TV Times No. 98: Northern Edition Sep 15 - 21 1957

This excellent TV-Times cover commemorates the second anniversary of ITV, at least for London viewers. On page 6, the Managing Directors of the major contractors comment on the first two years. Gerald Scheff writes on page 7 about the special to be aired on Friday (birthday) night, Salute to Show Business. Quite an array of stars turned out for the occasion, headlined by Peter Sellers, Margaret Lockwood and Dickie Valentine.

The Sunday Morning Church Service was to hold the 11AM and later 10 AM slot for over twenty years, providing opportunities for the OB crews around the regions to gain an occasional network showing. More usually, the big ATV and ABC stations took it in turns to hold their OB crews overnight after Saturday Sportstime for a church service in the same vicinity. Read about the concept and the scheduling decision on page 19.

The cover shows the stars of this week’s Chelsea at Nine. Edgar Bergen was the ventriloquist and Charlie McCarthy, his best loved character. On page 11, there is an article and pictures of other members of the star’s puppetry, Effie Klinker and happy “hayseed” Mortimer Snerd.

Another unique comedian of the period was Max Wall who was to host his own weekly show. Read the article on his many faces and characters on pages 20-21, the |prolific writer of scripts and gags”. Another popular entertainer of the years to come was Max Bygraves. Read about his early career on page 18. ABC had a new star variety show for music hall entertainers described in an article on page 9. One of the new stars to be featured was Lonnie Donnegan.