6.5 Special

When rock’n’roll arrived in Britain, television was an exciting new medium.  Unlike their American counterparts, British viewers could not see the likes of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis or Buddy Holly performing live on the small screen.  The best they could hope for was a home-grown Elvis inspired performers on one of the popular variety shows.  Until 1957, British television closed down for an hour from 6pm, to give parents a chance to put their children to bed.

Independent television, which made its money from selling advertising space, disliked losing an hour's revenue, so ITV decided to plug the gap, and the State-owned BBC had to follow suit.

The arrival of AR-TVs Cool For Cats on New Years Day 1957, and the BBC’s 6.5 Special a month later was therefore embraced with open arms by Britain’s teenage population.

Cool For Cats was a fifteen minute programme that featured a dance group performing well-choreographed routines to a handful of new releases.  Hosted by Canadian Kent Walton, it ran for several years and was an important step forward.  However, due to its lack of live artists it did not have the same impact as 6.5. Special.

Launched in February 1957, Six-Five Special got its name from its time slot - five past six on a Saturday evening. It opened each week with a film of a steam train, before presenter Pete Murray declared: "It's time to jive on the old six-five!"

This low budget show, which was the brainchild of TV producer Jack Good and presenters Jo Douglas and Pete Murray, at last gave teenage viewers the opportunity to regularly see rock performed on the small screen.  Jack Good later declared: "When I got the job to produce 6.5 Special, I was dedicated to making a rock 'n' roll show, although I didn't entirely succeed. I had to find British rockers because they only gave us a budget of £1,000 for the whole programme - that's the set, the costumes, everything."(It was a musical show, aimed as much at fans of big bands, jazz and pop songs as it was to followers of rock’n’roll.  The presenters were often joined by ex-heavyweight boxer Freddie Mills and comics Mike & Bernie Winters. Good was determined to frustrated the BBC bosses' wishes to emphasise the magazine format. He wanted music and lots of movement.

To get his way, Good had sets built, but shortly before the show started, they were wheeled out of the way, and he filled the space with the milling audience and performers.

Over its two year run, every British rocker appeared in the show, as did many of the popular post-war big bands and clean-cut cruners from an earlier era.  Producer Jack Good had a running battle with the BBC over the amount of rock’n’roll in the show.  He had a great ear for rock and a good eye for new talent – Marty Wilde, Adam Faith, Terry Dene and Jim Dale all got their first big breaks when they appeared on the programme.