TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

"Music the Beat way and fun the off-beat way." - TV Times.

Broadcast by ABC for the Midlands and North of England Gazette was like a weekend version of Granada's Late Scene Extra. The show's director Pamela Lonsdale told the Manchester Evening News on its debut "It won't be satirical, we're not getting at anybody. We're just out to entertain", while TV Times described the show as "Comment, Comedy, Music." ABC At Large had tried to tackle satire, but a clause in the Television Act stated that ITV programmes must not include "any offensive representation or reference to a living person" meant that satire was a no-go area.

Looking for new talent in the north-west the producers had come across The Liverpool One Fat Lady Non-Electric Show, a troupe featuring poets, comics and singers, Among them were Roger McGough, Mike McCartney (McGear) and John Gorman. Talking to Mojo magazine in summer 2026 Roger McGough said "In 1964, ABC TV came to see us: they needed someone to fill a five-minute comedy slot on Saturday night TV. They invited five of us to audition and picked John, Mike and me. In that sense, they put us together."

Described in the TV Times as "... a special (and unusual) look at life on Merseyside by The 'Scaffold'", or "The Scaffold looking at life from a crazy angle" the trio actually got their photo in the magazine in late April, while McCartney senior was interviewed about his two boys for a piece on the show in a May edition. Even though only three of the original troupe were chosen The Scaffold would also on occasion have actress Sheila Fearn (later of The Likely Lads) as an assistant. Roger McGough debuted a truncated version of his classic poem Summer With Monika on the show.

Despite the (legal) lack of satire on the show The Scaffold would write a song based on a news headline that week, circumventing the ITV's ban.

Songs would also be provided by host Jimmy Lloyd, and other songs provided by whoever was available that night, Manfred Mann, Adam Faith, Jackie Trent, Cleo Laine, The Fourmost and many others. Presumably they came into the studio after their own gigs had finished, with the show staring at about 11.00 pm.

The ITV strike of summer 1964 saw the show disappear, and then not come back, replaced by The Best Of The Avengers.

One of the show producers, Roy Bottomley would go onto produce many notable ITV series, Emmerdale Farm, Man At The Top, Special Branch among others.

GAZETTE

ABC

11th January 1964 - 27th June 1964