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Cool For Cats (TV Series)
''Cool for Cats'' was one of the first shows on British TV to feature music for a teenage audience. It was produced by Associated Rediffusion, part of the ITV network, and ran from December 1956 to February 1961. The show was presented by Kent Walton. It lasted 15 minutes. Discs were played and then commented upon. Sometimes The Dougie Squires Dancers, which included the then unknown Una Stubbs, performed dance routines to the music, and sometimes Tony Hart would draw a relevant cartoon while the record played. The programme was originally broadcast on Mondays at 7:15 pm and later moved to Thursdays. Owing to its success, it was a twice-weekly show (the second a repeat), later expanding to half an hour. The show's initiator was director Joan-Kemp Welch, the drama innovator, and the first—and the show's longest-running—choreographer was Dougie Squires. Kent Walton took the title from a show of the same name he hosted on Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Associated Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, and one of the " Big Four" companies that between them produced the majority of ITV networked programmes during this period. Rediffusion lost its franchise in 1968, but merged with another franchisee to form Thames Television, which continued to hold the London weekday franchise for another 24 years. History Formation Associated-Rediffusion Television was originally a partnership between British Electric Traction (BET), its subsidiary Broadcast Relay Services Ltd. (trading as Rediffusion), and Associated Newspapers, owner of the ''Daily Mail'', which had been interested in commercial broadcasting as early as the 1920s. In the aftermath of the heavy financial losses made by the new ITV system in its initial years, Associated Newspapers so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV (TV Network)
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs the ITV1 channel, and STV Group, which runs the STV channel. The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kent Walton
Kent Walton (22 August 1917 – 24 August 2003), born Kenneth Walton Beckett, was a British television sports commentator, presenter and actor. He is best remembered as the predominant commentator on ITV's coverage of British professional wrestling from 1955 to 1988. Early life Despite a transatlantic accent which led many to believe he was Canadian, he was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of the finance minister in the colonial government. He grew up at Haslemere in Surrey and was educated at Charterhouse. He attended the Embassy School of Acting in London and appeared in rep. On the outbreak of war in 1939, he joined the Royal Air Force, serving in Bomber Command as a radio operator and front gunner. He acquired his accent mixing with Canadian airmen. Sports commentator After the end of the war he returned to acting before commentating on tennis and football. He made his television wrestling commentary debut on the ITV network in November 1955, a job he kept for 33 ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dougie Squires Dancers
Douglas William Squires (born 1932) is an English choreographer, known best for his work in television from the mid-1950s. He was born in Nottingham. Choreography The groups he has choreographed for television include: *The Young Generation *The Dougie Squires Dancers *Dougie Squires' Second Generation *The Dougie Squires Dozen As well as TV work he has been involved with theatrical productions and fund-raising events. In 2009 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to the Performing Arts and was appointed Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to choreography and stage direction of royal pageants. The Young Generation The Young Generation were a dancing and singing group created specifically for BBC television in the late 1960s and thus were the first act of their kind to regularly appear on British TV. The troupe were choreographed originally by Dougie Squires who chose the founding members of the troupe. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Una Stubbs
Una Stubbs (1 May 1937 – 12 August 2021) was an English actress, television personality and dancer who appeared on British television and in the theatre, and occasionally in films. She became known after appearing in the film '' Summer Holiday'' (1963) and later played Rita Rawlins in the BBC sitcoms ''Till Death Us Do Part'' (1965–1975) and ''In Sickness and in Health'' (1985–1992). Her other television roles include Aunt Sally in ''Worzel Gummidge'' (1979–1981) and Miss Bat in ''The Worst Witch'' (1998–2001). She also appeared as Sherlock Holmes's landlady Mrs. Hudson in the BAFTA-winning television series '' Sherlock'' (2010–2017). Career As a 16-year-old, in 1953, she danced in a Folies Bergère-style musical revue, "Pardon My French", at the Prince of Wales Theatre, alongside Frankie Howerd and the pianist Winifred Atwell. She first appeared on television as one of the Dougie Squires Dancers on the British television music show '' Cool for Cats'' in 1956. She a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dougie Squires
Douglas William Squires (born 1932) is an English choreographer, known best for his work in television from the mid-1950s. He was born in Nottingham. Choreography The groups he has choreographed for television include: *The Young Generation *The Dougie Squires Dancers *Dougie Squires' Second Generation *The Dougie Squires Dozen As well as TV work he has been involved with theatrical productions and fund-raising events. In 2009 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to the Performing Arts and was appointed Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to choreography and stage direction of royal pageants. The Young Generation The Young Generation were a dancing and singing group created specifically for BBC television in the late 1960s and thus were the first act of their kind to regularly appear on British TV. The troupe were choreographed originally by Dougie Squires who chose the founding members of the troupe. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earliest commercial radio stations broadcasting to the UK and Ireland. The station provided a way to circumvent British legislation which until 1973 gave the BBC a monopoly of radio broadcasting on UK territory and prohibited all forms of advertising over the domestic radio spectrum. It boasted the most powerful privately owned transmitter in Europe (200 kW, broadcasting on medium wave). In the late 1930s, and again in the 1950s and 1960s, it had large audiences in Britain and Ireland with its programmes of popular entertainment, and was an important forerunner of pirate radio and modern commercial radio in the United Kingdom. Radio Luxembourg's parent company, RTL Group, continued its involvement in broadcasts to a UK audience with the Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1956 British Television Series Debuts
Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Huaorani people of Ecuador, shortly after making contact with them. * January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to reconquer Palestine. * January 25– 26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala, after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4. * January 26 – The 1956 Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. February * February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union, after being missing for 5 years. * February 14– 25 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held in Moscow. * February 16 – The 1956 World Figure Skating Championships open in Garmisch, West Germany. * February 22 – El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1961 British Television Series Endings
Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Finnair, Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the Captain (civil aviation), captain and First officer (civil aviation), first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country. * January 5 ** Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti marches into the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ** After the 1960 Turkish coup d'état, 1960 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950s British Music Television Series
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his hea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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