A series of outstanding and memorable programmes to mark 40 years of BBCtv starring Michael Bentine
This edition won the Press Prize at the Montreux Festival. with Ronnie Barker, Benny Lee, Maggie Fitzgibbon, Ian Gray, Frank Thornton, Leon Thau, Len Lowe, Joe Gibbons, Sheree Winton, Shusha Assar THE RITA WILLIAMS SINGERS
Orchestra conducted by HARRY RABINOWITZ Devised and written by MICHAEL BENTINE and JOHN LAW. Designer GEORGE DJURKOVIC Producer JAMES GILBERT
Michael Bentine remembers It's A Square World
It's A Square World firmly established Michael Bentine as a highly individual television comedian; it was a prizewinner at the Montreux Festival in 1963. Says Bentine: 'Looking back I suppose the series was a pioneer, containing the essence of almost every comedy show that followed it - Monty Python, The Goodies and Ronnie Barker have all acknowledged their debt. It was essentially a barmy documentary but based on total logic. After the 'pilot' show I went down with a pulmonary embolism and was flat on my back for six months.Then was asked to do a series of 12 - all live - as a sort of recuperation. I'm surprised it didn't kill me. 'We did some classic things sinking the House of Commons with a Chinese junk, discovering, the source of the Thames was a dripping tap, sending the TV Centre into orbit with Patrick Moore. We used the TV Centre for lots of ideas, organising a mass break-out from it and having man-eating orchid drop dead after it had visited the canteen. In the end I received a memo: "Under no circumstances is the TV Centre to be used for purposes of entertainment" '