Cabaret (British TV programme)

Cabaret is a live television variety programme series broadcast by BBC Television 1936–1939 and 1946.[a] It was devised by Dallas Bower, and later developed by Harry Pringle, who also produced 68 episodes. BBC Television began regularly scheduled broadcasts on 2 November 1936; the first episode of Cabaret was shown on 7 November 1936, and this television series was therefore one of the first ever.

Cabaret
GenreVariety show
Created byDallas Bower
Country of originEngland
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes132
Production
ProducersHarry Pringle and others
Production companyBBC Television
Original release
NetworkBBC Television
Release7 November 1936 (1936-11-07) –
2 November 1946 (1946-11-02)
Related
Cabaret Cartoons, Cabaret Cruise, Comedy Cabaret, Eastern Cabaret, Intimate Cabaret, Western Cabaret

No episodes have survived.[b]

Cabaret yielded six spin-off series, among the very earliest of that kind: Cabaret Cartoons (1936–39, 1949), Cabaret Cruise (1937–39, 1946, 1949), Comedy Cabaret (1938–39), Eastern Cabaret (1938–39), Intimate Cabaret (1937–39) and Western Cabaret (1939). In August 1939, Pringle was planning another spin-off, a Hawaiian cabaret to have been broadcast in October 1939;[1] but that project seems to have been abandoned with the outbreak of World War II.

Performers

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Around 280 performing acts appeared in Cabaret over the five years in which it was broadcast. The following appeared five or more times, or as of February 2016 are the subjects of Wikipedia articles. Their numbers of appearances are given in parentheses.

Producers

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The names of the producers associated with Cabaret are followed by the years in which they were involved. The numbers of episodes in which they were involved are given in parentheses.

  • Dallas Bower (1907–99), 1936–37 (4)
  • Archie Campbell, 1938 (1)
  • Desmond Davis, 1938 (2)
  • Cecil Madden, 1936–38 (4)
  • D. H. Munro, 1937–46 (7)
  • George More O'Ferrall (1907–82), 1936 (2)
  • Harry Pringle (1903 – after 1959), 1937–46 (68)
  • Reginald Smith, 1937–39 (11)
  • Stephen Thomas, 1937 (2)
  • Lanham Titchener, 1939 (1)

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ BBC Television suspended operations on the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, and resumed only in June 1946.
  2. ^ The show was broadcast live. Technology to record live programmes was only developed in 1947, and was rarely used by the BBC before 1953–55.

References

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  1. ^ The Scanner (25 August 1939). "Television News" (PDF). Radio Times. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
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