Anyone who happens to be in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross Hospital at a certain hour in the morning is likely to meet a bunch of laughing young nurses, coming off night duty, piling into coaches that will take them to the Nurses’ Home at Hampstead.

‘Laughing’ is the operative word, for nurses are by nature gay people. They have to be gay in temperament; it is one of the essential attributes of their very dedicated profession.

Their lot in life brings them into such close association with suffering that they very early learn to temper sympathy with the kind of gaiety that helps to keep both patients and the relatives of the patients in the right frame of mind.

The Editor of Family Doctor, Dr. Harvey Flack, once paid open tribute to the TV series ‘Emergency — Ward 10′ as a feature that has helped millions of viewers to overcome a tendency to look on hospitals with some sort of fear — which is quite unfounded.

In the Casualty Ward of any big hospital there are many human dramas — but always in the background are the doctors and nurses, who amid the many emergencies manage to live their own lives.

Unlike those comedy films Doctor in the House and Doctor at Sea, the TV series ‘Emergency — Ward 10’ has the right approach to hospital work — and cuts out the 100 per cent flippancy.

The team who make the TV series go to enormous trouble to be right in every detail, get the right kind of background information, and make their players, whether doctors or nurses, behave like ordinary people.

To celebrate the 100th programme of the series, the TV team paid a visit to Charing Cross Hospital, where a rather unnerving thought occurred to Freddie Bartman.

‘I just hope none of the patients mistakes us for the real thing, and expects a correct diagnosis of his — or her — illness!’

Rosemary Miller and Jill Browne, on that occasion, went round the wards, talked with patients, helped with serving the meals from the trolleys, and were accepted by the patients as just part of the hospital service.

That made everybody feel pleased with themselves. It proved that Rosemary and Jill had the right feeling for their jobs in the TV series.

Rosemary Miller’s reaction was that she felt ‘terribly humble,’ and realised for the first time the responsibility of the role she has played, as Nurse Pat Roberts.

Rosemary comes from the Antipodes, and at one time she had the idea of becoming a journalist like her parents before her, but she says ‘the dramatic germ proved stronger.’

She was appearing in local theatres whenever she could, in her early teens.

She studied ballet — and then decided that it held nothing for her, though she admits ‘it helps you to put your feet in the right positions.’

Finally, she came to Britain, which seemed to offer more opportunities for aspiring actresses. But Rosemary made no particular impact on the British theatrical world until she was auditioned for ‘Emergency — Ward 10.’

In the beginning ‘Emergency — Ward 10’ was intended as a twelve-week series, devised by Tessa Diamond.

Its popularity with viewers, who kept writing to the Associated Television Network for more news of it, meant that Tessa had to call in some more scriptwriters to work out more interesting adventures for the doctors and nurses.

‘Emergency — Ward 10′ became an authors’ emergency, requiring several extra consultants.

The Casualty Department at a real hospital, King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, in London, has now become the team’s ‘trade mark,’ recognised by people who live in that part of London.

It does not mean that stories thought up by Tessa Diamond and her writing colleagues happen there. It just is a good place for taking authentic exterior pictures and good real-life shots of ambulances arriving in a hurry. These are later woven into the ‘fictitious’ parts, lending them a touch of realism.

Among the doctors in the series there is a gaggle of cheery characters: Glyn Owen, Frederick Bartman and Charles Tingwell.

Glyn comes from Carnarvon, where his Dad was a policeman. Following in Dad’s footsteps, he pounded the beat in London, joined the Flying Squad, and for four years ‘covered’ the West End of London.

But when he wasn’t pounding the beat he was treading the boards, working in his spare time with an amateur theatre group.

By hook and by crook, he managed to get himself jobs in the professional TV mediums — in ‘The Trollenberg Terror,’ and in the French Resistance series ‘Secret Mission.’

Frederick Bartman, Dr. Simon Forrester to viewers, suffers from being naturally short-sighted. During transmission, however, he removes his spectacles and trusts to luck that he won’t bump into anyone or anything on set!

Freddie was brought up in Vienna, where his parents worked. He had no theatrical background. He just wanted to act, and when he got to Britain, it was ‘Emergency — Ward 10’ that provided him with the money to pay for his digs.

‘Emergency — Ward 10,’ however, is not his only contract. He also works for various broadcasting networks, as a German announcer on overseas programmes.

One thing he has learned from his appearances in ‘Emergency — Ward 10’ is that ‘hospital is not nearly as terrifying a place as I once thought.’

The post Emergency … Ward 10 appeared first on THIS IS MY 1950s from Transdiffusion.

There are several theories about that change of name, one being that it arose out of a clerical error, when he did his National Service with the R.A.F.

The truth (disappointing as it may be) is, however, that it was his own idea!

Jim made up his mind, early in life, that Show Business was for him, and decided that Smith wasn’t the right name for the game … Jim DALE was more rhythmic.

His association with Stanley Dale was not entirely accidental. Just something Jim Dale worked out at one point of his career, and which proved highly profitable.

Although he has been called the ‘Jeanagers’ Joy,’ Jim and his guitar did not soar to the heights after being discovered in a coffee bar.

