Variety Bandbox was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 radio variety show

Variety show

A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

 transmitted by BBC Radio

BBC Radio

BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

 on the Light Programme

BBC Light Programme

The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...

. Featuring a mixture of comic performances and music, the show helped to launch the careers of a number of leading British performers.

Variety Bandbox was first broadcast in 1941 and, presented by Philip Slessor, became a feature of Sunday evenings until the early 1950s. Hosting duties would later be taken over by Derek Roy

Derek Roy (comedian)

Derek Roy was a British comedian famous in the late 1940s and early 1950s.His BBC Radio show 'Hip Hip Hoo Roy" was written by amongst others Spike Milligan, and was the show where Milligan's Goon Show character Eccles first appeared...

.

Amongst those who launched their careers on the show was Frankie Howerd

Frankie Howerd

Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...

, who first appeared on Variety Bandbox in 1947 following a provincial tour. Howerd was to become a fixture of the show and honed his catch phrase

Catch phrase

A catchphrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...

-driven comedic style in these appearances. Tony Hancock

Tony Hancock

Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...

 also featured on the show early in his career. March 1950 saw the debut of a fortnightly series within the show called Blessem Hall which featured several characters vocied by a young Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers

Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

 in one of his earliest performances, alongside Miriam Karlin

Miriam Karlin

Miriam Karlin, OBE was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!"...

.

Arthur English

Arthur English

Arthur Leslie Norman English was an English actor and comedian from the music hall tradition.English was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. After serving in the army in World War II, reaching the rank of sergeant, English worked as a painter and decorator in his native town...

, who debuted on the show in 1949, also gained fame through his broadcasts and was for a time 'resident comedian' on the show, despite his tendency to upset the producers by also including visual gag

Visual gag

In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humor visually, often without words being used at all.There are numerous examples in cinema history of directors who based most of the humour in their films on visual gags, even to the point of using no or minimal dialogue...

s in his act. The show also provided Bill Kerr

Bill Kerr

William 'Bill' Kerr is an Australian film and television actor. He was born into a performing arts family in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia....

 with his first break in the UK whilst Max Wall

Max Wall

Max Wall , was an English comedian and actor, whose performing career covered music hall, theatre, films and television.-Early years:...

 was a regular performer on the show. Although not a performer on Variety Bandbox, Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

 cut his comedy teeth as a scriptwriter on the show. As well as comedy Variety Bandbox also featured big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

 music with the likes of Ted Heath

Ted Heath (bandleader)

Ted Heath, musician and big band leader, led Britain's greatest post-war big band recording more than 100 albums and selling over 20 million records...

, Geraldo, Ambrose

Ambrose (bandleader)

Benjamin Baruch Ambrose , known professionally as Ambrose or Bert Ambrose, was an English bandleader and violinist. Ambrose become the leader of a highly acclaimed English dance band, the Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra, in the 1930s.-Early life:Ambrose was born in the East End of London; his father...

, Woolf Phillips and Joe Loss

Joe Loss

Joshua Alexander "Joe" Loss LVO OBE was a British musician and founder of the Joe Loss Orchestra.-Life:Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israel and Ada Loss, were Russian Jews and first cousins. His father was a cabinet-maker who had an office...

 all leading their orchestras.

See also

• Billy Cotton Band Show
  Billy Cotton Band Show
  The Billy Cotton Band Show was a popular Sunday afternoon radio programme on the BBC Light Programme from 1949 to 1968.The band leader, Billy Cotton, was a larger-than-life Cockney character who started each show with the cry “Wakey-Wake-aaaay!”, followed by the band’s signature tune “Somebody...
  
  
• Workers' Playtime