A 1950s Childhood

From Tin Baths to Bread and Dripping

Paul Feeney

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780752450117
• eBook ISBN: 9780752462271
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Do you remember Pathé News?

Taking the train to the seaside?

The purple stains of iodine on the knees of boys in short trousers?

Knitted bathing costumes?

Then the chances are you were born in or around 1950. To the young people of today, the 1950s seem like another age.

But for those born around then, this era of childhood feels like yesterday. This delightful collection of photographic memories will appeal to all who grew up in this post-war decade; they include pictures of children enjoying life out on the streets and bombsites, at home and at school, on holiday and at events.

These wonderful period pictures and descriptive captions will bring back this decade of childhood, and jog memories about all aspects of life as it was in post-war Britain.

Six

RADIO AND TELEVISION

Radio

Memories of 1950s radio programmes remain indelibly imprinted on the minds of those who are old enough to remember when radio was the main source of entertainment in the home. Even with the increasing demand for televisions during the late 1950s, radio was still hugely popular and more than adequately bridged the gaps in between the good television programmes, and filled the time when television’s two broadcasting stations, BBC and ITV, were off-air. Well-liked radio shows like The Goons, Hancock’s Half Hour, The Archers and Mrs Dale’s Diary continued to attract large numbers of listeners to the BBC radio’s Home Service and Light Programme, while Radio Luxembourg, ‘208 – your station of the stars’, was attracting younger listeners through its increased output of pop music.

Your parents had control over the radio’s tuning knob, and children often had little say in what programmes were listened to, but there were plenty of radio shows like Dick Barton, Life with the Lyons and Meet the Huggetts, that managed to get both young and old equally hooked. Even with the advent of television programmes like Watch With Mother and Children’s Hour, radio shows like Uncle Mac’s Children’s Favourite, The Clitheroe Kid and Educating Archie still remained firm favourites with young listeners. As a child in the 1950s, you would have considered the radio announcers and commentators to be just old fuddy-duddies, but you heard so much of them during those radio days that many of their names would still be very familiar to you, such names as Franklin Engelmann, Robert Dougall, Jean Metcalfe, Kenneth Kendal, Alvar Lidell and John Snagge, just to mention a few.

Radio provided great entertainment for you on rainy days, evenings and weekends; and not forgetting the great comfort it could be when you were off school sick with one of those many childhood illnesses of the 1950s. The enormous variety of comedy, drama and music programmes kept you from getting bored and in many ways added to your education. Here is just a selection of popular 1950s radio shows to stir the old grey cells:

A Life of Bliss (1953–9) BBC Light Programme. Written by Godfrey Harrison and featured George Cole as the bumbling David Alexander Bliss who was always finding himself in awkward situations. Petula Clark joined the cast in 1957, and played David Bliss’s girlfriend Penny Gay, until she left him at the altar! Animal imitator, Percy Edwards, played Psyche the dog.

The Archers (1951–present) BBC Light Programme and BBC Home Service – ‘an everyday story of country folk’. First main broadcast was in January 1951. This is the world’s longest-running radio soap, now broadcast on BBC’s Radio Four. According to the BBC’s press office in 2006, it remained BBC Radio 4’s most popular non-news programme. In the 1950s, the story revolved around the Archer family of Brookfield farm near the village of Ambridge. Much of the action took place at the farm or in The Bull pub in the village. Some of the main early characters were Dan and Doris Archer, Jack and Peggy Archer, Doris and Jack Woolley, Ned Larkin, Tom Forrest, and of course that old favourite – ‘well me old pal, me old beauties’ – Walter Gabriel.

Who could ever forget the happy-go-lucky ‘maypole dance’ theme tune entitled Barwick Green?

Beyond Our Ken (1958–64) BBC Light Programme (1950s). This comedy show starred Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick and Bill Pertwee. Barry Took and Eric Merriman wrote the 1950s’ scripts and Douglas Smith played the very formal announcer. It reappeared as Round the Horne in 1965–8.

The Billy Cotton Bandshow (1949–68) BBC Light Programme (1950s). The dreaded shout of Billy Cotton’s ‘Wakey! Wakey!’ each Sunday afternoon sent a shiver down every child’s spine. This music and comedy show presented by the larger-than-life bandleader, Billy Cotton, also featured Alan Breeze, Doreen Stephens and Kathie Kay. Its lifespan indicates that it was very popular with listeners, but I am not sure that there was ever a poll done of children’s views.

Pete Murray presented Six-Five Special live music show on BBC TV in 1957/8, and in 1958 he lent his name to this songbook, which gave the words of sixteen current songs. The songbook came free with Roxy, ‘the new exciting all-star picture love story weekly’.

