Looks Familiar

I was very fortunate to work with Denis Nordern on a number of It'll Be Alright On The Night projects at London Weekend Television in the 1990s. We often discussed his marvellous series Looks Familiar, made for Thames Television for ITV, not the BBC as another reviewer has mentioned. Denis told me that what really killed off the show was the cost of clearing and licensing the archive clips that were required for each episode.

When Looks Familiar began these clips were usually given to Denis for use in the show either free-of-charge or for a nominal fee. Unfortunately, towards the end of its run, archive libraries and footage companies started to charge much more for the use of the clips for broadcast - realising by then the cash value of footage that was previously considered to be only of ephemeral value.

At that time and until the arrival of new digital platforms, archive clips were usually licensed for 2 UK transmissions only - the first broadcast and a single repeat within a year, for example. Once multi-channel and digital broadcasting became the norm, archive footage became much more expensive to license as it had to accommodate multiple broadcast across all sorts of devices - not just TVs.

The other factor is that a broadcaster wishing to run repeats of Looks Familiar would have to re-clear and re-license all the archive footage as well as the appearances of Denis Nordern and all his guests. That's why you don't see many archive programmes on mainstream TV anymore - apart from Talking Pictures TV.

However, thanks to video collectors and YouTube, it's now possible to enjoy watching Looks Familiar once again - the perfect tea-time programme. As another reviewer mentioned - Looks Familiar was not only nostalgically entertaining but it also 'educated' millions of 70s school-kids like me to take an interest in and appreciate films and performers from a time that wasn't that distant in time when compared to that spanning the 1970s to the 2020s.

This is a show I used to watch either when I was having my lunch at home (between morning and afternoon school, no school dinners for me, thank you!), or after I got home from school. For some reason it was broadcast during the day, when it really merited a good evening timeslot.

The other day my wife asked where I got my taste for old-school comedy (I love Will Hay, and George Formby, Frank Randle and Robb Wilton score highly for me, too). After a moment's thought I remembered seeing them all featured in this programme, which was all the better for having a panel of contemporaries who remembered working with the old stars of variety in the 1930's and 1940's, when live entertainment was still a mass medium.

It's sobering to think we are now as far in time from 'Looks Familiar' as it was from the days it celebrated so fondly (over 40 years). It wasn't just the most famous acts that were shown here, but specialities such as giant xylophoinist Teddy Brown and eccentric dancers Wilson, Kepple and Betty.

For me, any of these are preferable to modern so-called comedians who only seem to have to put the f-word into a sentence to get a laugh from their 'sophisticated' audience.

Any student of film, popular music or light entertainment should see every episode of this wonderful programme. Great artists from the first half of the 20th century were celebrated often by people who had worked with them. Every so often an utter delight would come along, for example when June Whitfield, the glorious actress, demonstrated her uncanny Judy Garland impression she had used early in her career.

Dennis Norden guided his guests through the programme with a light witty touch, show but not showing off, his own encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject.

Looks Familiar - watch and learn

Well, it's a cliché I know, but they don't make TV like this anymore. It makes me quite melancholy just to think about this show now, just as watching it at the time used to. There is great joy and laughter in the anecdotes that grace "Looks Familiar", but the warm nostalgia was inevitably tinged with a sense of loss; these were invariably performers in the Autumn of their careers, chatting about a showbiz world that had passed into history; a world killed-off by the very medium they were appearing on, television.

Dennis Norden was an excellent host. Gently cynical about the contemporary world, he prompted the three regular guests for stories from their theatrical careers, whilst at the same time contributing gems from his own vast knowledge of music hall, popular music, variety and cinema. It suffered from often being shoved into a daytime slot (deemed fit for viewing only by the retired I guess) though it did get moved about a bit, and got an occasional wider airing. So even in the 1970's the subject wasn't quite getting the recognition it deserved - so much had the world moved on.

Such theatrical riches! We had such riches!

I was too young to really appreciate Looks Familiar in the 1970s, but I'm so glad I sat through some of the episodes and was at least aware of the existence of the world of variety; a world that had, by the 1970's, passed into history. I would love to watch it now, grown up and a bit more "Familiar" with the subject. Many great showbiz stars guested and as an archive of theatrical stories Looks Familiar must be unique. Let's hope the programs still exist on tape... and what's more that someone screens them again.

It does seem ironic that a paternalistic approach to broadcasting, as exercised by the BBC in those years, did in many ways lead to much greater cultural choice - like most other kids I'm sure I would have avoided shows like "Looks Familiar" or "Play for Today" if I'd have had 999+ channels to choose from; but the fact that I didn't (or rather couldn't) has made me culturally richer. I can now even empathise with the brilliant Dennis Norden's senior consternation at the modern world. So come on BBC - open up your archives and let's explore the treasures of your golden age... in fact even the a lot of the base-metal stuff would be fascinating to see again.