According To Dora

1 9 6 8 – 1 9 6 9 (UK)
15 x 30 minute episodes

A themed-sketch show for funny-lady Dora Bryan who was a dab hand at this sort of revue-style comedy. She was born Dora Broadbent in Southport on 7 February 1924 and worked as a dancer before discovering her gift for humour and making a name for herself on stage (from 1947) and TV, both as a guest star and in her own shows.

In According To Dora (subtitled ‘A Bryan’s-Eye View On The World’) a different subject was broached each week and various writers submitted material on such topics as entertainment, home and beauty, travel and transportation, creature comforts, and the future.

Helping her out in the sketches were a slew of well-known British comedy faces, including Joan Sims, John Junkin, Clive Dunn, Patricia Hayes, Richard Wattis, Tony Selby, Kenneth Connor, Graham Stark, Wilfrid Brambell and Deryck Guyler.

Some years earlier, on 22 August 1964, BBC2 presented Dora Bryan, a single show in which the talented star had performed songs and sketches from many of the stage-shows and revues in which she had appeared.

Writer Alan Melville worked often with Bryan, sometimes appearing as her straight man, and their names are linked through many of her TV appearances.

She starred in the first episode of The Brighton Belle (BBC1, January 1972), a three-part comedy/drama written by Melville to mark the demise of the famous train that had long shuttled commuting theatrical types to London from the South Coast (Bryan lived in Brighton).

Bryan passed away on 23 July 2014, at the age of 91.

Dora Bryan
Joan Sims
John Junkin
Clive Dunn
Patricia Hayes
Richard Wattis
Tony Selby
Kenneth Connor
Graham Stark
Wilfrid Brambell
Deryck Guyler