Who remembers 'Movie-Go-Round'?
Many of you reading this posting will either be too young or even maybe your parents were not even born when a radio show called 'Movie-Go-Round' aired on the BBC. I don't mean that unkindly, because I am talking about the early 1960s, although that's when I started listening to it. Not out of choice, mind. Back in the 1960s, we listened to the radio a lot and, I mean a lot. Daytime TV was a long way off from blighting our lives and my parents, like most parents of the time, spent most of each day in the kitchen. Which meant the radio was on all the time.
'Movie-Go-Round' had two or three presenters in its time and ran from 1956 to 1969. Back in those days, before the restructure of BBC Radio, Radio 2 was known as the 'Light' programme. The main presenter of 'Movie-Go-Round' was Peter Haigh and there were contributions from Matthew Norgate and Peter Noble - names that probably mean nothing to today's younger population. The show concentrated on playing songs and tunes from musical (and not so musical) films up to that era, and interviews with some of the 'stars' from them. I was a young boy at the time and whenever I was in the kitchen, helping my mum or dad with 'kitchen-related things', the radio would always be on. Not loudly, my parents didn't 'do' loud, but loud enough to hear the programmes while I was washing up or running my finger round the cake mix bowl...
Whether I meant to or not, I listened to that radio show every Sunday afternoon, week in and week out. Radio, or wireless as we paradoxically knew it by (it was plugged in to an electrical socket!), was probably the main source of home entertainment in the twenty or so post-war years. Subliminally, I guess my brain was taking in everything I heard on 'Movie-Go-Round', which is probably why I know as much as I do about musical films now.
Before you even think it, no, we do not sit here and watch 'old classics' like 'South Pacific', 'Oklahoma', 'Showboat' or even 'The Wizard of Oz' on television. Neither my wife or myself care for them very much but, we have no problem with anyone who does, so long as they don't watch them on our TV.
Sometimes, nostalgia can hit at the most peculiar times, as I hardly ever thought about my wireless listening days over the years. Then 'plop!' I may be sitting at home researching something totally unrelated when my memory gives me a time warp reminder out of the blue. And, today, I was transported back to my pre-teens youth. Back before the golden days of Radio Caroline but not before Radio Luxembourg. Back to when radios were called wireless sets and ran by valves and electricity rather than transistors and 9 volt batteries (more commonly called PP3 back then).
I no longer listen to the wireless or radio very much nowadays, unless it's to tune in to a live football commentary when I am unable to watch the game on the TV. My music knowledge and expertise stopped abruptly at the year 1990, so anything that came afterwards is not in my recall repertoire. The last live performance we attended featured a derivation of The Commitments; only one or two of the original band members from the film appeared but the music was great, all pre-1990, although I do understand that it's not to everyone's taste. That was back in 1999. I don't even listen to the radio in my car anymore.
Some folk say that the 'good old days' weren't that good. I tend to differ in opinion. For me, they were good growing up years. What came afterwards represents the 'bad' and the 'ugly'. And, now that I have remembered 'Movie-Go-Round', I am certain that is the case.
Maybe I'll write something about the early years of The Archers next... (oh yes we did!)
Trevor Mulligan