the Hammersmith Palais, the name of Ken Mackintosh was synonymous with suave orchestral accompaniments, which he provided for more than 14 years in the 1960s and 1970s. To fans of Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Matt Monro, Mackintosh was the bandleader who frequently backed them on national tours. To enthusiasts of big band music, he was a musician who kept the spirit of the great 1940s swing dance orchestras alive, while providing more contemporary fare for younger audiences.   Archie Andrews dummy sells for £34,000 (23 November 2005) A private collector has paid £34,000 for the original Archie Andrews dummy used by ventriloquist Peter Brough in the 1950s radio show, Educating Archie. The dummy sold for more than double the £15,000 estimate at Taunton auctioneers Greenslade Taylor Hunt on Tuesday, where it was sold by Brough's family. more....   Actress Avril Angers has died aged 87 (11 November 2005) Avril Angers was one of the most zestful, charming and reliable character comediennes in the post-war London theatre; she also appeared in television series such as Dad's Army, All Creatures Great and Small, Are You Being Served?, Minder, Coronation Street and The Tomorrow People. Her comic persona flourished on stage and television, particularly in provincial pantomime and in television partnerships with comedians like Benny Hill, Arthur Askey, Frankie Howerd, Terry-Thomas and Les Dawson, and in shows such as Dad's Army and Coronation Street. She started broadcasting for the BBC radio service in 1944. It was when she was in Cairo with the troops that Douglas Moodlie saw her as a future radio personality, and Variety Bandbox gave her her big chance; followed by more than a year with the Carroll Levis radio show. She had a topical musical slot called Look Back with Angers on the BBC radio show Roundabout, from which she was upset to be "given a rest" in 1959. From the 1930s through to the 1950s, she was a fixture as a cartoon character in Radio Fun, in a comic strip entitled The Adventures of Avril Angers more.... Archers star Mary Wimbush dies at 81 (1 November 2005) Actress Mary Wimbush, who played Julia Pargetter-Carmichael on The Archers for 13 years, has died at the age of 81. Wimbush, a familiar voice on BBC radio for more than 60 years, died at the BBC's Birmingham studios shortly after finishing recording on Monday night. Julia was the actress' third major role in the BBC Radio 4 soap. She previously played village schoolteacher Elsie Catcher and Lady Isabel Lander. In 1946 she married the well-known actor Howard Marion-Crawford, a favourite of radio drama producers on both the Home Service and the new Third Programme, although the marriage did not last long. But both the Home and the Third were to become second home to her, especially during the 1950s through to the 1970s, when she was seldom out of the BBC studios. Jenny Abramsky, director of BBC Radio and Music, said Wimbush had been "part of the fabric of BBC Radio drama since her first broadcast in 1945". more....   Comedy actor, Ronnie Barker has died aged 76 (4 October 2005) For more than 20 years Ronnie Barker was one of the leading figures of British television comedy. He was much loved and admired for his appearances in the long-running series The Two Ronnies, with Ronnie Corbett, as prison inmate Fletcher, in the series Porridge, and as Arkwright, the bumbling, stuttering, sex-obsessed shopkeeper in Open All Hours. It was during the 1950s that he broke into radio. He was in 300 editions of The Navy Lark as A B Johnson (also known by the nickname 'Fatso'). Ronnie Barker first worked with Ronnie Corbett in The Frost Report and Frost on Sunday, programmes for which he also wrote scripts. In 1971 they teamed up for the first Two Ronnies. BBC Obituary... Telegraph Obituary Independent Obituary... Times Obituary...   Composer, trumpeter and arranger Robert Farnon has died aged 87 (24 April 2005) Bob Farnon composed many light music cameos for Chappell Music Publishers, primarily for use as background music in newsreels etc, but many of these pieces were recorded by Bob's and other orchestras, and often became familiar through their use as radio and TV signature tunes. Among his very well known compositions are 'Portrait Of A Flirt', 'Jumping Bean', 'Journey Into Melody', 'Melody Fair', 'Westminster Waltz' and 'Manhattan Playboy'. more.... Singing star Kathie Kay, 86, dies (9 March 2005) Big band singing legend Kathie Kay, who belonged to a well-known Glasgow family, has died at the age of 86. Her big break came in the 1950s when she was made resident singer on Billy Cotton's Band Show, which later switched from radio to television. more....   Sound archive calls for lost relics (5 February 2004) The British Library National Sound Archive are hoping that a rummage in the attic might unearth valuable radio recordings from the 1940s, 50s or 60s, or private recordings from earlier. While the archive has plenty of old-fashioned home tape players, gramophones and wax cylinder phonographs, it is keen to get hold of some of the rarer formats. The archive's Noel Sidebottom said: "We are particularly keen to get hold of dictating machines for the extinct tape formats." more....   