''Variety Playhouse'' was a radio programme on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

during the 1950s and early 1960s. It was broadcast live each week except during the summer. Often it played on Saturday between 8 and 9 p.m., but it could also be found at other times and on other days. There was a live audience, live chorus and live orchestra. Frequently the compère was the comedian/violinist

Vic Oliver Victor Oliver von Samek (8 July 1898 – 15 August 1964) was an Austrian-born British actor and radio comedian. Early life He was born in Vienna into a Jewish family, the son of Baron Viktor von Samek. He studied medicine at Vienna University but ...

; he sometimes doubled as conductor. Regular features included a comedian and an up-and-coming opera singer. The final feature often was "Variety Playhouse Pocket Theatre", starring

Jack Hulbert John Norman Hulbert (24 April 189225 March 1978) was a British actor, director, screenwriter and singer, specializing primarily in comedy productions, and often working alongside his wife (Dame) Cicely Courtneidge. Biography Born in Ely, Ca ...

and

Cicely Courtneidge Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge, (1 April 1893 – 26 April 1980) was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West E ...

in a short, specially written play. The show often played out to the "Russian Dance" (Trépak) from ''

The Nutcracker Suite ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaiko ...

''. Besides providing a rousing ending, this helped to smooth out any deviations from the planned length in the timing of this live show. The programme was first advertised for Saturday 2 May 1953.The Times Online, May 02 1953; pg. 10, accessed 26 Jan 2015 It was last advertised for Saturday, May 19, 1962. In ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' of 21 August 1964,

Sir Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, wi ...

paid tribute, following the death of Vic Oliver, to Oliver's hard and often thankless work in auditioning young and unknown musicians for the opportunity to broadcast for the first time in ''Variety Playhouse''. He wrote that almost every programme had at least one unknown name on it.The Times Online, 21 Aug. 1964: pg 10, accessed 26 Jan 2015

References

BBC Radio comedy programmes BBC Home Service programmes {{UK-radio-show-stub