What A Performance! Pioneers Of Popular Entertainment
- TV documentary
- BBC Four
- 2015
- 3 episodes (1 series)
Frank Skinner & Suzy Klein explore the history of British popular entertainment in the 100 years before the arrival of television. Features Frank Skinner and Suzy Klein.
Episode menu
Series 1, Episode 3 - Variety Finds A New Home
Further details
In the third programme Frank and Suzy examine what happened to British popular entertainment - its stars and its audiences - during the Second World War and beyond.
They explore how it braved challenges from an American invasion called rock and roll, a whole lot of nudity and how, in the 50s, it faced its biggest threat as a new form of entertainment appeared in our living rooms. They bring the period alive by studying the lives and acts of some of the major stars of popular entertainment of the day, and recreate in a final performance an act close to their hearts.
For Suzy, this means attempting to replicate the sound of American super-group the Andrews Sisters, while Frank takes on an act a little closer to home - British comic Max Miller.
Broadcast details
- Date
- Thursday 17th December 2015
- Time
- 9pm
- Channel
- BBC Four
- Length
- 60 minutes
Cast & crew
| Frank Skinner | Host / Presenter |
| Suzy Klein | Host / Presenter |
| Kate Guthrie (as Dr Kate Guthrie) | Self |
| Brian Ward | Self |
| Jacquie Storey | Self |
| Sarah Lindsey (as The Rockabellas) | Self |
| Lizzie Deane (as The Rockabellas) | Self |
| Pippa Gearing (as The Rockabellas) | Self |
| John Henty | Self |
| Barry Cryer | Self |
| Peter Donegan | Self |
| Chas McDevitt | Self |
| Ruth Cherrington (as Dr Ruth Cherrington) | Self |
| Kim Lomax | Director |
| Aisling O'Connor | Executive Producer |
| Jamie Isaacs | Executive Producer |
| Claire Whalley | Executive Producer |
| Kim Lomax | Producer |
| Amy Morgan | Edit Producer |
| Damian Leask | Editor |
| Alex Harwood | Composer |
Press
During the war we were all so fit and healthy - so the historians and nutritionists always say. Rationing cut out most of our sweets and chocolate and everyone who had the space was encouraged to plant an allotment and grow their own vegetables. Whilst the wartime diet might not have been particularly rich and appetising, it was healthy.
So if the war and privation had unintended consequences for our diet, what did it do for entertainment? As food took on a dual role - to keep people productive rather than just fed - so did popular entertainment which now had the task of raising morale besides simply providing some distraction and laughs.
This episode looks at acts such as The Andrews Sisters and the comedian Max Miller, known as "The Cheeky Chappie", who kept spirits up during the war.
But in the post-war era, stage acts quickly seemed old-fashioned as they faced competition from the daring new American sound of rock 'n' roll as well as the increasing popularity of television.
Julie McDowall, The National (Scotland), 17th December 2015Radio Times review
Suzy Klein and Frank Skinner conclude their hands-on history of popular British entertainment. If you don't mind the chummy flippancy (that Phil and Kirstie thing of cheerily bickering on the voiceover - stop it!) and the indulgence of Klein and Skinner having a go at everything, it's a stirring nostalgia trip that gets under performers' skins rather than merely eulogising them.
While Skinner builds up to a performance as Max Miller and Klein learns to be all three Andrews Sisters, the pair also have a crack at skiffle, and Wilson, Keppel and Betty's sand dance. And Barry Cryer tells an A1 anecdote about a man being thrown out of the Windmill Club for bringing binoculars.
Jack Seale, Radio Times, 14th December 2015