Three of a Kind is a British comedy sketch and music television show starring Mike Yarwood, Ray Fell and Lulu. [1] [2] Two series were shown by the BBC during 1967. [1] [2]
Although successful, Yarwood turned down a third series as he hoped to follow Lulu in getting a series of his own. He went on to become one of the biggest stars of the 1970s. [1]
Lulu said in her autobiography that she enjoyed working on the show, but wasn't comfortable with comedy. [3]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(June 2019) |
Produced by John Ammonds.
Series 1: Broadcast Mondays on BBC2 at 8:05pm.
Total # | Series # | Title | Director | Writer(s) | Original airdate | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Episode 1" | John Ammonds | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton & Julius Emmanuel | 12 June 1967 | |
The first of a new series starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with the Go-Jos. | ||||||
2 | 2 | "Episode 2" | David Bell | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton, Peter Robinson & Neil Shand | 19 June 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with the Go-Jos. | ||||||
3 | 3 | "Episode 3" | John Ammonds | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton, Peter Robinson & Neil Shand | 26 June 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with the Go-Jos and Guest Star Stratford Johns. | ||||||
4 | 4 | "Episode 4" | John Ammonds | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton & Neil Shand | 3 July 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with the Go-Jos. | ||||||
5 | 5 | "Episode 5" | John Ammonds | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton & Neil Shand | 10 July 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with the Go-Jos. | ||||||
6 | 6 | "Episode 6" | John Ammonds | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton & Neil Shand | 17 July 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with the Go-Jos. |
Series 2: Broadcast Mondays on BBC2 at 8:05pm
Total # | Series # | Title | Director | Writer(s) | Original airdate | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7 | 1 | "Episode 1" | Sydney Lotterby | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton, Barry Knowles, Les Lilley & Neil Shand | 30 October 1967 | |
The first of a new series starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with Malcolm Clare, Audrey Bayley, Alix Kirsta, Frances Pidgeon & Christine Pockett. | ||||||
8 | 2 | "Episode 2" | Sydney Lotterby | Austin Steele, Brad Ashton, Dan Douglass, Barry Knowles, Les Lilley & Neil Shand | 8 November 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with Malcolm Clare, Audrey Bayley, Alix Kirsta, Frances Pidgeon & Christine Pockett. | ||||||
9 | 3 | "Episode 3" | Sydney Lotterby | Barry Knowles, Brad Ashton, Peter Robinson & Les Lilley | 13 November 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with Malcolm Clare, Audrey Bayley, Alix Kirsta, Frances Pidgeon & Christine Pockett. | ||||||
10 | 4 | "Episode 4" | Sydney Lotterby | Dan Douglas, Brad Ashton, Barry Knowles & Les Lilley | 20 November 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with Malcolm Clare, Audrey Bayley, Alix Kirsta, Frances Pidgeon & Christine Pockett. | ||||||
11 | 5 | "Episode 5" | Sydney Lotterby | Brad Ashton, Don Douglas, Joe Steeples & Peter Robinson | 27 November 1967 | |
Starring Lulu, Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood with Malcolm Clare, Audrey Bayley, Alix Kirsta, Frances Pidgeon & Christine Pockett. |
All 11 episodes are currently missing from the archives. No material is known to exist. [4]
Paul Julian Whitehouse is a Welsh actor, writer, presenter and comedian. He was one of the main stars of the BBC sketch comedy series The Fast Show, and has also starred with Harry Enfield in the shows Harry & Paul and Harry Enfield & Chums. He has also starred with Bob Mortimer in the BBC series Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. He has also acted in films appearing in Corpse Bride (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and The Death of Stalin (2017).
Barry Charles Cryer was an English writer, comedian, and actor. As well as performing on stage, radio and television, Cryer wrote for many performers including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Ronnie Corbett, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Spike Milligan, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise.
Throughout film, television, and radio, British comedy has become known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots, and settings, and has produced some of the most renowned comedians and characters in the world.
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1, created and written by Raymond Allen and starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice. It was first broadcast in 1973 and ran for two series, including two Christmas specials in 1974 and 1975. After a three-year absence, the programme returned for a third series in 1978 and again in 2016 for a one-off special. The series regularly garnered 25 million viewers and was broadcast in 60 countries.