He made his way into a Carroll Levis show, with the idea of putting over a pop number — but he was so terrified when it came to his turn that he tripped over a mike cable as the roll of drums greeted his arrival on stage.

The whole five-feet-ten of him slid across the boards in a horizontal position. The audience thought it was part of the act, and gave him roars of applause.

‘They evidently thought I was doing a Norman Wisdom fall…’

He laughs about it all now, but admits that the incident made him think again about his career, and he worked his way around the theatres as a comic before it was discovered he had a useful singing voice.

One of the liveliest personalities on the television screen, there is a serious streak in him that makes him consider the future … when rock & roll, skiffle, and other topical gimmicks could lose their attraction.

Hence his decision to get around in ‘live’ shows, and study what he can in theatres.

As a National Serviceman he did his quota of square-bashing, peeling spuds, and, of course, every chore in the training line, including night-flying.

Unlike many professionals who get whipped into the station entertainment group while in the Forces, this was one place where he never appeared.

‘I don’t regret it … I was happy enough … and it takes all sorts to make a world,’ is his philosophical comment on that period of his life.

The minute he was released from the R.A.F., however, he headed in the direction of Stanley Dale, an agent with a good reputation. The Dale office also looks after the affairs of Frankie Howerd and Tony Hancock, and young Jim figured that what was good for them could be good for him!

Stanley Dale steered him into television, getting him an audition with Brian Michie. This resulted in his first contact with the TV cameras.

For the benefit of ‘fans,’ he is married, with one child, who arrived when he was about halfway through the National Skiffle Contest, in the early part of 1958.

The post ‘Jeanagers’ Joy’ …Jim Dale appeared first on THIS IS MY 1950s from Transdiffusion.

Once a week, on the Granada TV network, this popular show goes out over the air. It all looks very spontaneous, and certainly is, as far as the questions and answers are concerned, but there is a good deal of careful preparatory work, done beforehand, in selecting the contestants.

You can’t just write in and say ‘I want to be a Quiz Kid’!

Sidney Bernstein, the chief of the Granada network, is very fussy. He likes contestants to feel happy and relaxed before the cameras, and he likes to be pretty sure that their general knowledge won’t dry up when the crucial time comes in front of the cameras.

The programme has been timed from the start, so that it should not interrupt school hours.

There are several rules that must be obeyed: Contestants must have permission from the Head of their school to take part in the Quiz. Parents must give their permission.

Contestants must have a bit of personality that ‘comes over’ to the viewers.

And then there is the general knowledge test that comes first, in the process of selection.

Tests are arranged every week, after the production team have sorted out the applications. These come in by the hundred, and are carefully sorted out before the first ‘heat’ is decided on by the production team, based on what the boys and girls write in their applications.

Granada like parents to attend the test session, along with the would-be contestants — but not to sit beside them while they fill in the answers.

On one occasion a mother, who sat next to her offspring and whispered the answers, ruined her daughter’s chances. The daughter possibly knew the answers herself, but the man in charge of that session overheard the whispering, and decided that on the live programme, with no mother to guide her, she might well be a failure.

After this incident it was arranged for the contestants to sit apart from Mum and Dad, and not be hurried or harried in writing their answers to the twenty-five test questions.

The test questions, incidentally, are changed every week, so there is no chance of Johnnie Smith passing on any information to his chum Maggie Jones at the same school, if she is selected for another Junior Criss-Cross Quiz.

There is, too, a questionnaire, filled in by the contestants themselves, about their school, their hobbies, what they want to do when they leave school, what kind of locality they live in — whether this is town or country is important.

While the boys and girls are filling in the test papers the man in charge of the operation goes quietly around, talking to the parents.

‘The lucky ones,’ he’ll say, ‘will be well taken care of. There will be transport to the studio, and transport back home, food and ice cream on the side. We do not want any one of them to be considered as a child prodigy, with a vast amount of knowledge swotted up for the occasion.’

Anyone living or near Manchester can apply to join in this game — but personality is essential if you are to be chosen as a competitor

Sometimes it happens that the boy or girl who was slowest to complete the test paper turns out to be the winner of a Quiz.

That, too, is taken into consideration, before the final selection.

It helps a Quiz Kid to know that the producers and the Quizmaster are far more nervous than he is, because these characters are responsible for the programme keeping to scheduled time. This is very important where every second counts.

As the Granada Network is situated in Manchester and the first British network to build its own studios rather than ‘adapt’ other buildings, the boys and girls in Junior Criss-Cross Quiz come from schools in the surrounding districts.

They must be between the ages of 12 and 14 (that includes contestants up to the day before their fifteenth birthday). There is at least one instance of a contestant who first appeared when he was 13, and ‘held on’ so long that he was well past his next birthday before the next challenger came in.

Mr. Bernstein, with a teen-age daughter of his own, is in favour of ‘treats’ for prizes, rather than money — things like a trip to Paris, a pedigree dog, a portable typewriter, a cine-camera, riding lessons, music and ballet lessons, for the successful ones.

If you live in the Manchester area, and feel you are a suitable candidate for a Quiz Kid session, write to the Correspondence Manager, Granada House, Water Street, Manchester, 3.

The post Junior Criss-Cross Quiz appeared first on THIS IS MY 1950s from Transdiffusion.