TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

Dusty's first BBC1 series debuted in August 1966 and had proved successful, as had the second, but her contract for a third series had not yet been agreed, so in effect became a free agent in Spring 1968.

ATV was planning back to back series starring Dusty, then to be followed by the French singing star Mireille Mathieu and with no contractual obligation to the BBC Dusty accepted. However, she would return to the BBC the following year with Decidedly Dusty, her last TV series.

Shot at ATV's Elstree Studios, Studio D, the show followed the BBC format with songs, performed live with a small orchestra led by Jack Parnell, and music guests including The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Manfred Mann, Donovan, Julie Felix and brother Tom Springfield. Talking to Disc ahead of the first episode she complained "This will be my first series for ATV but I understand it's going to be very similar to the other two. In a way it's a bit boring but I suppose you're very limited in 25 minutes, so apart from singing hanging from the ceiling it's hard to think of new things to do." Among the guests would be Lou Rawls, who had also been invited to appear on Lulu's new show on the BBC, but it's unlikely that he actually recorded Dusty's show.

TV Times gave her a two-page spread for the first show, but it hardly mentioned the series at all, concentrating instead on how she was furnishing her new apartment. As with Lulu's show there would be two costume changes in each show, using Darnell's of London who had provided her dresses for the previous BBC shows, with some outfits costing up to £125 each.

Although ATV, the show's producers, kept a regular space in the schedule for it, Friday evenings from 8.30 - 9.00 the show fell foul of ITV's networking maze, with the rest of the network showing it on different days and time slots, but progressively each station dropped the show. The final programme was only shown by ATV, Rediffusion and Anglia. True to form, she would later admit her dissatisfaction with the show.

No video or telerecording of the shows are thought to exist, but the Jimi Hendrix Experience clip survives in partial form on 8mm film and audio recordings of all the shows were made privately by a fan.

IT MUST BE DUSTY!

ATV

10th May 1968 - 21st June 1968