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Six-Five Special is a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain.
Jack Good and Josephine Douglas were the show's initial producers, with Douglas and (initially) disc jockey Pete Murray as its presenters, with Murray using the catchphrase "Time to jive on the old six five." Its resident band was Don Lang and His Frantic Five. The show opened with film of a steam train accompanied by the programme's theme song, played and sung by the Bob Cort Skiffle Group, which began with the words "The Six-Five Special's comin' down the line, The Six-Five Special's right on time ..."
BBC executives originally preferred a magazine format, but Good wanted a show with music and much movement. The original sets were removed and the empty studio space filled with the milling audience and performers. Television at that time was completely live as recording technology was limited, so once the programme started, it ran in an impromptu fashion. The running order was sketched out on Friday morning, and then only one complete run-through happened immediately before transmission on Saturday evening.
The show was originally scheduled to last just six weeks but, as a result of its popularity, the series became open-ended. The BBC interfered with Good's vision of the show by including educational and information elements, which Good wanted to drop, as they diluted the music. The relationship between Good and the BBC became strained, and he resigned in early 1958. BFI article on Oh Boy! by Anthony Clark. Retrieved 9 December 2008
Good joined the ITV Network company ABC to create Oh Boy!, which featured non-stop music and lost the public-service-inspired elements as part of its more frenzied pace, trouncing Six-Five Special in the ratings. The BBC, never keen on the Six-Five Special, took this as vindication and pulled the show.
Comedy performers included Trevor Peacock, who was also a script writer for the show, Spike Milligan and Mike and Bernie Winters.
The film was one of several rock musicals that followed the success of The Tommy Steele Story. Filmink described it as being "along the lines of ensemble American jukebox rock musicals like Rock Rock Rock and Jamboree, i.e. a loose storyline stuffed with a variety of music acts."
Peter Shaugnessy wrote the film "was not exactly the sort of thing I was looking for to advance my career but it was a job and it was a musical."Shaugnessy p 71 He claims Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy insisted Shaugnessy use the band of John Barry because Barry's father owned some cinemas in the north and he "would be sure to book the film into his cinemas" if his son's band was used.Shaugnessy p 72
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