Western Cabaret Explained

Genre:	Variety
Creator:	Harry Pringle
Based On:	Cabaret
Presenter:	Big Bill Campbell
Country:	England
Language:	English
Num Episodes:	4
Producer:	Harry Pringle
Runtime:	4550 minutes^[1]
Company:	BBC Television
Network:	BBC Television

Western Cabaret was a live variety programme series broadcast in 1939 on BBC Television. It was one of several spin-offs from the BBC series Cabaret. It was compered by Big Bill Campbell and produced by Harry Pringle. Four episodes were broadcast. The BBC television service was suspended on 1 September 1939 with the outbreak of World War II, and no further episodes were made.

The Radio Times said that the television studio "will be turned into a camp clearing, with a glowing camp-fire and log huts, and all the artists will be introduced as though they were part of the place".^[2]

No episodes have survived.^[3]

Performers

, the following performers who appeared in Western Cabaret are subjects of Wikipedia articles. The numbers of episodes in which they appeared are given in parentheses (treating the broadcasts of 10 January and 12 January as a single episode).

• Gladys (190392) and Will Ahern (18961983), American comedy duo (1)
• Chief White Eagle (19172011), Canadian-born American actor (1)
• Evelyn Dall (19182010), American singer (2)

• Claude Dampier (18791955), English actor and comedian (1)
• Bob Dyer (190984), Australian singer (1)
• Ted North (191675), American actor (3)

Notes and References

1. Radio Times 1939 . Radio Times . 22 February 2016.
2. Television – Sunday, January 8, to Saturday, January 14 . Radio Times . The Scanner . 6 January 1939 . 22 February 2016.
3. The show was broadcast live. Methods for recording live television did not exist until late 1947, and were used very rarely by the BBC until around 195355.