Just A Minute

 
<<<<   4886   >>>>

Elizabeth Beresford (was: JAM guest dies)

Messages in this topic: 2 View All
Clitheroe KidJan 6, 2011
 

 
New readers start here...

I think I've possibly mentioned before that in the beginning the show was
intended by David Hatch, its original producer, as a battle-of-the-sexes
style quiz.

The BBC at that time, in the mid-Sixties, already had an all-woman show on
the air, called 'Petticoat Line'. It also had the eternal 'Woman's Hour'.
And David Hatch, fighting an uphill battle to get 'Just A Minute' on the
air, sold it to his sceptical radio bosses partly on the basis of a
men-vs-women angle.

Hence every edition in the first series had two male and two female
panellists, until Hatch revised the format so that there were only three
panellists instead of the initial four. But in order to provide two new
female panellists every week he had to offer this new, unknown show to just
about any woman who had any broadcasting connection whatsoever - many of
whom, having found out what it involved, never accepted any other offer to
appear on it!

In fact he quickly had to revise the format, for series two, to have only
one woman, and for that to be a permanent face. And hence he persuaded
Geraldine James to appear in every show. Elizabeth Beresford's one and only
appearance came about because she was "trawled" along with half a dozen
others from 'Woman's Hour' and 'Petticoat Line', to represent the fair sex
for that first series.

Most of them never returned - it wasn't just her.

I'm saddened by her recent death, being a fan of The Wombles in my younger
days; though, truth to tell, I always associate the lovely Bernard Cribbins
most strongly with the show. For those amongst us who sadly live overseas,
and never had the pleasure of racing home from school in time to catch
Bernard sending-up Great Uncle Bulgaria before the BBC evening news,
accompanied by the catchy theme tune, I would like to point out that Bernard
is thereby accounted a national treasure - second only to Val, John and
Pete.

Under-ground, over-ground, wombling free... I'm dashing home to see Bernard
Cribbins on tv...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dean" <dbedford@...>
To: <just-a-minute@...>
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 10:21 PM
Subject: [just-a-minute] JAM guest dies


JAM guest Elisabeth Beresford has died. Beresford appeared just once, on the
third show of the first season where she appeared with Derek Nimmo, Sir
Clement Freud and Betty Marsden.

She is best known as the creator of The Wombles, the stars of a series of
books which Beresford wrote, and later of TV and film.

I was interested to see though that the Wombles was not published when she
appeared on JAM, so she was picked for the show on the strength of her
journalistic work and appearances on the radio programme Women's Hour.

 
<<<<   4886   >>>>

Back to the Top