Monday 17th. - the lead-up to Christmas!

Yes, it's the last week before Christmas and, as previously mentioned, the comedy spots for both today and Friday 21st. will feature Hancock's Half-hour Christmas-themes.

The first of these went to air 56 years ago on the 23rd. December 1956 and is entitled "Hancock's Happy Christmas", with Tony Hancock, Sid James, Bill Kerr, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams - arguably the best cast of all the Hancock series.

The show for next Friday was broadcast on the 25th. December 1958, two years further down the track from that mentioned above and is entitled "Bill and Father Christmas".
This also features the three regular stars and Hattie Jacques but Kenneth Williams is replaced by a young Warren Mitchell, who later gained infamy as the bigoted Alf Garnett in the TV series "Until Death Us Do Part".

The music selections for both shows will include pops and hits across the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies.

NOTE!
I will also be on air in the regular morning timeslot on Christmas Eve, Monday 24th., from 9:00 AM until 12:00 Noon.

Friday 14th. December - Girl's Day!

I will be featuring the "girls" of the 1950s and 1960s today - the vocalists of the female gender who gained stardom as pop-singers during the years between 1950 and 1970.
The playlist includes the following :-

• Lulu
• Gloria Gaynor
• Dionne Warwick
• Jane Morgan
• Sandie Shaw
• Nancy Sinatra
• Helen Shapiro
• Dusty Springfield
• Cilla Black
• Annette Funicello
• Brenda Lee
• Connie Francis
• the Caravelles
• the Shirrelles
• Della Reese
• Hayley Mills
• Dodie Stevens
• Linda Scott
• Eydie Gorme
• Etta James
• Little Eva
• Marcie Blaine
• Little Peggy March
• Sue Thompson
• Mary Wells
• Skeeter Davis
• Millie Small
• the Angels
• the Murmaids
• the Crystals
• Nancy Wilson
• the Singing Nun
• Astrud Gilberto
• Peggy Lee
• the Jellybeans
• Petula Clark
• the Poni-Tails
• Doris Day
• Sara Vaughan
• Kathy Kirby
• Rosemary Clooney
• Marianne Faithful
• Leslie Gore
• Judy Stone
• Bev Harrell
• Dinah Lee
• Patsy Ann Noble
• Noeleen Batley

The half-hour comedy spot following the 3 o'clock news will be "The Foreign Legion", a Hancock's Half-hour show first broadcast in April 1958.

Please join me for some nostalgia between 2:00 and 5:00 PM.

Sunday 9th. and Monday 10th. December

SUNDAY

On Sunday afternoons between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM Kay Fitton presents her Sunday array of classical music.
However, on this particular Sunday Kay will be in Sydney and so I will be sitting in her seat in the studio up until at least 5:00 PM. If my commitments allow then I will go through until Kay's usual finishing time of six o'clock.

But the format will not be Classical.
I will be presenting a show consisting of light and easy music interspersed with comedy snippets and at least one full half-hour show from the golden days of BBC radio.

Please join me if you can on Sunday afternoon.

MONDAY

As I have an unscheduled and urgent dental appointment on Monday at 8:15 AM there is a distinct possibility that my regular Monday edition of the Baby-boomer Radio Show will, at the very least, have a delayed start.
At the worst, I will not be able to get into the studio at all that morning.

I hope my regular listeners will forgive this slight disturbance to the regular programming.

However, if all goes well, I will be featuring the music from the charts for 1958 and 1959 and, for the comedy spot after the ten o'clock news and weather, a Hancock's Half-hour from the 17th. February 1957, entitled "The Emigrant".

 

Program for Friday 7th. December

For the half-hour comedy spot today I will feature another in the Hancock's Half-Hour series of radio comedy shows.
This one was first broadcast by the BBC on the 8th. December 1959 and is entitled "The Poetry Society" and was the fourth-last of the radio shows, the series ending on the 29th. December 1959.
Hattie Jacques had left the show at the end of the fifth series (June 1959). She had been a regular cast member since 1956.
Kenneth Williams, a regular since the first series aired in 1954, also departed at the end of the fifth series.
So join Tony, Sid and Bill as they delve into alternative culture!

The music for today's Baby Boomer Radio Show will highlight tracks from 1958, 1963 and the 1970s.

NOTE!
I will be featuring two Hancock's Half-Hour shows with Christmas themes during the week before Christmas.
That's Monday morning 17th. and Friday afternoon's show on 21st. December.

What's on for Monday 3rd. December?

Today's program will have a broad-brush approach, with hits and classics from right across the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, together with Easy Listening tracks dotted throughout the three-hour show.

Following the 10:00 news & weather I will be playing a classic Hancock's Half-Hour from the 1950s. First broadcast by the BBC on the 18th. March 1958, this episode is entitled "The Americans Hit Town".

Please join me for some nostalgic radio from 9:00 AM until Noon.

Program for Friday 30th. November

The last day of Spring......and expected to be more like the middle of Summer, with a forecast maximum temperature of 35 degrees.

The core of today's program is the music from "Heartbeat", the ITV television series set in 1960s rural England and now being shown three times a week here on 7TWO.
I discovered on Monday that they are re-running the original series from the very start (first aired in 1992, would you believe?!), so it prompted me to dig out the 2-CD album and use it as the focus for Friday's show.

In addition to the music from "Heartbeat" I will be presenting other tracks from the Sixties and of course a half-hour 1950s comedy spot after the 3:00 PM news and weather.
This Friday's offering is "Robin Hood", a Goon Show that was first broadcast on the BBC (and soon after on ABC radio here in Australia) on the 2nd. December 1956. So we are celebrating the 56th. anniversary of its debut.

And as we are now less than a month away from Christmas Eve I will include a couple of appropriately-seasonal songs. Not carols, but pop-tunes that made the charts over the past few decades.

So please join me for some fun and laughter as we go back in time and wallow in nostalgia!

Monday - Easy Listening, 1960s and Hancock

After the 10:00 AM news and weather the comedy spot for today's show will feature a classic Hancock's Half-Hour - "Hancock's School", from 4th. March 1958 (number 7 of Series 5 and the 75th. radio show since it began).
For your interest, the radio series ran from November 2nd. 1954 to December 29th. 1959, after which the show became a TV production.

The music selection this morning will focus on the Easy Listening and 1960s Hits genres.

As always, you can tune in with your computer or smart-phone by clicking on the internet streaming link Listen Live in the menu bar on the right-hand side of this column.