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RUMBUSTIOUS ROARATHON from pretend working man’s establishment somewhere in the north of England, compered by the deceased BERNARD MANNING and chaired by bell-ringing sidewarden COLIN CROMPTON. Memorably mixed line-ups found the likes of Gene Pitney or Bill Hailey rubbing bejacketed shoulders with baton twirlers, beauty pageants and belly dancers.
The Legendary Bing CrosbyDoubtless Sky Arts have shown this a thousand times, and probably another channel before that, but we’re a bit quiet this week so it gets in. It’s Bing with all his mates, including Dino and Frank and Bob and of course Dame David, suitably seasonal for this time of year. We don’t know if it’s got him being impressed by Pan’s People, though.
Now there was this Irishman, a queer, a Jew, you get the standard of the humour from Bernard Manning usually struggling to be seen through a fog of tobacco smoke( also banned in pubs now along with the type of jokes that Ben Elton and his friends had banned in the eighties). Only Granada in the seventies could produce this and ratings suggested it went down very well with the social club attending audience it was aimed at.
Brilliant stuff, this. Cannon and Ball weren’t funny then either. Colin Crompton’s lines, mostly self-penned but occasionally assisted by Neil Shand, were the highlight.