The Good Old Days (British TV series)

For other uses, see The Good Old Days (disambiguation).

The Good Old Days is a BBC television light entertainment programme produced by Barney Colehan which ran for 30 years from 20 July 1953 to 31 December 1983.^[1]

The Good Old Days
Opening title (8 February 1974)
Genre	Old Time Variety, music hall
Presented by	Don Gemmell (First 2 shows) Leonard Sachs
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	30
No. of episodes	245
Production
Producer	Barney Colehan
Production location	Leeds City Varieties
Running time	45-60 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC Television Service (1953-64) BBC1 (1964-83)
Release	July 20, 1953 (1953-07-20) – December 31, 1983 (1983-12-31)

It was performed at the Leeds City Varieties and recreated an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian–Edwardian music hall with songs and sketches of the era performed in the style of the original artistes.^[2]

The audience dressed in period costume and joined in the singing, especially "Down at the Old Bull and Bush" which closed the show each week.^[2] The show was compered throughout its whole run (except for the first two shows) by Leonard Sachs, who introduced the acts from a desk situated at the side of the stage.^[3] In the course of its run it featured about 2,000 performers. Each show was up to an hour long.^[4]

History

Early in 1953 Barney Colehan devised a one-off show entitled "The Story of the Music Hall" presented by Deryck Guyler.^[5] The programme proved so popular that it was decided to create a series under the title of "The Good Old Days".^[6]

The show was first broadcast on 20 July 1953 and the first two shows were compered by Don Gemmell. Early series of the show were broadcast live.^[7] The show included many regulars such as Joan Sterndale-Bennett, Tessie O'Shea, , Hattie Jacques, Ray Alan, Roy Castle, Roy Hudd, Ken Dodd, Barbara Windsor, Eartha Kitt, Danny La Rue, Hylda Baker, Les Dawson, Larry Grayson, Tommy Steele, Frankie Vaughan, John Inman, Bernard Cribbins and Arthur Askey.^[8][3]

The Good Old Days was inspired by the success of the "Ridgeway's Late Joys" at the Players' Theatre Club in London: a private members' club that ran fortnightly programmes of variety acts in London's West End.^[9] The club was originally founded by Leonard Sachs and business partner Peter Ridgeway.^[10]

Out of 245 episodes, 108 are believed to survive complete in the archives;^[11] 63 of the surviving programmes were rebroadcast on BBC Four between December 2015 and February 2018.^[12]

On 16 December 1983, Goodbye to the Good Old Days was shown, a documentary celebrating the end of the 30-year run that year; Barry Cryer served as narrator for the documentary.^[13] The final show aired on New Year's Eve that year.