Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Oct 13, 2018 18:14:48 GMT
For a long time these were a staple of Saturday night tv, usually about tea time. I can remember them from being a kid in the 60s, The London Palladium and The Billy Cotton Band Show, but the one I remember best is Seaside Special, on the BBC. It started in 75 and ran until 79, and came from a seaside resort each week, in a circus big top. The theme tune for the first two seasons was Summertime City by Mike Batt, which made the top 5 in about September 75, the 77 programme had a tune by Tony Macaulay called Get a Little sand between your toes.
It was usually presented by a Radio 1 DJ, nearly always Tony Blackburn, and the guests were the usual suspects, people like Rod Hull and Emu, Little and Large etc, and a dance group, Young Generation.
These programmes seemed to persist into about the mid 80s then disappear, I seem to remember Little and Large then The Krankies having their own versions which weren’t very good, and by about 86 or so they had gone
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Post by Steve Austin on Oct 13, 2018 21:08:40 GMT
I remember these but found them boring as an 8-10 year old at the time. Didn't they used to be on Bank Holidays etc?
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on Oct 13, 2018 21:37:25 GMT
Yes I remember these a little bit. I seem to remember half watching one, disinterested at my Grandparents house around 1979/80. There was Bernie Clifton doing his signature act, looking like he was being transported piggy back on a giant bird or something, and a few showcases of new talent (some of which you probably never saw again) like some weird blonde spiky haired T shirt wearing kid, doing a musical number entirely in what sounded like an electronic voice in German - bit weird........ (Trying to be Johnny Rotten meets Gary Newman it looked like).
I think the actual Seaside Specials were still called that in '82, as coincidentally that year it was in Eastbourne and we went there for the family holiday that year.
You also got characters that were around a lot then and family favourites like Bernie Winters with that blooming St Bernard dog turning up and telling naff jokes and Max Bygraves. All very family orientated.
Who remembers the one roughly in 1976 when they were doing stunt jumps with old banger cars, trying to clear a row of other cars?? Seem to remember a MK2 Jaguar and a VDP 4 Litre R were used and got wrecked (the cars were worth buttons then).
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Oct 13, 2018 22:04:38 GMT
My memory of them isn't so good as I would've been 8 when they ended in 1979, I have seen clips on 'It Was Alright In The 70s' but I don't recall seeing them as a child. Though studio based 'Crackerjack' was the same sort of format. I do remember the Radio 1 Roadshow, though was that televised?
There are a few full editions of Seaside Special on youtube.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Oct 13, 2018 22:14:59 GMT
There was the occasional half decent and then current band or singer on amid the Bernie Clifton like rubbish.
DC, yes I remember the car stunts, there were about three or four, from memory, done by a bloke called Dick Sheppard, I seem to recollect a Singer Gazelle in one of them
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Oct 14, 2018 16:31:09 GMT
A few of these family friendly entertainers seemed to fade away at about the same time as the variety shows. Mike Yarwood springs to mind, I think his problem was that he didn’t update his repitoire of impression subjects. He was still doing Ted Heath and Harold Wilson in the 80s when they no longer in front line politics, and Frank Spencer long after Some mothers do ave em had finished. Dick Emery and Stanley Baxter were others.
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