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When the lights go out for the last time at Didsbury studios, there’ll be a lot of us who will go all sentimental like dear old Bernie Winters and hum a chorus of “Bye Bye Didsbury”!

And why shouldn’t we be sentimental about the studio which saw the birth of Armchair Theatre, of Boy Meets Girl, of Big Night Out, Just Jimmy, Opportunity Knocks and so many other ABC shows?

My first contact with Didsbury was for Happily Ever After starring Dora Bryan in 1961. Actually, it wasn’t; my very first contact with Didsbury was in 1956 (or was it ’57?) when ABC and Granada got together for a social evening! If that’s a digression, it’s one which still surely invokes a few memories with the “founder” members — of whom there remain so many at Didsbury.

Back to Happily Ever After. Opposite Dora Bryan as her doctor husband was Peter Murray. In those days comedy shows were played the more logical, but certainly less effective, way round. That is, the audience was in the circle and the performers were a mile away on the floor! A lot of the action was ‘blind’ to the audience and reaction was consequently weak. Later, in an effort to improve atmosphere, seats for an extra audience were added on the floor and finally the studio was turned round to the present shape.

Pre-1961 I can only speak of Didsbury-based shows as a (then local) viewer. I remember Joan Edwards dusting away each Saturday morning to the strains of Poor People of Paris, Cherry Pink and Que Sera Sera – all 1956 vintage pre-rock stuff when pops still came from Tin Pan Alley.

Then, of course, there was Home Town Saturday Night, Top Numbers and Billie Whitelaw’s Time Out for Peggy. In 1959 rock arrived at Parrswood Road in Boy Meets Girl [sic: Girls — Ed] and Wham! Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, The Vernons Girls, Joe Brown and so many now forgotten rock stars of the fifties must certainly keep happy and affectionate memories of those days and those ever-helpful people at the Capitol.

I can speak personally in this — and I know that Roy, Peter, Milo, Pat and Ronnie will echo my own feelings. There was nothing quite like the Didsbury welcome; nothing quite like Frank’s greeting at the steps to make you feel wanted and important! The crew have handled just about every big artiste and every type of big show from Drama to Spectaculars yet one always sensed and appreciated their excitement with each new series.

Melody and evergreen tunes for a while replaced rock ‘n’ roll in Buckaroo. Looking back on it (impartially — I wasn’t producing!) what a super set it was, and what a happy show. And the music tapes still sound good today, don’t they fellers? And, of course, Jimmy Clitheroe. For three years Just Jimmy has been one of the big rating-pullers in our own regions and is now at last being seen in London. The appearance of the show in the Tam Top 20 is a feather in Jimmy’s schoolboy cap – and another for Didsbury.

Mike and Bernie Winters arrived with Big Night Out in 1963 and this was one of the first shows to feature regularly the ABC Television Showband – a group of Manchester-based musicians got together by Bob Sharples. The combination of Mike and Bernie with Lionel Blair paved the way for Blackpool Night Out in 1964. Although not strictly Didsbury in origin, the Blackpool shows were very much the responsibility of Didsbury studio and technical personnel.

I know that David Nixon has attempted and succeeded with tricks at Didsbury which he would hesitate to perform elsewhere.

Without giving away those professional magicians’ secrets (in fact, I couldn’t — I usually wonder how they’re done myself!) I cannot help recalling that complicated system of runners between the studio and the bar of the Parrswood opposite. Not, I hasten to add, for liquor, but in some mysterious way connected with David’s “subject” isolated in the bar. David must have lost count of the programmes he has appeared in at Didsbury – Comedy Bandbox, Candid Camera, the David Nixon Show and very many guest spots.

And if Mike and Bernie, David Nixon and all of us in Light Entertainment will miss Didsbury, so too will Hughie Green. Opportunity Knocks now approaches the end of its fifth series and Hughie’s frequent praise of the crew is some measure of his respect for this soon-to-be-darkened studio.

And where else could Ken Dodd watch a playback in the small hours of the morning – he would certainly want to add his discomknockerating thanks!

