Those Vintage Years Of Radio

by John Snagge & Michael Barsley

This is John Snagge and Michael Barsley's tribute to those years. It is personal, intimate, unashamedly nostalgic - and often very funny. Though this is a Birthday Book for the BBC's Golden jubilee, it is not an act of uncritical homage, nor an "official" history of the BBC. The authors spare no mercy on the BBC for the administrative cobwebs it spun around itself. But equally they pay tribute to the upsurge of brilliant ideas and creative achievements that marked radio's heyday.

Like true epicures Snagge and Barsley sum up radio's vintage years - two decades of magic distilled into one book. Linger over its pages, as one lingers over a beautiful wine: the champagne sparkle of Tommy Hanley's ITMA, the subtle blend of wit and wisdom in the Brains Trust team of Joad, Huxley and Campbell; the fruitiness of Radio Doctor; the toast of Victory after the BBC's greatest wartime news series War Report...

Brown boards / Gold inscribed spine

Ralph Reader Remembers

by Ralph Reader

Having finally made the decision that 1974 would see the last of his productions of the Gang Show Ralph Reader felt the time was ripe to look back over his long and varied career in Show Business.
He was largely brought up by uncles and aunts, both parents having died before he was nine. He was eleven when he first joined the Scouts and Scouting has remained a life-long interest. His interest in the stage also goes back to boyhood and it was an enthusiastic young man of eighteen who sailed to America to win fame and fortune on Broadway. The next few years held many disappointments and much hard work, but success was achieved in the end and he returned to England at the age of twenty four with his feet firmly planted on the ladder of Show Business success. As writer, producer or performer he has mingled with all the greats in the business and even his war service with the R.A.F. simply provided a change of setting for stage productions - the R.A.F. Gang Shows are known to thousands. Ralph Reader's story is thickly strewn with reminiscences of the many friends he has made in his long and varied life, spent in the widely diverse fields of scouting, show business and the R.A.F.

Red boards / Gold inscribed spine

Eric & Ernie

Their phenomenally funny bestseller

by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise

A superstar partnership ('one is an idiot but the other is a bigger idiot, trying harder not to show it') has provided a smash bestseller (says Ernie, 'it is a story about failure and insults and suffering - and the rest is about me'). This incredible success story has been in the pipeline for years ('where it belongs,' says Ernie, or was it Eric?) and has already been hailed as a creative breakthrough because it was all done on tape ('across Ernie's mouth' - nice one, Eric). Whatever the method - and they were up till two or three in the afternoon to finish it - Morecambe and Wise have produced, in their own immortal words, 'Another millstone in English literature - definitely part of our hermitage.

'A bestseller - this life story salted with wisecracks (and morecambe-cracks)' Daily Express

The Comic - A Novel

by Brian Glanville

The Comic of Brian Glanville's novel is Johnny Lucas, a Cockney comedian. We find him in a mental home, trying to put together the pieces of a famous career after a spectacular crack-up at the Sunderland Empire, where he thought he'd turned into a computer. Now, in the Nirvana of psychotherapy, he oscillates between past and present; the past of concert party, Windmill Theatre, Palladium and cabaret; the present of his analysis, his unending duel with Dr. Weiss, friend and enemy, confessor and Devil's Advocate. On one side, the creator, on the other, the critic, locked in mutual ambivalence. Why does Johnny need to make people laugh? Why, at a certain point, is he afraid to try? Johnny's answers are not the doctor's; nor, for that matter, are his questions...

Brian Glanville is the author of thirteen previous novels, five volumes of short stories, and a collection of sports writing. He is also one of the best known sports writers in Britain.

Black boards / Gold inscribed spine

Ralph Reader Remembers

by Ralph Reader

Having finally made the decision that 1974 would see the last of his productions of the Gang Show Ralph Reader felt the time was ripe to look back over his long and varied career in Show Business.
He was largely brought up by uncles and aunts, both parents having died before he was nine. He was eleven when he first joined the Scouts and Scouting has remained a life-long interest. His interest in the stage also goes back to boyhood and it was an enthusiastic young man of eighteen who sailed to America to win fame and fortune on Broadway. The next few years held many disappointments and much hard work, but success was achieved in the end and he returned to England at the age of twenty four with his feet firmly planted on the ladder of Show Business success. As writer, producer or performer he has mingled with all the greats in the business and even his war service with the R.A.F. simply provided a change of setting for stage productions - the R.A.F. Gang Shows are known to thousands. Ralph Reader's story is thickly strewn with reminiscences of the many friends he has made in his long and varied life, spent in the widely diverse fields of scouting, show business and the R.A.F.

