Saturday Crowd, The

1 9 6 9 (UK)
28 x 35 minute episodes

Leslie Crowther starred in this London Weekend Television series providing 35-minutes a week of music, chat and comedy sketches.

Crowther was joined each week by Anita Harris and Lonnie Donegan (and eventually, Susan Maughan, pictured above left) along with a group of “boys and girls” – comprising Sheila Bernette (pictured above right), Sheila O’Neill, Dennis Ramsden, Frances Barlow and Billy Boyle – who sang, danced and played in the sketches. The dance director was Peter Gordeno.

Occasional guests included The 5th Dimension, Leapy Lee and Frankie Avalon.

The show was well-directed, fast-moving and peopled with engaging performers each doing their thing with grace. But every now and then the pace slackened, a sketch was allowed to drag on too long and signs of self-indulgence and private jokery peeped through.

Fortunately, the black-out sketches were thrown around with a liberality that left no time to question whether they were funny or not.