BBC
TWO brings The Entertainers back to TV screens
Some of the best known faces who graced the television screens throughout
the 1970s and 1980s are featured in a new documentary series, The
Entertainers, to be shown on BBC TWO.
Getting
up close and personal with just a director and camera, amongst those
featured in the series are Tony Blackburn, Bernard Manning, Frank
Carson, Leo Sayer, Bobby Davro, Tom O'Connor, the Krankies, Nicholas
Parsons, and Bernie Clifton.
But
with a style that is a mix of fly-on-the-wall and video diary, The
Entertainers does not take a "whatever happened to.."
perspective.
Instead it captures the current fabric of the lives of those featured.
Every
week two or three of The Entertainers are featured in each show
and their progress is tracked throughout the series.
"I'm
72 and still going strong. My mind is as agile as it ever was and
I'm doing four or five gigs a week," says an inexhaustible
Bernard Manning.
"The
programmes will show me in a different light because I'm an ordinary
father and a grand father…. instead of people going around
thinking about Bernard Manning the monster."
Leo
Sayer who finds it impossible to slow down says: "I'm 54 years
old and when you get to 50 you care less what people think of you.
"If
I wake up in the morning and haven't got six projects to do, I'll
invent them. It's nice to be captured at this time when you feel
very carefree about life and you don't have to prove things. I've
got a feeling my best years are coming."
Tony Blackburn has nothing to prove. A top DJ for most of his career,
he has recently re-established his undiminished popularity by winning
a popular vote in a TV reality show.
"I'm
working even harder now then I did in the 60s," says Tony.
"TV is immensley powerful but I've been working flat out now
for 39 years."
The story of all The Entertainers is the same - all are still working,
all have endured and enjoy successful careers beyond television
fame.
The
directors are Helen Sage, Simon Draper, Nick Betts, Venetia Williamson-Noble
and Harriet Pleming; Stuart Cabb is the series producer; David Mortimer
and Louis Theroux are executive producers.
The
series is a BBC Factual and Learning production for BBC TWO.
Interviews
(26 KB) with Tony Blackburn, Leo Sayer and Bernard
Manning are available in PDF
format. You may require Adobe Acrobat Software to read PDF files
which can be obtained here.
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