TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

The Big Night Out name was initially used by ABC to cover a host of concerts, circuses and specials until 1962 when a permanent variety show format was introduced featuring singers, guests and dancers, with hosts Mike and Bernie Winters joining the show at the beginning of the third series in summer 1963, replacing an intended series starring Russ Conway.

Despite the show's popularity it had been dropped by the ITV network from mid 1962 until early 1964. The ITV network saw its only purpose was to act as a summer replacement for Sunday Night At The London Palladium, with the rest of the series shown in the ABC region only.

Merseybeat was in full swing when the Winter brothers joined, and with Liverpool on ABC's doorstep shows like Thank Your Lucky Stars and Big Night Out had the pick of all the Epstein acts, including on several occasions The Beatles, who not only played on the show but got involved in comedy sketches.

A dedicated summer version was proposed, to be called Blackpool Night (according to the music press of the time), with the first show (possibly a pilot) scheduled to be broadcast 18th August 1963, but it was unlikely to have been shown.

The show's home had originally been the Didsbury studio in Manchester, but by early 1964 the show had moved south to ABC's Teddington Lock, Middlesex studio and this is where The Beatles famously appeared in February 1964 after their return from America. ABC had even given them a triumphant boat ride down the Thames to the studio, an event that was covered on that night's national news. By early 1965 the show had moved back to the Manchester studios and recorded the Monday before transmission.

The pre-credits sketch of each show would quite often end with an explosion, and on occasion Bernie would be in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in a trip to the nurses station to be treated for injuries. For the close of each show either of the Winters would call out to their producer Philip Jones "OK Jonesey, start the finale." The dancers were usually choreographed by Lionel Blair, but Denny Bettis did the duties for the first few shows in the third series, while one of the regular troupe of dancers was Siggi, Bernie's wife. She told TV Times "It's a coincidence that Bernie and I are on the show." The dance routines were sometime subjected to ingenious editing by the video team, sometimes cutting from dancers wearing one set of costumes to another dead on cue, and one routine featuring three split screen images of Lionel Blair was probably unique for the time. ABC in-vision continuity legend David Hamilton took over the opening credits voice-over duty from the second show of the third series onwards.

Despite the plum in the middle of prime time scheduling the show perhaps relied too readily on comedy talent from the recent past, like Charlie Chester, Ted Ray, Freddie Frinton, Max Wall. The same could be said for the singers, with many of them currently without, or coming to the end of their recording contract. Or worse, singers like Craig Douglas and Susan Maughan who were about to fall very publicly out of the chart for the final time thanks to the Fab Four. So this was not the place for talent spotting. To be fair many of the acts that appeared on the show did so twice, but presumably this was a contractual option when signing on to the show the first time.

In each show the first guest singer tended to perform one song in the first part and return in the third part, with the other act that week performing two songs in the middle part, but there was an exception given to The Beatles when they were allowed to perform all their songs in one set.

Their fractious personal relationship was not obvious on the show, but they seemed to enjoy the nonsense they had to perform on stage, with both (though mostly Bernie) fluffing lines.

As per usual at the time, any act that was a part of a panto or summer season would have a contractual plug for the show during the closing credit, Mike & Bernie Winters (Now in "Show Time" at the South Parade Pier, Southsea). It looked like a game of Top Trumps as to who had the more prominent show, with anyone with a gig in Blackpool or the west end of London automatically winning. It was evident however that more often than not the guest artists would have a better gig than the show's hosts, who despite their longevity were rarely anyone's favourite comedy double act to begin with.

ABC's regular set designer Brian Eatwell was on form as usual, even managing to sneak the ABC logo into the design of the back wall.

In 1964 it was decided to redesign the show as a summer spectacular, just as the ITV network had wanted it to be, so it morphed into Blackpool Night Out, recorded at the ABC Theatre in Blackpool, where The Beatles made another live appearance. To help map out ideas Mike and Bernie were sent to Montreux to look at the sort of variety shows that were being entered into the Montreux Golden Rose Festival. With a plan in place ABC recorded two pilot shows on the 21st and 28th June 1964 in front of an audience of 1800. The show was then re-vamped again into The Blackpool Show the following summer with different hosts for its two seasons.

A DVD collection of the surviving shows was due for release by Network, but with the label shutting down in 2023 nothing was released, but editions were included as a part of their ABC Nights In compilations.

BIG NIGHT OUT

ABC 25th March 1961 - 10th April 1965

BLACKPOOL NIGHT OUT

ABC 5th July 1964 - 12th September 1965