TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

"Thirty-six cameras range 1,350 miles in a light hearted round up of songs and dances, people and places, for your entertainment" - as announced in a print advert in the Daily Mirror, 19th August 1959.

Two summer outside broadcasts from the weekday London based ITV franchise, but despite the London credits it needed the co-operation of seven different ITV stations from around the country, including Anglia which didn’t actually go on air until October 1959.

Each week regulars singers Dennis Lotis, Owen Brannigan, Kevin Scott, Lucille Mapp, Gary Marshal, Louise Ramsay, Ed Devereux and June Marlow would be singing in locations across the country, while Norrie Paramour provided the music for the first show with Steve Race taking over for the second, and the Mike Sammes Singers on backing. Douglas Squires was in charge of the choreography.

Co-produced by Joan Kemp-Welch the hour-long show would reach across the UK with clips from Trafalgar Square in London, Chedburgh Hall Farm in Raynam, Port Talbot, Twickenham, Glasgow, Stonehenge and Battersea Funfair in London.

It kind of looked like the location settings for Cool For Cats, but for a general, not speciifically teenage, audience.

SUMMERSONG

Associated-Rediffusion

29th July 1959 and 19th August 1959