''The World of Beachcomber'' was a surreal television comedy show produced by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

inspired by the

Beachcomber A beachcomber is a person who practices beachcombing. Beachcomber or Beachcombers may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''The Beachcomber'' (1915 film), an American drama * ''The Beachcomber'' (1938 film), starring Charles Laughton and a ...

column in the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' newspaper.

Description

The show, like the column, consisted of a series of unrelated pieces of humour. Links between the items were provided by

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...

, dressed in a

smoking jacket A smoking jacket is an informal men's style of lounge jacket originally intended for tobacco smoking, designed in the 1850s. A classic-styled smoking jacket comes in a shawl collar, turn-up cuffs, toggle or button fastenings, or simply be closed ...

and cap, as in the cartoon logo above the newspaper column. The other actors were a

Who's Who ''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biography, biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a gr ...

of British comedy of the time, encompassing almost every supporting player seen or heard in comedy. Likewise the writing staff included Milligan,

Barry Took Barry Took (19 June 192831 March 2002) was an English writer, television presenter and comedian. His decade-and-a-half writing partnership with Marty Feldman led to the television series ''Bootsie and Snudge'', the radio comedy ''Round the Horn ...

John Junkin John Francis Junkin (29 January 1930 – 7 March 2006) was an English actor and scriptwriter who had a long career in radio, television and film, specialising in comedy. Early life Born in Ealing, Middlesex, the son of a policeman, he and hi ...

Neil Shand Neil Hodgson Shand (3 March 1934 – 14 April 2018) was a British television comedy writer. He was born in Luton to parents from Glasgow, the son of a Vauxhall employee and a dressmaker. Neil was the eldest of three boys. Raised in a "two up tw ...

and others. The producers were

John Howard Davies John Howard Davies (9 March 193922 August 2011)
' ...

and

Duncan Wood Wilfred Duncan Wood (24 March 1925 – 11 January 1997) was a British comedy producer, director and writer, who has been described as "the founding father of the British TV sitcom". His best-known achievements were to produce all of Tony Ha ...

. In all, 19 episodes were produced beginning in January 1968. They were mostly shown on the new

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

channel, which broadcast in colour using the 625-line

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

standard. BBC2 was a minority-appeal culture channel, and thus allowed greater stretching of the boundaries of the art. Unfortunately, like many shows of the time, the original videotapes were

wiped Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect. Common reasons for loss A significant prop ...

. Only one complete episode, on black and white 16mm film now survives of this show in the BBC archives, from the penultimate (20.10.69) edition. In addition to this, excerpts (origin unknown, but likely filmed inserts) for the 29.09.69 edition also survive. Audio soundtracks also survive for episodes Three (06.10.69) and Four (13.10.69) of the 1969 series. In addition to this, a soundtrack LP featuring excerpts from shows from series one was also released by

PYE Records Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhoo ...

, and rereleased on audio cassette in 1997.

Recurring items

* Courtroom sketches featuring Mr. Justice Cocklecarrot, played by

Clive Dunn Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn (9 January 19206 November 2012) was an English actor. Although he was only 48 and one of the youngest cast members, he was cast in a role many years his senior, as the elderly Lance Corporal Jones in the BBC sitcom ' ...

, and Twelve Red-Bearded Dwarfs, played by "Little People" suitably made up. One case involved the dwarfs suing themselves, so Mr. Justice Cocklecarrot rendered a judgement that they should apologize to themselves. The sketch ended with the dwarfs singing a song by

Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously ...

, "I apologize", at the tops of their voices. * Readings from the lists of Huntingdonshire Cabmen, wherein

Michael Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elect ...

solemnly walked to a lectern, donned his reading glasses and read the names, in alphabetical order, with great seriousness, as one might read the names of the dead at a war memorial. * Odd inventions explained by Dr. Strabismus (whom God preserve) of Utrecht (

with a high quavering German accent). * Spoof commercials for "Snibbo", usually a washing soap with a tendency to remove stains, buttons and skin, and, with a sung jingle, "Threadgold's Thorough-grip Garterettes". * The Filthistan Trio, a

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 ...

act consisting of three 'Persians' and a plank.

Cast

This list is inevitably incomplete. *

Ann Lancaster Ann A Lancaster (5 May 1920 – 31 October 1970) was a well-known character actress who appeared in many British films, television shows and in theatre. Lancaster specialised in comic roles and had a talent for voices which she often used on ra ...

Frank Thornton Frank Thornton Ball (15 January 192116 March 2013), professionally known as Frank Thornton, was an English actor. He was known for playing Captain Peacock in ''Are You Being Served?'' and its sequel ''Grace & Favour'' (''Are You Being Served? ...

Julian Orchard Julian Dean Chavasse Orchard (3 March 1930, in Wheatley, Oxfordshire – 21 June 1979, in Westminster, London)GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1979 15 1935 WESTMINSTER – Julian Dean C. Orchard, DoB = 3 March 1930 was an English comedy actor. He ap ...

Hattie Jacques Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the ''Carry On'' films, where she typically played strict, no-non ...

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...

Patricia Hayes Patricia Lawlor Hayes (22 December 1909 – 19 September 1998) was an English character actress. Early life Patricia Hayes OBE was born in Streatham,Dennis Barker, "Hayes, Patricia Lawlor (1909–1998)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biogra ...

References

External links

BBC page about ''The World of Beachcomber''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:World of Beachcomber 1968 British television series debuts 1968 British television series endings 1960s British television sketch shows British surreal comedy television series Lost BBC episodes