The Good Old Days
- TV variety
- BBC One
- 1953 - 1983
Traditional music-hall entertainment, with songs, sketches and stand-up comedy from the Leeds City Varieties.
Press clippings
Preview - The Good Old Days
As Bob Dylan famously sang 'The times they are a changing' - it was a call of hope and optimism which echoed the giant strides the civil rights and equality movements were making. It was a message that didn't reach the BBC or large swathes of the British people because The Good Old Days was a hugely popular hour of escapism throughout the 1970s and 80s. I never quite understood why, at a time when there were three TV channels (Channel 4 didn't arrive until the mid-80s), this show could eat an hour out of BBC One's primetime schedule.
Gareth Hargreaves, On The Box, 20th January 2017Misconception about music halls bred by 'Good Old Days'
"People's vision of music halls is Leonard Sachs on The Good Old Days. But it grew totally out of the publicans' interest in making as much money as they possibly could - selling as many drinks as they could. Some enterprising ones decided they'd put on a couple of turns (acts) in the evening and more people would come and see the show and drink their beer."
John Fleming, John Fleming's Blog, 8th March 2015