The World of Beachcomber

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The World of Beachcomber
The World of Beachcomber.jpg
Title card
GenreComedy
Country of originUnited Kingdom

The World of Beachcomber was a surreal television comedy show produced by the BBC inspired by the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express newspaper.

Contents

Description

The show, like the column, consisted of a series of unrelated pieces of humour. Links between the items were provided by Spike Milligan, dressed in a smoking jacket and cap, as in the cartoon logo above the newspaper column. [1] The other actors were a Who's Who of British comedy of the time, encompassing almost every supporting player seen or heard in comedy. Likewise the writing staff included Milligan, Barry Took, John Junkin, Neil Shand and others. The producers were John Howard Davies and Duncan Wood. [2] [3]

In all, 19 episodes were produced beginning in January 1968. [4] They were mostly shown on the new BBC2 channel, which broadcast in colour using the 625-line PAL standard. BBC2 was a minority-appeal culture channel, and thus allowed greater stretching of the boundaries of the art. Unfortunately, like many shows of the time, the original videotapes were wiped. [5] Only one complete episode, on black and white 16mm film now survives of this show in the BBC archives, from the penultimate (20.10.69) edition. [6] In addition to this, excerpts (origin unknown, but likely filmed inserts) for the 29.09.69 edition also survive. Audio soundtracks also survive for episodes Three (06.10.69) and Four (13.10.69) of the 1969 series. [7] In addition to this, a soundtrack LP featuring excerpts from shows from series one was also released by PYE Records, and rereleased on audio cassette in 1997. [8]

Recurring items

Cast

This list is inevitably incomplete.

References

  1. "BBC - Comedy - Guide - The World of Beachcomber". 15 June 2006. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006.
  2. "BFI Screenonline: Davies, John Howard (1939-2011) Biography". screenonline.org.uk.
  3. "The World of Beachcomber[20/10/69] (1969)". BFI. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020.
  4. "Broadcast - BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 June 2021.
  5. "The World of Beachcomber". 13 April 2020.
  6. "Broadcast - BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 September 2021.
  7. Kaleidoscope Lost Shows, 25 April 2010
  8. Beachcomber Website, 25 April 2010
  9. "Today's TV", Daily Mirror, p. 14, 18 March 1968
  10. "Today's Programmes", Daily Mirror, p. 18, 6 October 1968