The Black and White Minstrel Show (partially found BBC TV series; 1957-1978)
This article has been tagged as NSFW due to its racist content.
The opening title card for the early 1960s series.
Status: Partially Found
Between 1957 and 1978, the BBC in the United Kingdom broadcast a now largely unseen/lost program called The Black and White Minstrel Show. As part of a variety show, singers would put on blackface paint and perform songs from a variety of genres as part of a modern (for the time) update to the old American Minstrel shows.[1]
The show was extremely popular, getting 21 million viewers at its peak. It would get many awards during its time, including the first-ever Golden Rose of Montreux/Rose d'Or to be awarded in 1961 along with many Golden Discs for creating best-selling soundtrack albums throughout its lifespan.
The show though was particularly controversial for its racial elements; starting from the late 1960s, people would frequently write to the BBC calling for it to be pulled off the air, most notably in 1967 as part of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination. It also was not always popular with its performers either: comedian Lenny Henry, who made his television debut in the show in 1976, would go on to state that he regretted acting in it. Conductor George Mitchell also wished to do the show without the controversial makeup. In 1968, he tried "Masquerade" with carnival masks and in 1969, "Music Music Music" with the performers just appearing as themselves. However, neither idea took off.
Surviving and notable Editions
In the time the show was on the air there were between 180-200 episodes broadcast and below is a list of the known surviving episodes and handful of the notable missing editions.
| Date | Trivia | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd September 1957 | A one off tv special called "The 1957 Television Minstrels", the success of the show led to the commissioning of a full series, it is unknown if a copy was ever recorded as a lot of tv at the time was broadcast live. | Lost |
| 14th June 1958 | The first episode of Series 1 to be broadcast and the show's proper debut, no episodes from this first series are known to survive | Lost |
| 10th September 1959 | The oldest known episode of the series to still exist and the only surviving episode produced in the 1950's.[2] | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 28th July 1960 | An episode known as the "Scarborough Show Parade", shot on location at the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough featuring footage of the long-running stage counterpart of the show. [3] | Lost |
| 23rd December 1960 | The earliest Christmas episode that still exists. | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 28th January 1961 | Includes a version of the "In The Moonlight" medley seen in their debut 1960 record album. | Link (YouTube) |
| 11th February 1961 | Opens with a railway themed number, starting with the song "Chattanooga Choo Choo" | Link (YouTube) |
| 11th March 1961 | Partially surviving copy of the show, including the first 9 minutes. | Link (YouTube) |
| 25th March 1961 | Includes a tribute to Al Jolson. | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 25th December 1961 | Leslie Crowther shows off the trophy the show won at the inaugural Golden Rose of Montreux Awards for best Television series in the world. Only the final 17 minutes of the programme survives | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 10th February 1962 | Episode from 1962 featuring Margo Henderson. | Link (YouTube) |
| 21st April 1962 | Easter themed Episode from 1962. | Link (YouTube) |
| 17th March 1963 | Survives as a short audio recording that begins at the end of a comedy routine with two intact musical routines, with one being themed around the Civil War. | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 22nd October 1963 | This edition features a routine based on the opera "Lilac Time, survives as audio only." | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 26th March 1964 | Survives as a mostly complete audio recording that begins during the Opening number, Features a parody of the "Song for Europe" TV show. | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 12th December 1964 | This episode did a crossover special with Doctor Who where the Daleks invaded the program and took part in dance routines.[4] | Lost |
| 2nd January 1965 | A special episode of the show themed around stage shows. | Link (YouTube) |
| 6th March 1965 | Partially surviving copy of the show. Mostly complete with the exception of the ending. | Link (YouTube) |
| 27th March 1965 | Features Joan Savage and Ken Norris as guest performers. | Link (YouTube) |
| 25th December 1965 | Max Bygraves hosts the show and presents George Mitchell with a Golden Disk celebrating being the first man to ever sell 1 million albums. | Partially Found |
| 5th February 1966 | Discovered in a private collection by "Film is fabulous" in May 2024, the only extant episode from 1966.[5] | Survives but not available online |
