Johnnie Hamp

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Johnnie Hamp (sometimes referred to as John Hamp, or Johnny Hamp) is a British television producer, now retired. He is responsible for the early British television appearances of such acts as The Beatles, singer Cilla Black, comedian Woody Allen, and singer Lisa Stansfield as Head of Light Entertainment with Granada Television.

As a small boy he toured variety theatres as a stooge to his grandfather, a magician known as the Great Hamp. This is where his love affair with this particular genre of entertainment began.

During the Fifties he trained as a Granada cinema manager in Kingston, moving to the Group's flagship venue at Tooting to handle a 1953 Frank Sinatra concert. He presented many more, firstly with Johnnie Ray, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine, and later with rockers Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and Gene Vincent.

In 1956 Hamp joined Granada's television activity, retaining his responsibilities for stage show management, and booking acts for television productions such as Chelsea at Nine. Granada boss Sidney Bernstein soon noticed Hamp's potential as a producer and put him in charge of several television quiz shows.

By the early Sixties Johnnie Hamp was based at the new company headquarters in Manchester, where he was making the regional news magazine programme Scene at 6.30. This was followed by a highly successful series of television specials featuring blues-based American artists. The shows included; Sarah Sings and Basie Swings (1963), with Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie; I Hear the Blues (1963), featuring Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Willie Dixon; and It's Little Richard (1964).

Hamp made three notable television specials during 1965; Woody Allen, The Bacharach Sound, and The Music of Lennon and McCartney.

In 1969 he took over as producer of the film programme Cinema, fronted by the young Michael Parkinson.

[edit] The Comedians

1971 saw Hamp's peak of success with the groundbreaking series The Comedians (1971-1985) which introduced innumerable new faces to an unsuspecting British public and kickstarted a number of solo comedy careers - Mike Reid, Charlie Williams, Colin Crompton, Mick Miller, George Roper, Stan Boardman, and the controversial Bernard Manning - among them. The series featured mainly Northern stand-up comedians drawn from the club circuit, telling gag after gag. It was a ratings success for Granada and hugely popular during its earlier series.

Continuing in the Northern club tradition, The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club (1974-1976), a variety series set in a makeshift working-men's club was another success, often featuring many cast members of The Comedians.