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Seaside/Summertime Special

ASPIC-PICKLED ASININE variety gadabout from a different pier each week. Regular musical guests of the Bobby Crush/Elaine Paige calibre, comedians in the Frank Carson/Tom O’Connor line, and either Pan’s People/Legs and Co or New Edition (not to be confused with Bobby Brown’s outfit) doing pirouettes along the invariably windswept rain-drenched promenade. Plus “a bevy of bathing beauties” licking ice creams. Michael “POPS” Hurll thought of it. Christmas SNOWTIME SPECIALS featured synchronised skiing to Boney M, DEMIS ROUSSOS singing carols wearing a big furry hood, and frequent absence of snow.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Tom Ronson

    January 25, 2023 at 12:11 am

    Quite a few episodes have surfaced on YouTube in recent times, and they’re interesting time capsules – nice shots of coastal towns as they were in the seventies, obscure club acts (obviously engaged in summer seasons as part of the ‘full supporting company’ whose job it was to keep the audiences engaged while the likes of Syd and Eddie, Mike and Bernie, or The Grumbleweeds were changing their costumes), Radio One DJs coming over as chummy and likeable as opposed to arrogant dickheads, and two genuinely brilliant theme tunes – Get A Little Sand Between Your Toes by New Edition, and Summertime City by Mike Batt. One episode begins with Boney M singing ‘Holi-holiday’ on the beach at Blackpool on what looks like a typically overcast and blustery day in the North-west. Lovely stuff.

  2. George White

    January 25, 2023 at 2:31 pm

    Looked this up on BBC Genome, and there’s quite a few continental co-pro specials with France, with people like Claude Francois and Jeane Manson, the latter a blonde American exploitation starlet/Playboy playmate, kind of in the mould of Candy Rialson or Tiffany Bolling, did the same things – Corman nurse movies and I recently saw her in an AIP flick called Dirty O’Neil, who moved to France, changed her name from Jean to Jeane because Jean’s a lad’s name in France, and became a popular singer, representing Luxembourg in 1979 Eurovision. Thus she connects Seaside Special and Banacek. She’s also in 10 to Midnight, the Bronson slasher.

  3. Glenn Aylett

    January 25, 2023 at 7:09 pm

    TVS did a version of Seaside Special in the mid eighties from Bournemouth. It tended to feature Gary Wilmot as the resident comedian and children impersonating pop stars and holiday makers being interviewed.

  4. Glenn Aylett

    July 2, 2023 at 5:32 pm

    I think back to Saturday nights as a young boy in the seventies and watching Seaside Special and thinking Blackpool was the in place and Bournemouth was positively exotic. Well living on a council estate with not a lot of money, I can remember my first trip to Blackpool when I was 7 and thinking I’d gone to Monte Carlo- also it was the summer of 1975, so was quite hot. Funny how a television show has this effect on you, as kids these days probably dream of Disney World and can probably afford to go further than Blackpool.

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