Over the summer time we’re repeating this collection recalling BBC radio programmes from the 30s, 40s and 50s, when the company was a much-loved establishment broadcasting materials the listeners wished to listen to. This text was first printed on June 15, 2019.
OFTEN movies have been made as a spin-off from radio or TV collection, however this week’s alternative was the opposite means spherical: a radio programme that was a spin-off from a collection of movies.
As a taster, right here is the theme tune from Meet the Huggetts:
The Huggett household first appeared within the 1947 movie Vacation Camp, documenting a working-class household’s first go to to one of many then-novel resorts. There was manufacturing facility employee Joe Huggett, performed by Jack Warner, his charlady spouse Ethel, performed by Kathleen Harrison, and a number of stars and stars-to-be together with Flora Robson, Alfie Bass, Charlie Chester, Jim Hanley and a younger Diana Dors.
Jack Warner was already a giant title. He was born Horace Waters in east London in 1895, and was the brother of Elsie and Doris Waters, who grew to become well-liked performers normally calling themselves Gert and Daisy. They featured in a wartime programme known as The Kitchen Entrance, which I wrote about right here. Warner served within the First World Warfare and subsequently made his title in music corridor and radio comedy. For some time he was half of a piano act with Jeff Darnell.
He additionally recorded a number of monologues, corresponding to this one:
I believe they’re dire.
His movie profession took off in the course of the Second World Warfare, which broke out when he was 46. His first movie was The Dummy Talks (1943) concerning the homicide of a ventriloquist.
He additionally appeared within the BBC radio reveals Garrison Theatre and Staff’ Playtime.
Kathleen Harrison (1892-1995) made her movie debut in 1915 and subsequently appeared in 50 extra, usually a number of in a yr. Right here she is in Night time Should Fall (1937).
And in Financial institution Vacation (1938):
The critics had been enormously sniffy about Vacation Camp however the audiences cherished it, and it was the sixth hottest movie of 1947.
Three extra Huggett movies adopted. First was Right here Come the Huggetts in 1948. Warner and Harrison reprised their roles, and their three daughters had been performed by Petula Clark, Jane Hylton and Susan Shaw. All three movies included singing spots for Petula Clark and that is from Right here Come the Huggetts, when she was 15.
Scriptwriters included Peter Rogers, who went on to supply the Carry On collection of movies, and Mabel Constanduros, who performed Mrs Buggins on the radio programme The Buggins Household, which ran from 1928 to 1948.
Subsequent was Vote for Huggett in 1949, by which Joe decides to be a neighborhood council candidate.
Petula Clark sings Within the Shade of the Previous Apple Tree within the movie:
The crew should have labored onerous as a result of the third movie, The Huggetts Overseas, additionally got here out in 1949. This involved the household travelling overland to South Africa after Joe loses his job. Right here is Petula Clark, now 17, with one other track.
This one, A Home within the Sky, grew to become her first single launched in June 1949.
The Huggetts Overseas was much less profitable than the earlier oeuvres and a deliberate fourth movie, Christmas with the Huggetts, was not made.
After a niche of 4 years the Huggetts had been again, this time on the BBC radio Gentle Programme, with Meet the Huggetts, which ran for 9 collection totalling 168 episodes between 1953 and 1961. Kathleen Harrison and Jack Warner survived from the movie collection, however the household was decreased to a son and one daughter, Jane, who was performed successively by six actresses, viz. Joan Dowling, Vera Day, Valerie Jene, Marian Collins, Cynthia Bizeray and Alona Royce. Some episodes featured Kenneth Connor. It was written by Eddie Maguire, who went on to script Ray’s a Chortle and Right here’s Harry for Harry Price.
The theme tune was Horse Feathers by Philip Inexperienced (1911-1982), who wrote greater than 150 movie scores.
Solely six programmes stay out of the 168 which had been made. They are often heard right here. Just like the movies, the radio present was disliked by the intellectual critics, but it surely was a right away hit with the listeners who appreciated the goal of portraying an peculiar, respectable working-class household.
All through many of the radio run, Jack Warner had a parallel profession on tv. After the Huggetts movies got here to an finish, he had appeared within the 1950 movie The Blue Lamp, enjoying a police constable known as George Dixon.
The character within the movie was shot lifeless however resurrected in 1955 because the title character of Dixon of Dock Inexperienced which ran till 1976, by which era Warner was 80. He died in 1981, aged 85.
Kathleen Harrison starred as a Cockney charlady who inherits a fortune within the ITV comedy Mrs Thursday in 1966 and 1967, and continued to take roles in movies till 1979. Having at all times knocked six years off her age, she got here clear in 1992 when she obtained a telegram from the Queen on her one centesimal birthday. She died in 1995 aged 103. Or 97, as she would have most popular it.
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