User Reviews

"Over the points....over the points....over the points..."How it all comes flooding back.Don Lang,the artist formerly known as Gordon Langhorn,stalwart of Ted Heath's trombone section(no,not that Ted Heath) sang the signature tune every Saturday night and set the style for a peculiarly English form of pop and watered down rock 'n' roll performed by boys in nice sweaters and girls in dresses with hand-sewn sequins. They sang with dodgy American accents and strummed fortunately unamplified guitars and it was all very innocent.I used to watch it before going on the bus into Brighton to meet my chums in "The Coffee Lounge" for an evening of painful and fruitless lusting after the unattainable girls from the Grammar school who would occasionally spare us a contemptuous glance as they lit a Craven 'A'.We liked Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan,they liked Dickie Valentine and Denis Lotis;well brought-up girls didn't like Elvis. "Six - five special" was one of the few programmes aimed at teenagers and we watched it because we became co-conspirators against our parents whose idea of music on TV was Eric Robinson and Mantovani.Despite the fact that presenters Pete Murray and Josephine Douglas were no longer in the first flush of youth they represented us rather than them.Quite what the irritating and frankly rather frightening ex-boxer Freddie Mills was up to I've never been sure.He was later found shot to death in his car in what was thought to be a gangland slaying at the time but it has since been alleged he was in a very dangerous liaison with a psychopathic pop singer suspected of murdering prostitutes.Not perhaps an ideal role model for adolescent boys then. But in 1957 all that was in the unimaginable future.My dad had seen Freddie Mills fight and thought being on TV pop show was "degrading". Apart from two very brief appearances in shot the late Mr Mills has been left on the cutting room floor in the film version of the show,and we have to make do with Mike and Bernie Winters and a dog that is funnier than either of them.But it is the musical acts that we tuned in for and for lovers of 50's kitsch there is plenty to savour ,from the silly story line featuring two elderly teenage girls on the way to London in a train packed with pop performers to the worst dance act I have ever seen draping themselves over a rickety cocktail bar and sliding on and off the stools,grimly determined not to overbalance. There is a surprisingly eclectic selection of music.A man called Desmond Lane(I believe he was known as "The King of the Penny Whistle") playing neat clarinet on a tune called "The Midgets" originally written for the Count Basie Orchestra.In the audience I spotted a girl with "Blow Me" embroidered on her sweater which caused me to raise an eyebrow until I deciphered the rest of the message temporarily hidden by her bosoms.The full text read "Blow me down Desmond". Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo looking impossibly young and optimistic play in a coach surrounded by milkchurns and sundry animals in wooden crates and the forgotten vocal quartet "The Ken-Tones" sing a surprisingly sophisticated arrangement of "Gipsy in my soul".Jim Dale looking very embarrassed as well he might offers "The train kept a rollin'"to our two heroines in their compartment where there is no escape as he's blocking the the door to the corridor. It's left to veteran Ted Heath vocalist Joan Regan to give the best performance of the film when she sings "I'll close my eyes" a beautiful but comparatively little-known ballad whilst wearing a frilly nightie and combing her hair before climbing into her bunk. When the train eventually reaches London we cut straight to the TV studio and a live telecast of "Six - five special".There is an excruciatingly bad performance by 15 year old Jackie Dennis-you'd think his mum would have smacked his bottom and sent him home - and an amazingly good one from 15 year old Helen Shapiro.Dickie Valentine wears a straw boater and looks bemused,Russ Hamilton(did he really sell a million copies of "Oh yes we will make love"?)looks like a 30 year old college boy.Lonnie Donegan sings two of his least popular numbers but ex-Humphrey Lyttelton/Chris Barber bassist Mickey Ashman enjoys himself immensely while he's doing it. The film offers a rare chance to see four girls doing the Hand Jive in synchronisation whilst chewing gum out of synchronisation - a disconcerting experience. Apart from pop historians nobody under 60 is going to want to watch this movie,but for anybody who lost their virginity to the strains of the Louis Armstrong All Stars 1954 recording of "Basin St Blues" it's liable to make them go up in the loft and search for a very old and scratchy 78.