Starring Michael Bentine

(BBC Recording)
See foot of page and page 36

Michael Bentine
with Benny Lee, Cardew Robinson, Frank Thornton, John Bluthal, Peter Reeves, Bruce Lacey, Maya Koumani
Guest star, Clive Dunn

[Article] For Michael Bentine It's a Square World
When Michael ("Oblong") Bentine first took the "Square World" on his shoulders last September, there was general trepidation. Would viewers dare to face up to such sights? How many could trust themselves to look round the bend with Bentine or up the pole with Clive Dunn? These and other well-known human beings, some of the biggest squares in the business, were ready - nay, eager - to transport us to another dimension - "Mad, mad, mad," in Bentine's words - and wait for missiles of praise or blame in every shape from square to elliptical.
The world remained safe for squares, and Bentine breathed again. "The programme was immensely popular," said producer Barry Lupino, "So popular that we can now go ahead with a series. It has been called a diversion for the low in brow - but I wonder? The topics are lofty enough. What could be more uplifting than the opening of the Royal Academy? That happens around the time of our first programme and Michael Bentine is taking appropriate action. Nor, of course, shall we overlook the situation in Volcania, of the effects of children's television on the adult viewer, and the arrival and departure of distinguished personages in the great metropolis."
That renowned Scottish square, Benny Lee, disappeared into a water tank last time in a boiled shirt. Tonight finds him kilted on the shores of Loch Ness. Also squaring up to facts are Clive Dunn and Frank Thornton, with John Bluthal (from Australia), Peter Reeves (from London's Wild West End) and Bruce Lacey (London N.11). Lacey is the deft-handed member of the outfit; no one can touch him as ringmaster in a flea circus or in coaxing worms into television sets.