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The
Top Town Trophy
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Top
Town was a radio and television series from the 1950s which is regularly
credited as being a direct ancestor of It's A Knockout. This cannot be
denied, although it can be said that in some instances, the link has been
over-stressed. Top Town was, like It's A Knockout, an inter-town
competition, but its focus was not on tests of physical endeavour. The series
was a 'battle of entertainment' - essentially a talent contest: the town with
the best variety acts winning each heat.
The
series was produced by Barney Colehan, who would later devise and produce It’s A
Knockout. Top Town was initially a radio programme, but by 1954, it
had transferred to television. Many reference sources claim that Top Town debuted on television in 1956,
from which time it was produced at the BBC’s new Dickenson Road studios in Rusholme,
Manchester, but our researches clearly show that there were televised editions
some two years earlier. The series ran into the early 1960s and returned
unexpectedly to the BBC schedules for a brief time in 1987.
The
format for the series would eventually be mirrored by the first series of It's
A Knockout, although the 'top towns' were from all around Britain, rather
than It's A Knockout's initial North of England competition. Top Town
was broadcast once a month generally, commencing with first round heats,
leading to quarter finals, semi-finals and then a grand final where the Top
Town Trophy - based upon a Marconi Mk 3 television camera - was the
prize.
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The series was always transmitted live
and only two editions have survived in the BBC Television Archives - the
Leeds v. Soho 1st Quarter-Final from 1956 and an end of series retrospective from
1960 entitled Top Town Parade, which was presented by David Jacobs.
These programmes are fascinating, if only as a snapshot of the 1950s BBC. Top
Town was clearly very much influenced by Music Hall, with amateur would-be
megastars singing, dancing, performing comedy routines or magic tricks, even
animal impersonations. Clearly, the link to It's A Knockout and even Intervilles
is tenuous in the extreme. |
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The
show was presented at various times by Peter Haigh, Peter West and David
Jacobs, with each team being given half the programme to convince the
judges that they were worthy of progressing to the next round. The judges
panel - not seen until the very end of the programme - comprised
'professionals', representatives of the viewers and guest judges. Each
edition would conclude with the judges given their impressions and passing
their verdict. Alyn
Aynsworth was involved on the music side, conducting the BBC Northern
Dance Orchestra (and sometimes the BBC Northern Variety Orchestra).
Occasionally, the series would leave the studio and go out on location -
for instance, the 1956 Grand Final was held at the Royal Hall in
Harrogate.
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Producer,
Barney Colehan with the 1956 Top Town Trophy
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 The
series was quite a hit, so much so in fact, that it attracted attention
from overseas. Producer Barney Colehan noted in 1976 that "when we started
Top Town back in the Fifties, we found that foreign TV companies
were coming over to watch. Then, in 1962, two French producers, Pierre
Brive and Guy Lux, were so inspired by our local talent contests that they
launched Intervilles on the French viewing public. They developed
it into a series of made-up contests resembling extravagant outdoor party
games. It was an immediate success". These things have a way of coming
back at you, and it was not many years before Colehan found himself
producing the British adaptation of Intervilles, It's A Knockout.
In the cold light of day, it does seem that Barney Colehan's opinion
regarding the importance of Top Town in the scheme of things is
somewhat overstressed. Intervilles owes considerably more to
Campanile Sera
(the Italian series also detailed in our Pioneers section) than it does to
Top Town. It was certainly an influence on Intervilles, but
clearly not the crucial one. That accolade belongs to Campanile Sera.
by Alan Hayes
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