• 142

    Saturday 14 April 1962


    Panel: Carole Carr, Robert Farnon, Sid James, Miriam Karlin


    Producer: Johnnie Stewart


    Records played:
    Baby Doll Twist – Susan Maughan (Philips) MISS
    Caterina – Perry Como (RCA) MISS
    Lover Please – Vernons Girls (Decca) HIT
    Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You – Connie Francis (MGM) MISS
    Striped Purple Shirt – Alan Klein (Oriole) MISS
    Big Man In A Big House – Leroy Van Dyke (Mercury) MISS
    Ave Maria – Shirley Bassey (Columbia) MISS
    Theme From Ben Casey – Ted Heath (Decca) MISS
    Mashed Potato Time – Dee Dee Sharp (Columbia) MISS


    Spin-A-Disc with Jimmy Henney: Big Man In A Big House, Caterina (Como), Sgts 3 March (Caiola)

    Big mistake having Miriam Karlin on the same Juke Box Jury panel as Sidney James.
    Alley Cat, 13 April 1962

    Jean Owen (later Samantha Jones) of the Vernons: “JBJ was my very first television show and it was Lover Please that they were listening to and we just had to sit there smiling. Carole Carr who was a singer was on the panel and Gilbert Harding too. They put us behind a panel so the actual panel didn’t know that we were there. We thought it might be a Miss but it was a Hit. I had had visions of Gilbert Harding saying dreadful things about it but he was fine. It was genuine, we came in late and they definitely didn’t know we were there.”

  • 158

    Saturday 4 August 1962


    Panel: Rose Brennan, Brian Rix, Jimmy Young, Susan Hampshire


    Producer: Johnnie Stewart


    Records played:
    Yesterday (check title) – Polka Dots (Philips) MISS
    Seven Day Weekend – U S Bonds (Stateside) HIT
    Steptoe And Son – Geoff Love (Columbia) HIT
    Goody Goody – Frank Sinatra (Reprise) MISS
    The Cure – Smitty Williams (MGM) MISS
    I Sat Back And Let It Happen – Leroy Van Dyke (Mercury) HIT
    Swahili Papa – Springfields (Philips) HIT
    Sealed With A Kiss – Brian Hyland (HMV) HIT
    Little Sue – Dowlands (Oriole) MISS


    Producer Neville Wortman had joined the BBC after a spell as a cartoonist for ITV and time on Cool For Cats: “I was hoping to ease my way into the BBC. Twist had become one of the rages and I was going to direct a programme on that with Barry Lupino whose sister was Ida Lupino, the American film star. He got smashed up in a car accident and Johnnie Stewart was brought in. He had been doing Juke Box Jury and so he came out of that. The twist didn’t last very long and nor did the show. It was nicely shot though, a good show.”

    Producer Neville Wortman: “I was asked to pick it up as it had got very staid. It had become more of a family show than something for teenagers. Bill Cotton Jr and I were the two youngest producers at the BBC – I was just under 30.”

    Producer Neville Wortman: “I was determined to get more interesting panellists on Juke Box Jury, some people who had a real interest in popular music. I tried to build up really good panels and I filmed it in a different way too as I placed the cameras in unusual positions. I featured a lot more of the audience and got their expressions. We used to look for characters and I would get people out looking for characters whom we could invite to the show. We would walk to someone in the street and say, “Please come”. We were fighting head on with Thank Your Lucky Stars. They had a great style of programming for teenagers and I knew Philip Jones very well. They had a very stylish programme and Juke Box Jury wasn’t that. We were fighting for our lives with that programme. The BBC wanted to grab an audience at six and they thought that if you had them then, you should have them through the evening.”

  • 123

    Saturday 9 December 1961


    Panel: Jane Asher, Acker Bilk, Alan Freeman, Julie Wilson


    Producer: Harry Carlisle


    Records played:
    The Lion Sleeps Tonight – Tokens (RCA)
    Son This Is She – John Leyton (HMV) MISS
    What A Crazy World We’re Livin’ In – Joe Brown (Pye)
    Surprisin’ – Joan Regan (Pye)
    Run To Him – Bobby Vee (London)
    Doin’ The Racoon – Laurie Johnson (Pye)
    My Kind Of Christmas – Johnny Mathis (Fontana)
    Walk On By – Leroy Van Dyke (Mercury)
    March Of The Angels – Big Ben Banjo Band (Columbia)


    Julie Wilson at the Talk Of The Town

    On Saturday, simultaneous appearances by Acker Bilk on ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ and ‘Juke Box Jury’.
    Alley Cat, 15 December 1961

    Spin-A-Disc wth Peppermint Twist, Please Don’t Go, Run To Him, Forgotten Dreams (Russ Conway)