Educating Archie

[Supermike]

How many AB's remember Educating Archie on the radio in the 50's? Even as a young lad I, like many others, thought it was weird to have a ventriloquist on the radio. Then I saw Peter Brough perform on TV and realised why he was best suited to radio! The show did have a lot of big names on it and the Eric Sykes' scripts were excellent.

[Mosaic]

I don't recall listening to it, but all my older cousins had old Tv annuals that featured this strange dummy, alongside a very young Bob Monkhouse and those two geezers in the long coats that sang underneath the arches.
The past is a foreign country....

[hc4361]

Kids today don't know what they're missing

[andy-hughes]

Bit too young (!) to remember, but I did think it was odd having a ventriloquist on the radio - more innocent times to be sure.

[sandyRoe]

And Radio Fun put faces to the voices.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&site=imghp&;tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=677&q=Radio+Fun++comics&oq=Radio+Fun++comics&gs_l=img.3...2093.8053.0.8444.17.14.0.3.3.0.105.1246.12j2.14.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.16.1246.2w-_cWLAIYg#imgdii=QJHY0MTcQHod5M%3A%3BQJHY0MTcQHod5M%3A%3Bd8Vb4W2wuIb4EM%3A&imgrc=QJHY0MTcQHod5M%3A

[Canary42]

I remember it well.

[MargoTester]

Me too ( I'm afraid to admit)

[hellywelly4]

We used to listen to it at Sunday lunchtime. I loved Marlene (Beryl Reid) and got very good at copying her Brummie dialect. There was a Radio 4 play about Peter Brough earlier this year, and it was quite sad - he was very jealous of the attention which Archie got.
It was one of several programmes we listened to on Sunday lunchtimes - Life with the Lyons, Billy Cotton Band Show, Bernard Braden (I think).

[retrocop]

I remember Archie along with Billy Cotton,The Navy lark,Round the Horn,Rambling Sid Rumpo, The Huggets, ITMA, Jean Metcalfe and Cliff Robinson? Two way family favourites.

[Marshwarble]

I have a tape somewhere. It's not as well regarded as The Goons but its cast included Max Bygraves, Harry Secombe, Tony Hancock and Hattie Jacques, not forgetting Beryl Reid, who had two roles: the famous Monica and also Marlene from Birmingham.

[vulcan42]

I also remember it well and thought the radio was the place for a ventriloquist. It always struck me as a little weird to see a grown man with a dummy on his knee and pretending it could talk. With it on the radio you could forget about that part of it and let your imagination take over, the excellent scripts certainly helped too.

[hc4361]

I still love ventriloquists - this is my current favourite

[janbee]

I never heard the show but, as you say... being a vent on the radio must be one of the easist jobs ever. A bit lke being a rabbit breeder.

[Marshwarble]

Peter Brough was such an awful vent though!

[vulcan42]

Too true Marshwarble, Ray Alan was the best.

[vulcan42]

Just remembered, Peter Brough wasn't the first ventriloquist on the radio, a chap called Albert Saveen preceded him, having his own programme, just after WW2.

[hellywelly4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saveen

[granny grump]

We also had such great acts as Joan Rhodes whose piece de resistance was tearing a telephone directory in half

[granny grump]

Oh I remember Saveen & Daisy May. How come I can clearly remember all this and not what I did yesterday?

[aelmpvw]

i was that entranced watching peter brough's lips move i hardly ever noticed archie

[Supermike]

You are right Marshwarble about the stars on the show. Also Benny Hill and even good old Brucie, still looking for his bonus. A young Julie Andrews was also on as Archie's girlfriend. I hope she didn't get any splinters!