01

Monday 1 June 1959, 7.30-7.55pm

Chairman: David Jacobs

Panel: Alma Cogan, Gary Miller, Pete Murray, Susan Stranks
Personality – Anthony Newley (Decca) 0.30
Personality – Lloyd Price (HMV) 0.29

Records played:
Once Again – Edmund Hockridge (Pye) 1.13
Wow – Ossie Warlock & the Wizards (unissued HMV) 1.15
You’re The One For Me – Wanda Jackson (Capitol) 0.37
Say One For Me – Bing Crosby (Philips) 1.30
A Teenager In Love – Craig Douglas (Top Rank) 0.55
More, More, More Romancing – Jo Shelton (Top Rank) 1.02
That’s Show Biz – Dale Wright & the Wright Guys (Pye) 0.38
Sig tune : Juke Box Fury: Ossie Warlock & the Wizards (unissued HMV) 0.28 + 0.44

David Jacobs in 1963 NME Annual:
How well I remember the very first programme. It was transmitted on June 1, 1959 – and I thought I’d never last the half-hour. I sat in my chair, absolutely hating the programme, the panel, the producer, the audience and myself. And I thought that the viewers hated the show, the panel, the BBC and me. I felt so nauseated by it all that I desperately wanted to get up and walk out.

Mind you, I had no intention of just disappearing without the confused viewers knowing what was happening. I plotted in my mind to say calmly into the camera, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry that this show is being brought to you, and I am also sorry that I am associated with such a load of tripe. I can’t stand it any longer. Goodnight!’

Of course, I did no such thing. If I am hired to do a job, then I’ll do it as well as I can. But perhaps it just wasn’t one of my days because viewer reaction was so favourable – so encouraging in fact that I thought I must have been mad for ever thinking such a thing about the show.