''The Summer Show'' is a British comedy sketch show made in 1975. It featured winners of the ATV talent show

New Faces ''New Faces'' is a British television talent show that aired in the 1970s and 1980s. It has been hosted by Leslie Crowther, Derek Hobson and Marti Caine. It was produced for the ITV network by ATV, and later by Central. Original series: 1973 ...

, and was made by ATV for the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

network Designed to emulate the fast moving style of

Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (often simply referred to as ''Laugh-In'') is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan ...

, it featured

Marti Caine Marti Caine, born Lynne Denise Shepherd (26 January 1945 – 4 November 1995), was an English comedian, actress, dancer, presenter, singer, and writer, who first came to national attention by winning the television talent show ''New Faces'' in 1 ...

Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...

Victoria Wood Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over se ...

Aiden J Harvey Aiden J Harvey (born either 1944 or 1952 in Manchester, England) is an English northern comedian and impersonator who got his break on the mid-1970s ATV talent show New Faces. He was subsequently in demand on TV comedy and variety shows throughout ...

and singer Trevor Chance. To help out with the first show was the more experienced TV personality

Leslie Crowther Leslie Douglas Sargent Crowther, CBE (6 February 1933 – 29 September 1996) was an English comedian, actor, TV presenter, and game show host. Biography Crowther was born on Monday, 6 February, 1933 in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, son of ...

. ''The Summer Show'' consisted of five, forty-five-minute specials on the subjects of "holidays", "health and strength","mystery and crime","kids", and "entertainment". The performers, who were paid £175 a week for their efforts (a pay increase for Wood and a pay cut for Caine), were encouraged to diversify. Thus it featured the unlikely sight of Wood and Crowther duetting and other thrown-together combinations for songs, sketches and dances. Wood said of the experience "it was one of those really bad variety shows where they got the scripts out of other people's dustbins. It was just dreadful." She was told by costumers, who said she was too big for the costumes, "if only you'd lose two stone you could wear this of

Anna Massey Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel ''Hotel du Lac'', a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, ha ...

's." Wood immediately went back to the unemployment queue when it ended. Whereas the series was a springboard for other cast members. Caine got her own TV series and Henry joined ''

The Black and White Minstrel Show ''The Black and White Minstrel Show'' was a British light entertainment show that ran for twenty years on BBC prime-time television. Running from 1958 to 1978, it was a weekly variety show that presented traditional American minstrel and countr ...

''.

Archive status

Like so many shows of its time, ''The Summer Show'' is completely missing from the television archives.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summer Show, The 1975 British television series debuts ITV sketch shows Lost television shows 1970s British television sketch shows