Eastern Cabaret

Eastern Cabaret was a live variety programme series broadcast in 1938–39 on BBC Television. It was one of several spin-offs from the BBC series Cabaret. Three episodes were broadcast;[Note 1] they were produced by Harry Pringle, and the first two were presented by Cyril Fletcher. The BBC television service was suspended on 1 September 1939 with the outbreak of World War II, and no further episodes were made.

Eastern Cabaret
Genre	Variety
Created by	Harry Pringle
Based on	Cabaret
Presented by	Cyril Fletcher, Hari Sin Bey [1][2]
Country of origin	England
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	3
Production
Producer(s)	Harry Pringle
Running time	45–50 minutes [1][2]
Production company(s)	BBC Television
Release
Original network	BBC Television
Original release	30 May 1938 (1938-05-30) – 6 May 1939 (1939-05-06)

According to Radio Times (20 May 1938), "Harry Pringle, Reginald Smith's officemate, is having a busy time preparing for his Eastern Cabaret, to be given next week on Monday, May 30, and Saturday, June 4. One of his difficulties was getting snakes without temperament and susceptible to the charms of native charmers. He went to five different agencies and gave auditions to thirty-two snakes, and even then failed to find a satisfactory performer".[4] A later entry in Radio Times suggests that this may not have been entirely serious, saying that the background had been "codded" (i.e. parodied) by compere Cyril Fletcher.[5]

No episodes have survived.[Note 2]

Performers

As of February 2016, the following performers who appeared in Eastern Cabaret are subjects of Wikipedia articles. The numbers of episodes in which they appeared are given in parentheses (treating repeat performances as a single episode).

• Cyril Fletcher (1913–2005), English compere (2) [1][2]
• Wilbur Hall and Renée Fields, American comedy musicians (1) [1]
• Stanley Holloway (1890–1982), English comedian (1) [2][3]

See also

• Cabaret (British TV series)
• Cabaret Cartoons
• Cabaret Cruise
• Comedy Cabaret
• Intimate Cabaret
• Western Cabaret

Notes

1. Each episode had a repeat performance within a week.[1][2][3]
2. The show was broadcast live. Methods for recording live television did not exist until late 1947, and were used very rarely by the BBC until around 1953–55.

References

1. "Radio Times 1938" (PDF). Radio Times. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
2. "Radio Times 1939" (PDF). Radio Times. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
3. "Search for Eastern Cabaret". BBC. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
4. The Scanner (20 May 1938). "Television News" (PDF). Radio Times. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
5. The Scanner (6 January 1939). "Television News" (PDF). Radio Times. Retrieved 22 February 2016.