 It's A Square World
1 9 6 0 - 1 9 6 6 (UK)
56 x 30 minute episodes
Michael Bentine was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, on 26
January 1922, the son of a Peruvian immigrant who had arrived in
Britain at the turn of the century. As a child he lost his power
of speech for 13 years but recovered in time to attend Eton.
Following his education and his period of service for Britain
in WWll, Michael decided he wanted to be a comedian and auditioned
at London's famous Windmill Theatre. It was here that he met
fellow ex-services entertainer Harry Secombe, a fun loving
Welshman with an offbeat sense of humour that was very similar to
Michael's.
Secombe introduced Bentine to his other friends; Spike Milligan
and Peter Sellers, and the group would often meet up at a pub run
by Secombe's writer and agent Jimmy Grafton. From those meetings
at the Grafton Arms the quartet developed the idea for The Goon
Show, which went on to become the most famous British radio
show of all time.
However, Bentine left after the second series to continue
touring in his own show and in 1954 was offered a TV series by the
BBC, -a children's puppet series called The Bumblies.
Following numerous appearances on other shows and another series, After
Hours (1958-59), he made his best remembered series It's A
Square World.
The series was clearly more acceptable to the BBC
than the Goons had been. Indeed, a BBC executive once told Bentine
that he didn't care much for 'The Go On Show', as he called it.
As well as reports from the four corners of the world, the
specialty of It's A Square World was models that came to
life. Famous routines included a flea circus and the
reconstruction of the sinking of the Woolwich Ferry.
When asked about the authenticity of the capsizing, Bentine
admitted that the Woolwich Ferry had never really sunk but said
"If it ever does, we will be the first with a documentary
reconstruction".
But he did once run into trouble over a sketch showing a
Chinese junk attacking the House of Commons and sinking it in the
Thames. The BBC banned its screening until after an approaching
general election. With commendable logic, Bentine stated
"Apparently there is a BBC edict that you must show parity to
the parties at election time. I would have imagined that if you
sank the Commons you were showing parity to everybody!".
Assisted by Clive Dunn, Frank Thornton, Benny Lee and Len Lowe,
Bentine was always creating brilliant madcap comedy. One sequence
had a great white whale going home to his mum in the Natural
History Museum. The 'whale' was forty feet long and fifteen feet
high with 25 scene-hands walking inside it and a man squirting
water on its back.
The producer had been notified that because of roadwork the
streets would be clear early in the morning. To the dismay of
hundreds of motorists, his information was wrong and the whale
literally caused a tail-back.
Bentine regularly caused chaos at the BBC. He says "we
blew it up once, an another time we sent it into orbit. But
everyone was used to our behaviour. However, not long after I'd
departed to ITV, there was a genuine robbery at Television Centre
and as these men rushed out with stockings over their heads, the
commissionaire said 'Nice to see you back at the BBC, Mr Bentine'
".
Bentine received a BAFTA award in 1962 for Best Comedy
Performance and a compilation show, screened by the BBC in 1963,
won the Golden Globe of Montreux.
In 1966 Bentine defected to the ITV where the show was renamed All
Square. He returned to the BBC for a one-off special in 1977
called Michael Bentine's Square World before concentrating
on innovative children's television with Michael
Bentine's Potty Time from 1973 to 1980.
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