Ovaltiney's Concert Party was a weekly British radio show which ran on

Radio Luxembourg 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 earlies ...

between December 1934 and September 1939, sponsored by the manufacturer of ''

Ovaltine Ovaltine (also known by its original name Ovomaltine) is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract (except in the blue packaging in the United States), sugar (except in Switzerland), and whey. Some flavors also have cocoa. Ovaltin ...

''. A new version of the show was aired in 1952.

Concept

''Ovaltiney's Concert Party'' featured British

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

comedian

Harry Hemsley Harry May Hemsley (14 December 1877 – 5 April 1951) was an English music hall and radio comedian. He is best known as the host of the popular radio show ''Ovaltiney's Concert Party'' on Radio Luxembourg. He was also active as a cartoonist. Youth ...

doing a variation on his popular stage show act, where he would imitate children's voices. The radio show was a combination of comedy sketches and music. He portrayed the family Fortune and played all parts himself, including the father, six-year old Johnny, five-year old Elsie, four-year old Winnie and six-months old Horace. Winnie was often portrayed as the cleverest child and an interpreter for baby Horace's gargling. This led to the familiar

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

: "What did Horace say, Winnie?", which became part of English popular culture. The show was broadcast on Sunday evenings between 17:30 and 18:00 over the powerful

longwave In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...

transmitter and the show became well known throughout the UK for its theme song ''We Are The Ovaltineys'', which was written and composed by Hemsley himself. The musical director was the bandleader

Debroy Somers Debroy Somers (born William Henry Somers; 11 April 1890,1939 England and Wales Register in Dublin – 27 May 1952, in London) was a British twentieth-century big band bandleader. He had trained as a musician at the Duke of York's Royal Military S ...

Fanclub

People could become members of the

Ovaltineys Ovaltineys or League of Ovaltineys was a children's club developed in the 1930s to promote the sale of Ovaltine brand drink in the United Kingdom. Original Ovaltineys The club, founded in 1935, had its own radio show, '' Ovaltiney's Concert Pa ...

Club and participate in competitions and other activities. It achieved five million members in 1939.

Comic strip adaptation

In 1936, a special children's magazine ''Ovaltiney's Own Comic'' was founded, based on the radio show. It featured a

text comic Text comics or a text comic is a form of comics where the stories are told in captions below the images and without the use of speech balloons. It is the oldest form of comics and was especially dominant in European comics from the 19th century u ...

; ''The Adventures of Elsie, Winnie and Johnny'', drawn by S.K. Perkins. Harry Hemsley, who was once a cartoonist for ''

Ally Sloper's Half Holiday ''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'' was a British comics magazine, first published on 3 May 1884. It is regarded to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character. Star Ally Sloper, a blustery, lazy schemer often found "sloping" th ...

'', also wrote drew some picture books about the family.

Revivals

In 1952, a new version of the Ovaltineys' radio show was aired at 18:15 on Sunday evenings over Radio Luxembourg on its new "208"

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...

transmitter. The radio theme song ''We Are The Ovaltineys'' also experienced a comeback in 1975 when it was used by Ovaltine in a TV advertisement and released as a single record.

References

{{Authority control 1934 radio programme debuts 1939 radio programme endings British children's radio programmes British comedy radio programmes British radio sketch shows Radio programs adapted into comics Radio programs adapted into novels

Concept

Fanclub

Comic strip adaptation

Revivals

See also

References