Andrew Dodds, prolific illustrator of books, newspapers and 'Radio Times' has died aged 77 (7 January 2005) When, in 1951, the Radio Times wanted an artist to draw characters for the new broadcast serial The Archers, they made a shrewd choice in Andrew Dodds. He had been brought up on a farm and had illustrated for Farmers Weekly. Dodds created faces that would become inseparable from Dan and Doris Archer and their family. His models were close at hand: Dan was based on a neighbouring farmer near his home in Essex, Doris on Dodds's redoubtable mother Margaret, also a farmer. Through to 1970, Dodds produced over 300 drawings for Radio Times. He was included in R.D. Usherwood's book Drawing for Radio Times (1961) and BBC Publications' The Art of Radio Times (1981) and was chosen by Martin Baker for the exhibition "Artists of Radio Times" at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 2002. more.... Cyril Fletcher has died aged 91 (2 January 2005) Cyril Fletcher delivered odd odes in strangulated Cockney tones and was a surprising hit with television and radio audiences in a broadcasting career spanning more than sixty years. With his distinctive nasal twang and his contagious bonhomie Cyril Fletcher was one of Britain's most popular comedians. In the post-war years, he was a regular in three series of the classic 1950s panel game What's My Line? and appeared in the first religious series, Sunday Story. He and his wife starred in Bob Monkhouse and Denis Goodwin's BBC sketch special Cyril's Saga (1957) and in the six-part series The Cyril Fletcher Show (1959), scripted by Johnny Speight. Fletcher was also a regular member of the panel in the BBC radio show Does the Team Think? As well as delivering his distinctive ditties, Cyril Fletcher was also, in his time, a cabaret artist, gardening expert and proud countryman. more.... Sidonie Goossens, the celebrated harpist ,has died aged 105 (16 December 2004) Sidonie Goossens had a professional career as an orchestral player which lasted for nearly 70 years, probably an unrivalled achievement. She was the first solo harpist to broadcast, in 1923, and the first to appear on television, in 1936; the same year, she made front-page news in July when she was one of 50 Britons rescued from Barcelona by the destroyer Gallant when the Spanish Civil War broke out. She had been on holiday on the Costa Brava. Who could forget her harp introduction to 'Mrs. Dale's Diary'? more.... Molly Weir, the actress, has died aged 94 (29 November 2004) At the start of her career, it was her distinctive Scottish accent and talent as a mimic in the 1940s which launched her as a member of the radio sketch show It's That Man Again (ITMA) where she became known to millions of radio listeners as Tattie McIntosh. When the show ended with the death of Tommy Handley, she continued her radio work, and went on to another big success as Aggie in Life With the Lyons, which later transferred to television. She went on to write a best-selling cookery book, eight volumes of autobiography and radio scripts for Woman's Hour, Children's Hour and Home This Afternoon. more.... Music hall star Billy "Uke" Scott has died aged 81 (23 November 2004) Billy inspired three generations of ukelele players, composing, singing and writing a "teach-yourself" ukelele manual. A popular radio performer (he was one of the biggest variety stars in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s), his ability received its own tribute on BBC radio when, in a Goon Show script of 1954, Peter Sellers says: "Thank you, thank you. Tonight I have included in my repertoire Schubert's violin sonata, guest soloist Billy 'Uke' Scott." more.... Biography website Max Geldray, harmonica player with The Goons, has died aged 88 (6 October 2004) Geldray, known as "Conk" to listeners, performed alongside Goons Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe on the show. He was frequently introduced with such lines as "Mr Max Geldray will now play his new record in a reclining position", followed by "That was Mr Max Geldray imitating music". On occasion, he also had a speaking part, in which he never felt entirely at ease, not least because the others would ad lib with abandon. After he had stumbled his way through his lines the audience would be amiably assured that Mr Geldray was "the world's worst actor". He was also credited as the world's first jazz harmonica player, performing with Django Reinhardt in the 1930s. more....   Les Ward - the surviving half of the musical novelty act Albert and Les Ward - has died at his Cardiff home, aged 82. (13 September 2004) The Ward Brothers had appeared on many of variety’s biggest bills from the thirties until the early seventies. They predated artistes such as Lonnie Donegan and Chas McDevitt with their own version of skiffle, playing guitars, bicycle pumps, washboards and virtually anything - from kitchen or garden - that could accompany their country and western songs. Albert and Les Ward became household names in the fifties on the BBC radio show "Welsh Rarebit". They made many comedy records and regularly appeared on radio shows such as "Variety Bandbox" and "Worker’s Playtime" They were regular guests on "Ignorance Is Bliss" being billed as “musical indiscretions with the Foulharmonic Orchestra”. In the late fifties they were regularly featured as a leading support act at the London Palladium appearing with American stars such as Johnny Ray. They also appeared with Judy Garland at the Dominion Theatre. Albert Ward died in 2001.   News Archive - Click here

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