1960 started much as the fifties had ended with The Army Game as the top sitcom, but there were now a few other sitcoms snapping at its heels, and it would come to an end itself the following year anyway. There were in fact 4 sitcoms within 1960's top 20, plus from 1960 I have details of all the shows that made a weekly top 20, and in 1960 there were a further 4 sitcoms who made a weekly top 20 without making the annual. I should say that for shows in the weekly top 20s but not in the annual one I can only state the highest viewing figure for the episode or episodes that actually made the weekly chart, and that it is entirely possible that another episode below the top 20 in a week of higher viewing figures could actually have had a higher viewing figure than the charting episode(s), but nonetheless the figures are still indicative of the relative success of the various series.
Making the weekly top 20s, but not the annual one, were:
The Love Of Mike - AR - 4.8mh,
The Charlie Drake Show - BBC 5.3mh,
Arthur's Treasured Volumes - ATV 5.8mh, and
Mess Mates - Granada 6.0mh.
At #17 in the annual chart, on a peak viewing figure of 6.18mh was The Dickie Henderson Show, in which Dickie appeared as a fictional version of himself, keeping busy on the stage, in film and on tv, and also being seen at home with his (fictional) family. The series began in Nov 1959 and ran until 1968. The most watched episode of the year was on Mon 19th December 1960 and featured, as a guest star, Richard Wattis.
At #9, with a figure of 6.99mh, were ATV's The Larkins, now in it's third and fourth series, although it would now take a break before two more series appeared in 1963 and 1964. The most watched episode of the year was entitled Stranger Than Fiction and was broadcast on Mon 14th March 1960
The top two sitcoms were both very close together in terms of viewing figures, and in terms of the actual productions, the one, Bootsie And Snudge, being a Spin-off from the other, The Army Game. Bootsie And Snudge, at #7, had begun this year, as the characters Pte Montague 'Bootsie' Bisley and Sgt Major Claude Snudge were demobbed from the parent show and entered civvy life as a handyman and a porter of a gentlemen's club, alongside elderly employee Henry Beerbohm Johnson, an 'befuddled old man' role for the then quite young Clive Dunn, who would then go on to use the same character traits to perfection some years later in Dad's Army. I have two sources for viewing figures in the year 1960, one of which says Bootsie and The Army Game were tied that year on 7.2mh, and one that says Bootsie achieved 7.12mh to The Army Game's 7.18mh, and I'm inclined to believe that latter source, since its figures are to an extra decimal place, and one of the two would indeed round to 7.2mh, whilst the other was presumably a rounding error in the former source. According to the former source the highest viewing figure Bootsie achieved in 1960 was for the Fri 11th November episode. Bootsie ran from 1960-63 and reappeared in 1974.
The most watched sitcom in 1960 was thus The Army Game for a fourth year running, but it only had another 6 months to run, so could it defend it's title into a fifth and final year? The most watched episode this year was the first episode of the fifth and final series, The Return Of The Pig, broadcast on 27th September 1960, and marking the return of the future timelord William Hartnell as Sgt Maj Bullimore, after two series off.
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
1957-59 - It's All In The Game
The top 20 chart for 1957 is the first to be ranked by million of homes viewing rather than percentage of available audience viewing, and two sitcoms featured in the list that year, Life With The Lyons and The Army Game.
Life With The Lyons, the year's #15, had begun as a BBC radio series, featuring actor Ben Lyon, his wife Bebe Daniels, and their children, which had run since 1951. It then became a TV series on the BBC in 1955 and 1956, before transferring to the other side, Associated Rediffusion to be precise, in 1957, even though the radio series continued on BBC Radio throughout the ITV series. All the various series featured the almost true to life events in the families lives as a sort of docu-sitcom, albeit a scripted one, with future Rentaghost writer Bob Block one of the most prolific writers, alongside Bebe herself. Another connection to Rentaghost existed in the shape of actress Molly Weir, who would later portray the McWitch, but here was the Lyons housekeeper, Aggie McDonald. Life With The Lyons achieved a peak rating of 2.94 million homes in 1957.
The most watched sitcom of 1957, and 4th most watched show overall, was Granada's The Army Game, probably the first truly sucessful British sitcom, which ran for over 150 episodes between 1957 and 1961. It was a comic look at army life, at a time when National Service was still compulsory in the UK and featured an ever changing cast which at various times included the likes of William Hartnell, Michael Medwin, Alfie Bass, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw, Bill Fraser, Frank Williams and even Dick Emery. In 1957 its peak viewing figure was 3.21 million homes. I don't know for sure which precise episode achieved that peak rating, but it would have probably been in the last couple of months of the year (I have no record of any show getting a figure of 3m homes before Nov 1957) and therefore either from the end of the first series, or right at the beginning of the second series, so I will link a couple of example episodes from that period here. The first is presumably the last episode of Series 1 from 4th December 1957 and the other is the second episode of series 2, from 27th December 1957.
The only sitcom to make the annual top 20 in 1958 was again The Army Game and again at #4, now peaking at 4.65m homes.
In 1959 there were two sitcoms in the year's top 20. ATV's The Larkins were at #19 on peak viewing figure of 4.87m homes. The Larkins starred Peggy Mount and David Kossoff as cockney couple Ada and Alf Larkin, The most watched sitcom in the UK, for the third year running, was The Army Game, with a new peak viewing figure of 5.72m homes.
Life With The Lyons, the year's #15, had begun as a BBC radio series, featuring actor Ben Lyon, his wife Bebe Daniels, and their children, which had run since 1951. It then became a TV series on the BBC in 1955 and 1956, before transferring to the other side, Associated Rediffusion to be precise, in 1957, even though the radio series continued on BBC Radio throughout the ITV series. All the various series featured the almost true to life events in the families lives as a sort of docu-sitcom, albeit a scripted one, with future Rentaghost writer Bob Block one of the most prolific writers, alongside Bebe herself. Another connection to Rentaghost existed in the shape of actress Molly Weir, who would later portray the McWitch, but here was the Lyons housekeeper, Aggie McDonald. Life With The Lyons achieved a peak rating of 2.94 million homes in 1957.
The most watched sitcom of 1957, and 4th most watched show overall, was Granada's The Army Game, probably the first truly sucessful British sitcom, which ran for over 150 episodes between 1957 and 1961. It was a comic look at army life, at a time when National Service was still compulsory in the UK and featured an ever changing cast which at various times included the likes of William Hartnell, Michael Medwin, Alfie Bass, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw, Bill Fraser, Frank Williams and even Dick Emery. In 1957 its peak viewing figure was 3.21 million homes. I don't know for sure which precise episode achieved that peak rating, but it would have probably been in the last couple of months of the year (I have no record of any show getting a figure of 3m homes before Nov 1957) and therefore either from the end of the first series, or right at the beginning of the second series, so I will link a couple of example episodes from that period here. The first is presumably the last episode of Series 1 from 4th December 1957 and the other is the second episode of series 2, from 27th December 1957.
The only sitcom to make the annual top 20 in 1958 was again The Army Game and again at #4, now peaking at 4.65m homes.
In 1959 there were two sitcoms in the year's top 20. ATV's The Larkins were at #19 on peak viewing figure of 4.87m homes. The Larkins starred Peggy Mount and David Kossoff as cockney couple Ada and Alf Larkin, The most watched sitcom in the UK, for the third year running, was The Army Game, with a new peak viewing figure of 5.72m homes.
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