Desert Island Discs

by Roy Plomley

The fascinating art of revealing people's personalities through their choice of their most loved records has been practised with consummate charm and skill by Roy Plomley over a period of thirty years to the delight of radio audiences the world over. Plomley's guests have been celebrities from all walks of life, and always he has coaxed from them much more than the essence of their musical tastes. His instinctive insights as an interviewer have enabled him to obtain self-portraits that are both intimate and authentic. And in this book he often discloses the rich vein of human characteristics which were in full play behind the scenes and led to many extremely amusing situations about which the listener never heard.

Tony Hancock appeared on Desert Island Discs on the 5th August 1957 (programme no. 346). His eight chosen records, and luxury item were: 1. The Thieving Magpie (overture) (NBC Symphony/Toscanini) 2. Franck, 'Symphonic Variations' (Walter Gieseking piano/LPO/Wood) 3. Gershwin, 'The Man that Got Away' (from film A Star is Born) (Judy Garland) 4. Sibelius, ‘The Swan of Tuonela’ (opus 22, no. 3) (Danish State Radio Symphony/Jensen) 5. ‘Migraine Melody’ (David Rose and his Orchestra) 6. ‘Gloomy Sunday’ (Artie Shaw and his New Orchestra) 7. ‘Soleares’ (Pepe de Alzeria guitar) 8. ‘Un jour tu verras’ (from film Secrets d’ alcove (Mouloudji). Luxury: A television set.

Blue boards / Gold inscribed spine

Before Your Very Eyes

An Autobiography

by Arthur Askey

On 31st March 1924 the new principal comedian of the Song Salad Party stepped forth on to the stage of the Electric Theatre, Colchester. It was Arthur Askey's professional debut, and the start of an extraordinary career which was to span all facets of show-business. After 50 years he is still going strong. His catch-phrases, the Bee-song, and his infectious chuckle are now part of the heritage of English comedy, and his brand of humour still appeals to young and old audiences alike. Arthur Askey's life reflects much of that intangible quality associated with the fragile world of entertainment. Here, in his own words, is the story of his early days in Concert Party - the team spirit among small groups of seaside entertainers who toured the country in summer shows, and then, the season over, moved on into pantomime...

Blue boards / Gold inscribed spine

Jack of All Trades

An Autobiography

by Jack Warner

In this autobiography Jack Warner records his forty years in show business: the countless films (like the Huggett family series and the one that put him in policeman's uniform - The Blue Lamp), the innumerable radio adaptations, the Royal Command performances and, of course, his part in television's indestructible Dixon of Dock Green. Here is not merely the account of a remarkable achievement but also an intimate and evocative diary of the times. Both public and private lives are chronicled, together with details of Jack's friendships with a host of distinguished entertainers such as Maurice Chevalier, Sid Field, Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd and many others, of whom he writes with affection and rare understanding.

Blue boards / Gold inscribed spine

The Entertainers - George Formby

by John Fisher

George Formby was the comedian whose films broke box-office records all over the world. His life was full of contradictions. He became a millionaire, but lived on an allowance doled out by his wife. A marriage presented as ideal to the outer world was finally revealed to be a hollow sham hiding years of conflict. He was the film hero who never got to kiss the girl, who brought laughter and joy to millions, but was a melancholy clown within.

John Fisher, author of Funny Way to be a Hero, communicates the essence of Formby's art.

Blue boards / Gold inscribed spine

The Entertainers - George Formby

by John Fisher

George Formby was the comedian whose films broke box-office records from Wigan to Leningrad; a millionaire who lived on an allowance; a movie hero who never got to kiss the girl. John Fisher, author of A Funny Way To Be A Hero, tells the nostalgic story of the Ukelele Man.

Other books in this series include Philip Oakes on Tony Hancock and Penelope Gilliatt on Jacques Tati

My Farce From My Elbow

An Autobiography

by Brian Rix

A few years ago an unkind critic, who shall be nameless . . . wrote:
"Mr Rix doesn't know his farce from his elbow." Thus begins one of the most engaging, modest and amusing autobiographies of recent years: of an actor of whom Harold Hobson of the Sunday Times wrote:
"The greatest master of farce in my theatre-going lifetime."

Brian Rix in fact did for farce in the post-war years at the Whitehall Theatre what the team of Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls had done at the Aldwych twenty years before. He made it probably the most consistently successful form of entertainment not only in the West End but in the provinces also. How he has done this, he now reveals...

Brown boards / Gold inscribed spine