TV talent shows
Opportunity Knocks and New Faces churned out dozens of household names – but as David Crookes discovers, their approach was very different
Long before Simon Cowell created Britain's Got Talent, Hughie Green worked hard on a concept of his own. He'd not long returned from the Second World War as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force. But his idea for a new type of amateur talent show saw him make a triumphant return to entertainment, while putting the careers of many wonderful stars on the steepest of trajectories.
Making its radio debut on February 18, 1949, Opportunity Knocks initially ran for seven months. We would tune in on the BBC Light Programme (now BBC Radio 2) and it immediately attracted a host of up-and-coming talent. Each act was introduced by the person who discovered them, and some displayed a very good ear. We got to hear the comedy genius of Spike Milligan for the first time. We were also able to listen to Mr Moonlight himself, Frankie Vaughan.
The fact that Vaughan came second during his episode showed just how tough breaking through on the programme could be. Those rejected at audition stage included one of the earliest comedy superstars, Tony Hancock. But although Green's presenting skills were in no doubt (he had, after all, bagged his own BBC radio show aged 14), Opportunity Knocks was canned after a single series because Beeb bosses felt it was ‘too American’. Radio Luxembourg picked up the programme the following year. It retained Green, the ‘Master of Opportunities’, and encouraged us to vote for our favourites which we did in droves. By 1956, however – a year after Independent Television launched as Britain's second channel – it made its move to the small screen, even if only for a year.
Genial Green had played a blinder (“and I mean this most sincerely, folks,” as he was known for saying). Fresh talent could light up the nation's living room like never before thanks not only to the magic of moving pictures but the brash, accommodating approach by ITV. “The public likes girls, wrestling,
bright musicals, quiz shows and real-life drama,” quipped Roland Gillett, of Opportunity Knock's maker, Associated Rediffusion.
It certainly felt exciting as we crowded around the box, willing the TV audience to cheer ever louder so that the show's ‘clapometer’ would continue rising for our favourite acts. Unbeknown to us, this was moved by someone in the studio so there was a fair bit of guesswork involved! Luckily, the eventual winner would ultimately be decided by us (“it's make your mind up time”). We'd write our personal favourites on a postcard, add our address and send it off. Then twiddle our thumbs over the following week to see if our pick had emerged victorious. We had to wait until July 1964 for our next fix but this time Opportunity Knocks had a strong run through to March 1978. Green continued to front the ITV
show and this was its heyday. It went out at the weekend and was recorded the previous Friday which meant our votes had to be in the day before. “This is your show, folks, and I do mean you!”, Green would reassure us as we watched the conveyor belt of potential stars before our eyes.
The acts read like a who's who of entertainment. Les Dawson impressed in 1967 with his brand of laugh-out-loud comedy, magician Paul Daniels bagged a regular spot on Granada Television's Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club after coming second in 1970, while Mary Hopkin's success in 1968 saw her signed to The Beatles' Apple label before getting to No.1 in the charts with Those Were The Days and representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Throw in Little and Large, Peters and Lee, Frank Carson, Bonnie Langford, Freddie Starr, Bobby Crush, Max Boyce, Pam Ayres, and Barry and Paul Elliot (aka the Chuckle Brothers) and you had quite the line-up. No wonder ITV wanted to keep the theme going by launching another talent show, New Faces in 1973, presented by newsreader Derek Hobson.
About Face
New Faces was different. It had a panel of four professional judges including Noel Edmonds, Arthur Askey, Ed Stewart, Lionel Blair and Terry Wogan and they weren't afraid to be negative. In fact Tony Hatch became one of the meanest judges ever seen on TV. They'd score the contestants out of ten for presentation, content and star quality and they wouldn't hold back in
their assessments. It was an altogether tougher show. Those opinions, though, were important; there was no audience vote so the judges' thoughts would carry great weight. The contestants, who already had entertainment backgrounds, wouldn’t benefit from any prize money either. It was all about exposure but it worked a treat. You'd sometimes have acts fail on one show and emerge on the other. Jim Davidson finished second on New Faces in 1976, despite an unsuccessful Opportunity Knocks audition and The Chuckle Brothers won both shows. Without New Faces, we may never have been introduced to multiple 1975 winner, comedian Lenny Henry, nor piano playing comedienne Victoria Wood, or Michael Barrymore, Les
Dennis, Showaddywaddy, Mick Miller and the pop trio Sheer Elegance. Stand-up comic and cabaret singer Marti Caine actually beat Henry and Wood and went on to present a rebooted New Faces from 1986 to 1988. We'd be taken aback by the cutting remarks of journalist Nina Myskow but we'd admire the lighting up of the colourful Spaghetti Junction scoreboard. “Press your buttons... NOW!”Marti would urge the audience this time. Opportunity Knocks was also revived, this time on the BBC, with Bob Monkhouse presenting from 1987. The ‘clapometer’ returned and postal polls were replaced by telephone votes, which was a world first.
Without these programmes, we may never have got Britain's Got Talent...