Juke Box Jury

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Juke Box Jury
Format	Music
Starring	David Jacobs
Theme music composer	John Barry
Opening theme	Hit and Miss
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One
Original run	1959 – 1967
Chronology
Related shows	Drumbeat

Juke Box Jury was a pop themed panel show, originally produced by BBC television from 1959-1967, the first edition having been broadcast on 1 June 1959. It was based on a show which began on US Television in 1948, starring Hollywood DJ Peter Potter [1], itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series [2].

Vastly popular at the time it featured many well known stars of the day, including The Beatles, Roy Orbison, The Rolling Stones, The Seekers and Phil Spector. Its popularity made it a part of Britain's youth culture during the sixties. It was broadcast on a Saturday evening and was fronted by David Jacobs. For reasons related to the generational and cultural priorities of those who made the decisions on what to keep and what to destroy, pop programmes suffered particularly badly from the BBC's wiping of much of its own archive, and little of the original Juke Box Jury survives.

The task of the panel of four celebrities was to judge recent single releases, although they were never played in their entirety, and give a verdict on whether each would be a "hit" or a "miss" (the decision was accompanied by an appropriate sound effect). In the case of a split decision, a separate panel made up of three members of the audience voted as a 'tie-breaker'.

The original panel consisted of Pete Murray, Alma Cogan, Gary Miller and Susan Stranks, who gave a 'teenager's view' on the offerings. In later series the panel members changed from week to week. Katie Boyle was also a frequent panelist. On December 7, 1963, the panel was made up of the four Beatles, and on July 4, 1964, it consisted of the five Rolling Stones.

One notable feature of the programme was that a performer or performers would be present backstage and would emerge to "surprise" the panel after they had given their verdict. (This usually happened once per show.) Towards the end of its original run, a regular panel consisting of four disc jockeys was introduced, and it was transmitted on early Wednesday evenings.

It was axed towards the end of 1967 after falling ratings, but revived on two occasions, the first time with Noel Edmonds as presenter (in 1979), and the second time with Jools Holland (from 1989 to 1990).

The theme music for the show was called Hit and Miss performed by The John Barry Seven.

[edit] Cultural references

Benny Hill parodied the show as "Soap Box Jury" on one of his 1961 shows for the BBC. He impersonated host David Jacobs, as well as the four panelists (one of whom was called "Fred Curry," a takeoff on Pete Murray) and some of the members of the audience. The sketch ended with a shot of Benny as all four panelists in one shot, achieved through filming each "panelist" separately and keeping the other three-fourths of the lens covered, which made this a landmark in both Hill's career and the development of television production. This sketch is on the DVD compilation Benny Hill: The Lost Years, which was released in 2005.