Six-Five Special

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The Six-Five Special was a television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain. It was the BBC's first attempt at a rock and roll programme, a great innovation at the time and subsequently much imitated. It was called the "Six-Five Special" because of the time it was broadcast - it went out, live of course as all programmes did then, at five past six on a Saturday evening. It began immediately after the abolition of the "Toddlers' Truce", which had seen television close down between 6 and 7 p.m. so that young children could be put to bed.

Jack Good was the producer and disc jockey Pete Murray was its presenter who used the catchphrase "Time to jive on the old six five". Its resident band was Don Lang and his Frantic Five. The show opened with film of a steam train accompanied by the programme's theme song, played and sung by the Frantic Five, which began with the words "The Six-Five Special's comin' down the line, The Six-Five Special's right on time..."

The resident band Lord Rockingham's Eleven had a UK number one instrumental hit in November 1958 with "Hoots Mon" (Decca). Lord Rockingham was the show's musical director Harry Robinson (aka Robertson)(1932-1996)

The show was originally scheduled to last six weeks but, as a result of Jack Good ignoring the guidance given to him by the BBC management not to show the young audience alongside the performers, it continued indefinitely.

The BBC interfered with Good's vision of what the show should be by cluttering it with educational and information elements, as per their Public Service Broadcasting policy. The relationship between Good and the BBC became strained and they eventually fired him, resulting in a big loss of viewing audience.

Jack Good would quickly join an ITV company to create "Oh Boy!", which was the show he'd wanted to make from day one. It featured non-stop music and lost the tedious "public service–inspired" elements as part of its more frenzied pace, and trounced the further-diluted "Six-Five Special" in the ratings. The BBC management, never keen on the show in the first place, took this as vindication of their initial viewpoint and therefore good reason to pull the show from the schedules. It was to be many years before Top of the Pops came along to restore some semblance of credibility to the BBC coverage of contemporary popular music in general and "pop" in particular.