Children’s Favourites (1954–67) BBC Light Programme (1950s). Every Saturday morning, Derek McCulloch (Uncle Mac) would play a selection of children’s record requests, starting each programme with the words, ‘Hello children, everywhere!’ Among the most popular record requests from children were The Laughing Policeman by Charles Penrose, Buttons and Bows by Dinah Shore, The Runaway Train by Michael Holliday, When You Come to the End of a Lollipop by Max Bygraves, Nellie the Elephant by Mandy Miller, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat by Mel Blanc, The Bee Song by Arthur Askey, How Much is that Doggy in the Window by Lita Roza, The Ugly Duckling by Danny Kaye, The Hippopotamus Song by Flanders and Swann, Little White Duck by Danny Kaye, The Deadwood Stage by Doris Day, My Old Man’s a Dustman by Lonnie Donegan, The Teddy Bear’s Picnic by Henry Hall, Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary, Que Será Será by Doris Day. There were just too many regular children’s favourites to mention them all. Most children just wrote to the show in the hope of getting their name read out on the radio by Uncle Mac, thereby obtaining full bragging rights in the playground on the following Monday morning!

Children’s Hour (1922–64) BBC Home Service (1950s). Broadcast from 5pm to 6pm on weekdays. It was filled with stories, plays and drama serials, as well as informative talks, children’s newsreels and competitions. The various presenters included Derek McCulloch, ‘Uncle’ Arthur Burrows, ‘Auntie’ Violet Carson, Jon Pertwee and Wilfred Pickles. Popular serials included Jennings at School, Just So Stories for Little Children, Sherlock Holmes, Worzel Gummidge and Winnie the Pooh.

The Clitheroe Kid (1957–72) BBC Light Programme (1950s). This was a long-running situation comedy programme, featuring the diminutive Northern comedian, Jimmy Clitheroe, who played the part of a cheeky schoolboy. Amazingly, Jimmy Clitheroe was already an experienced thirty-five-year-old comedy actor when The Clitheroe Kid was first launched on radio in 1957. Famous celebrities that appeared in the 1950s’ programmes included Judith Chalmers, Bob Monkhouse and Violet Carson (best known for her role as Ena Sharples in Coronation Street).

Desert Island Discs (1942–present) BBC Home Service (1950s). This programme was devised and presented by Roy Plomley from 1942 until his death in 1985. Each week, a guest was invited to choose eight gramophone records and one book. It is said to be the longest-running music radio show in radio history. It was not essential listening for 1950s kids as most of the musical choices seemed to be either classical or from stage shows. The signature tune was, and still is, By the Sleepy Lagoon by Eric Coates.

Dick Barton, Special Agent (1946–51) BBC Light Programme. This was the BBC radio’s first daily serial. Our special agent hero, former Commando Captain Richard Barton, with his two trusty sidekicks, Jock Anderson and Snowy White, solved endless crimes and regularly saved us all from terrible disasters. Its unforgettably dramatic chase signature tune was Devil’s Gallop, composed by Charles Williams.

Easy Beat (1959–67) BBC Light Programme. A Sunday mid-morning show produced and presented by Brian Matthew, it was recorded before a live audience at the Playhouse Theatre, just off Trafalgar Square in London. It featured the Johnny Howard Band, with guest bands and artists including regulars like Kenny Ball’s Jazzmen and Bert Weedon.

Educating Archie (1950–60) BBC Light Programme and Home Service. Yes, ventriloquist Peter Brough really did manage to succeed with his own Sunday lunchtime comedy radio show, which he did while holding his dummy, Archie Andrews, in front of the microphone. The show featured fourteen-year-old Julie Andrews, and an enormous number of comedians who went on to become big names, including Tony Hancock, Max Bygraves, Harry Secombe, Benny Hill, Beryl Reid, Hattie Jacques, Dick Emery, Bruce Forsyth, Sid James, Marty Feldman, Graham Stark, Warren Mitchell and James Robertson Justice. The show was even adapted for an ITV television series in 1958.

The Goon Show (1952–60) BBC Home Service with repeats on the BBC Light Programme. Created and mainly written by Spike Milligan, this comedy sketch show was a firm favourite with 1950s kids, including Prince Charles. The show stared Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers, and Michael Bentine, who left the show in 1953. Some of the main characters were: Mr Henry Crun, Lance Brigadier Grytpype-Thynne, Major Dennis Bloodnok and Bluebottle – all played by Peter Sellers; Miss Minnie Bannister, Eccles and Moriarty – all played by Spike Milligan; and Ned Seagoon – played by Harry Secombe. Each of the cast played many minor characters as well, and everything was accompanied by music and comical sound affects.

Hancock’s Half Hour (1954–9) BBC Light Programme. Comedy show written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about the life of down-at-heel comedian, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, who was waiting for the big time to arrive. The main character, Hancock, lived with his dim-witted Australian lodger, played by Bill Kerr, at 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam. Sid James played Hancock’s roguish friend Sid, and in later series, Hattie Jacques played his live-in secretary, Miss Griselda Pugh.

