Muriel Young
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Muriel Young (1923-2001) was a British television continuity announcer, presenter and producer.
Young was born on 19 June 1923 at Bishop Middleham, near Sedgefield, County Durham. As a child, she lived with her family in the gatehouse of Elmwood, Hartburn, Stockton on Tees. Her father, Wilfred Young, was chauffeur to Col. Kitching who lived at Elmwood for many years after retiring from the army in 1939.
Starting out as an actress, she co-starred with Rex Harrison in "The Constant Husband" and was also in The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953).
In 1954 she married Cyril Coke, a television drama director.
In 1955, as the first ITV company Associated-Rediffusion was gearing up to launch, she intended to attend an actors' audition at the company, but mistakenly went to an announcers' audition instead. Nevertheless, Young was instantly hired and announced for A-R on September 22, 1955, the opening night of commercial television in the UK.
Muriel worked as a presenter and interviewer for regional programmes on Granada Television and Southern Television, and as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg, but was probably most famous for her work as a presenter of children's programmes for Associated-Rediffusion and Rediffusion London between 1959 and 1968, working alongside Wally Whyton and Bert Weedon, and featuring the puppet characters Pussy Cat Willum, Ollie Beak and Fred Barker. The popular format thus created lasted for many years, under various titles incluing Lucky Dip, Tuesday Rendezvous, Five O'Clock Club, Ollie and Fred's Five O'Clock Club and Five O'Clock Funfair.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, Muriel Young became a staff producer of pop programmes for Granada Television, with such shows as Lift Off With Ayshea, Get It Together, the Bay City Rollers series Shang-a-Lang, The Arrows Show and Marc, starring Marc Bolan. She also devised Clapperboard, Granada's film magazine show for children. In the 1980s she produced music programmes for Channel 4. Young was also an occassional panellist on the ATV talent show New Faces.
