The Royal Variety Show in 1960 was the 31st of the Royal Variety Performances and was the first to be televised. It was broadcast as a TV special from the Victoria Palace Theatre in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip.
The show took place under the musical direction of Billy Ternant and Jack Ansell, with the Fol De Rols appearing amongst a host of the top stars of the day, including Diana Dors, Benny Hill, Bob Monkhouse, Norman Wisdom, Nat King Cole, Adam Faith, Cliff Richard and very many more.
TV Special
The show was broadcast on the 22nd May 1960 as a TV special by the ATV company. Beginning at 8.00pm, the show ran for 2½ hours and has been an annual television event ever since, with alternating broadcasts by both BBC and ITV.
The Royal Variety Show 1960
Programme Gallery
We are pleased to be able to present here a unique gallery showing the details of pages from the programme.
Fol de Rols in the show
The Royal Variety Show was a very important milestone for the Fol de Rols.
Jack Hylton and Hugh Charles had bought the Fols from Rex Newman, and Jack presented a Fols “heads” number called “Statues of Liberties” or “Theres a bird on my head“.
These “heads” items were unique to the Fols and consisted of a piece of painted flatage with the artists standing behind with only heads and headresses showing. This item was very funny both visually and vocally and stopped the show at the command performance.
As you can see it was a really star studded bill. Come back shows of 1960!
