• 26

    Saturday 2 January 1960, 6-6.30pm


    Chairman: David Jacobs


    Panel: Paul Carpenter, Peggy Cummins, Gilbert Harding, Lady Carolyn Townshend


    Records played:
    On The Beach – Playmates (Columbia)
    I Wanna Be Loved – Ricky Nelson (London)
    If I Give My Heart to You – Ketty Lester (Philips)
    Marching Guitars – Bell Sounds (HMV)
    Why – Frankie Avalon (HMV)
    The Big Hurt – Miss Toni Fisher (Top Rank)
    Love Is the Only Thing – Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
    Oh Melancholy Me – Passions (HMV)


    “Disgraceful! All American records on Saturday’s ‘Juke Box Jury’. Surely the producer Russell Turner should have noticed this great injustice – hardly respectful to his boss, Eric Maschwitz, former Songwriters’ Guild chairman, who greatly champions British tunes.” NME’s Alley Cat, 8 January 1960
    The panel (including that long-haired beat boy Gilbert Harding) discussed the Playmates, Ricky Nelson, Kitty Kallen, the Bell Sounds, Frankie Avalon (‘Why’), Miss Toni Fisher, Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Passions. Looking at the BBC’s logs, it is absurd that the panel were asked to comment on Kitty Kallen’s ‘If I Give My Heart to You’ after just 30 seconds.
    Gilbert Harding was described by NME as “television’s supreme critic and avowed hater of rock ’n’ roll.” When he was doing a DJ stint on the Light Programme, he once had to play Great Balls of Fire, but took it off halfway through and said, “That’s enough of that rubbish.”
    Carolyn Townshend was one of England’s most beautiful debs. Became Lady Carolyn Capellini; married Antonio Capellini, 30, Italian landowner. She had been a TV scriptwriter.
    Paul Carpenter & Peggy Cummins were actors.

  • 09

    Monday 17 August 1959, 7.30-7.55pm


    Panel: Sheila Buxton, Dickie Dawson, Diana Dors, Pete Murray


    Records played:
    With Open Arms – Jane Morgan (London)
    China Tea – Russ Conway (Columbia)
    High Hopes – Frank Sinatra (Capitol)
    High Hopes – Dave King (Pye)
    It Was I – Skip & Flip (Top Rank)
    Run – Jeri Southern (Capitol)
    For You For You – Michael Holliday (Columbia)
    Taboo – Arthur Lyman Group (Vogue)
    What Is Love – Playmates (Columbia)


    Dickie Dawson, husband of Diana Dors