Max Bygraves and The Beverley Sisters are two of the acts featured in Harmony Lane, a musical featurette from 1954 directed by Lewis Gilbert that will be shown on Talking Pictures on Sunday 19th July at 8.30pm.
The Nance, by Douglas Carter Beane, is a play with music set in the world of burlesque in the 1930s. The play premiered at the Lincoln Center Theatre in 2013 and stars Nathan Lane as Chanucey Miles, a gay burlesque comic.
To watch the production click on the link below:
In 2012,at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre, Les Dennis appeared in a one-man play, Jigsy, by Tony Staveacre, about a variety comedian struggling for survival in a changing world. Th play is based on the Liverpool comic Jackie Hamilton. Les and the play received rave reviews with the Liverpool Echo calling it ‘a thoroughly compelling performance’ .
In May 2020, Les recorded it for people to view during lockdown. To watch this play click on the link below:
Originally broadcast in 2018, BBC Radio 4 is repeating How Success Ruined Me – a comic conversation about the music hall star Fred Barnes – starring Roy Hudd and Christopher Green, with John Orchard at the piano, on Friday 19th June at 2.15pm
Today we should have been at the Royal Hippodrome, Eastbourne for the British Music Hall Society’s 6th Day By The Sea. Every year we have had wonderful sunny weather so it seems only right that it should be miserable today when the event has been postponed! We have rescheduled the event to Saturday 3rd October 2020 and just hope that theatres will be open by then.
A repeat of Victoria Wood’s appearance on Desert Island Discs in 2007 will be broadcast as part of Radio4 Extra’s series, Desert Island Discs Revisited on Sunday 7th June at 1pm. Victoria will be heard talking to Kirsty Young.
A repeat of Ken Dodd’s appearance on Desert Island Discs in 1990 will be broadcast as part of Radio4 Extra’s series, Desert Island Discs Revisited on Sunday 7th June at 3.15pm. Ken will be heard talking to Sue Lawley.
Want some more reading material during lockdown?
Well, you need look no further as we have added some more past articles from The Call Boy. To read about comediennes Jill Summers and Jessie Jewel; the one and only Norman Wisdom; ventriloquist Steve Hewlett; director of many a Palladium revue Robert Nesbitt; top comedy scriptwriter (Dad’s Army, Hi-De-Hi, etc) David Croft ; The Comedians producer Johnnie Hamp, or The Top 10 Music Hall Songs according to members of the BMHS, just click on the link below:
4 x 30 minute radio shows produced last year by the British Music Hall Society and broadcast on Angel Radio will be able to be heard on the website at the end of May.
#musichallvarietyday
