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The Billy Cotton Band Show was a Sunday lunchtime radio programme broadcast in the BBC Light Programme from 1949 until 1968.
The band leader, Billy Cotton, was a larger-than-life Cockney character who started each show with the cry "Wakey-Wake-aaaay!", followed by the band's signature tune "Somebody Stole My Gal".
The show transferred to BBC Television in 1956, usually on Saturday evenings at 7.00 pm. It ran, under various names, until 1968.
Regular entertainers included Alan Breeze, Kathie Kay, and the pianist Russ Conway. Pianist Mrs Mills made her first television appearance on the show. An additional regular act was the Leslie Roberts Silhouettes, recruited to the line-up before the television series began
Terry Jones and Michael Palin, both later to become members of Monty Python, wrote jokes for the show.
References
- "bbc.co.uk". bbc.co.uk. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
- The Greatest Billy Cotton Band Show by John Maxwell (1976), p. 108.
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- Billy Cotton Band Show
- BBC music television shows
- 1949 establishments in the United Kingdom
- 1968 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
- 1950s British music television series
- 1960s British music television series
- BBC Light Programme programmes
- BBC Television Service (TV network) original programming
- BBC Television show stubs
- BBC Radio stubs
- United Kingdom radio show stubs