The ''Billy Cotton Band Show'' was a Sunday lunchtime radio programme broadcast in the

BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...

from 1949 until 1968. The

band leader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues ...

Billy Cotton William Edward Cotton (6 May 1899 – 25 March 1969) as Billy Cotton was an English band leader and entertainer, one of the few whose orchestras survived the British dance band era. Cotton is now mainly remembered as a 1950s and 1960s radio a ...

, was a larger-than-life

Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...

character who started each show with the cry "Wakey-Wake-aaaay!”, followed by the band's signature tune “

Somebody Stole My Gal "Somebody Stole My Gal" is a popular song from 1918, written by Leo Wood. In 1924, Ted Weems & his Orchestra had a five-week run at number one with his million-selling version. Its Pee Wee Hunt and his orchestra version is also known in Japan, pa ...

” (which was also featured in the video game

Pop'n Music , commonly abbreviated as ''Pop'n'', ''PM'' or ''PNM'' and stylized as ''pop'n music'', is a music video game series in the Bemani series made by Konami. The games are known for their bright colors, upbeat songs, and cute cartoon character graphi ...

9). The show transferred to BBC Television in 1956, usually on Saturday evenings at 7.00 pm. It ran, under various names, until 1968. Regular entertainers included

Alan Breeze Alan Louis Breeze (9 October 1909 – 15 January 1980) was an English singer of the British dance band era and regular entertainer on the post-war BBC radio programme the Billy Cotton Band Show. He was born in West Ham, London, to Louis Bre ...

Kathie Kay Kathie Kay (20 November 1918 – 9 March 2005) was a singer from Lincolnshire, known for her radio and television appearances in the ''Billy Cotton Band Show'' during the 1950s and 1960s. Her best known recordings are "We Will Make Love" and "A Ho ...

, and the pianist

Russ Conway Russ Conway, DSM (born Trevor Herbert Stanford; 2 September 1925 – 16 November 2000) was an English popular music pianist and composer. Conway had 20 piano instrumentals in the UK Singles Chart between 1957 and 1963, including two number on ...

. Pianist

Mrs Mills Gladys Mills (; 29 August 1918 – 24 February 1978), known as Mrs Mills, was an English pianist who was active in the 1960s and 1970s, and who released many records. Her repertoire included many sing-along and party tunes made popular in the ...

made her first television appearance on the show. An additional regular act was the Leslie Roberts Silhouettes, recruited to the line-up before the television series beganThe Greatest Billy Cotton Band Show by John Maxwell (1976), p. 108.

Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...

and

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries. Palin w ...

, both later to become members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, wrote jokes for the show.

References

Links

* BBC Television shows 1949 establishments in the United Kingdom 1968 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 1950s British music television series 1960s British music television series BBC Light Programme programmes {{UK-radio-show-stub