Six-Five Special *** (1958, Lonnie Donegan, Dickie Valentine, Jim Dale, Petula Clark, John Barry, Dickie Valentine, Joan Regan) – Classic Movie Review 9910

Director Alfred Shaughnessy’s 1958 pop musical Six-Five Special [Calling All Cats] features Petula Clark, Lonnie Donegan, Cleo Laine, Johnny Dankworth, Jim Dale, John Barry, Dickie Valentine, Joan Regan and Russ Hamilton among many others. The film should be legendary, but it is totally forgotten.

Not all TV pop shows, however famous and long running, get a movie version – where are the Top of the Pops or Ready Steady Go films? – but happily BBCtv’s Fifties teen show TV series Six-Five Special (1957–1958) did.

Presenters Pete Murray and Josephine Douglas seem incredibly sedate, polite and parental, but then so do many of the performers. But who can forget some of the breathtaking British talent on show, some of it seeming to belong to another planet rather than another era? Jim Dale and Freddie Mills are also presenters, as they were on TV, and Dale sings Sugartime and The Train Kept A-Rolling.

The Carry On films’ script-writer Norman Hudis comes up with a forgettable tale about two hopeful girls (Diane Todd, Avril Leslie) travelling by train to London and one of them (Todd) getting an opportunity to sing on the programme after being star spotted on the train by TV show presenter talent scouts (Murray, Douglas).

Many of the performers went on to strong and illustrious careers: Petula Clark, Lonnie Donegan, Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth and Jim Dale. Most spectacular of all, John Barry (then of the John Barry Seven) went on to pen the Juke Box Jury theme, and become one of Hollywood’s top Oscar-winning composers.

The film was re-released for unsuspecting customers in 1963 as Calling All Cats.

Also in the line-up are singers The King Brothers, Don Lang and His Frantic Five, Johnny Dankworth and His Orchestra, comics Mike and Bernie Winters, The Ken-Tones, and The John Barry Seven.

Finlay Currie receives a ‘guest star’ credit. Diane Todd and Josephine Douglas, Pete Murray and Freddie Mills – described as The Six-Five Special Team – all receive ‘introducing’ credits.

Most editions of the TV series are lost, making the film even more valuable.

Also in the cast are Herbert Smith, Avril Leslie, Finlay Currie, Freddie Mills, Petula Clark, Lonnie Donegan, Cleo Laine, Johnny Dankworth, Jim Dale, John Barry, The John Barry Seven, Dickie Valentine, Joan Regan, Russ Hamilton, The King Brothers, Don Lang, Mike Winters, Bernie Winters, Jackie Dennis, Victor Soverall, The Ken-Tones, Desmond Lane and Jimmy Lloyd.

Dickie Valentine performs The King of Dixieland and Come To My Arms; The King Brothers perform Six-Five Jive and Hand Me Down My Walking Cane; Lonnie Donegan performs The Grand Coolie Dam and Jack O’Diamonds; Joan Regan performs I’ll Close My Eyes, Petula Clark performs Baby Lover.

It runs 85 minutes, is made by Insignia Films at Alliance Studios, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, and was released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (1958) (UK). It is shot in black and white by Leo Rogers and produced by Herbert Smith.

It was released by Network Distributing in 2015 in the UK on DVD.

Mike and Bernie Winters were London comics Michael and Bernard Weinstein from Islington, an English version of Abbott and Costello. Their father worked as a bookie and bodyguard to a London underworld figure, mother came from a circus family. Mike won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, studying clarinet. A BBC producer spotted them on a variety circuit tour in 1957 and offered them a spot as resident comics on TV’s Six-Five Special, which made them household names.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9910

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