I am grateful to Joan Davy, who has edited our House Magazine for all these years, for the opportunity to thank everyone at Didsbury from all of us in Light Entertainment. Each of us must have his own collection of Didsbury memories and those which stick with me include seeing Emperor Jones as a live Armchair Theatre; Bernie Winters being “blown up” each week in Big Night Out; Hughie Green introducing Tony Holland (can’t hear “Wheels” without thinking of the Muscle Man, can you?); Peter’s editing sessions — “It fills a ninety minute tape – how the hell can I get it down to thirty-seven-thirty?”; Ronnie Baxter’s warm-ups (how could they not be a good audience when he’s so nice to them); Pat Johns, the flying ace of Blackpool; and Milo and Roy and their audition marathons – how many times must they have heard Granada?

But the fact is that they’re all happy memories. And, in return for them may I wish all the Diddlesbury boys and girls, as Hughie would say, who are shortly crossing the Pennines, the very best of luck in your new jobs and in your new homes. If it’s any consolation, Drury Lane will have nothing on the old Capitol for ghosts!

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And it’s not surprising, really, when you recall that for the past 15 years or so Hughie has devoted most of his time to giving Britain’s youngsters the sort of chance they’ve dreamed of.

He is, in fact, rather like a one-man Arts Council in the field of light entertainment.

“It incenses me,” he said — and he meant it — “to see enormous amounts of money being spent promoting all this ‘long haired’ stuff which has virtually no public appeal, and nothing being done for music, theatre and music hall.

“For, let’s be honest, music hall is the very backbone of this nation. It has produced some of the greatest entertainers of all time.”

What I particularly wanted to know when I met Hughie during rehearsals for one of the Saturday Opportunity Knocks! shows, was how he had come to be Britain’s top amateur talent seeker.

A mischievous smile appeared, he settled back in his chair and said: “For the answer to that, we have to go back a long way.

“Before the war we did a show called ‘Hughie Green and His Gang.’

“That was a talent show really because we used kids in it, and we were always on the lookout for those with talent which was a bit out of the ordinary.

“After that, I had the good fortune to go to America and work in a show called ‘Meet the People.’ It was a sort of Theatre Workshop.

“We all got paid 40 dollars a week and there were no stars. But there was certainly no shortage of talent.

“In fact, the whole idea was to get hold of people who had talent but no real stage presence or ability, and knock them into shape. It was a first-class training ground. Everybody criticised everybody else.

“It was terrific. I did an act on my own, danced in the chorus and took part in the sketches.”

Afterwards, Hughie spent five years with the Royal Canadian Air Force, did some more work in the United States, and finally returned to this country in 1948.

But let him continue the story in his own words: “One day I ran across radio producer Harry Pepper. Would I, he wanted to know, be willing to put on an amateur talent show called “Opportunity Knocks!”

“I jumped at it. You see, it meant that once again I would be in a position to give genuine talent the chance it deserved. And that was something I wanted to do more than anything else.

“That show began on radio in the summer of 1949 and went on until the spring of 1950. And, since then, it has had eight years on commercial radio and, in 1956, made its first appearance on ITV.”

In the current series, Hughie has introduced what one might call a new look—repeated appearances instead of a final prize. What had he to say about this?

“1 think it’s far better. It allows one week’s winner to compete the following week and, if successful in that programme, go forward again — and so on.”

Why? Because I’m convinced that repeated appearances in front of the public do far more good for an up-and-coming young artist with real talent than any major prize.”

And then, to allay any suspicions that this might be a way of doing the show on the cheap, he added: “Nobody, by the way, appears ‘for free.’ Everyone gets paid either the Equity or Musicians’ Union rate.”

If Hughie needs any encouragement in his never-ending search — though I should imagine that’s most unlikely — two things surely provide it.

The first is that his “spotting” has produced artists of the calibre of David Whitfield; the second, that the best of his current discoveries are to be auditioned for the famous Ed Sullivan Show, in America.

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