| Junior Showtime | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Variety show |
| Presented by | Bobby Bennett |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production company(s) | Yorkshire Television |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | 1969 – 1974 |
Junior Showtime was a British variety show for children made by Yorkshire Television and shown on ITV between 1969 and 1974.
Presented by Bobby Bennett from the Leeds City Varieties theatre, the show consisted of song and dance routines and was produced by Jess Yates. The show featured a number of performers who would go on to stardom in Britain including Joe Longthorne, Pauline Quirke, Kathryn Apanowicz, Bonnie Langford, Mark Curry and Malandra Burrows, later of Emmerdale. One of the regulars was Glynn Poole of the Poole Family - Opportunity Knocks winners. The bulk of the series has not survived, the one surviving tape is not of broadcast quality due to poor storage. Some of the routines were repeated week after week.
In a 2001 poll by Channel 4 to find the 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows Junior Showtime was at number 99. However Jeff Evans, the author of The Penguin TV Companion has also identified it as being amongst the twenty worst shows of all time.[1]