Have A Go (1946–67) BBC Light Programme. A travelling radio quiz, hosted by Yorkshireman Wilfred Pickles, the first BBC newsreader to speak with a broad Yorkshire accent. Accompanied by his wife Mabel, Wilfred took the programme to church halls all around the country, challenging ordinary people to ‘have a go’ and answer quiz questions for money prizes. With ‘Mabel at the table’, Wilfred coined several catchphrases, including ‘How do, how are yer?’, ‘Are yer courting?’ to the younger contestants, and ‘Give ’em the money, Mabel!’ when they won, but all contestants were given the money anyway. The theme tune was Have a Go, Joe by Jack Jordan, the original pianist on the show. Violet Carson, famous for playing Ena Sharpes in Coronation Street, took over as pianist from 1947 to 1953, after that Harry Hudson took over, followed by Eric James in 1966.

Housewives’ Choice (1946–67) BBC Light Programme. A popular record request programme for women at home during the day. It was mainly men that presented the shows, with the most popular presenter probably being George Elrick, known as ‘The Smiling Face of Radio’; he had a long association with the show. The signature tune was In Party Mood by Jack Strachey, another unforgettable tune from the 1950s!

Journey into Space (1953–8) BBC Light Programme. This 1950s radio science fiction classic kept us all up late and sent us to bed with nightmares! Written and produced by BBC producer Charles Chilton, it was set in the future of 1965 and described Man’s conquest of the moon. Each half-hour weekly episode left us all biting our fingernails in suspense with a new cliffhanger ending. The main characters included Captain Andrew ‘Jet’ Morgan, Doc Matthews, Stephen ‘Mitch’ Mitchell, and Lemuel ‘Lemmey’ Barnett, with a changing cast that included Andrew Faulds, David Jacobs, David Kossoff and Alfie Bass.

Life with the Lyons (1950–61) BBC Light Programme. A popular light-hearted domestic radio sitcom that featured a real-life American family living in London, and starred the husband and wife team of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, with their children Richard and Barbara Lyon, and the family’s pet dog Skeeter. Other cast members included Molly Weir, who played their Scottish housekeeper Aggie McDonald, Doris Rogers, who played the nosey neighbour Florrie Wainwright, and Ian Sadler as her hen-pecked husband George.

Listen with Mother (1950–82) BBC Light Programme (1950s). A fifteen-minute programme of stories, songs and nursery rhymes, it was broadcast every weekday afternoon at 1.45pm for very young children and their mothers. ‘Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin!’ Presenters and story readers included Daphne Oxenford, Dorothy Smith and Julia Lang.

Meet The Huggetts (1953–61) BBC Light Programme. Comedy series about a London East End charwoman and her family, starring Kathleen Harrison as Ethel, and Jack Warner as Joe.

Mrs Dale’s Diary (1948–69) BBC Light Programme (1950s). This was the first post-war daily weekday soap on British radio. It centred on the fictional life of Mrs (Mary) Dale, the wife of a doctor (Jim), and her family life at Virginia Lodge in the fictional London suburb of Parkwood Hill in Middlesex. Ellis Powell played Mrs Dale up until 1963, when Jessie Matthews replaced her. This was essential comfort listening for kids off school sick.

Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh (1944–54) BBC Light Programme; Radio Luxembourg also produced a series of the show in 1950–1. A comedy series about the goings-on at a fictional RAF station, which, after the war, evolved into a newspaper, The Weekly Bind. The show was written by and starred Kenneth Horne and Richard ‘Stinker’ Murdoch; other cast members included Sam Costa, Maurice Denham, Dora Bryan and Nicholas Parsons.

Music While You Work (1940–67) BBC Light Programme (1950s). This was a half-hour show that featured a different live band or orchestra each weekday morning and afternoon, playing a non-stop medley of popular tunes. Its signature tune was Calling All Workers by Eric Coates.

Paul Temple (1938–68) BBC Light Programme (1950s). Based on the novels by Francis Durbridge, this fictional amateur detective, with the assistance of his wife Steve, solved all sorts of crime mysteries. Several actors and actresses have portrayed the Temples over the years, with the best-known 1950s stars being Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury. This was another great mystery serial that had children of the time captivated. The theme music, inspired by the rhythm of a train journey, was Coronation Scot by Vivian Ellis.

Pick of the Pops (1955–72) BBC Light Programme (1950s). First presented by forty-seven-year-old Franklin Englemann in 1955, it featured ‘newly released gramophone records’. Alan Dell, a more suitable thirty-two-year-old, took over in 1956...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• One: A Decade of Innocence
• Two: Home Life
• Three: The Streets and Bomb Ruins
• Four: Games, Hobbies and Pastimes
• Five: Entertainment, Music and Fashion
• Six: Radio and Television
• Seven: School Life
• Eight: School Holidays
• Nine: Christmas
• Ten: Memorable 1950s Events
• Eleven: Whatever Happened To?