| 5th August 1967 | Last surviving episode before the switch to colour broadcasting. | Link (YouTube) |
| 19th August 1967 | The final 10 minutes of this edition survive as an audio recording, this episode is a 10-year anniversary special edition. | Link (YouTube) |
| 25th December 1967 | Early colour edition. Christmas special. Complete with minor visual damage in parts. | Link (YouTube) |
| 31st December 1967 | Partially found early colour edition which was broadcast on New Year's Eve. Audio track damaged near the end of the show. | Link (YouTube) |
| 14th January 1968 | Early colour edition with a wedding theme. | Link (YouTube) |
| 28th January 1968 | Earlier colour edition of the show. | Link (YouTube) |
| 21st April 1968 | Features an extended Holiday themed medley as the opening. | Link (YouTube) |
| 26th May 1969 | Special edition of the show titled "The Magic of the Minstrels". Was broadcast in colour, but only survives in black and white. | Link (YouTube) |
| 14th March 1970 | The first episode for the 1970's following on from the spin off show "Music Music Music". | Link (YouTube) |
| 21st March 1970 | Peter Kaye does a parody of "The Singing Postman". | Link (YouTube) |
| 28th March 1970 | David Prowse appears as a guest star, he would later go on to play Darth Vader in Star Wars. | Link (Internet Archive) |
| 4th April 1970 | This episode features a pirate themed opening number, Peter Kaye does a parody of Cliff Richard. | Link (YouTube) |
| 26th December 1970 | Originally produced in colour, Only survives as a B&W 16mm Telerecording. | Survives but not available online |
| 27th February 1972 | A location-restricted version was previously available on the BFI Screenonline but is no longer available on that site. | Link (YouTube) |
| 2nd November 1973 | The Minstrels restage a chair routine from the original (now lost) 1957 iteration of the show. | Link (YouTube) |
| 20th November 1973 | The latest episode that was wiped and no longer survives in any known archive | Lost |
| 7th June 1975 | Arthur Lowe Appears portraying his character "Captain Mainwaring" for a Dad's Army-themed sequence. | Survives but not available online |
| 20th December 1975 | The comedian Lenny Henry was forced to appear in this episode by his bosses much to his regret. | Survives but not available online |
| 27th April 1976 | Features a Hollywood themed opening, with a sepia toned silent movie era segment. | Link (YouTube) |
| 19th July 1977 | This episode features a parody of Gary Glitter | Link (YouTube) |
| 21st July 1978 | The final episode released before the show was pulled off the air. | Link (YouTube) |
Preservation Status
In 1978, after 21 years in the air, the BBC ended the television version of the show along with its variants on radio and stage, which lingered until 1989. Existing episodes were not repeated nor issued on home media, with many ending up being wiped along with other BBC shows of the era. This resulted in 100 original episodes lost, Audio and clips from the program have turned up in all sorts of shows ranging from "Monty Python's Flying Circus", "Room 101" to "Little Britain" and in 2005 it was the subject of an episode of Timeshift called "Black and White Minstrels Revisited" which said that the earliest edition the BBC held was the 10th September 1959 and showed some clips from it along with various other editions from their archive holdings, while in 2015 The One Show also featured some clips and written records showing the BBC's response to opposition to the show at the time.[6] While many film and audio clips have surfaced online in recent years the television archive Kaleidoscope has recovered various episodes of the show including the first color episode which they screened at an event in December 2019.[7]
Gallery
The Minstrels in a 1961 episode.
A page from a 1989 Dad's Army book showing an image from the crossover episode.
A rare still from the Black & White Minstrel Show featuring Captain Mainwaring with the minstrels.
An issue of the Radiotimes magazine from 1970, with a front page featuring the show
A magazine article from 1969 covering the non blackface spinoff show "Music Music Music".
External Links
- TV Brain's lost show listing on The Black and White Minstrel Show.
- IMDb page for The Black and White Minstrel Show.
- Wikipedia article
- A Youtube playlist featuring some of the surviving episodes.
Reference
- ↑ A "BBC 100" page that includes information on The Black and White Minstrel Show. Retrieved 26 Mar '22
- ↑ The Black & White Minstrels Revisited Retrieved 26 Mar '22
- ↑ The BBC Genome listing for the Scarborough Show program Retrieved 10 Apr '22
- ↑ A web page about Daleks which mentions the Doctor Who crossover. Retrieved 18 Feb '20
- ↑ The post reporting the discovery of the 1966 episode by Film is fabulous Retrieved 8 Nov '24
- ↑ A clip from The One Show featuring the Black & White Minstrel Show in 2015. Retrieved 10 Apr'22
- ↑ The event listing for the 2019 Kaleidoscope Christmas show. Retrieved 26 Mar '22