Sunday Night At The London Palladium
Launched
by Val Parnell, the first Palladium show in 1955 was presented by
Tommy Trinder and starred the legendary Lancashire Lass, Gracie
Fields, and American singing sensation Guy Mitchell.
Regular ingredients of the show were the high-kicking Tiller
Girls (pictured below with Jim Dale) at the start, the game 'Beat The Clock' in the middle, and
the famous ending where all the stars of the evenings show would
wave frantically and grin inanely from a revolve in the centre of
the stage.
 'Beat The Clock' was based on an American quiz show of the same
name, and involved married couples (picked from the theatre
audience) playing silly games which they had to complete within a
set time period with a chance of winning a £1,800 jackpot.
The centre-stage revolve caused many problems during the life
of the show - Judy Garland was too emotionally upset to go on it,
and in the 60s The Rolling Stones refused to go on it because it
didn't fit their rebellious image.
On one occasion when a power failure blacked out the ITV
network, Trinder ad-libbed for two hours. His first words when the
picture was restored were "Welcome to Monday morning at the
London Palladium".
Other comperes were Hughie Green, Dickie Henderson, Bob
Monkhouse, Alfred Marks, Robert Morley, Bruce Forsyth, Don Arrol,
Arthur Haynes, Norman Vaughan, Des O'Connor, Roger Moore and Jimmy
Tarbuck.
The best known was Bruce Forsyth who took over in 1958. His
handling of 'Beat The Clock' was sheer brilliance, and his
catchphrase, "I'm in charge", was the first of many he
would use throughout his career. In 1971, Forsyth took the basic
format for 'Beat The Clock' to the BBC where it was developed into
The Generation Game.
There were many odd occurrences during the life of the show;
Frankie Howerd caused protests by walking on stage with a Union
Jack held upside-down; Mario Lanza accidentally punched his own
bodyguard; Norman Vaughan dropped a rifle and nearly broke his toe
and Harry Secombe fell through a trapdoor.
 Jimmy Tarbuck
(pictured at right) made his debut in 1963 as an unknown 23-year old
comic. He was meant to go on for 6 minutes and carried on for 9,
causing Xavier Cugat and his band (who were topping the bill) to cut
their act to make up time. Two years later, Tarbuck was the
Palladium host.
He once completely forgot Petula Clark's name and
had to introduce her as "someone who needs no
introduction".
The Palladium's Sunday night curtain was brought down for the
final time in 1967 although it didn't stay down for good.
In 1973 Jim Dale hosted a new series, but it failed to make an
impact with the viewers and it lasted just the one season.
Jimmy
Tarbuck returned with a little more success some years later but
an attempt to revive it again in the year 2000, with Bruce Forsyth
as compere, failed to win the approval of critics or viewers
alike.
In its heyday 28 million viewers tuned in, at the time nearly
half the population of the United Kingdom. The stars that appeared
on the show or 'topped the bill' reads like a who's who of show
business.
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