TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

On the face of it this could have been another case of an ITV channel poaching talent from the BBC, something that ITV has actively pursuing in the light of the new franchisees wanting to make a noise about their arrival, but the truth was Pete and Dud's final show for the BBC was Christmas 1966, and a possible career in movies beckoned for both, so perhaps TV wasn't top of their agenda at the time.

However by the time of the debut show things were going badly for ITV. A summer strike had paralysed the broadcaster, with a temporary national service in place for several weeks by the time of Goodbye Again's debut.

Replacing Morecambe and Wise in the Sunday schedule from 9.00 - 10.00 pm the show would have been expected to be a Blue Ribbon in ITV's schedule, but the truth is the network wasn't bothered. London Weekend intended to replace the show with Frost On Sunday, with several ITV channels following them, but the Frost show was cancelled, leaving a space, and so Pete and Dud made their ITV debut. If you know the history of the beef between David Frost (co-owner of London Weekend) and Peter Cook than this was seen as something of a victory for Cook.

The strike was over in time for the second show on the 24th August, and schedules returned as intended, with Frost parked in Pete and Dud's space, Goodbye Again was moved forward to Saturday evenings. Advantageous maybe, but they had to be moved by Frost nonetheless. So far the score was 1-1. There was no mention of the show in the London TV Times that week, but newspapers on the day gave it a credit.

There wasn't a show the following week as they were to be shoved aside for an intended Cliff Richard special from London Weekend, but that had to be cancelled as the show wasn't ready for transmission due to the previous industrial action. Instead of playing the next Goodbye Again, a bought-in Dave Clark Five special was played instead.

While Frost's weekend shows found no problem finding a place in the schedules there were plainly issues with Pete and Dud, with Goodbye Again a no-show on the weekend of 7th/8th September.

On the 14th September the third show with guests Julie Driscol/Brian Auger & The Trinity, who were ironically regular guests on the Frost show. Pete and Dud got the TV Times front cover that week, but the article within was about guests Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger instead.

Whether a fourth show had previously been agreed is not known, but it finally turned up a year later on 3rd August 1969. It had already been shown in the USA and for (presumably) legal reasons had a sketch spoofing the horror movie Rosemary's Baby removed.

The series had been made and shown in colour in the USA, but only a 405 line back and white version has ever been shown in the UK.

Dicking around by ITV saw the duo head back to BBC with Not Only But Also, now in colour, on 18th February 1970.

Goodbye Again found Pete and Dud as smart and bizarre as ever, so why ATV thought this was a proposition that an America TV audience would find appealing is unknown. But to be fair Beyond The Fringe had been a Broadway sensation in the early sixties and Broadway again hosted the duo in the early seventies to great acclaim. ATV also thought selling Marty Feldman to an American audience was a good idea.

The show had greats from the pop world like Driscol/Auger, Ike & Tina Turner, Traffic, Georgie Fame, Donovan and others and unusually for a show like this there was a dance troupe, Jo Cook's Go Jo's.

A Decca LP of excerpts from the first three shows was released in 1968, while a compilation DVD was released by Granada in 2004 featuring recently found location sketches filmed in colour. The show has never been repeated in the UK.

GOODBYE AGAIN

ATV

18th August 1968 - 14th September 1968, 3rd August 1969