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality.
Michael Edward Yarwood, was an English impressionist, comedian and actor. He was one of Britain's top-rated entertainers, regularly appearing on television from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Ruth Alexandra Elisabeth Jones is a Welsh actress, comedian, producer and writer. She co-wrote and co-starred in the award-winning BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey. She later created, wrote for and starred in the Sky One comedy-drama Stella (2012-2017), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance and won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Screenwriter.
Daniel Renton Skinner is an English actor and comedy writer, working in stage, film and television. Skinner often performs as the character Angelos Epithemiou, and is also one half of the Brian and Roger podcast.
The Morecambe & Wise Show is a comedy sketch show originally broadcast by BBC television and the third TV series by English comedy double-act Morecambe and Wise. It began airing in 1968 on BBC2, specifically because it was then the only channel broadcasting in colour, following the duo's move to the BBC from ATV, where they had made Two of a Kind since 1961.
Christmas Night with the Stars is a television show broadcast each Christmas night by the BBC from 1958 to 1972. The show was hosted each year by a leading star of BBC TV and featured specially-made short seasonal editions of the previous year's most successful BBC sitcoms and light entertainment programs. Most of the variety segments no longer exist in accordance with the BBC's practice of discarding programmes at the time.
This is a list of British television related events from 1971.
Douglas William Squires was an English choreographer, known best for his work in television from the mid-1950s. He was born in Nottingham.
The Go-Jos were a British TV dance troupe, created for the BBC1 TV music chart show Top of the Pops in late 1964, appearing regularly on the show until mid-1968. They were the first of a series of five dance troupes on the programme. They also appeared on other BBC and ITV shows, finally disbanding in 1971.
James Casey, known professionally as Jim Casey, was at various times during his long career a Variety comedian on the English music-halls, a scriptwriter for BBC Radio's variety shows and situation comedies, and a senior BBC Radio Light Entertainment producer.
Before the Fringe was a BBC television series which ran for two series on BBC2 in 1967.
Iceland Foods: Life in the Freezer Cabinet is a British documentary television series about the Iceland supermarket chain that was first broadcast on BBC Two on 21 October 2013. The three-part series was co-produced with the Open University.
Neil Hodgson Shand was a British television comedy writer.
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is a factual entertainment television show featuring friends Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse, both comedians. The show features Mortimer and Whitehouse reflecting on life after their shared major heart problems, while on a fishing trip to various locations around Britain. The series was first broadcast on BBC Two in 2018 and has been recommissioned every year since. An hour-long Christmas special was added from 2020 onwards Series 7 is being expanded to 8 episodes in 2024. In season 3, Ted the Patterdale Terrier was introduced in the show, and has been featured in most episodes since.
The Kenny Everett Television Show is a comedy sketch show broadcast on BBC1 from 1981 to 1988. It was presented by its main performer Kenny Everett, who wrote the material with Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron. Later in 1986 they were joined by writing team Andrew Marshall and David Renwick after Cameron's departure the previous year. It was similar in style to Everett's previous programme The Kenny Everett Video Show, broadcast on ITV from 1978 to 1981, but with greater emphasis on comedy sketches than musical numbers. However, each edition would still have at least one music act. A total 47 episodes, including 6 Christmas specials and 2 compilations over 5 series, were produced by the BBC, broadcast between 24 December 1981 and 18 January 1988 inclusive.
Yarwood was British television's first truly successful impressionist [and] one of the biggest stars of the 1970s. [..] His first series, Three of a Kind (BBC, 1967), teamed him with comedian Ray Fell and singer Lulu in a mixture of song and sketch. Despite two successful series, Yarwood turned down a third, as Lulu had by now progressed to her own series and he hoped for the same.
Mike Yarwood, Lulu and Ray Fell are the stars of Monday's new BBC-2 series 3 of a Kind
My first TV series was Three of a Kind, starring Ray Fell and Mike Yarwood [..] The format was mainly comedy sketches and I often played the straight woman [..] Although I enjoyed working on the show, I wasn't entirely comfortable doing comedy [..] [The BBC] encouraged me to do more comedy, but I much preferred to sing.