Listen Now: Hear the Beatles on a Once Lost BBC Radio Comedy Show


Now streaming from the Beeb, the Beatles guest on a 1963 radio comedy show hosted by fellow Liverpudlian Ken Dodd.

Details:

A lost episode of The Ken Dodd Show has been recovered and aired by BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Originally aired on the Light Programme on 3rd November 1963, it is particularly notable for featuring a guest appearance by The Beatles just weeks before the release of their second album and on the cusp of international super-stardom.

The final episode of the first series, it was recorded on John Lennon's 23rd birthday - 9th October - and hasn't been heard since a repeat in mid-November, almost 60 years ago.

The comedy, a mix of music, sketches and stand-up fronted by legendary Liverpool comic Ken Dodd, would eventually run for more than 50 episodes over six series, concluding in 1968, before the title was used again in 1970 and 1973.

In the recovered episode, The Beatles perform She Loves You. Dodd is also joined by future Dad's Army star, actor John Laurie; comic actress Patricia Hayes; and Judith Chalmers, amongst others.

Recorded at the time of transmission by late BBC sound engineer and archivist Peter Copeland, it was discovered amidst and digitised from his collection of tapes by their current owner, Ted Kendall.

Comments