| The World of Beachcomber | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Country of origin | United 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.
| The World of Beachcomber | |
|---|---|
| Title card | |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Country of origin | United 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.
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]
This list is inevitably incomplete.
Beachcomber is a nom de plume that has been used by several journalists writing a long-running humorous column in the Daily Express. It was originated in 1917 by Major John Bernard Arbuthnot MVO as his signature on the column, titled 'By the Way'. The name Beachcomber was then passed to D. B. Wyndham Lewis in 1919 and, in turn, to J. B. Morton, who wrote the column till 1975. It was later revived by William Hartston, current author of the column.
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in 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 and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg.
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The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968.
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Q... is a surreal television comedy sketch show written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand, and starring Spike Milligan with supporting players, usually including Julia Breck, John Bluthal, Bob Todd, and John Wells. The show ran from 1969 to 1982 on BBC2. There were six series in all, the first five numbered from Q5 to Q9, and a final series titled There's a Lot of It About. The first and third series ran for seven episodes, and the others for six episodes, each of which was 30 minutes long.
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series, which ran from 1965 to 1983 featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted regularly from October 1965 to May 1979, before returning for the summer seasons of 1982 and 1983. The producer most associated with the Play of the Month series was Cedric Messina. Thirteen productions were also shown previously or subsequently on BBC2 in the period 1971-73 under Stage 2. Productions were broadcast in colour from November 1969.
DEF II was a programming strand on BBC2, which aired at 6 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 May 1988 to 23 May 1994, to serve the teenage market. It was produced by Janet Street-Porter, and followed on from her influential youth TV show Network 7 on Channel 4.
A Kick Up the Eighties is a British comedy sketch show originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1981 to 1984. It starred Robbie Coltrane, Tracey Ullman, Richard Stilgoe, Miriam Margolyes, Rik Mayall, Ron Bain and Roger Sloman.
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Before the Fringe was a BBC television series which ran for two series on BBC2 in 1967.
Oh In Colour was a comedy television sketch programme broadcast on BBC 2 in 1970. It ran for one six-episode series from September to November 1970. It was written by and featured Spike Milligan, who was accompanied by different stars every week. It was shown after the thoroughly more popular Q5, also written by Milligan and Neil Shand. It is likely the programme was written to bridge the long production gap between Q5 and the next series, Q6, which did not appear on TV screens until 1975.
Thirty-Minute Theatre was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known. It was produced initially by Harry Moore, later by Graeme MacDonald, George Spenton-Foster, Innes Lloyd and others. Thirty-Minute Theatre began on BBC2 in 1965 with an adaptation of the black comedy Parson's Pleasure. Dennis Potter contributed Emergency – Ward 9 (1966), which he partially recycled in the much later The Singing Detective (1986). In 1967 BBC2 launched the UK's first colour service, with the consequence that Thirty-Minute Theatre became the first drama series in the country to be shown in colour.
The Melting Pot is a British television situation comedy starring Spike Milligan. It was written by Milligan and his regular collaborator Neil Shand. The pilot episode was broadcast only once by BBC1 in June 1975, with a full series recorded for transmission in August 1976, but never broadcast.